(KNSI) – Xcel Energy must refund $40.6 million, plus interest, to its Minnesota electric customers following a Public Utilities Commission ruling stemming from a 2023 power plant outage the utility caused.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced the decision Thursday after the PUC sided with his office and the Minnesota Department of Commerce. The refund will likely come in the form of a bill credit in the coming months.
The case dates back to October 2023, when Xcel’s Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant shut down after Xcel employees cut through buried electric cables the plant needed to operate. The damage knocked the plant offline for more than three months. To make up for the lost power, Xcel purchased more expensive replacement power from the regional grid and passed those costs on to ratepayers.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, Xcel did not initially take responsibility for the outage. A Department of Commerce analyst discovered a discrepancy buried in compliance paperwork before Xcel acknowledged that its own workers had severed the cables.
The amount of interest to be paid has not yet been calculated.
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