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          News
        
       
	
		| LCG, October 28, 2025--NextEra Energy and Google yesterday announced two agreements that will help meet growing electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) with clean, reliable, 24/7 nuclear power and strengthen the nation's nuclear leadership. First, Google signed a new, 25-year agreement for power generated at the Duane Arnold Energy Center, Iowa's only nuclear power facility. The 601-MW boiling water reactor unit was shut down in 2020 and is expected to commence operations by the first quarter of 2029, pending regulatory approvals to restart the plant.
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		| LCG, October 23, 2025--Google announced today a first-of-its kind agreement to support a natural gas-fired  power plant with carbon capture and storage (CCS). The 400-MW Broadwing Energy power project, located in Decatur, Illinois, will capture and permanently store its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. By agreeing to buy most of the power it generates, Google is helping get this new, baseload power source built and connected to the regional grid that supports our data centers.
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    Press Release
  
    Future of Natural Gas-fired Generation in the Electric Sector
  LCG, July 24, 2018 -- A bright future for natural gas-fired generation in the electric sector is encountering complications from competing generation. The U.S. is in an extended period of natural gas oversupply, enabled by technologies of “fracking”. Yet a turn to natural gas in the power sector is facing disruptive penetration from wind and solar. An article prepared June 30, 2018 for a committee within the American Association of Petroleum Geologists addresses principal developments in energy over the past 18 months. Changes in electric generation in Texas and California have been particularly dramatic, reflecting shifts in coal, natural gas and wind generation in Texas and natural gas, hydroelectric and solar generation in California. LCG Consulting’s May 2018 report for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on variable renewable energy was used to illustrate changes that could occur in the future and the dilemma they pose for natural gas.
 
 Article reference: "Energy Economics and Technology Report -- Battles of Titans: Permian vs Northeast, Coal vs Natural Gas vs Renewables", by Jeremy Platt, John Dean and Stephen L. Thumb, June 30, 2018.
 
 Additional topics addressed in the article are the scale of surging US oil and natural gas production, where the Permian Basin has become a major focus; the scale of wind, solar and battery technology improvements; price uplift occurring in international coal markets; and a scenario of higher priced oil. Uncertain and unresolved policy and geopolitical risks are also addressed, in particular trade wars and measures to support uneconomic coal and nuclear plants.
 
 
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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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