Grand Meadow Wind Farm fully operational

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1/14/2009

MINNEAPOLIS – When the Grand Meadow Wind Farm in southeastern Minnesota recently became fully operational, Xcel Energy took its first significant step toward its goal of owning more wind power.

The 100.5-megawatt wind farm is the first Xcel Energy owns in Minnesota; the company purchases the rest of the wind-powered generation on its system in the Upper Midwest. enXco, an EDF Energies Nouvelles Company, built the Grand Meadow Wind Farm under contract with Xcel Energy and transferred ownership of the 67 turbines to Xcel Energy in late December. The farm became commercial, selling electricity to the regional transmission grid, on Dec. 4.

“The Grand Meadow Wind Farm taps into some of the best wind resources in the nation,” said Dave Sparby, president and CEO of Northern States Power Co.-Minnesota, an Xcel Energy company. “Developing this renewable resource will both protect the environment while meeting our customers’ growing needs for electricity.”

With the addition of the Grand Meadow project, Xcel Energy now has more than 1,200 megawatts of wind-powered generation on its Upper Midwest system. The company plans to have approximately 4,000 megawatts of wind power capacity in the Upper Midwest and 7,000 megawatts companywide by 2020.

“The Grand Meadow Wind Farm represents a major milestone in our strategy to diversify our renewable efforts to include ownership along with traditional purchases and purchases from small developers through Minnesota’s Community-Based Energy Development program,” Sparby said.

In 2008, the American Wind Energy Association ranked Xcel Energy as the nation’s No. 1 wind power provider in the United States for the third consecutive year.

Meanwhile, the company announced plans in October to own two more proposed wind farms: a 201-megawatt project in Nobles County in southwestern Minnesota and a 150-megawatt project in Dickey and McIntosh counties in southeastern North Dakota. enXco will develop and build these two projects which are expected to be operational by the end of 2010 and 2011, respectively.

“The working relationship enXco has with Xcel Energy is outstanding as evidenced by the 334 megawatts previously developed under power purchase agreements, in addition to Grand Meadow and the 351 megawatts we agreed to develop, build and deliver to Xcel Energy in 2010 and 2011,” said Tristan Grimbert, president & CEO of enXco.

Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) is a major U.S. electricity and natural gas company with regulated operations in eight Western and Midwestern states. Xcel Energy provides a comprehensive portfolio of energy-related products and services to 3.3 million electricity customers and 1.8 million natural gas customers through its regulated operating companies. Company headquarters are located in Minneapolis. enXco is an EDF Energies Nouvelles Company (PARIS:  EEN), which develops, constructs, owns, operates and manages renewable energy projects throughout the United States. enXco’s portfolio includes solar and biomass technologies, in an effort to help drive the nation’s transition to a sustainable energy economy. enXco is a significant owner and developer of wind-energy installations in the United States, and is the leading third-party operations & maintenance provider for wind farms in North America.

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