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MISO Long-Term Nodal Insights

LCG, November 12, 2025--LCG Consulting is excited to announce the release of the MISO 2034 Data Model, built from the latest MISO Transmission Expansion Plan (MTEP). This powerful, nodal-level data model offers a forward-looking view of generation, transmission, and load forecasts across the MISO region—empowering energy professionals to explore the grid of the future with confidence.

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Xcel Energy and "Allies" Request Retirement Extension for Comanche Generating Station Unit 2

LCG, November 12, 2025--Xcel Energy, together with the Utility Consumer Advocate (UCA), Colorado Energy Office (CEO), and Trial Staff of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), filed a petition on November 10 requesting Commission approval to keep Comanche Generating Station Unit 2 available for up to one additional year after its currently planned retirement on December 31, 2025.

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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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