July 9, 2015: They Said Renewable Energy Was Becoming As Cheap As Coal, Natural Gas For Generating Electricity ---

... that's why, as being reported in The StarTribune:

Residential customers of Xcel Energy in Minnesota later this year will see a small increase in their electric bills along with a one-time refund under a rate structure approved Thursday by state regulators.

It’s the seventh electric rate hike for the utility’s 1.2 million customers since 2006 — and more increases could be down the road.

Note:

The state’s largest power company says it plans to file another, multiyear rate case for 2016 to recoup continuing investment in its generating plants, transmission lines and distribution network.

The latest increase for residential customers will boost electric rates slightly more than 1 percent. That’s on top of the 4.6 percent interim rate hike that took effect in January 2014. All together, residential rates are up about 6 percent from two years ago.

“It was not what we had hoped — it was a compromise,” said John Coffman, an attorney for AARP Minnesota, which represents older people and had intervened in the case on behalf of consumers in Xcel’s rate case.

Remember: some of those transmission lines are completely redundant (and unsightly); bringing in electricity from Canada just to back up wind farm electricity in North Dakota. I can't make this stuff up. 

Other than the information on the rate increases, most of the other "stuff" in the linked article is gobbledygook with a good dose of smoke and mirrors.