PUBLIC DOCUMENT—NOT PUBLIC DATA HAS BEEN EXCISED STATE OF MINNESOTA BEFORE THE MINNESOTA PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION Dan Lipschultz Commissioner Matt Schuerger Commissioner Katie J. Sieben Commissioner John A. Tuma Commissioner IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION OF DOCKET NO. E002/M-19-___ NORTHERN STATES POWER COMPANY FOR APPROVAL OF CONTRACTS FOR PETITION PROVISION OF ELECTRIC SERVICE TO GOOGLE’S MINNESOTA DATA CENTER PROJECT Northern States Power Company, doing business as Xcel Energy (Xcel Energy or the Company), is pleased to announce that it has entered into several agreements that will enable it to provide electric service to a proposed new data center to be owned and operated by a subsidiary of Google LLC (Google) in Becker, Minnesota. If the project moves forward, the project would generate at least $600 million in capital investment. In addition to the large capital investment, one of the most compelling aspects of this project is that it will be located on property adjacent to the Company’s Sherco coal plants. And by locating there, this project will assist the Company’s efforts – in partnership with local, regional, and state-wide stakeholders – to mindfully transition a coal-plant environment into a less carbon-intensive, business-oriented area that creates new jobs, results in significant private capital investment in the state, and benefits all of the Company’s customers. The Company respectfully requests the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (Commission) approve the proposed agreements and other rates, terms, and tariff revisions described in this Petition. To enable this project to move forward, time is of the essence, and thus we respectfully ask the Commission to make a decision on this Petition before the end of the second quarter of this year. INTRODUCTION In October 2015, the Company announced its intention to close Sherco Units 1 and 2 – two of the Company’s remaining four coal plants. The Company was aware of the potential impacts that its decision would have on the City of Becker, Sherburne County, and our employees. As a result, the Company made the following PUBLIC DOCUMENT—NOT PUBLIC DATA HAS BEEN EXCISED commitments to our employees and these host communities. For our employees, we committed to an orderly transition that would include job retraining and other assistance to minimize employee impacts. With respect to the Becker community, we committed to exploring ways to use our existing infrastructure to bring new commercial and development opportunities to the area. Examples of our role in helping with these redevelopment efforts include the following. First, we have been working closely with Liberty Paper, one of our largest customers, on assuring that we continue to provide them with adequate steam resources upon the retirement of Sherco Units 1 and 2. By doing so, we are helping Liberty Paper remain a mainstay in the City of Becker and Sherburne County communities. Secondly, we helped our existing customer Northern Metals Recycling relocate its operations from north Minneapolis to a parcel of land near the Sherco plant. Northern Metals is under construction now and when it opens its facility in 2019, it will bring 85 jobs to the area, with the potential to hire 140 workers. We also have been working in partnership with the host communities, regional and state business organizations, and state agencies – particularly the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) – to certify parcels of land on the Sherco plant site for economic development and have been actively marketing those parcels for economic development opportunities, including to businesses outside of Minnesota. After a year and a half of due diligence and contract negotiations, Google’s data center campus stands to be the Company’s first out-of-state company to the site and the state’s first major data center. If the project moves forward, it would generate at least $600 million in capital investment, making it one of the largest private development projects in state history. The local and state-wide benefits are significant. Based on economic studies evaluating the benefits of similar data center campuses, DEED projects that the initial construction will create nearly 2,000 jobs in Sherburne County and 1,300 additional state-wide jobs, and approximately 50 new permanent jobs in the technology industry with an aggregate payroll expected to exceed $4 million/year.1 DEED further projects an almost $150 million increase in state gross domestic product (GDP).2 As explained further below, nationally in 2016, Google data centers generated $1.3 billion in economic activity, $750 million in labor income, and approximately 11,000 1 MINN.DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, IMPLAN ECONOMIC IMPACT ANALYSIS 5 (Oct. 2018) (attached to this Petition as Attachment C and referred to hereinafter as such). 2 Attachment C at 7. 2 PUBLIC DOCUMENT—NOT PUBLIC DATA HAS BEEN EXCISED new jobs.3 Overall, Google has invested approximately $10.5 billion in its U.S. data centers, creating approximately 1,900 permanent, full-time employees in Google’s six data centers currently in operation. Because these centers undergo regular expansion and upgrades, the data centers continually employ a significant number of full-time construction workers across the six current campuses each year. Google’s data centers also stimulate job growth in a number of unrelated industries, including trade, transport, utilities, professional and business services, and leisure and hospitality. Within three years of their Google data centers opening, Douglas County, Georgia gained 5,595 jobs; Berkeley County, South Carolina gained 2,378; and Pottawattamie County, Iowa gained 1,185 jobs.4 In addition to these local, regional, and state benefits, the Company is pleased that the contractual arrangements it presents here are consistent with and further our three strategic priorities: Leading the Clean Energy Transition, Keeping Bills Low, and Enhancing the Customer Experience, and, as such, benefit all of our customers. Leading the Clean Energy Transition Xcel Energy is a nation-leading renewable energy provider. In fact, the NSP System will have a generation mix comprised of over 46 percent renewables by 2022. Xcel Energy also recently announced a nation-leading goal to deliver 100 percent carbon- free electricity to customers by 2050. As part of this goal, the Company also announced plans to reduce carbon emissions 80 percent by 2030, from 2005 levels in the eight states it serves. At the same time, Xcel Energy has kept and will continue to keep affordability as a guiding principle. Google is also a pioneer and leader in accelerating the adoption of renewable energy. Since 2007, Google has been carbon neutral; renewable energy has been a significant component of that. Google has procured more than 3 gigawatts of wind and solar power in order to match its total annual electricity consumption, making it the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world. In 2017, Google reached the important milestone of matching 100 percent of its global electricity consumption with renewable energy. Google is striving to maintain its 100 percent renewable energy match and to go even further, by sourcing carbon-free energy for its operations on a 24/7 basis. 3 OXFORD ECONOMICS,GOOGLE DATA CENTERS ECONOMIC IMPACT AND COMMUNITY BENEFIT 4 (Apr. 2018) (attached to this Petition as Attachment A and referred to hereinafter as such). 4 Attachment A at 19. 3 PUBLIC DOCUMENT—NOT PUBLIC DATA HAS BEEN EXCISED Under the terms of the contracts that will serve the proposed Becker data center, the Company has agreed to procure new, incremental renewable energy resources that will be used to match the data center’s annual energy usage. To incentivize Google to grow the data center campus to as much as [HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL TRADE SECRET BEGINS HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL TRADE SECRET ENDS] megawatts (MW), the Company has agreed to match the data center’s peak load with incremental, new, carbon-free capacity upon reaching that milestone. Through separate petitions, the Company intends to ask the Commission to approve up to 300 MW of power purchase agreements (PPAs) for new wind projects that will be incremental to the NSP System. We are confident we can demonstrate that the PPAs – each of which are eligible for the maximum amount of the production tax credit (PTC) – are in the public interest. For purposes of this Petition, we ask the Commission to approve our sourcing plan as contemplated in the Retail Electric Service Agreement (ESA). Under a likely load growth scenario (i.e., [HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL TRADE SECRET BEGINS HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL TRADE SECRET ENDS] MW at [HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL TRADE SECRET BEGINS HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL TRADE SECRET ENDS] percent load factor) for the initial 10-year term, our analysis demonstrates that our plan provides customer benefits between [TRADE SECRET BEGINS TRADE SECRET ENDS] and is therefore reasonable and prudent. Keeping Bills Low The Company appreciates the importance of assuring that the essential service we provide remains affordable to all customers. We are pleased that average customer bills have remained essentially flat since 2013. While there are many factors that go into our customers’ bills – some in our control and others not – the Company continually looks for opportunities that place downward pressure on them. The Company advanced a significant wind build-out on the NSP System as part of its Steel for Fuel strategy. Additionally, the Company bought out several biomass contracts. Together these efforts will provide over $1 billion in customer cost savings. We continue to explore new opportunities to lower costs for our customers and look forward to bringing those to the Commission as they arise. In addition to lowering costs and expenses, increasing revenues can help keep bills low. And by attracting new customer load to our service territory, Xcel Energy’s economic development efforts help find new revenue.