TotalEnergies SE, which has a bevy of U.S. energy assets, has agreed to pay $635 million to buy three natural gas-fired power plants in Texas to ensure customers have firm power and to bolster integrated power purchase agreements (PPA).
The deal with TexGen Power LLC includes two facilities that serve the Houston area and one that serves the Dallas region. Combined joint capacity is 1.5 GW, and each facility is connected to the state’s grid through the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).
“After the signing of several corporate PPA over the last couple of years and the recent start-up of the utility-scale Myrtle solar plant, this deal is a major milestone for our integrated power strategy in the ERCOT market,” said TotalEnergies’ Stephane Michel, president of Gas Renewables & Power.
Myrtle ramped up in October south of Houston with 380 MW of peak solar production and 225 MWh of co-located batteries.
TotalEnergies bought the Wolf Hollow I, a 745 MW combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant near Dallas. Also in the queue is Colorado Bend I south of Houston, a 530 MW CCGT facility with a 74 MW open-cycle gas turbine (OCGT). The third, the La Porte facility southeast of Houston, has a 150 MW OCGT.
“These plants will enable us to complement our renewable assets, intermittent by nature,” Michel said. They also would “provide our customers with firm power and take advantage of the volatility of electricity prices.”
The flexible assets are designed to help offset “the intermittency of renewable power production,” TotalEnergies officials noted. “Their importance was recently highlighted during weather events that impacted power generation from renewable assets in Texas or led to high seasonal peak demand.”
In Texas to date, TotalEnergies has installed 2 GW gross of renewable generation. It also has 2 GW of renewable generation under construction and more than 3 GW under development in the state.
In the third quarter results, the Paris-based major said the global renewables portfolio helped to increase overall net power production to 8.9 TWh, which was 7% higher sequentially.
Worldwide oil and natural gas production was nearly 2.5 million boe/d in the third quarter, 5% higher year/year. Most of the company’s exploration and development activities are centered in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. However, TotalEnergies has a stable of fossil fuel and alternative energy developments across North and South America.
TotalEnergies noted that it also is the No. 1 U.S. exporter of liquefied natural gas, which it said is “a critical partner for intermittent renewable energies.”
