**Exhibit99.01**

 

**SPSCautionary Factors**

 

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act provides a “safe harbor”for forward-looking statements to encourage such disclosures without the threatof litigation, 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 writtendocuments and oral presentations of SPS. These statements are based onmanagement’s beliefs as well as assumptions and information currently availableto management. When used in SPS’ documents or oral presentations, the words “anticipate,”“estimate,” “expect,” “projected,” objective,” “outlook,” “forecast,” “possible,”“potential” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-lookingstatements. In addition to any assumptions and other factors referred tospecifically in connection with such forward-looking statements, factors thatcould cause SPS’ actual results to differ materially from those contemplated inany forward-looking statements include, among others, the following:

 

**•**             Economic conditions,including their impact on capital expenditures and the ability of SPS to obtainfinancing on favorable terms, inflation rates and monetary fluctuations;

•             Business conditionsin the energy business;

•             Demand forelectricity in the nonregulated marketplace;

•             Trade, monetary,fiscal, taxation and environmental policies of governments, agencies andsimilar organizations in geographic areas where SPS has a financial interest;

•             Customer businessconditions, including demand for their products or services and supply of laborand materials used in creating their products and services;

•             Financial orregulatory accounting principles or policies imposed by the FinancialAccounting Standards Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the FederalEnergy Regulatory Commission and similar entities with regulatory oversight;

•             Availability or costof capital such as changes in: interest rates; market perceptions of theutility industry, SPS, Xcel Energy or any of its other subsidiaries; orsecurity ratings;

•             Factors affectingutility operations such as unusual weather conditions; catastrophicweather-related damage; unscheduled generation outages, maintenance or repairs;unanticipated changes to fossil fuel or natural gas supply costs oravailability due to higher demand, shortages, transportation problems or otherdevelopments; environmental incidents; or electric transmission or gas pipelineconstraints;

•             Employee workforcefactors, including loss or retirement of key executives, collective bargainingagreements with union employees, or work stoppages;

•             Increased competitionin the utility industry;

•             State and federallegislative and regulatory initiatives that affect cost and investmentrecovery, have an impact on rate structures and affect the speed and degree towhich competition enters the electric markets; industry restructuringinitiatives; transmission system operation and/or administration initiatives;recovery of investments made under traditional regulation; nature ofcompetitors entering the industry; retail wheeling; a new pricing structure;and former customers entering the generation market;

•             Rate-setting policiesor procedures of regulatory entities, including environmental externalities,which are values established by regulators assigning environmental costs toeach method of electricity generation when evaluating generation resourceoptions;

•             Social attitudesregarding 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;

•             Significantslowdown in growth or decline in the U.S. economy, delay in growth or recoveryof the U.S. economy or increased cost for insurance premiums, security andother items;

•             Risksassociated with implementation of new technologies; and

•             Otherbusiness or investment considerations that may be disclosed from time to timein SPS’ SEC filings or in other publicly disseminated written documents.

 

SPS undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise anyforward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, futureevents or otherwise. The foregoing review of factors should not be construed asexhaustive.

 

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