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Graphic Packaging and NextEra Energy Resources Sign 250-MW Virtual Power Purchase Agreement

LCG, April 29, 2026--Graphic Packaging Holding Company today announced a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) with NextEra Energy Resources, LLC. With the VPPA agreement, NextEra Energy Resources plans to build the Selenite Springs Energy Center, a 250-MW solar energy facility in West Texas, and Graphic Packaging will be the sole buyer of the facility's renewable energy attribute certificates. Graphic Packaging, a global provider of sustainable consumer packaging, expects the agreement to cover approximately 43 percent of its 2025 electricity usage in the U.S. and Canada. The agreement will advance Graphic Packaging's commitment to source renewable electricity and reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

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PJM Announces More Than 800 New Generation Projects Seek to Connect the Grid

LCG, April 29, 2026--PJM Interconnection today announced that 811 new generation projects applied to connect to the grid through the first Cycle of PJM's new reformed interconnection process, which is designed to improve the certainty, speed and discipline of generation project review. In total, the generation applications would be capable of generating 220 GW of electricity.

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Industry News

Winds Topple 500 Kilovolt Line in Minnesota

LCG, Aug. 10, 2001--While they brought relief from a heat wave that sorely tested power reserves in the Upper Midwest, heavy winds and thunderstorms that rumbled through east-central Minnesota took their toll on the electric industry, knocking down a tower on a 500 kilovolt transmission line.

The 500 kilovolt line, which runs from Forbes to Chisago City north of Minneapolis-St. Paul, can carry as much as 1,800 megawatts of electricity from Manitoba Power in Canada into the state. With the line down, Manitoba Power is limited to sending 300 megawatts of electricity into the Minnesota market.

At the time the tower went down, the line was carrying almost all 1,800 megawatts of electricity into hot and humid Minnesota. As a result, the line's operators, Xcel Energy and Great River Energy, declared a North American Electric Reliability Council emergency through the Mid-Continent Area Power Pool.

Loss of the line caused no electrical outages to customers in the area, Great River said. However, Lake Country Power Cooperative in the town of Virginia, Cooperative Light & Power at Two Harbors, and Arrowhead Electric Cooperative in Lutsen have experienced numerous distribution system outages over the last few days because of the heat.

Crews from Great River and Xcel are at the site, building a road. Because of the remote location of the fallen tower, the workers have to literally build their way into the site. Consequently, the earliest completion of repairs would be Sunday. A new tower will be fabricated in Forbes and airlifted to the site by helicopter.

Though no one lost power when the tower fell, trains were late. The tower fell across some railroad tracks and it took several hours for crews to remove the wreckage.

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