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Minnesota PUC Approves Operations Extension for Xcel Energy's Prairie Island Nuclear Plant

LCG, August 15, 2025--Xcel Energy announced that the company received state approval yesterday from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to extend operations of the Prairie Island nuclear plant through the early 2050s. Prairie Island has two units that have a combined generating capacity of 1,100 MW. The units’ current operating licenses expire in 2033 and 2034.

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PGE Announces Addition of 475 MW of Battery Energy Storage Systems to Improve Grid Reliability and Costs

LCG, August 7, 2025--Portland General Electric (PGE) today announced the completion of three, four-hour lithium-ion utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Oregon, adding 475 MW and more than 1.9 GWh of dispatchable capacity to serve the Portland metro area. Each of these BESS facilities can deliver power during peak demand or when other electric generating facilities are limited, which improves system flexibility, reliability and costs.

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Industry News

AEP to Build New West Texas Line

LCG, Sept. 22, 2000A new electric transmission line crossing part of West Texas was announced yesterday by American Electric Power Co. and the Lower Colorado River Authority, a state conservation and reclamation district that wholes power.

The joint venture will build a $90 million, 345 kilovolt line that will span 150 miles across the Edward Plateau. It will be the western part of a 225 mile line that will move power from Big Spring to a point near Fort Worth, moving power from new gas-fired plants in the west to energy hungry population centers. Some new wind farms in the west will also be served.

AEP will build and operate the 150-mile segment and the Lower Colorado River Authority will pay for and own it. It should be noted that the Texas Colorado River isn't the same one that flows through the Grand Canyon.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, a regional unit of the North American Electric Reliability Council, also acts as the state's independent system operator, in charge of the Texas electric transmission grid. It has urged new lines to accommodate generation of many new merchant power plants in various parts of Texas.

ERCOT has pointed to a half-dozen areas in Texas that are under-served by transmission, including the stretch to be covered by the AEP, LCRA link.

More than 30 new power plants are expected to add over 18,000 megawatts of generation to the Texas system around the time the state's electricity market opens to competition in 2002, or shortly thereafter.

AEP said arranging for the new line's transmission corridor is underway. Approval is needed from the Public Utility Commission of Texas before the line can be built.

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