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 nonutility 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;
- - Factors associated with nonregulated 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.

EXHIBIT 99.01

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.