Xcel Energy is again seeking approval from Minnesota regulators for an uprate at its Prairie Island nuclear plant after scaling back the size of the project.
In a filing Friday, the utility asked the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to reaffirm that the project is in customers’ best interests amid market changes since the agency issued a certificate of need in 2009. Xcel said in a release that the power increase would be reduced to 135 megawatts from 164 megawatts. Since the uprate was proposed, long-term forecasts for power demand growth in the region have decreased by 40 percent. Investment in the nuclear plant also faces competition from the falling cost of natural gas-powered generation.
“The project still is expected to benefit customers. However, the magnitude of the benefit is substantially lower than originally anticipated,” the release quoted Judy Poferl, CEO of Xcel subsidiary Northern States Power Co.-Minnesota, as saying.
The project has been delayed by what Xcel called changing federal review requirements. The release also said the uprate could be cancelled entirely: “There are possible combinations of new conditions that could lead to the conclusion that the Prairie Island project no longer is cost effective.”