**Exhibit 99.01**

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**NSP-MINNESOTA CAUTIONARY FACTORS**

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ThePrivate Securities Litigation Reform Act provides a “safe harbor” forforward-looking statements to encourage disclosures without the threat oflitigation, providing those statements are identified as forward-looking andare accompanied by meaningful, cautionary statements identifying importantfactors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from thoseprojected in the statement. Forward-looking statements are made in written documents and oralpresentations of NSP-Minnesota.  Thesestatements are based on management’s beliefs as well as assumptions andinformation currently available to management. Such forward-looking statements are intended to be identified in thisdocument by the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,”“objective,” “outlook,” “plan,” “project,” “possible,” “potential,” “should”and similar expressions.  In addition toany assumptions and other factors referred to specifically in connection withsuch forward-looking statements, factors that could cause NSP-Minnesota’sactual results to differ materially from those contemplated in anyforward-looking statements include, among others, the following:

 

·              Economicconditions, including inflation rates, monetary fluctuations and their impacton capital expenditures;

·              The risk of asignificant slowdown in growth or decline in the U. S. economy, the risk ofdelay in growth recovery in the U. S. economy or the risk of increased cost forinsurance premiums, security and other items as a consequence of past or futureterrorist attacks;

·              Trade,monetary, fiscal, taxation and environmental policies of governments, agenciesand similar organizations in geographic areas where NSP-Minnesota has afinancial interest;

·              Customerbusiness conditions, including demand for their products or services and supplyof labor and materials used in creating their products and services;

·              Financial orregulatory accounting principles or policies imposed by the Financial AccountingStandards Board, the SEC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and similarentities with regulatory oversight;

·              Availabilityor cost of capital such as changes in: interest rates; market perceptions ofthe utility industry, NSP-Minnesota, Xcel Energy or any of its othersubsidiaries; or security ratings;

·              Factorsaffecting utility operations such as unusual weather conditions; catastrophicweather-related damage; unscheduled generation outages, maintenance or repairs;unanticipated changes to fossil fuel, nuclear fuel or natural gas supply costsor availability due to higher demand, shortages, transportation problems orother developments; nuclear or environmental incidents; or electrictransmission or natural gas pipeline constraints;

·              Employeeworkforce factors, including loss or retirement of key executives, collectivebargaining agreements with union employees, or work stoppages;

·              Increasedcompetition in the utility industry; or additional competition in the marketsserved by NSP-Minnesota

·              State, federaland foreign legislative and regulatory initiatives that affect cost andinvestment recovery, have an impact on rate structures and affect the speed anddegree to which competition enters the electric and natural gas markets;industry restructuring initiatives; transmission system operation and/oradministration initiatives; recovery of investments made under traditionalregulation; nature of competitors entering the industry; retail wheeling; a newpricing structure; and former customers entering the generation market;

·              Environmental laws andregulations;

·              Rate-settingpolicies or procedures of regulatory entities, including environmentalexternalities, which are values established by regulators assigningenvironmental costs to each method of electricity generation when evaluatinggeneration resource options;

·              Nuclearregulatory policies and procedures, including operating regulations and spentnuclear fuel storage;

·              Socialattitudes regarding the utility and power industries;

·              Cost and othereffects of legal and administrative proceedings, settlements, investigationsand claims;

·              Technologicaldevelopments that result in competitive disadvantages and create the potentialfor impairment of existing assets;

·              Risksassociated with implementations of new technologies; and

·              Other businessor investment considerations that may be disclosed from time to time inNSP-Minnesota’s SEC filings, including “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of this Form 10-K,or in other publicly disseminated written documents.

 

NSP-Minnesota undertakes noobligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whetheras a result of new information, future events or otherwise.  The foregoing review of factors should not beconstrued as exhaustive.

 

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