Xcel’s Prairie Island nuclear plant offline until January

The two generating units at the Prairie Island nuclear plant near Red Wing are offline as part of maintenance, with a scheduled return in January.

During this time, there is no impact to customers’ electric service due to the units being offline. The plant in Monticello is not affected and is online and operating normally.

The Prairie Island plant provides carbon-free energy for more than 1 million customers in the Upper Midwest.

Unit 2 of the plant powered down last month for scheduled refueling and maintenance. According to Xcel Energy, this process happens every two years for each of the two units at Prairie Island and involves improvements to equipment to provide safe, clean and reliable power. This project brings in about 650 workers to help with the work.

Unit 1 of the plant safely shut itself down about a month ago when an equipment issue occurred between the turbine and electric grid, the company says. Repairs are currently underway as cabling between the unit and substation at the plant is replaced.

Xcel Energy stated that the refueling and maintenance work on the unit was originally expected to take about two months, but the company plans to keep the unit offline until the cable replacement is done.

During this time, the company is ensuring that all components of both reactors are ready to return to service and complete other maintenance work that can’t be done while the units are online.

Although there isn’t a firm date as to when the work will be completed, Xcel Energy expects both units to be back online in January.