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Wärtsilä to Supply the Engineering and Equipment to East Kentucky Power Cooperative for 217-MW Power Plant

LCG, August 27, 2025--Wärtsilä Energy announced yesterday an agreement with East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) to supply the engineering and equipment for a 217-MW power plant to be constructed in Liberty, Kentucky. The Wärtsilä equipment is scheduled for delivery in mid-2027, and the plant is expected to be commissioned in early 2028.

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TerraPower, Utah's Office of Energy Development, and Flagship Companies Sign MOU to Identify Sites for Advanced Nuclear Reactors

LCG, August 25, 2025--The Utah Office of Energy Development (OED), TerraPower and Flagship Companies announced today the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to explore the potential siting of a Natrium® nuclear reactor and energy storage plant in Utah. The MOU establishes a shared commitment to support advanced nuclear technologies to build Utah’s energy future and to prioritize reliability, economic growth and energy abundance.

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Industry News

Exorbitant Natural Gas Prices Keep New Plants Off Line

LCG, April 8, 2003Recent unusually high natural gas prices are keeping newly built power plants from starting up.

Plant owners and operators say that they cannot profitably operate plants in current economic conditions and may have to wait until the summer, when demand increases.

Current gas prices are roughly $5 per million Btu, and over this past winter prices reached record levels.

Most new plants built over the last few years have been natural gas-fired, a popular choice because of efficiency, local production of fuel, and cleaner emissions. Several natural gas-fired plants are also currently under construction, and roughly 300,000 MW of natural gas-fired capacity has been projected to come on line between 1998 and 2007. Deregulation efforts in many states encouraged the new construction, and many companies assumed that natural gas prices would remain stable when they initially planned the plants' construction.

According to some in industry, the cost of operating a plant is currently higher than simply buying power.

While many new plants are gas-fired, gas and oil plants comprise only a fifth of U.S. capacity. Coal and nuclear plants still dominate, generating some 70 percent of total capacity. Hydroelectric, wind, solar, biomass and others make up just 10 percent.

Companies like Williams Cos. and PPL Corp. have either kept new plants off line or even requested to take plants off line. Other companies have delayed or halted construction of new plants in order to wait for better market conditions.

Some U.S. companies are looking into liquified natural gas, an investment previously thought by some to be unnecessarily costly.

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