Federal Tax Credits to Pay for Most of Xcel Energy's Proposed $15 Billion Clean Power Plan

September 25, 2023--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Xcel Energy Incorporated (NASDAQ:XEL) (Minneapolis, Minnesota) wants to invest up to $15 billion to build renewable generation, energy storage and gas-fired generation in Colorado, according to a plan the utility submitted to state utility regulators last week. Xcel Energy plans to have federal tax credits cover about $10 billion of the plan's cost, lowering the plan's cost paid by its customers to about $5 billion.

Xcel Energy called the plan its Clean Energy Plan. The preferred plan also includes the retirement of the utility's last three coal-fired stations in Colorado by 2030, as well as replacing aging gas-fired generation with newer, more efficient gas plants. If the preferred plan is approved by Colorado regulators, the utility's Colorado carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions would be slashed by more than 80%, as emitting generation would be replaced by about 6,500 MW of renewable energy.