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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

CA Market Post-Memo Investigations Intensify

LCG, May 8, 2002-After yesterday's Enron memo release, regulators and legislators have stepped up efforts to find out exactly what happened to California's energy market in 2000 and 2001.

Yesterday, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released Enron memos linking the California energy crisis of 2000/2001 to intentional market manipulation, including phony congestion and the bypassing of state price caps by selling electricity out of state.

FERC strengthened its efforts, ordering all electricity traders to keep and preserve any existing records relevant to strategy in 2000/2001.

The White House asserted its support of "vigorous" investigation to protect consumers, although specific comment relating to the documents in question was avoided. Previously, during the energy crisis, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney refused to help California because the state's problems were, according to them, related to limited supply and not deserving of price caps.

Additionally, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has formalized its investigation of Dynegy Inc., which is involved with deregulated electricity and was a rival to Enron. The company, which posted a $140 million net loss for the first quarter, has agreed to cooperate with securities regulators in their investigation. Dynegy backed out of a $9 billion Enron acquisition last November and has been facing shareholder lawsuits and plummeting stock prices.

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein has requested the U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to initiate a criminal investigation regarding the released memos.

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