News
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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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
Kentucky Power Withdraws Request to Retrofit Big Sandy
LCG, May 31, 2012--American Electric Power's subsidiary, Kentucky Power, asked to withdraw its request to invest $940 million in environmental controls on its coal-fired Big Sandy power plant. The Kentucky Public Service Commission was already scheduled to issue its decision to permit the controls by Monday.
Kentucky Power, like other owners of coal-fired power plants, is evaluating costly compliance options in response to growing federal regulations, such as the utility mercury and air toxics standards (MATS), driven by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Uncertainty on near-term emission control project costs, plus future incremental costs to comply with new regulations that may arise, makes it more and more attractive to retire coal-fired plants and invest in new plants fueled with low-cost natural gas.
The Big Sandy plant was commissioned in 1963 and includes two units with a combined electric generating capacity of 1,078 MW. In March, Kentucky Power requested to install a scrubber on the 800-MW unit to reduce emissions and to retire the smaller, 278-MW unit. Kentucky Power stated the reason to withdraw the request was "the ever-changing energy landscape" and that alternative power supplies could be purchased to replace the energy that would otherwise be generated from Big Sandy. Big Sandy is expected to continue operations prior to the EPA compliance deadlines, which will arrive in the next couple years.
According to the PSC, the investment in emission controls for Big Sandy was estimated to have raised a residential customer's monthly electric bill by about $31, or 30 percent, beginning in 2016.
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UPLAN-NPM
The Locational Marginal Price Model (LMP) Network Power Model
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UPLAN-ACE
Day Ahead and Real Time Market Simulation
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UPLAN-G
The Gas Procurement and Competitive Analysis System
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PLATO
Database of Plants, Loads, Assets, Transmission...
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