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Invenergy Announces New Agreements with Meta for Renewable Energy to Support Data Center Operations

LCG, June 26, 2025--Invenergy today announced that they and Meta Platforms, Inc. have signed four new clean energy agreements that total an additional 791 MW of procured solar and wind capacity to support Meta's near-term operations, data center growth, and clean energy goals.

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New York Power Authority to Develop New Nuclear Facility in Upstate New York

LCG, June 23, 2025--The Governor of New York today directed the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to develop and construct an advanced nuclear power plant in upstate New York to deliver zero-emission power that supports a reliable and affordable electric grid. NYPA will lead the effort to develop at least one new nuclear energy facility with a combined capacity of at least one gigawatt (GW) of electricity, either alone or in partnership with private entities. The directive builds on the Governor’s 2025 State of the State to develop nuclear energy plans in New York.

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Industry News

California QFs Still Hope for SoCal Ed Rescue

LCG, Sept. 18, 2001--Owners of California's qualifying facilities, non-utility power producers set up under federal mandate following the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s, were still hoping yesterday that the state legislature would somehow come up with a rescue package to keep Southern California Edison Co. out of bankruptcy.

SoCal Ed owes the QFs hundreds of millions of dollars, and bankruptcy usually means that creditors are forced to settle for a fraction of what is owed them.

The QFs include medium-sized conventional power plants, cogeneration facilities and some "renewable" sources of power. Many were built under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, through which Congress sought to diversify the nation's sources of electric generation.

On the chances for a SoCal Ed bailout, Kelly Lloyd of Palm Springs-based wind power producer enXco said "We are holding out some faith on that, but based on comments by John Burton, I am not very optimistic."

Burton, a San Francisco Democrat who is president pro tem of the state Senate, said early Saturday on learning of Gov. Gray Davis' intention to call a special session of the state legislature to continue work on the rescue plan, "we should have killed this baby once and for all." Lloyd's pessimism seems well-founded.

In April, Davis and the utility agreed on an arrangement under which the state would buy SoCal Ed's transmission assets for $2.76 billion and the company would use the money to pay off most of its $3.9 billion in debt.

The deal needed legislative approval, and both Davis and SoCal Ed warned lawmakers not to change a thing, but changes were made.

When the state Senate passed legislation for a SoCal Ed bailout in July, the $2.76 billion transmission purchase had become a five-year option to buy the wires for $1.2 billion. The company would be allowed to issue up to $2.9 billion in revenue bonds to raise money to pay its creditors, but would have to service and repay the debt with revenues from only those of its customers having a peak demand of 500 kilowatts -- a very small fraction of its 11 million customers.

SoCal Ed and its parent holding company Edison International Inc. immediately dismissed the Senate bill as "unworkable," saying it placed a five-year cloud on its transmission assets and valued them at a bargain basement price.

The Senate bill went to the state Assembly, with warnings from the senators not to change a thing, but again changes were made.

When the Assembly passed legislation earlier this month, the value of the transmission assets had risen to $2.4 billion, but the purchase was still a five-year option. The $2.9 billion bond issue was still there, but the debt could be serviced by tapping revenues from a much broader customer base, though residential and small commercial customers were still shielded.

The measure then went back to the state Senate, where it died in committee Saturday morning when the legislature adjourned for the year. Davis immediately said he would call a special session to deal with the SoCal Ed rescue plan.

Jonathan Weisgall, a spokesman for geothermal power producer CalEnergy, said "There appears to be a number of personality issues and issues which go beyond electricity questions here," but did not amplify. He added "We have to give (SoCal Ed) some slack and we have to give the Senate some slack to deal with these issues."

By "slack" he meant continued forbearance on the matter of being paid. All it would take to force the utility into involuntary bankruptcy would be a suit by three of its many QF creditors.

Lloyd said his company had also committed for now to not push SCE into bankruptcy. He noted that if the rescue plan is eventually abandoned he believed it most likely that the utility would voluntarily file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Which is what Pacific Gas & Electric Co. did in April, saving the state huge amounts of time and money which would have exceeded that spent on the smaller SoCal Ed.

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