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 (NSP).  Such statements are based on management's
beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to
management.  When used in NSP'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 NSP'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
     NSP 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, NSP 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 spent 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 NSP'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;


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- - -    Other business or investment considerations that may be disclosed from time
     to time in NSP's Securities and Exchange Commission filings or in other
     publicly disseminated written documents.

- - -    Factors associated with Y2K compliance that might cause material 
     differences from the expectations disclosed include, but are not limited
     to, the availability of key Y2K personnel, NSP's ability to locate and
     correct all relevant computer codes, the readiness of third parties, and
     NSP's ability to respond to unforeseen Y2K complications. Such material
     differences could result in, among other things, business disruption,
     operational problems, financial loss, legal liability and similar risks.

NSP 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.


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