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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

Former El Paso Trader Indicted

LCG, Dec. 5, 2002--An indictment has been brought against a former vice president of the El Paso Corporation for his allegedly false reporting of 48 gas trades to an industry publication, federal prosecutors in Houston announced yesterday.

El Paso had stated that "inaccurate pricing information may have been provided to a trade publication," on Nov. 13, one day after Todd Geiger, who was engaged in gas trading, resigned from the company. According to Reuters, Mr. Geiger's lawyer, George Murphy, said that Geiger's arrest on Tuesday following a trip to Detroit "came as a tremendous shock to him, his family and to me. None of us knew this was coming." Geiger will plead not guilty, Murphy stated.

Geiger, 38, traded through El Paso's Canada desk from Houston, where U.S. Attorney John Lewis believes he tried to manipulate the price index at the Sumas hub, situated on the border of British Columbia and Washington state.

Prosecutors contend that on Nov. 30, 2001, Geiger discussed 48 non-existent gas trades with an editor of Inside FERC Gas Market Report, as if the trades were actual transactions conducted by the Merchant Energy Group at El Paso. The prices reported were used to produce a price index in the December edition of the publication. Monday, Geiger will be arraigned and charged with wire fraud and false reporting. Possible penalties that could be imposed should Geiger be found guilty are a fine of $500,000 for false reporting and up to five years in prison, and a fine of $250,000 and a maximum of five years in prison for wire fraud.

An investigation is continuing into possible false reporting by employees at El Paso, to publications publishing price indexes for the gas and electricity markets. The company website indicates that El Paso is "cooperating fully with the appropriate federal authorities." Spokespersons would not comment further.

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