DENVER—Xcel Energy said its carbon dioxide emissions will decrease 10 percent by 2017, partly through a combination of renewable energy sources and replacing older coal-fired power plants with natural gas plants.
The company on Thursday announced it will add 800 megawatts of wind power on top of the 1,100 megawatts expected to be installed by the end of this year, boosting the total to 1,900 megawatts by 2015.
Xcel Energy also plans to add 254 megawatts of solar power by 2015, according to its Colorado Resource Plan, filed with state regulators every four years.
And the plan calls for reducing energy consumption by 694 megawatts through improving efficiency and programs encouraging conservation by customers.
Xcel Energy’s last resource plan, developed in 2003, estimated its carbon dioxide emissions would increase by 20 percent by 2020. The utility’s new plan, which will meet increased demand and replace other generating contracts as they expire, will remove about 6 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
“I think it’s a major step forward for the state, a major step forward for all of us trying to do the right things for the environment,” CEO Richard Kelly said in a conference call with The Associated Press.
Kelly said Xcel Energy will refile its plan in 2009 with the goal of finding a way to reduce emissions by 20 percent by 2020.
Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy said it will need gas-fired power plants to generate 800 megawatts of electricity, though officials said that power could be generated from other sources.
In addition, the state’s largest utility plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.4 million tons each year by replacing four older coal-burning generating units at Denver’s Arapahoe Generating Station and the Cameo Generating Station east of Grand Junction with natural gas units.
The company’s announcement was applauded by Colorado environmental groups, which three years ago battled the company over Amendment 37, a ballot measure that made Colorado voters the first in the nation to require utilities to get some of their power from renewable sources.
“No other utility in the West has laid out a plan to cut their global warming pollution from today’s levels,” said John Nielsen, energy program director for the Boulder-based environmental group Western Resource Advocates. “Xcel’s plan will hopefully serve as a model for other utilities on how they can affordably and reliably meet growing demand for energy while at the same time addressing the pressing problem of global warming.”
Amendment 37, passed in 2004, required Colorado’s largest utilities to get 10 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, by 2015. Xcel Energy is on track to meet the mandate by next year—seven years early.
A law passed by the Legislature this year boosted the renewable energy requirement to 20 percent by 2020. Xcel Energy’s latest plan has the company meeting that goal by 2015—five years ahead of time.
“We would have done it anyway,” Kelly, who took the helm of the company in December 2005, said of Xcel’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions.
The company’s plans call for building a 200 megawatt plant that uses solar energy to convert the sunlight into steam to turn turbines, and offering a rebate program for up to 29 megawatts of solar power from units installed by customers in their homes.
Karen Hyde, vice president for resource planning and acquisition, said customer rates for the renewable energy will remain within the 2 percent cap allowed by state law.
In all, the utility expects its energy load demand to increase by 850 megawatts over eight years, Hyde said. The other changes are being made to existing contracts set to expire.
