EXHIBIT 99.01
Northern States Power Company Cautionary Factors
The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
provides a new "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements to
encourage such disclosures without the threat of litigation
providing those statements are identified as forward-looking and
are accompanied by meaningful, cautionary statements identifying
important factors that could cause the actual results to differ
materially from those projected in the statement. Forward-
looking statements have been and will be made in written
documents and oral presentations of Northern States Power
Company (the Company). Such statements are based on
management's beliefs as well as assumptions made by and
information currently available to management. When used in the
Company's documents or oral presentations, the words
"anticipate", "estimate", "expect", "objective" and similar
expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.
In addition to any assumptions and other factors referred to
specifically in connection with such forward-looking statements,
factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ
materially from those contemplated in any forward-looking
statements include, among others, the following:
- - Economic conditions including inflation rates and
monetary fluctuations;
- - Trade, monetary, fiscal, taxation, and environmental
policies of governments, agencies and similar
organizations in geographic areas where the Company 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, the Company or any of its subsidiaries; or
security ratings;
- - Factors affecting utility and non-utility operations such
as unusual weather conditions; catastrophic weather-
related damage; unscheduled generation outages,
maintenance or repairs; unanticipated changes to fossil
fuel, nuclear fuel or gas supply costs or availability
due to higher demand, shortages, transportation
problems or other developments; nuclear or environmental
incidents; or electric transmission or gas pipeline system
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, including:
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;
- - Nuclear regulatory policies and procedures including
operating regulations and used nuclear fuel storage;
- - 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;
- - Numerous matters associated with the proposed combination
of the Company and Wisconsin Energy Corporation to form
Primergy Corporation (Primergy), including:
- Regulatory authorities' decisions regarding business
combination issues including the approval of the business
combination as proposed, the rate structure of utility
operating companies after the merger, transmission system
operation and administration, or divestiture of gas
utility or non-regulated portions of the Company's
business;
- Qualification of the transaction as a pooling of
interests;
- Factors affecting the anticipated cost savings
including national and regional economic conditions,
national and regional competitive conditions,
inflation rates, weather conditions, financial market
conditions, and synergies resulting from the business
combination;
- Allocation of benefits of cost savings between
shareholders and customers, which will depend, among
other things, upon the results of regulatory
proceedings in various jurisdictions;
- Regulation of Primergy as a registered public utility
holding company and other different or additional
federal and state regulatory requirements or
restrictions to which Primergy and its subsidiaries
may be subject as a result of the business combination
(including conditions which may be imposed in
connection with obtaining the regulatory approvals
necessary to consummate the business combination, such
as the possible requirement to divest gas utility and
possibly certain non-regulated operations);
- Factors affecting dividend policy including results of
operations and financial condition of Primergy and its
subsidiaries and such other business considerations as
the Primergy Board of Directors considers relevant.
- - Factors associated with non-regulated investments
including conditions of final legal closing, foreign
government actions, foreign economic and currency risks,
political instability in foreign countries, partnership
actions, competition, operating risks, dependence on
certain suppliers and customers, domestic and foreign
environmental and energy regulations;
- - Most of the current project investments made by the
Company's subsidiary, NRG Energy, Inc. (NRG) consist of
minority interests, and a substantial portion of future
investments may take the form of minority interests,
which limits NRG's ability to control the development or
operation of the project;
- - Other business or investment considerations that may be
disclosed from time to time in the Company's Securities
and Exchange Commission filings or in other publicly
disseminated written documents.
The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or
revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of
new information, future events or otherwise.