**Exhibit 99.01**

 

**SPS Cautionary Factors**

 

The PrivateSecurities Litigation Reform Act provides a “safe harbor” for forward-lookingstatements to encourage such disclosures without the threat of litigation,providing those statements are identified as forward-looking and areaccompanied by meaningful, cautionary statements identifying important factorsthat could cause the actual results to differ materially from those projectedin the statement. Forward-looking statements are made in written documents andoral presentations of SPS. These statements are based on management’s beliefsas well as assumptions and information currently available to management. Whenused 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-looking statements. Inaddition to any assumptions and other factors referred to specifically inconnection with such forward-looking statements, factors that could cause SPS’actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in anyforward-looking statements include, among others, the following:

 
| • |   | Economic conditions, including their impact on capital expenditures  and the ability of SPS to obtain financing on favorable terms, inflation  rates and monetary fluctuations;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
|--------|--------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| • |   | Business conditions in the energy business;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
| • |   | Demand for electricity in the nonregulated marketplace;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| • |   | Trade, monetary, fiscal, taxation and environmental policies of  governments, agencies and similar organizations in geographic areas where SPS  has a financial interest;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                |
| • |   | Customer business conditions, including demand for their products or  services and supply of labor and materials used in creating their products  and services;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| • |   | Financial or regulatory accounting principles or policies imposed by  the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the Securities and Exchange  Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and similar entities  with regulatory oversight;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| • |   | Availability or cost of capital such as changes in: interest rates;  market perceptions of the utility industry, SPS, Xcel Energy or any of its  other subsidiaries; or security ratings;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                |
| • |   | Factors affecting utility operations such as unusual weather  conditions; catastrophic weather-related damage; unscheduled generation  outages, maintenance or repairs; unanticipated changes to fossil fuel or  natural gas supply costs or availability due to higher demand, shortages,  transportation problems or other developments; environmental incidents; or  electric transmission or gas pipeline constraints;                                                                                                               |
| • |   | Employee workforce factors, including loss or retirement of key  executives, collective bargaining agreements with union employees, or work  stoppages;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| • |   | Increased competition in the utility industry;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| • |   | State and federal legislative and regulatory initiatives that affect  cost and investment recovery, have an impact on rate structures and affect  the speed and degree to which competition enters the electric markets;  industry restructuring initiatives; transmission system operation and/or  administration initiatives; recovery of investments made under traditional  regulation; nature of competitors entering the industry; retail wheeling; a  new pricing structure; and former customers entering the generation market; |
| • |   | Rate-setting policies or procedures of regulatory entities, including  environmental externalities, which are values established by regulators  assigning environmental costs to each method of electricity generation when  evaluating generation resource options;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| • |   | Social attitudes regarding the utility and power industries;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
| • |   | Cost and other effects of legal and administrative proceedings,  settlements, investigations and claims;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| • |   | Technological developments that result in competitive disadvantages  and create the potential for impairment of existing assets;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| • |   | Significant slowdown in growth or decline in the U.S. economy, delay  in growth or recovery of the U.S. economy or increased cost for insurance premiums,  security and other items;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| • |   | Risks associated with implementation of new technologies; and                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
| • |   | Other business or investment considerations that may be disclosed  from time to time in SPS’ SEC filings or in other publicly disseminated  written documents.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |

 

SPS undertakesno obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements,whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Theforegoing review of factors should not be construed as exhaustive.

 

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