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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
Silicon Valley Vulnerable to Power Problems
LCG, Sept. 12, 2000San Jose, Calif., which bills itself as the "capital of Silicon Valley," is the Northern California city most likely to experience a major electric power failure in the next five years, the San Jose Mercury News said this morning, citing the state's Independent system Operator.The question came up because of a 600 megawatt power plant proposed by Calpine Corp. which would be built on the south edge of town. The company announced the plant in February 1999 and had hoped to have all necessary approvals for the Metcalf Energy Center secured by now, but there is some local opposition.Cal-ISO supported the Metcalf plant, which would be built off Monterey Road near a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. substation in a recent letter, but the paper found residents in the mostly industrial neighborhood who were willing to say "not in my back yard."One of them, Issa Ajlouny, told the paper the power plant "doesn't belong in the neighborhood, especially when no power is needed." Ajlouny must not have heard that electric bills in San Diego have almost tripled during the summer because power demand exceeds supply in California.If Silicon Valley is vulnerable to power shortages, it can be said the problems is largely of its own making. The Wall Street Journal noted last Thursday that the electric load of some high tech firms in the area is that of a steel mill or a small town.Sun Microsystems presents the electric generation sector with a 26 megawatt demand, the Wall Street noted, and Oracle has a load of 13 megawatts. Intel, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Memorex, Xerox, IBM and scores of other large companies weren't even mentioned.None of those companies was there when the last power plant was built in the area. Nor were the people who work for the companies, and go home to houses with a dozen or more electrical necessities such as big-screen television, computers and air-conditioning.Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokesman Ron Low told the Mercury News "What you heard from the ISO is accurate," and PG&E should know. It has been serving the area for a hundred years and recently conducted an exhaustive study of its power infrastructure, looking into things that could go wrong.The utility found that 20 worst-case contingencies could occur in San Jose. San Francisco was runner-up with seven.
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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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