Welcome to the Xcel Energy first quarter 2008 earnings conference call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation the conference will be opened for questions from members of the investment community only. [Operator Instructions]. This conference is being recorded today, May 1st, 2008. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Paul Johnson, Managing Director of Investor Relations and Assistant Treasurer. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and welcome to Xcel Energy's first quarter 2008 earnings release. I'm Paul Johnson. With me today is Ben Fowke, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Xcel Energy, and several others who can help answer your questions. Today we plan to cover our first quarter results and provide a general business update. Please note that there are slides that accompany this conference call which are available on our web page. Let me remind you that some of our comments may contain forward-looking information. Significant factors that could cause results to differ from those anticipated are described in our earnings release and our filings with the SEC. Today, our discussion will focus on ongoing results which we believe represents the fundament earnings power of Xcel Energy. Before I turn the call over to Ben, I will cover our overall results and how we calculate ongoing earnings. We are pleased to report that first quarter 2008 GAAP earnings were $153 million or $0.35 per share compared with $120 million or $0.28 per share in 2007. As you recall during the second half of 2007, we reached a settlement resolving our dispute with the IRS regarding our COLI program. Our 2008 first quarter earnings results do not include any material impacts from the discontinued COLI program. However our 2000 first quarter results included earnings of $0.01 per share associated with the COLI program. This morning's discussion will focus on ongoing earnings which exclude the impact of COLI on our results. Ongoing earnings for the first quarter of 2008 were $.035 per share versus $0.27 per share, last year. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ben.

Thanks Paul and welcome everyone. As Paul just mentioned, this morning we reported ongoing earnings of $0.35 per share compared to $0.27 per share a year ago. As you look into the details you will notice that some of the 30% increase in quarterly earnings is due to timing. It will also be clear that we're off to a great start. Let's take a closer look at the details. First quarter 2008 ongoing earnings increased by $0.08 compared to the same period last year, largely due to the higher electric margins which increased earnings by $0.07 per share and higher natural gas margins which increased earnings by $0.03 per share. These positive items were slightly offset by higher O&M expense, which reduced earnings by $0.02 per share. Starting with the top of the income statement, electric margin increased by about $49 million due to several factors. We experienced normalized electric sales growth of 2.1%, which increase margin by $10 million. In addition to normalized sales growth, an extra day of sales from the leap year increased margin by $9 million and cooler whether this year increased margin by $3 million. And electric increase was constant and interim rate increase in North Dakota and various riders combined to increase electric margin by $23 million for this quarter. For more information on the other items that had an impact on electric margin for the quarter, please refer to the table in our earnings release. Turning to natural gas margins, rate increases in Colorado and Wisconsin, cool weather and other items combined to increase natural gas margins by $25 million. A few items partially offset the increases in electric and natural gas margins that I just discussed. Let's look at those partial effects starting with operating expenses. First quarter O&M expenses increased approximately…

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen we will now begin the question and answer session for members of the investment community only. [Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from the line of Dan Jenkins, State of Wisconsin Investment Board. Please go ahead.

Hello. Good morning.

Hey, Dan how are you?

Very good. I was wondering on the… your rate filing in North Dakota, were you stipulated on the ROE. What's the revenue impact of what you filed versus using the new ROE, how much does that take the rate request down?

The overall rate request was for just over $20 million. Interim rates went to effect at $70 million. The 10.75% ROE agreement…

It would be a less than $1 million.

Very minimal.

Okay. So…

And there are some other issues, Dan, that they'll have to decide as well and that's what they are filing testimony on, but we do expect to get a decision by the end of… early in the summer.

Okay. And then just kind of a status in Minnesota, do you see any need in this calendar year to do any more… any rate proceedings in Minnesota at all?

You mean like a general rate case?

Right. What's your, kind of what your ROE, your earning, versus what you… you are allowed in Minnesota?

In Minnesota it will continue to track how the… the performance of this year and what the forecasted performance of next year will be and if we need to follow rate case we will. But we haven't made any determination on that yet.

Okay. And then the last thing I was wondering about is, when you talked about the lower employee benefit expenses in the first quarter. Do you expect that level to be sustained or were there unusual items that caused the first quarter to be lower than maybe what you have going forward. Do you have a feel for that?

Yeah. I don't know if you can commit to taking of quarterly trend and taking it through a full year. But we are happy to see the lower experience rates. I think that has a lot to do with the change in rate plan design. Perhaps it's showing some of the benefits of some of our more proactive health awareness programs. And I think based upon the rate plan designs, employees are taking more ownership of their healthcare cost in dollars. And so I think we will continue to see a benefit from it. I just couldn't tell you if the trend line will continue.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks, Dan

Our next question comes from the line of Paul Ridzon, KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Hey Paul.

Hey Ben. How are you?

Good.

You talked about timing issues, was that just a depreciation and could you go through that again? Sorry.

The primary timing issue was depreciation, which you remember, as I said in my prepared remarks, we made a depreciation life extension last year that was approved by the Minnesota Commission. So we did a catch-up entry since it was retro back to the beginning of the year. But that entry didn't happen to the third quarter of last year. So you are going to have a little bit of variance there.

Okay. And I notice in your… kind of your modeling assumptions you have ratcheted up the share count [inaudible]. How do you plan to raise that… that way?

I'm not sure what you are talking about?

That the fourth quarter release said you used $433 million diluted share and now that's at 438.

Well, the 438 Paul, that relates to that assumption has been for 2008 since the fourth quarter. The 434 was a 2007 assumption and the increase in the share count captures the DRIP program, the benefit programs that we have that are equity based.

Paul, keeping mind that we issued DRIP and other benefit plan equity that ranges between $60 million and $70 million a year.

In fact, I was looking at your fourth quarter release and it kind of, I guess I grabbed the wrong release real quick this morning.

Okay I will talk to you offline on it.

That sounds good.

[Operator Instructions]. At this time, this will conclude our question-and-answer session. I will turn the conference back to management for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Well thanks everyone for participating the call this morning. Probably see many of you next week at the AGA Conference in Miami. In the meantime, if you got any follow-up questions please call Paul Johnson or the IR team and we will take your calls and thanks again and look forward to seeing you many of you soon.

Ladies and gentleman this concludes the Xcel Energy first quarter 2008, earnings release conference call. If you would like to listen to a replay of today' conference, please dial 303-590-3000 or 1800-405-2236. The passcode for today's conference is 11112267#. ACT would like to thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect and please have a pleasant day.