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Minnesota PUC Approves Operations Extension for Xcel Energy's Prairie Island Nuclear Plant

LCG, August 15, 2025--Xcel Energy announced that the company received state approval yesterday from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to extend operations of the Prairie Island nuclear plant through the early 2050s. Prairie Island has two units that have a combined generating capacity of 1,100 MW. The units’ current operating licenses expire in 2033 and 2034.

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PGE Announces Addition of 475 MW of Battery Energy Storage Systems to Improve Grid Reliability and Costs

LCG, August 7, 2025--Portland General Electric (PGE) today announced the completion of three, four-hour lithium-ion utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Oregon, adding 475 MW and more than 1.9 GWh of dispatchable capacity to serve the Portland metro area. Each of these BESS facilities can deliver power during peak demand or when other electric generating facilities are limited, which improves system flexibility, reliability and costs.

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Industry News

Aluminum Firms Grumble, But Sign Bonneville Contracts

LCG, Nov. 2, 2000--Aluminum companies in the pacific Northwest signed their power supply contracts with the Bonneville Power Administration before the October 31 deadline, but did so with considerable grumbling and said yesterday that the prices they will have to pay for electricity will prevent them from going back into full production.

Bonneville said that five aluminum companies operating 10 smelters, two chemical companies and one paper mill signed contracts that run from Oct. 1, 2001 through Sept. 30, 2006. The taxpayer-owned utility will allot 1,486 megawatts of power among those customers at a charge of $23.50 per megawatt-hour. It isn't enough, according to some.

Brett Wilcox, owner of Golden Northwest Aluminum, said the smelters, attracted to the Pacific Northwest more than 50 years ago by plentiful and inexpensive electricity, need about 3,000 megawatts to get back into full production.

Wilcox said one of his two smelters, a Goldendale, Wash., facility, was negotiating with independent power producer Goldendale Energy Inc. for development of a new 248 megawatt plant that would allow the aluminum refinery to resume full output. The gas-fired, combustion turbine plant is expected to begin commercial operation in about two years.

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