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Southwest Power Pool Board Approves New Process to Accelerate High Impact Large Load Connections

LCG, September 16, 2025--Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) Board of Directors today announced that the Board approved a process to facilitate the connection of large users of electricity to the power grid while continuing to support energy needs for the entire region. SPP's new process is designed to incorporate transmission service, generation, load interconnection and other relevant reliability studies into a single framework that enables timely, informed decision-making and action.

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Longroad Energy Announces Financial Close of 1000 Mile Solar Project in Texas

LCG, September 15, 2025--Longroad Energy announced today the financial close of 1000 Mile Solar, its 300 MWac (400 MWdc) solar project in Yoakum County, Texas. Longroad Energy finalized a long-term offtake agreement with Meta late last year in the form of an Environmental Attributes Purchase Agreement, which includes a financial settlement arrangement for the entire energy output of 1000 Mile Solar.

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Industry News

Regulator Sees ‘Collusion’ in Power Price Spikes

LCG, July 19, 2000--California Public Utility Commissioner Carl Wood said yesterday that the state regulators at their August 3 meeting may launch an investigation into possible illegal collusion and profiteering in the wholesale electricity market.

"There is outrageous profiteering that is going on at the present time," Wood told a San Diego news conference. "There are hints that collusion, possibly even illegal collusion, may have been involved in this price run-up, and one of the things that has been urged on us ... is that our commission hold investigatory hearings in order to get at the bottom of what is actually driving this price run-up."

The high price of wholesale power is big news in San Diego these days because residential customers of the local utility, San Diego Gas & Electric Co., have seen their monthly bills double since May.

Under Californias electric restructuring law, enacted in 1996, all residential and small commercial customers received a 10 percent rate cut that went into effect on January 1, 1998. Rates were then frozen for four years or until a utility paid off its stranded costs, whichever came first. SDG&E paid off its stranded costs fast and can now pass wholesale power price increases through to consumers.

Wood is one of two appointees made by Californias new Democrat Governor Gray Davis to the five-member commission. He is a former maintenance electrician at the San Onofre nuclear power plant owned by Southern California Edison Co. and was a top official of the Utility Workers Union of America.

Wood is not happy with deregulation of the electric industry, calling it a "mistake." He wants the regulatory commission to step in and reassert control. "The mistake has now turned into a crisis. We have to make sure that this crisis doesn't turn into a disaster," he said.

Art Larson, a spokesman for SDG&E, was also at the news conference and gamely told reporters "We believe theres a market-based solution out there." The company has proposed offering customers a fixed-price plan, which would solve the problem of high monthly bills by averaging payments over a year.

SDG&E customers in San Diego County and part of Orange County have seen a typical householders bill for electricity zoom from $50 in May to about $100, and all 1.1 million of the utilitys customers are upset. They have yet to look at the other side of the coin.

Because SDG&E has paid off its stranded costs, the transition charge on the electric bill is being dropped. About $100 million will be returned to customers. Another $390 million will be returned to residential and small commercial customers as the company shares with them the profit it made on the sale of its generating assets.

Altogether, SDG&E customers will receive an average of about $300 in the next month or two -- about six times the increase they are complaining about.

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