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In Memory of Rajat Deb: Inspiring Man of Ideas and Remarkable Silicon Valley Archetype

By Anjuli Deb -- With deep sadness and profound appreciation, we share the passing of LCG's founder, Dr. Rajat K. Deb. He was our president and one of the first entrepreneurs in the computer revolution. He was also our friend, our teacher and mentor, and for a few of us, our father and grandfather.

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Avantus and Clean Power Alliance Sign PPA for 200-MW Solar Plus Storage Facility for Southern California Communities

LCG, July 13, 2026--Avantus, an independent power producer (IPP), and Clean Power Alliance (CPA) today announced a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for the Rexford 2 solar and storage project in Tulare County, California. The project will deliver 200 MWac of solar power combined with a 200 MW/800 MWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) to the California grid. The project is scheduled to commence construction in 2027 and achieve operations in late 2028. Commercial operations under the PPA are scheduled to start in May 2029. Avantus plans to own and operate facility.

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Industry News

Kiwi Mercury Energy to Get into Gas

LCG, Dec. 18, 2001--New Zealand electric utility Mercury Energy Ltd. is moving into the natural gas retail market and will start selling gas to many of its Auckland customers from March, the New Zealand Herald reported this morning.

John Foote, Mercury's general manager, told the paper that customers would have the option of paying for both electricity and gas on the same bill. The move would put Mercury, which is now a unit of the state-owned enterprise Mighty River Power, into direct competition with Contact Energy, also a gas and electricity retailer.

Mercury Energy may be remembered as the electric distribution company that, for lack of preventive maintenance, allowed electric transmission into Auckland's central business district to fail on Feb. 19, 1998. More than a month later, the company proudly announced "The power crisis is over, normal power is up and running in Auckland's CBD."

Then the lights went out again.

This latest move would involve the acquisition by Mercury of Wanganui Gas, which supplies gas to big commercial users in Auckland. That company's general manager, Trevor Goodwin, said the small firm was not interested in selling gas directly to Auckland residential customers.

"We really just want to sell more gas," he said. "We're not megalomaniacs, we're not trying to have the largest customer base in the country, we just want to shift more gas."

The service territory in which Mercury will initially sell gas has about 40,000 gas users, almost all buying from Contact Energy. The company will aim to win over Contact gas customers who already buy electricity from Mercury.

"We plan this to be a low-hassle, good-service option, so we'll be moving at a pace to ensure that this service can be maintained," said Foote. "Ultimately, we want to be able to offer these sorts of things wherever the Mercury brand is but, for the moment, one step at a time."

Selling Mercury as a "low-hassle, good-service" energy provider would seem to require a customer base having collectively a short memory.

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