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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

NorCal Oil Refineries Consider New Power Plants

LCG, March 5, 2001Owners of two San Francisco Bay Area oil refineries are considering building on-site power plants, one to gain energy independence from Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the other to provide peaking power for sale into the California wholesale electricity market.

The Equilon refinery in Martinez, at the mouth of the Sacramento River, has been approached by state energy planners as a possible site for a small peaking plant of around 50 megawatts capacity. Equilon is one of a handful of companies formed by Shell, Texaco and Saudi Aramco to manufacture and market Shell and Texaco refined products and to manage the companies' transportation, lubricants and trading businesses in the U.S.

Across the Carquinez Strait and upriver a couple of miles in Benicia at a refinery purchased from Exxon Corp. last year, Valero Energy Corp. is proposing a 50 megawatt cogeneration plant that would make the facility independent from PG&E and provide process steam for refinery operations.

"The economics for this plant just weren't there before, when we had reliable sources of energy. Now we think it makes sense," said Fred Newhouse, spokesman for the Valero refinery. "We buy our power from PG&E. We're feeling the threat that the power might not be there all the time."

Equilon already has a cogeneration plant that provides 100 megawatts of the refinery's 110 megawatt demand. Mark Hughes, a spokesman for Equilon, said the talks with the California Energy Commission were in such an early stage there was nothing to comment on.

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