Xcel Energy Inc.

Xcel Energy Inc. is a utility providing electric and natural gas service to customers in the Upper Midwest, Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico in the United States. Its thermal, nuclear, and hydroelectric facilities rely on water for cooling and generation, and a number of facilities are located in water-stressed areas. Its water stewardship program therefore addresses alternative water supplies, groundwater protection, aquatic ecosystems, and conventional generation water use.

Electricity sales programs have played a major role in the company's decade-long cost-effective energy-efficiency program. Xcel Energy uses treated municipal wastewater as cooling water for power plants in Colorado and Texas, replacing water that would otherwise enter wastewater systems and compete with municipal, agricultural, and environmental water supplies. The company's water-supply contracts with farmers are an example of a practice beyond electricity generation.

Groundwater remediation is also one of the most important issues at the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant. Xcel Energy, the plant's owner, reported a groundwater leak containing tritium in 2022 and successfully repaired its source while increasing the number of monitoring wells. The plant has recovered and remediated more than 14 million gallons of groundwater. The company said groundwater at the plant met safe-drinking-water standards in October 2025 and that no tritium was detected in drinking-water wells or the Mississippi River.

Xcel incorporates water stewardship into ecosystem management. Its hydroelectric plants track water quality, aquatic species, stream flow, erosion, and invasive plants. Habitat restoration work in Wisconsin focuses on invasive aquatic plants, fish spawning habitat, and shoreline resilience. The company also relies on revised water-resource planning in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas to account for future climate change, demand, and supply constraints.