Ercot

Power generation company Calpine Corp. plans to develop more natural gas-fired plants in Texas after the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) delivered a plan to incentivize, not control, private investment, according to the firm. Houston-based Calpine disclosed it intends to move forward with the construction of a 425 MW gas-fired plant near the existing…

A series of bills aiming to shore up the Texas power grid with backup dispatchable power is progressing through the state Senate, though some legislators fear the size and scope of the proposed rules ultimately will not address the reliability issues.  State Republican Sens. Phil King (District 10) and Charles Schwertner (District 5) introduced a…

Winter volatility saw Western natural gas forward hubs post huge gains during the Dec. 15-21 trading period, while expectations for a very mild start to 2023 drove deep discounts elsewhere in the Lower 48, NGI’s Forward Look data show. With intense Arctic cold diving from the Northwest into the heart of the Lower 48, spot…

Natural gas futures exploded early Monday as weather models shifted colder with a double whammy of bitter wintry weather expected to sweep across the Lower 48 later this month. While subsequent model runs sapped quite a bit of momentum, the January Nymex gas futures contract still settled 34.2 cents higher at $6.587/MMBtu. February futures jumped…

Following “aggressive grid management planning,” the Texas electrical grid is prepared to meet the winter 2022-2023 forecast peak demand of nearly 67.4 GW, the Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said. ERCOT late last month released its Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy (SARA) report, in which it detailed the 87.3 GW of resources that are…

The electric grid operator for most of Texas expects to have sufficient resources in place to meet what it expects to be record power demand this summer. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said summer loads would likely reach 77,317 MW, which would be a new system-wide peak demand record for the region. The…

Extreme weather events, supply shortages, post-Covid-19 demand growth and technical failures gave rise to roughly 4% of the world’s population, roughly 350 million people, experiencing major power outages in 2021, according to IHS Markit researchers. IHS Markit analyst Rama Zakariasaid some of the largest outages occurred in regions with a relatively reliable supply of energy,…

Days ahead of a deep freeze forecast to plunge into Texas, a final report filed Tuesday by the state’s electric grid operator with the Public Utility Commission (PUC) said nearly all of the electric generating units and transmission facilities that were required to winterize have done so. “The Texas electric grid is more prepared for…

The Texas power grid is “winterized and ready to provide power,” the state’s grid operator said Thursday ahead of the state’s first expected freeze. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said it completed on-site inspections of mandatory winterization efforts, with results showing the independently owned electric generation fleet and electric transmission companies that serve…