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Oklo and Siemens Energy Sign Agreement to Accelerate Power Conversion System for New SMR in Idaho

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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NERC's New Winter Reliability Assessment Raises Concerns for Elevated Risk of Insufficient Supplies to Meet Demand in Extreme Operating Conditions

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

NRG Plans Fuel Switching from Coal to Gas to Avoid Plant Closures

LCG, June 26, 2013--NRG Energy (NRG) announced plans Monday to retrofit the 330-MW, New Castle power plant to switch from burning coal to natural gas. The 60-year old plant, located in Pennsylvania, had been scheduled to close by April 2015 due to environmental regulations associated with burning coal. With the fuel switching, the plant will be reactivated, and the anticipated commercial operating date (COD) for gas-fired operations is the summer of 2016.

NRG merged with GenOn Energy Inc. in December 2012, and GenOn had previously announced the April 2015 closing date last year.

NRG's East Region spokesperson stated, "The New Castle plant shutdown was announced because it would have required a substantial investment in environmental controls to continue to operate as a coal-burning facility. But we looked at it and decided it could be operated economically on natural gas. We won't have to install the extremely expensive controls that would have been required to continue operating on coal."

Following the reactivation, the New Castle plant is anticipated to change from a serving a base-load role to a peaking role, when electric demand peaks.

Other plants targeted by NRG to convert from coal to gas and reactivate are the 732-MW Avon Lake power plant in Ohio by the summer of 2016, as well as the 75-MW Dunkirk Unit 2 in New York.
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