Latest news with #Xcel
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Black Eyed Peas coming to Minnesota for just second time in over a decade
Black Eyed Peas coming to Minnesota for just second time in over a decade originally appeared on Bring Me The News. For the first time in quite a while, the Black Eyed Peas are coming to Minnesota. The pop-rap group behind a string of major hits in the '00s has announced plans to headline the Grand Casino Hinckley Amphitheater on Sept. 4. The "I Gotta Feeling" pop radio mainstays, who have performed without Fergie since she departed in 2018, will be making their first appearance in Minnesota since the 2021 Jingle Ball at Xcel Energy Center, which also featured Pitbull, Lil Nas X, Saweetie, and Tate McRae. Prior to that, they'd last headlined a Twin Cities show back in 2010 during the E.N.D. World Tour, which stopped at Xcel Energy Center with Ludacris and LMFAO in tow. The quartet, which now includes Apple de Ap, Taboo, and J. Rey Soul, was scheduled for a Las Vegas residency this year. However, that run of shows — which was to feature a new A.I. "presence" named Vida — was canceled due to "current circumstances," which were not detailed. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 13. A presale for Grand Rewards members gets going at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 11, with ticket prices ranging from $64 to $ story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jun 11, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Xcel Energy's 2025-2027 wildfire mitigation plan approved
DENVER (KDVR) — Xcel Energy's wildfire mitigation plan, which expands work and programs to reduce wildfire risk, was approved by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, the company announced Friday. The plan was approved on Thursday, and Xcel Energy-Colorado president Robert Kenney said it allows the company to implement projects to protect customers and communities from the risk of wildfire. 'We worked closely with a large coalition of stakeholders representing customers, businesses, government and agencies to put forth a plan designed to keep our customers and communities safe, while keeping bills low,' Kenney said. Xcel said the 2025-2027 Wildfire Mitigation Plan outlines goals and reporting methods to better communicate the mitigation work with customers and communities, including during events like public safety power shutoffs to prevent potential ignitions from energized electrical facilities. Previous: Boulder enters agreement with Xcel Energy to quicken wildfire safety upgrades Here are the proposed investments and improvements that Xcel listed: Greater Situational Awareness: Implementing advanced fire modeling and analysis tools, adding weather stations and tripling AI cameras for early smoke detection. Technology-Enabled Inspections: Accelerating inspections in wildfire risk areas using aerial and drone methods. Infrastructure Improvements: Multi-year program to upgrade equipment, underground power lines and rebuild transmission lines. Vegetation Management: Expanding efforts in high-risk areas with new standards for inspections and pruning. Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings: Increasing remote safety settings, sectionalizing lines and adding new technology. Public Safety Power Shutoff Program: Providing interactive outage maps, proposing a backup energy rebate and improving customer support and communication. Organizational Growth: Expanding the Wildfire Risk team by improving capabilities in meteorology, fire science, risk management and analytics. 'This is a significant step toward making our community safer and more resilient in the face of growing wildfire threats,' said Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde, City of Boulder City Manager. 'With the Public Utilities Commission's approval, we're thrilled to see this plan move forward. I am proud of the work our city team did to ensure the voices of our community—and our neighboring communities—were heard and to help shape a plan that better protects the people and places most at risk.' The company said the plan is also designed to keep customer bills low by 'securitizing eligible company investments.' Xcel said the plan was verbally approved and the PUC is expected to release a written decision later this summer. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Xcel president: Minnesota can meet data center energy demands and 2040 carbon-free mandate
An aerial view of the Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant, near Red Wing, Minnesota along the Mississippi River. The two pressurized water reactors produce approximately 1,100 megawatts. (BanksPhotos via Getty Images) The intra-DFL rift between labor unions whose members build data centers and progressives skeptical of corporate giveaways was on full display at the Capitol last week as lawmakers considered extending generous tax breaks for data centers' purchases of computers, software and energy equipment. It was also evident in a May 28 energy webinar featuring top utility executives, state officials and representatives from regional labor, agriculture and environmental groups. The conversation came as Minnesota utilities weigh proposals for thousands of megawatts of new data center capacity, representing new electric consumption equal to millions of homes. As other construction sectors falter amid high interest rates and sluggish demand, union laborers and tradespeople see an opportunity in building data centers and the power plants to run them. 'We need to be involved in the next iteration of energy development here in Minnesota,' said Joe Fowler, business manager for Laborers International Union of North America Local 563. To labor, that means building not only the wind, solar and battery plants that will form the backbone of Minnesota's future electric grid, but large industrial facilities to soak up the power they produce. Others in the left-of-center coalition say unfettered data center growth could jeopardize progress toward the state's statutory target of 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 while threatening grid reliability and raising costs for ordinary utility customers. 'We want to bring on large users like data centers, but not to the exclusion of others,' said Margaret Cherne-Hendrick, CEO of St. Paul-based Fresh Energy, a policy and communications shop focused on clean energy. Though the data center boom was the elephant in the room, the conversation touched on some of the broader challenges issues facing Minnesota electric utilities, workers and customers as a dysfunctional state legislative session limps to a close and federal policymakers get closer to passing a budget bill that cuts taxes for the rich and Medicaid for the poor while, experts say, raising power prices for everyone. Developers have proposed nearly 9,000 megawatts of new data center capacity across Xcel Energy's eight-state territory, CEO Bob Frenzel said in October, or almost 9 million homes' worth of electricity consumption. Data centers alone account for about half of Xcel's expected 5% annual sales growth through 2029. Xcel expects Minnesota's share of that growth to be about 1,300 megawatts over the next seven to eight years, said Ryan Long, Xcel's president for Minnesota and the Dakotas. That's up from 60 megawatts of total capacity as of early last year. 'The curve is up and to the right,' Long told Energy Futures Initiative Foundation CEO and former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on the webinar. 'It's shifted from us trying to attract (data center) companies to Minnesota to them knocking on our doors.' Smaller utilities like Dakota Electric Association are also gearing up for massive amounts of data center development, CEO Ryan Hentges said later on the webinar. Projects proposed for Dakota Electric territory include a 12-building, 340-acre Farmington campus that residents are suing to stop. But the demand won't hit all at once, Hentges said. 'One gigawatt is not all going to happen next year,' he said. 'It's going to happen over time, and that gives us more time to plan.' The short answer is yes, according to Long. Even with the influx predicted over the next five years, Xcel is on track to shut down its three remaining Minnesota coal units by 2030 and meet the interim state goal of 80% clean power by 2030, he said. 'These are aging, somewhat inefficient plants and we are blessed to live in a region that has excellent renewable resources,' he said. Xcel could partner on future 'clean firm' power projects with big tech companies, which have their own sustainability goals, Long added. Google, utility NV Energy and power developer Fervo Energy recently announced a geothermal power partnership in Nevada, while Meta, Amazon and Microsoft have all inked splashy nuclear deals. Nuclear and geothermal both produce carbon-free power without relying on variable weather conditions. Those partnerships could eventually help wean Minnesota off natural gas power despite uncertainty around federal support for cleaner technologies, said Sydnie Lieb, assistant commissioner with the Minnesota Department of Commerce. 'In the absence of the federal government continuing to push development of clean firm resources, we are thinking about what the state can do,' she said. Big data centers could also cover at least some of the cost of new transmission infrastructure needed to serve them, easing the burden on existing ratepayers, Hentges added. But the state needs to ensure Minnesota data centers fully decarbonize their operations over time, including onsite backup generators that today generally run on natural gas or diesel, Cherne-Hendrick said. It also needs to push data centers to pay into state-administered equity programs facing sharp federal funding cuts, like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, she said. Also no, Long said, despite the Trump administration's claims to the contrary. Last month, Trump invoked an obscure law to order a Michigan coal plant to operate past its planned May 31 retirement date. Moniz, the former U.S. Energy Secretary, asked whether he could do the same in another Midwestern state committed to transitioning off coal. Xcel is 'obviously paying a lot of attention' to the issue but isn't changing its coal retirement plans, which have been in the works for years and won't affect system reliability, Long said. He allowed that Minnesota will need gas power plants for many years, though they'll increasingly serve as backup for renewables, nuclear and long-duration batteries. Xcel plans to build a new 'hydrogen-capable' gas plant in southwestern Minnesota that will likely operate past 2040. Building new wind, solar and battery plants has been cheaper than running existing coal plants for years, in part because renewable power requires far less labor to operate and maintain. Fowler said that's a challenge for unions like LIUNA, whose work in the power sector increasingly focuses on facilities that more or less run themselves. And LIUNA members are uneasy about the future. 'Our job is to work ourselves out of a job — we build something and then move onto the next project,' he said. A February settlement between Xcel and Minnesota's utility regulator pushes the utility to expand training opportunities for underrepresented populations and work with labor on workforce transitions at retiring power plants. The training partnership has already produced around 100 graduates who can now work on new power plant or data center construction projects, Fowler said. 'There are real benefits the state will see from … having citizens who feel like their job is waiting out there,' he said. Wind and solar development is a double-edged sword for rural communities, where income-earning opportunities for landowners clash with concerns about removing prime farmland from production, said Anne Schwagerl, vice president with Minnesota Farmers Union. To demystify the issue and strengthen members' negotiating position with power developers, Minnesota Farmers Union plans to update its five-year-old 'farmers' guide' to renewable energy. But the best way to ensure durable rural support for clean energy is to give farm communities more skin in the game, Schwagerl said. Right now, for example, conglomerates barge most of the fertilizer used on Minnesota farms up the Mississippi River from massive factories on the Gulf Coast. Minnesota Farmers Union wants to see more local production, ideally led by rural cooperatives using excess wind power with support from federal and state green fertilizer grants, Schwagerl said. 'Our thinking is that the green transition is happening,' she said. 'We're seeing it in agriculture as in energy, and it would be a big bummer to us if it ended up being owned by the same multinational megacorporations.'
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Xcel Brands to Host Fourth Quarter 2024 combined with First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call on June 4, 2025
NEW YORK, June 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Xcel Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: XELB) ('Xcel' or the 'Company'), today announced that it will report its first quarter 2025 financial results on June 4, 2025. The Company will hold a conference call with the investment community on June 4, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. ET, which will also include coverage of the 4th quarter 2024 earnings that were released on May 28, 2025. A webcast of the conference call will be available live on the Investor Relations section of Xcel's website at or directly at Interested parties unable to access the conference call via the webcast may dial 800-715-9871 or 646-307-1963 and use the Conference ID 1032939. A replay of the webcast will be available on Xcel's website. About Xcel Brands Xcel Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: XELB) is a media and consumer products company engaged in the design, licensing, marketing, live streaming, and social commerce sales of branded apparel, footwear, accessories, fine jewelry, home goods and other consumer products, and the acquisition of dynamic consumer lifestyle brands. Xcel was founded in 2011 with a vision to reimagine shopping, entertainment, and social media as social commerce. Xcel owns the Halston, Judith Ripka, and C. Wonder brands, as well as the co-branded collaboration brands TowerHill by Christie Brinkley, LB70 by Lloyd Boston, Trust. Respect. Love. by Cesar Millan, and GemmaMade by Gemma Stafford, and also holds noncontrolling interests or long-term license agreements in the Isaac Mizrahi brand, Orme Live and Jenny Martinez Live brands. Xcel also owns and manages the Longaberger brand through its controlling interest in Longaberger Licensing, LLC. Xcel is pioneering a true modern consumer products sales strategy which includes the promotion and sale of products under its brands through interactive television, digital live-stream shopping, social commerce, brick-and-mortar retailers, and e-commerce channels to be everywhere its customers shop. The company's brands have generated in excess of $5 billion in retail sales via livestreaming in interactive television and digital channels alone and consisting of over 20,000 hours of content production time in live-stream and social commerce. The brand portfolio reaches in excess of 40 million social media followers with broadcast reach into 200 million households. Headquartered in New York City, Xcel Brands is led by an executive team with significant live streaming, production, merchandising, design, marketing, retailing, and licensing experience, and a proven track record of success in elevating branded consumer products companies. For more information, visit For further information please contact:Seth Burroughs Xcel Brands, Inc. sburroughs@
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Xcel customers to receive $5 credit on monthly bill
SIOUX FALLS S.D. (KELO) — South Dakotan Xcel Energy customers will receive a $5 monthly credit to their bill starting in June, according to a news release from Xcel. Xcel Energy is moving forward with plans to deliver $25 million back to North Dakota and South Dakota customers on their bills through federal tax credits on the energy generated by the company's nuclear fleet. Former state worker accused of forging marijuana card Xcel Energy's two nuclear power plants, Monticello and Prairie Island, together account for nearly 25% of the electricity used by customers across the company's five-state Upper Midwest system, a news release said. This is the first time customers will see savings from the federal tax credit on nuclear energy generation, which the company advocated for in recent law. Starting this month, the average residential customer in South Dakota will receive $5.08 a month in savings, totaling $50.80 through February 2026. Xcel Energy services most of the Sioux Falls area, along with other areas of southeastern South Dakota. 'Our nuclear power plants have produced safe, reliable, always-available electricity for our customers across the Upper Midwest for more than 50 years. Now, tax credits on the energy they generate will produce savings for our customers,' Ryan Long, president of Xcel Energy—Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, said in a news release. 'Nuclear energy is an important piece of American energy security. It helps us support economic growth in the Upper Midwest, deliver reliable and resilient electricity, and keep customers' bills as low as possible,' Long said in a release. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
