While Xcel Energy didn’t get its current name until 2000, customers in the Eau Claire area have been relying on the company for nearly a century to provide safe, reliable electricity and natural gas to fuel growth in the Chippewa Valley.

Xcel Energy’s Wisconsin and Michigan operating company, Northern States Power-Wisconsin, can trace its predecessor companies back to the Chippewa River Improvement & Log Driving Company, incorporated in 1872. However, the history truly begins when Northern States Power Co. of Minnesota purchased the Wisconsin-Minnesota Light & Power Company to capitalize on hydro power available in Wisconsin and renamed the newly acquired company NSP-Wisconsin in 1924. The company’s Wisconsin headquarters is still located in Eau Claire.

Xcel Energy is a clean energy leader. In Wisconsin, the company is the state’s largest provider of renewable energy, and they are more than halfway to their goal of providing 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050. There’s no doubt – the future is bright, and Xcel Energy is proud to power it.