Per Reuters, Xcel Energy announced yesterday that it is planning to invest $1.3B to repower and retrofit coal plants in Colorado, in order to comply with the state’s Clean Air Clean Jobs Act. The $1.3B investment is expected to be $225 million less than the cost of retrofitting all of its Colorado plants to comply.

As part of the plan, Xcel plans to do the following:

Retire 186MW of coal-fired power at its Valmont plant by the end of 2017

Retire 717MW of coal-fired power at its Cherokee plant by the end of 2022

Repower the Cherokee plant with 883MW of natural gas power generation

Switch its Arapahoe Unit Four plant from coal to natural gas

Begin using modern emission control technology at its Pawnee and Hayden plants

Dick Kelly, Xcel Energy chairman and CEO, made the following comments about the plan to Reuters:

“Over the next several years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will require the state of Colorado to comply with a series of regulatory mandates unprecedented in the history of the Clean Air Act. We believe our proposal is the best way to meet new environmental requirements in a manner that preserves reliability and minimizes customer costs.”