By Paul Huttner and Ngoc Bui The demand for electricity in Minnesota is growing, and that means costs are going up, too. Xcel Energy has requested a 13 percent rate increase over the next two years and plans to increase capital spending by $11 billion over the next five years. Walker Orenstein, a reporter at the Minnesota Star Tribune, said the utility plans to make major infrastructure investments. “It’s everything from new carbon-free generation, so renewable power investments, spending on its fleet of nuclear plants [to] transmission, so big power lines that carry energy across long distances. And then there’s some really basic nuts-and-bolts stuff, too, fundamentally for reliability, like distribution systems,” Orenstein said. Xcel is also preparing for the massive demand from new data centers across the eight states it serves — potentially an additional 9,000 megawatts of energy. Orenstein said the utility will rely on federal tax credits to help offset rate increases for its customers. The post Xcel Energy asks for a 13 percent rate increase to fund infrastructure investments appeared first on Austin Daily Herald.