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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

Oklahoma Lawmaker May Drop Electric Deregulation

LCG, Nov. 13, 2000--Oklahoma state Sen. Kevin Easley, who guided the state's Electric Restructuring Act through the legislature almost four years ago, told an electric deregulation conference in Tulsa Saturday that he was tired of trying to put some meat on the act's bones and may not reintroduce his measure in the new session next year.

"I'm not prepared to say today that we're going to have a piece of legislation on this," he told the conference sponsored by the University of Tulsa's National Energy Environment Law and Policy Institute. "When you offer a bill like this, you become a target," Easley added.

The 1977 legislation set the framework for retail electric competition to begin by July 2002 and directed the Oklahoma Commerce Commission to figure out the details by this year. A year later, a follow-on bill was enacted requiring that all studies be completed by October 1999.

In March of this year, the state Senate passed Easley's bill setting for the details of retail electric competition and reaffirming the starting date of July 2002. The measure was voted down in the state House of Representatives in May, just before the legislature adjourned.

All roads to electric deregulation in Oklahoma go through Easley who is chairman of the Senate Energy, environmental Resources and Regulatory Affairs Committee. He said he would not "support a radical departure" from his legislation and said some others offering proposals "were more interested in causing confusion."

One speaker at the conference questioned whether Oklahoma needs to change its existing regulation of utilities. William Mogel, editor of the Energy Law Journal, asked "If Oklahoma indeed is a low-cost state, what needs to be fixed?"

U.S. Rep. Steve Largent, the keynote speaker at the symposium, said competition "will provide lower costs and better efficiency."

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