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SPP and Member Utilities Successfully Achieve Western Expansion Milestone

LCG, April 2, 2026--Southwest Power Pool (SPP) today announced that the expansion of its service territory into the Western Interconnection has been a success. The milestone makes SPP the first regional transmission organization (RTO) with services spanning the Eastern and Western Interconnections. Its member organizations, which cover all or part of 17 states, can now benefit from a more operationally and geographically diverse integrated system.

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Holtec Achieves Milestone towards Restarting Palisades Nuclear Facility and Advances Plans to Build Two SMRs at Palisades Site

LCG, March 31, 2026--Holtec International yesterday announced that it successfully completed a milestone test necessary to return Holtec's Palisades Nuclear Generating Station to service. The 805-MW pressurized water reactor (PWR) is located in Michigan and was shut down by Entergy in May 2022. Holtec acquired the facility in June 2022 and has pursued a path to return the plant to service.

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Industry News

California Municipal Raises Power Rates by Half

LCG, Feb. 9, 2001Mount Lassen in the Cascade Range of Northern California is an active volcano. Nothing has been heard from the mountain since 1921, but there are rumbles of a different sort coming from the municipal utility that serves the area.

The Lassen Municipal Utility District, which serves 11,000 customers in the town of Susanville and a few other hamlets, will raise its electric rates by an average of 49 percent. When they heard the news, the utility's customers breathes a sigh of relief because general manager John Baxter has said an increase of 162 percent might be needed.

The LMUD owns no generation of its own and when it bought power last fall it found that the price had gone up, rather than down as it usually does after the hot summer months.

Baxter told the district's board earlier this week that he had taken two steps to curb the rate hike. First, he wants to get rid of the district's biggest customer, the Sierra Army Depot in the town of Herlong. LMUD was selling power to the Army for less than it paid for it.

Second, he negotiated power supplies that will save the district money. A source who asked not to be named told EnergyOnline Daily News that the district signed a year-long deal with his power plant for the energy off one boiler, paying in the neighborhood of $30 per megawatt-hour and supplying the fuel.

The rate increase will add 3.5 cents per kilowatt-hour to residential customers' bills and cost commercial customers an additional 4 cents per kilowatt-hour.

One would think there was some geothermal power lurking beneath the surface of Mount Lassen.

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