While Xcel Energy recently went on record as saying they are “nearly certain” they can meet clean-energy regulations, they also assured the community of Becker they plan to stay in the area for the long term.

 

Even with the retirement of Units 1 & 2 by the year 2026 and converting to gas, Xcel reps said the Sherco site in Becker is the “most cost-effective location to build a new natural gas plant because it can use existing infrastructure.”

 

That is music to the ears of the City of Becker.

 

“I couldn’t be happier,” said City Administrator Greg Pruszinske. “I love Xcel’s plan and I can tell you it’s a very exciting time for Becker.”

 

Pruszinske says Becker will have an enormous advantage over other communities when it comes to supplying energy.

 

“We will still have coal, we will then be adding natural gas, solar and wind and just across the way we have nuclear,” he said. “And Becker is right in the middle of it.”

 

Besides the new gas plant, Xcel plans to build 1,400 megawatt solar farms and 1,800 megawatt wind farms throughout the state of Minnesota. Becker is proposed to to get a 50mw site on property Xcel owns in the area.

 

The fact that Xcel plans to stay in Becker is somewhat good news for the 350 fulltime workers and as many as 800 more workers during periodic outages. Xcel currently pays three-quarters of Becker’s property taxes — about $4 million  a year. And though it’s been reported the new natural gas plant will not need as many workers to operate, the cutbacks to Sherco will likely happen through retirements and transfers over several years.

 

“We have done this transition with coal plants before,” said Greg Chamberlain, Xcel manager of energy supply, referring to coal power plant conversions in the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Burnsville. “We have not had layoffs.”

 

Good news for Xcel consumers too as documents filed with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) recently said their plan — if approved — would result in an annual rate increase of 2.4 percent. That’s in comparison to 2% a year if it continued business a usual for the next 15 years.

 

Xcel’s analysis submitted  last Friday identified the utility “achieving their plan with only a slightly higher cost than if it kept its existing energy mix”, Xcel Regional V.P. Laura McCarten said.

 

“We believe this is a very reasonable cost for all the value that this plan will deliver to our customers and to our communities,” she said.

 

Xcel has said new wind power, with the subsidy of renewable energy tax credits, costs less over time than buying fuel to burn in existing power plants. 

 

The plan Xcel derived was initiated by environmentalists who lobbied to get regulators to look at carbon and greenhouse gases from Sherco — the upper midwest’s largest power plant — producing 2,400 megawatts of electricity while burning up to three trainloads of coal a day.

 

Another reason for procuring this new plan was the Clean Power Act announced by President Obama’s adminstration earlier this year. The Act is devised to attempt to reduce pollution from power plants and in Minnesota — cut carbon dioxide emissions by 40%.

 

Xcel’s plan calls for $6 billion in wind and solar investment ($3 billion each) while retiring the two units at Sherco by 2030. That will, in turn, initiate construction of a nearly $1 billion natural gas-fired generator and further investment to retain the carbon-free energy from its two nuclear power plants.

 

“I think it’s admirable that Xcel basically said, ‘we accept this challenge and are going to do all we can to accommodate our customer,’” said Pruszinske. “They heard the concerns from their users and customers and they are proactively moving forward with a plan.”

 

Xcel isn’t the first utility to say it can comply. Some utilities in the Northeast that participate in a carbon cap-and-trade program also have declared “they will meet carbon-reduction targets,” said Jeff Deyette, a Boston-based energy analyst for the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists.

 

Some utilities throughout the country, though, are not so forthcoming. A few have filed suits to fight the Clean Power Act.

 

“What’s unique about this (Xcel) is you have a major utility in a coal-intensive region,  making decisions demonstrating that utilities can in fact cost-effectively invest in these technologies and transition themselves to a much lower carbon profile in a fairly quick fashion,” Deyette said. “Xcel should be touted for that.”

 

A decision on the plan is expected from the PUC in the next few months.