Story by Sara DiNatale, Staff writer
The state grid operator is finding no industry interest in providing alternatives to relocating a fleet of portable generators to San Antonio so it can allow some of CPS Energy’s aging gas-powered plants to shut down this year as planned.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas set a Dec. 30 deadline for market participants to submit questions ahead of making pitches to provide alternative power sources. None were filed. Typically, companies planning to submit a bid seek information before the final deadline, which is in mid-January.
ERCOT opened the bid process after back-and-forth with CenterPoint Energy and CPS over use of the Houston utility’s portable generators. The grid operator’s aim was to determine whether more cost effective options might be available.
An earlier request for proposals also failed to draw interest but the industry then was being asked up to come up with a plan that could rival the costs of keeping the city-owned utility’s Braunig Power Station units running for two more years.
Whatever plan ERCOT’s board approves will be paid for by customers of utilities across the state because the generation is needed to ensure the statewide grid’s stability. Chad Seely, ERCOT’s general counsel, told commissioners last month the grid operator was still assessing how much it would cost to use the CenterPoint generators in San Antonio.
Already, ERCOT’s board has approved keeping the largest of the three Braunig units open past its planned March retirement — and customers across the state are paying the tab for that, too.
CenterPoint’s generators — while technically mobile and acquired for use in emergencies — are not easy to set up. That’s made them the target of criticism since Hurricane Beryl tore through Houston in July, causing widespread power outages. Because the units can’t be quickly deployed, they sat idle while Houstonians sat for days without power. State regulators have been eager to put them to use — and recently passed new regulations to prevent another utility from leasing such units without oversight.
The issue arose when CPS, which has more than enough generating capacity to serve its own market, proposed shutting down the Braunig units this spring. But ERCOT was leery of the utility’s plan because the plant’s location reduces stress on a transmission chokepoint that last year was blamed for taking the statewide grid closer to cascading outages than it had been since 2021.
The troublesome circuit is key to moving power from South Texas, where juice from wind farms and battery installations is plentiful, to North Texas, where generation has not kept pace with increasing demand. Without the Braunig units, which is north of the chokepoint, more power from South Texas would have to be pushed through the troublesome circuit, increasing the potential for overloads that ERCOT would have to manage through rolling blackouts.
While CPS is working to build new transmission lines to ease the problem, the CenterPoint generators could be used to help manage the transmission issues until that work is done in the next few years. The generators could be strategically located around San Antonio to reduce grid overcrowding, ERCOT said, and switched on quickly when needed.
Each of the 15 generators produce enough electricity to power 30,000 homes. They are also able to be operating more rapidly than the old Braunig units.
If the generators are moved to San Antonio, CenterPoint would receive no revenue or profit from ERCOT for their use. But it would reduce the utility’s costs for the units that have been passed on to its customers. That would reduce their bills starting this spring.
ERCOT’s final deadline for alternative proposals is Jan. 15, but those who intend to apply must notify the grid operator by Jan. 10.
