IRVING,
Texas, May 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Vistra
(NYSE: VST) today announced its intention to add up to 2,000
megawatts of dispatchable, natural-gas-fueled power capacity in
West, Central, and North
Texas.
Vistra's plan includes:
- New gas plants – Vistra intends to build up to 860
MW of advanced simple-cycle peaker plants to be located in
West Texas to support the
increasing power needs of the region, including the state's growing
oil and gas industry.
- Repowering a retired coal plant – Vistra's coal-fueled
Coleto Creek Power Plant near
Goliad is set to retire in 2027 to
comply with federal Environmental Protection Agency rules. The
company intends to repower it as a gas-fueled plant, enabling up to
600 MW of additional capacity after the coal facility
retires.
- Upgrades of existing gas plants – Vistra will complete
several projects at its existing gas plants that will add more than
500 MW of summer capacity and 100 MW of winter
capacity.
"Vistra is committed to providing reliable and affordable
electricity to our customers while decarbonizing our generation
fleet at a responsible pace. Texas
is in the enviable position of experiencing sustained economic
growth, which includes rapidly increasing power demand as a result
of population growth and electrification activities in a number of
areas, including transportation, data centers, manufacturing, and
industrial activities," said Jim
Burke, president and chief executive officer of Vistra.
"Texas policymakers are
implementing several enhancements to our competitive, energy-only
electricity market to incentivize construction of much-needed
dispatchable generation, and gas plants are able to meet that need.
Based on these market enhancements, Vistra is pleased to announce
our investment to bring approximately 2,000 MW of dispatchable
power generation to the ERCOT grid, and we look forward to being
part of the solution as our industry strives to meet the growing
power needs of Texas."
Bolstering Texas Grid Reliability
As Texas continues to develop
its vast wind and solar resources, these quick-start gas units help
to back up the grid when renewable resources are not available and
the battery storage limits have been reached, with the goal of
reliable, affordable, and sustainable 24/7 power for Texans. Vistra
is planning to file on Friday, May
31, a Notice of Intent to apply for the Texas Energy Fund
for these new peakers.
Vistra's Coleto Creek Power Plant
is set to retire in 2027 to comply with EPA rules. Upon retirement,
the company plans to repower the site by using natural gas instead
of coal as the fuel source. This results in lower carbon emissions
while taking advantage of Texas'
abundant gas supply. By utilizing existing infrastructure,
including the existing grid interconnection, Vistra can bring this
project online in a shorter timeframe compared to a new greenfield
location.
Finally, the fastest way to add dispatchable energy to the grid
is by investing in existing power plants to increase their
generation output, without the lag associated with new
construction, permit approval, interconnection agreements, new
transmission, and other hurdles to new plant construction. Vistra
currently operates approximately 11,300 MW of natural gas
power plants across Texas. The
company is upgrading some of these existing facilities to increase
fleet output by more than 500 MW in the summer months. Thanks to
the hard work of the Vistra team, nearly half of this capacity will
come online this summer with the remainder coming by summer
2025.
Market Certainty is Required for Investment
Vistra is announcing its new peaker plants, the repowered
Coleto Creek plant, and the upgrade
projects based on the market reforms that policymakers passed in
the 2023 Texas legislative session and that ERCOT and the Public
Utility Commission of Texas are
currently implementing. With successful implementation, this robust
set of market reforms, focused on grid reliability and proper
market signals, has the potential to offer the regulatory framework
that is needed to provide confidence to make the long-term
investments Vistra is announcing today. These reforms include a
suite of ancillary services, the performance credit mechanism
(PCM), and an effective reliability standard – a first for
Texas.
"Since the market opened to competition, over $100 billion has been invested by a wide range of
investors in a variety of power generation technologies to meet the
growing needs of Texans," said Burke. "The ERCOT market has a
history of attracting generation owners who put their capital at
risk when there are investment signals. We look forward to building
upon our 140-year history of powering Texas."
In addition to ERCOT market design reforms, Vistra's decision to
move forward with these projects is contingent upon other various
factors, including state and federal environmental regulations and
long-term wholesale trends that continue to support gas
generation.
Vistra is the largest generator of electricity in Texas. In addition to its large fleet of
dispatchable generation assets in Texas totaling more than 18,000 MW, the
company also has three large solar farms and two battery energy
storage assets totaling approximately 600 MW. This diversified
fleet of resources helps Vistra ensure reliability for Texans and
Texas businesses.
About Vistra
Vistra (NYSE: VST) is a leading Fortune 500 integrated retail
electricity and power generation company that provides essential
resources to customers, businesses, and communities from
California to Maine. Based in Irving, Texas, Vistra is a leader in the energy
transformation with an unyielding focus on reliability,
affordability, and sustainability. The company safely operates a
reliable, efficient, power generation fleet of natural gas,
nuclear, coal, solar, and battery energy storage facilities while
taking an innovative, customer-centric approach to its retail
business. Learn more at vistracorp.com.
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SOURCE Vistra Corp.