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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

Spain's Hidrocantabrico may go to Portuguese Utility

LCG, Oct. 30, 2001--Government-owned Electricidade de Portugal is expected to gain control of Spanish utility Hidroelectrica del Cantabrico because of its alliance with Cajastur, a Spanish bank which is a major shareholder of Spain's fourth-largest electric company.

Jousting over Hidrocantabrico has been going on for at least three years, since Texas Utilities bought a 5 percent stake in the utility in 1998 "to share knowledge and ideas." One of those ideas turned out to be an acquisition of the rest of the Spanish company. That effort foundered in March of 2000.

Acquisition of Hidrocantabrico is complicated by the company's by-laws, which allow no shareholder more than 10 percent of board votes no matter how large a proportion of common stock is owned. Electricidade de Portugal and Cajastur between them hold a majority of Hidrocantabrico's voting rights, despite controlling just 35 per cent of its shares.

Electricidade de Portugal's rival, Energie Baden-Wurttemberg, a German utility which acquired 60 per cent of Hidrocantabrico last year in association with a Spanish partner, is limited to 10 percent of the board vote and now says it is prepared to accept the Portuguese utility's dominant position.

In exchange for accepting the inevitable, Energie Baden-Wurttemberg says it want to play an active part in Hidrocantabrico management.

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