**Exhibit 99.01**

 

## **NSP-MINNESOTACAUTIONARY FACTORS**

 

The Private SecuritiesLitigation Reform Act provides a “safe harbor” for forward-looking statementsto encourage such disclosures without the threat of litigation, providing thosestatements are identified as forward-looking and are accompanied by meaningful,cautionary statements identifying important factors that could cause the actualresults to differ materially from those projected in the statement.Forward-looking statements are made in written documents and oral presentationsof NSP-Minnesota. These statements are based on management’s beliefs as well asassumptions and information currently available to management. When used inNSP-Minnesota’s documents or oral presentations, the words “anticipate,” “estimate,”“expect,” “projected,” objective,” “outlook,” “forecast,” “possible,” “potential”and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Inaddition to any assumptions and other factors referred to specifically inconnection with such forward-looking statements, factors that could causeNSP-Minnesota’s actual results to differ materially from those contemplated inany forward-looking statements include, among others, the following:

 

•                  Economic conditions, including their impacton capital expenditures and the ability of NSP-Minnesota to obtain financing onfavorable terms, inflation rates and monetary fluctuations;

 

•                  Business conditions in the energy business;

 

•                  Trade, monetary, fiscal, taxation andenvironmental policies of governments, agencies and similar organizations ingeographic areas where NSP-Minnesota has a financial interest;

 

•                  Customer business conditions, includingdemand for their products or services and supply of labor and materials used increating their products and services;

 

•                  Financial or regulatory accounting principlesor policies imposed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the SEC, theFederal Energy Regulatory Commission and similar entities with regulatoryoversight;

 

•                  Availability or cost of capital such aschanges in: interest rates; market perceptions of the utility industry,NSP-Minnesota; or security ratings;

 

•                  Factors affecting utility and nonutilityoperations such as unusual weather conditions; catastrophic weather-relateddamage; unscheduled generation outages, maintenance or repairs; unanticipatedchanges to fossil fuel, nuclear fuel or natural gas supply costs oravailability due to higher demand, shortages, transportation problems or otherdevelopments; nuclear or environmental incidents; or electric transmission ornatural gas pipeline constraints;

 

•                  Employee workforce factors, including loss orretirement of key executives, collective bargaining agreements with unionemployees, or work stoppages;

 

•                  Increased competition in the utility industryor additional competition in the markets served by NSP-Minnesota;

 

•                  State, federal and foreign legislative andregulatory initiatives that affect cost and investment recovery, have an impacton rate structures and affect the speed and degree to which competition entersthe electric and natural gas markets; industry restructuring initiatives;transmission system operation and/or administration initiatives; recovery ofinvestments made under traditional regulation; nature of competitors enteringthe industry; retail wheeling; a new pricing structure; and former customersentering the generation market;

 

•                  Rate-setting policies or procedures ofregulatory entities, including environmental externalities, which are valuesestablished by regulators assigning environmental costs to each method ofelectricity generation when evaluating generation resource options;

 

•                  Nuclear regulatory policies and procedures,including operating regulations and spent nuclear fuel storage;

 

•                  Social attitudes regarding the utility andpower industries;

 

•                  Risks associated with the California powermarket;

 

•                  Cost and other effects of legal andadministrative proceedings, settlements, investigations and claims;

 

•                  Technological developments that result incompetitive disadvantages and create the potential for impairment of existingassets;

 

•                  Significant slowdown in growth or decline inthe U.S. economy, delay in growth or recovery of the U.S. economy or increasedcost for insurance premiums, security and other items as a consequence of theSept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks;

 

•                  Risks associated with implementation of newtechnologies; and

 

•                  Other business or investment considerationsthat may be disclosed from time to time in NSP-Minnesota’s SEC filings or inother 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 foregoingreview of factors should not be construed as exhaustive.

 

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