Exhibit 99.01
Northern States Power Company Cautionary Factors
The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the
Act) 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", "possible", "potential" 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, which are values
established by regulators assigning environmental costs to each
method of electricity generation when evaluating generation
resource options;
- - 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. The foregoing review of
factors pursuant to the Act should not be construed as exhaustive
or as any admission regarding the adequacy of disclosures made by
the Company prior to the effective date of the Act.