The company, which serves about 90,000 customers in North Dakota, has cited investments to operate, maintain and expand its nuclear plants, and electricity grid as key drivers in the case.
About half of the firm’s $16.9m request is related directly to continued operation of the Monticello and Prairie Island nuclear plants located in the US state of Minnesota.
The company intends to expand the output of the Monticello plant. The two nuclear stations generate 30% of the energy on Xcel Energy’s system in the Upper Midwest.
"Our customers expect safe and reliable electricity service, and we have been investing more than $1 billion a year in our Upper Midwest system to meet those expectations," said
Xcel Energy regional VP Laura McCarten said the company is investing over $1bn annually in its Upper Midwest system to provide electricity services to its customers.
"Almost 90 percent of this request is to recover investments in our nuclear plants and our regional and local electric grid system, needed to assure reliable cost-effective service now and into the future," McCarten said.
"Our nuclear plants provide some of the most reliable, lowest-cost, environmentally sound electricity on our system.
"We obtained approval to continue operation of our nuclear plants and, as a condition of that approval, we need to invest now to keep them operating safely and reliably over the next 20 years."
Public hearings on the Xcel Energy’s request are likely to be held in the spring of 2013.
