As Xcel Energy seeks to recover the cost of a power uprate and maintenance program at its Monticello nuclear plant, a state investigation has placed much of the blame for its cost overruns on the utility's management.
The original $320 million cost estimate for the project more than doubled between 2008 and its completion last year. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission turned to the state's Commerce Department to investigate the overruns, and officials recently concluded that managers were indecisive and did not conduct adequate strategic planning, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Wednesday. Xcel has disputed those assertions and will file a formal response to the investigation next month.
At stake is a proposed 10.4 percent rate increase over two years that includes part of the cost recovery for the project. Last month, the Commerce Department recommended that only 40 percent of that increase be approved by utility commissioners. They will consider that recommendation, and an upcoming recommendation by an administrative judge overseeing the cost investigation, when they make their rate decision next year.
The work in question increased the General Electric boiling water reactor's output by 12 percent. It also encompassed numerous upgrades and preventative maintenance tasks needed to keep the plant operating until its extended license expires in 2030.