Borrowings and Other Financing Instruments

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2015

Debt Disclosure [Abstract]

Borrowings and Other Financing Instruments

Borrowings and Other Financing Instruments

Short-Term Borrowings

Money Pool — Xcel Energy Inc. and its utility subsidiaries have established a money pool arrangement that allows for short-term investments in and borrowings between the utility subsidiaries. Xcel Energy Inc. may make investments in the utility subsidiaries at market-based interest rates; however, the money pool arrangement does not allow the utility subsidiaries to make investments in Xcel Energy Inc. Money pool borrowings for SPS were as follows:

(Amounts in Millions, Except Interest Rates)	Three Months Ended March 31, 2015			Twelve Months Ended Dec. 31, 2014
Borrowing limit	$	100		$	100
Amount outstanding at period end	—			16
Average amount outstanding	2			9
Maximum amount outstanding	31			100
Weighted average interest rate, computed on a daily basis	0.56		%	0.22		%
Weighted average interest rate at period end	N/A			0.45

Commercial Paper — SPS meets its short-term liquidity requirements primarily through the issuance of commercial paper and borrowings under its credit facility. Commercial paper outstanding for SPS was as follows:

(Amounts in Millions, Except Interest Rates)	Three Months Ended March 31, 2015			Twelve Months Ended Dec. 31, 2014
Borrowing limit	$	400		$	400
Amount outstanding at period end	123			37
Average amount outstanding	103			83
Maximum amount outstanding	144			241
Weighted average interest rate, computed on a daily basis	0.44		%	0.26		%
Weighted average interest rate at period end	0.56			0.47

Letters of Credit — SPS uses letters of credit, generally with terms of one year, to provide financial guarantees for certain operating obligations. At March 31, 2015 and Dec. 31, 2014, there were $30 million of letters of credit outstanding under the credit facility. The contract amounts of these letters of credit approximate their fair value and are subject to fees.

Credit Facility — In order to use its commercial paper program to fulfill short-term funding needs, SPS must have a revolving credit facility in place at least equal to the amount of its commercial paper borrowing limit and cannot issue commercial paper in an aggregate amount exceeding available capacity under this credit facility. The line of credit provides short-term financing in the form of notes payable to banks, letters of credit and back-up support for commercial paper borrowings.

At March 31, 2015, SPS had the following committed credit facility available (in millions of dollars):

Credit Facility (a)		Drawn(b)		Available
$	400	$	153	$	247

^(a)  This credit facility expires in October 2019.

^(b)  Includes outstanding commercial paper and letters of credit.

All credit facility bank borrowings, outstanding letters of credit and outstanding commercial paper reduce the available capacity under the credit facility. SPS had no direct advances on the credit facility outstanding at March 31, 2015 and Dec. 31, 2014.