Good job
ERCOT reserve margin declines further as municipality pulls Texas coal peaker
Dive Brief:
For the third consecutive year, the Texas Municipal Power Agency (TMPA) informed the state’s grid operator that it will pull its 470 MW Gibbons Creek coal plant offline this summer and instead purchase cheaper energy for customers on the open market.
The plant has been operated as a summer peaking facility in recent years, but with the rise of low-cost wind in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market, the municipal power agency sees little value in keeping the plant ready to go.
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Solar power capacity in Texas expected to double, making life tougher for power companies
Wind energy, at least, that tends to be strongest at night and during the cooler months, when Texas’ power demand tanks and prices are low anyway. But solar panels produce electricity when Texas needs it most and merchant power companies have made their money — the hottest parts of summer days. The additional electricity could moderate price spikes during these periods of peak demand, which would be good for consumers, but not so good for the profit margins of traditional power generators.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees 90 percent of the state’s grid, expects to solar power capacity to reach about 2,000 megawatts by the end of 2018, up from 1,100 megawatts last year and just 15 megawatts in 2010. Solar capacity is expected to reach 3,000 megawatts by 2020., . (One megawatt is enough to power 200 homes on a hot Texas day.)
Texas’ was the fourth fastest growing solar state in 2017, and is expected to rise to second over the next five years, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, a national trade group. California and North Carolina added the most solar capacity last year.
Texas is considered prime location for the solar industry because of its abundance of land and sunshine. More than half of the planned solar projects are in Pecos County, a West Texas hub for utility-scale solar power, or solar farms that have the capacity to generate at least 1 megawatt of electricity. Utility-scale projects are eligible for a state tax abatement — up to 80 percent for 10 years — but the real incentive for developers is the transmission that connects remote renewable energy projects to markets in the state’s populations centers. More transmission lines are expected to be added in 2019 and 2020, likely driving another burst of solar installations. |
