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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

Pacific Northwest Faces 'Worst Ever' Water Year

LCG, March 6, 2001Washington Gov. Gary Locke is expected to hold a news conference today to stress the need to conserve energy in the face of a "worst ever" water year and, at the same time, give a pat on the back to four utilities that have added 1,500 megawatts of new electric generation.

There are lots of rivers in the Pacific Northwest, but when comparing one year with another people look at the big Columbia, which drains the entire region into the Pacific. In an ordinary bad year, about 60 million acre feet of water will flow past a dam near The Dalles, about 80 miles east of Portland, Ore., between January 1 and July 31. In the worst ever year, 1977, 53.8 million acre feet went by, and this year could be worse.

"It's the worst of the worst," Bonneville Power Administration spokesman Mike Hansen said yesterday.

And, according to the Northwest Power Planning Council, if the region continues to bask in unaccustomed sunshine, electric generation will be not much more than two thirds of normal.

Water levels in the impoundments behind Pacific Northwest dams which represent future electricity are at record lows partly as a result of federally mandated power sales to California.

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