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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

Argentina's Booming Economy Hit by Natural Gas Shortage

LCG, Apr. 5, 2004--Blackouts have affected numerous industries in Argentina, due to artificially low prices for natural gas that have stoked demand and deterred companies from unprofitable exploration efforts.

The situation, which has prompted utilities to lower voltage to keep power flowing, also caused the legislature during the past weekend weekend to permit gas companies to raise gas prices by 100 per cent, over a fifteen-month period. Prior to that step, it passed a resolution restricting the amount of exports to foreign countries, in order to make more natural gas available for power generation. Small users of gas, however, are protected from price increases, and will continue to pay for gas at a rate well below what is paid in other countries.

Gas prices were fixed at artifically low levels under an emergency decree in early 2002. Among other things, this encouraged the conversion of over one million vehicles to natural gas-burning engines, from gasoline-burning. The government of Nestor Kirchner has said that it will exchange exports of meat and grain for imports of fuel oil and gas oil from Venezuala, for use at electricity generating plants. Even with price increases, however, prices will be artificially low, and an excess of demand over supply is likely, unless the prices can rise sufficiently to encourage exploration and drilling for gas.
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