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NRC Renews Operating Licenses for Constellation's Nuclear Reactors at Clinton and Dresden Facilities

LCG, December 16, 2025--The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced today that it has renewed the operating licenses of Constellation LLC’s Clinton Unit 1 in Clinton, Illinois, and Dresden Units 2 and 3, near Morris, Illinois, for an additional 20 years beyond the current expiration dates. The combined capacity of these three, Illinois-based nuclear units is 2,925 MW, and the operating license extension will enable the units to generate carbon-free power through about 2050.

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ERCOT Announces Organizational Changes to Promote Grid Reliability, Rapid Demand Growth, and Innovation

LCG, December 12, 2025--Today, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. (ERCOT) announced strategic organizational changes designed to accelerate innovation, strengthen grid reliability, and support the unprecedented growth in the demand for electricity across Texas. To meet these objectives, ERCOT created two new organizations: Interconnection and Grid Analysis, and Enterprise Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The two organizations will formally launch in January 2026.

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Industry News

California Orders Load Shedding for Second Straight Day

LCG, Dec. 6, 2000--The California Independent System Operator yesterday ordered the state's three investor-owned utilities to curtail deliveries to customers with interruptible service contracts in order to keep demand from outstripping available reserves.

The Cal-ISO even asked people to not turn on their holiday lights until after 7:00 p.m., even though it gets dark around 5:00 p.m. and the time to show off your lighted house is when commuters are getting home from work.

Southern California Edison Co. even asked customers to put off doing laundry until after dinner, but it was the holiday lights that got attention. Suzanne Middleburg, a SoCal Ed spokeswoman, said "We've found that more and more people are hanging Christmas lights, and they use more energy than people think."

Middleburg estimated that Christmas lights alone have boosted demand by 1,400 megawatts for SoCal Ed. "For every string you hang up, you essentially turn on another light in the house," she said.

Cal-ISO spokesman Patrick Dorinson sighed "We seem to have avoided a stage three emergency due to a combination of factors," and thanked Californians "for heeding our appeals to conserve energy." The state has had a lot of "Stage 2" power emergencies this year -- more than 20 during the summer -- but never a "Stage 3," which would call for involuntary rolling blackouts.

Though the California Energy Commission has said there will be more than 52,000 megawatts of power available to the state next summer, the Cal-ISO was hard-pressed yesterday to come up with 33,000 megawatts.

A good part of the problem was 11,000 megawatts of generation being shut down. Most of the plants were down for maintenance, after running non-stop all summer, but about 4,700 megawatts of generation in Southern California was idle because the plants had used up their emissions allowances for the year.

During the summer shortages, part of the blame was placed on the decreased amount of power available in the Pacific Northwest for import into California. Now, there is none. Washington and Oregon are having power supply problems of their own, with wholesale prices soaring over $1,000 per megawatt-hour (see related story).

The federal government said it had ordered its facilities in California to conserve energy and had released 220 megawatts of emergency power from the Glen Canyon Dam in the Grand Canyon to ease the shortage.

Cal-ISO said it would ask the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which has threatened to sue plants that exceed their emissions allowances, to lighten up.

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