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News
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LCG, November 19, 2025--Oklo Inc. and Siemens Energy announced today that the parties have signed a binding contract for the design and delivery of the power conversion system for Oklo’s Aurora-INL (Idaho National Laboratory) nuclear small modular reactor (SMR). The agreement authorizes Siemens Energy to begin engineering and design work to expedite procurement of long-lead components and to initiate the manufacturing process for the power conversion system. Oklo’s expertise in advanced fission technology will be combined with Siemens Energy’s extensive industry experience with steam turbine and generator systems, with the ultimate goal of generating carbon-free, reliable electricity.
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LCG, November 19, 2025--NERC yesterday released its 2025–2026 Winter Reliability Assessment (WRA), which concludes "much of North America is again at an elevated risk of having insufficient energy supplies to meet demand in extreme operating conditions." The WRA does state that resources are adequate for normal winter peak demand, but extended, wide-area cold snaps will be challenging.
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Industry News
RTOs Key to 'Seamless' National Grid, FERC Says
LCG, June 20, 2001Regional transmission organizations, perhaps as few as five and much larger than many of the currently operating or contemplated independent system operators, are needed to provide a "seamless" national electric transmission grid, federal regulators said yesterday."If we had them today, we would not have to spend a whole week dealing with a crisis in the West," said FERC Chairman Curtis Hebert, referring to the agency's imposition of "soft caps" on Western wholesale power prices on Monday. FERC made its intervention in the California power crisis contingent on that state's willingness to have its ISO file a plan for an RTO.FERC commissioners see a nationwide system of interconnected RTOs, all operating under uniform rules, as necessary to provide smooth movement of power from region to region as well as enhance liquidity and reduce volatility in wholesale power markets.William Massey, a Clinton appointee to FERC, said "Traders in one RTO ought to be able to move power to another RTO seamlessly," and Hebert added "We must understand that we will sink or swim together, and I think RTOs will help us swim."At yesterday's meeting, FERC commissioners grappled with ways to bring the quilt-work national grid together and standardize regulations to allow cross-border trading of power. An overriding question was how large should an RTO be.The PJM Interconnection, which began life as the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland power pool and now operates the largest wholesale electric market in the world, is seen as a model for RTOs, and could eventually expand to include the New York and new England ISOs.PJM's Phillip Harris said RTOs are necessary before other reliability issues can be addressed. "You have to get RTOs approved. Then you can have 10 entities that are accountable to FERC," he said, apparently referring to the 10 regional reliability councils of the North American Electric Reliability Council, an industry organization set up in the wake of massive blackouts in the Northeast three decades ago.Such super-RTOs would require consolidation of many smaller, and at times competing, organizations. In the West, in addition to the California Independent System Operator, there are RTO West in the Pacific Northwest, Desert Star in the Southwest and others. In the Midwest, there is the Midwest ISO as well as the competing Alliance RTO.Frank Afranji, speaking for RTO West, doubted that such super-RTOs were needed. "We really don't believe there is a need for a West-wide RTO at this time," he said."We would compel you to move forward with an RTO," Hebert reminded him.
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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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