Utility Entergy Texas Inc. is forecasting the need to add 40% more generation capacity to its fleet to meet economic and population growth in southeast Texas.
The company filed an application with the Public Utilities Commission of Texas (PUCT) for two natural gas-fired power plants to be named Legend and Lone Star.
"The Legend and Lone Star plants will address the critical need to increase power generation capacity, support increased economic activity throughout the region and pave the way for the creation of sustainable energy solutions that will benefit Southeast Texas for decades to come," said CEO Eliecer Viamontes. "These future projects are expected to save customers approximately $370 million over the life of the plants."
The plans follow approval last November by Texas voters of a ballot measure to create the Texas Energy Fund (TEF). The fund provides low-interest loans to build additional gas-fired capacity within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).
In all, PUCT said about 56 GW of natural gas power projects have been proposed under the TEF, well over the fund’s goal of adding 10 GW by 2029. Deadlines for applications for the fund were last week.
Vistra Corp., which provides services nationwide to commercial, industrial, municipal and residential customers, recently unveiled plans to add up to 2 GW of natural gas-fueled capacity across Texas to serve “rapidly increasing power demand,” CEO Jim Burke said.
Meanwhile, NRG Energy Inc. said it had submitted the first of three TEF loan applications to develop 1.6 GW of quick-start natural gas power generation in ERCOT.
LNG Support
Entergy’s $1.46 billion, 754 MW Legend plant would be a combined-cycle facility in Port Arthur, southeast of Houston. The project would be able to use carbon capture and storage. It also would feature a hydrogen-capable combustion turbine.
The $753 million, 453 MW Lone Star project would be similarly designed as a combustion turbine facility near Cleveland in East Texas. It also would include a hydrogen-capable combustion turbine.
"As Texas continues to grow, so will our need for more dispatchable and reliable energy to help businesses in Southeast Texas and across our great state thrive," said Gov. Greg Abbott. "The two new Entergy plants will contribute to strengthening the electricity grid, adding more than 1,000 megawatts of generation capacity in four years.”
The utility expects PUCT approval in the coming months.
The two projects would also support projects such as Sempra Infrastructure's Port Arthur LNG, said Sempra Infrastructure CEO Justin Bird.
The Port Arthur liquefied natural gas export project “has the potential to be one of the world's most significant energy export projects, bringing U.S. energy to global markets and supporting job creation, economic prosperity and well being here at home,” Bird said. “It all starts with a resilient and sustainable electric grid.”
Bird said the state was being proactive in expanding gas supply “through additional power generation, and especially through the eventual utilization of low-carbon solutions, including with carbon capture, hydrogen generation, and renewable energy."
Entergy Texas has devised a six-step strategic plan to add an additional 1,600 MW of generation capacity to the power grid by 2028, as well as transmission and grid reinforcement projects to help Southeast Texas withstand extreme weather.
Entergy Texas supplies electricity to 512,000 customers in 27 counties. The company is a subsidiary of Entergy Corp., which powers 3 million customers through its operating companies in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
