Connect and Discover Sale: 25¢
Find essential local news anytime with unlimited digital access.
Act Now |
Photo by: Kirk Sides/Staff photographer
The push from state leaders to build new natural gas power plants to connect to the power grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas is gaining traction.
Applications for a $5 billion fund mainly for low-interest loans to build new gas-fired generation opened June 1. Developers have filed 125 notices of intent to apply to the Texas Energy Fund, laying out plans to request $38.9 billion in financing for 55,908 megawatts of proposed generation, according to the Public Utility of Commission of Texas, the state's utility regulator. If built, these power plants would nearly double ERCOT's installed gas capacity.
Gov. Greg Abbott, state legislators and the PUCT say Texas urgently needs dispatchable resources, those that can adjust their output of electricity at ERCOT's command, as more data centers, cryptomining operations, manufacturing facilities and people move to the state. Not all, however, agree that more natural gas — the burning of which generates climate-warming emissions — is the best or primary solution to Texas grid woes.
Meanwhile, other entities including the City of Sugar Land and the Texas A&M System, are offering up their land for developers to build new gas-fired power plants. Leaders at both the city and the university say they want to support efforts to help the Texas grid and to explore whether these plants could provide backup power to certain facilities.
No comments:
Post a Comment