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Veterans Support Construction of New Texas Solar Farm

November 11, 2021

A new solar power project in Texas has entered commercial operation, with military veterans a major part of the facility’s construction workforce.

The 163-MW Elm Branch solar farm, operating in part under a power contract between L3Harris Technologies and Lightsource bp, featured an apprenticeship program led by McCarthy Building Companies, the project’s EPC contractor, and Adaptive Construction Services (ACS). The program brought in about 50 veterans to directly support construction at the site, or complete their training.

Construction of the solar farm began in January of this year and created about 250 overall construction jobs.

Watch a video about the Elm Branch project and how U.S. military veterans were instrumental in construction of the solar farm in Texas.

“Veterans are a critical part of our company and our country’s workforce,” said Byron Green, Vice President, Global Operations, L3Harris. “This new solar project serves as a model of the benefits that shared goals among several organizations can create to support veterans, communities and the environment.”…

Gas Exploration and Production Company to Buy Gas-Fired Power Plant in Texas

August 16, 2021

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BKV Corp., a privately held natural gas exploration and production company headquartered in Denver, Colorado, said it will purchase the Temple 1 power plant in Temple, Texas. The deal, valued at $ 430 million and subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.

“We’re excited about this acquisition, and the strategic steps we are taking to position BKV as a leading integrated energy company with cleaner, greener energy,” Chris Kalnin, CEO of BKV, said in a statement issued to POWER. “By extending our natural gas business into a power business we are able to deliver to unprecedented grid reliability, while also creating industry leading ESG [environmental, social, and governance] standards because we can directly certify our emissions footprint at each step in the value chain, from underground molecule to burner tip.”

State-of-the-Art Facility

Temple 1 (Figure 1) is a 758-MW combined cycle facility built in 2014.…

Exec Calls for Action on New Texas Gas-Fired Plants

June 16, 2021

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The chief executive of a Connecticut-based energy investment firm has called for action on his group’s proposal to build as many as 11 new natural gas-fired power plants in Texas.

Himanshu Saxena, CEO of Starwood Energy Group, in a June 14 interview said, “We would like to see significant steps in countering, negotiating and material tangible actions on our proposal.”

Saxena’s comments, published by Reuters, came the same day the state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), asked Texans to reduce their electricity use “as much as possible” this week. ERCOT said that power plants accounting for as much as 11 GW of generation capacity were offline due to what it called “forced outages,” at a time when temperatures have soared into the upper 90s in the state. ERCOT in an email to POWER wrote that “forced outages are unscheduled and result from the failure of a power plant to function as designed.”…

$8 Billion Proposals Could Bring New Gas-Fired Plants to Texas

April 28, 2021

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An energy investment group told Texas regulators the company has a plan to help solve some of that state’s electricity reliability issues, proposing a plan similar to one put forth by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy in March.

Starwood Energy Group on April 23 sent the state’s Public Utility Commission a proposal to build 11 natural gas-fired power plants, investing more than $ 8 billion to develop and construct the facilities. Representatives from Berkshire Hathaway Energy last month met with Texas lawmakers and said their group was prepared to spend about $ 8.3 billion to build 10 gas-fired plants across the state.

Starwood, based in Greenwich, Connecticut, in an April 23 letter from CEO Himanshu Saxena to the Texas PUC (PUCT) and the board of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s main grid operator, said it wanted to outline “a compelling proposal to solve ERCOT’s reliability issues as was demonstrated by the energy crisis that occurred in February 2021.”…

Texas PUC Outlines Review of Response to Power Disaster

March 12, 2021

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The regulatory group that oversees Texas’ deregulated power market has identified eight areas the agency will focus on as it continues to study the state’s response to a mid-February storm that left millions of electricity customers without power for several days.

The Public Utility Commission (PUC) of Texas on March 12, as part of an open meeting, listed items including weatherization of generation equipment, and also a study on how to improve the state’s power market, as part of its ongoing research into the causes and effects of the extreme winter weather on Texas’ power transmission and distribution system.

“I am proud of the work PUC staff is doing to shed light on the issues that combined to interrupt power for millions of Texans—we must make sure it never happens again,” said Arthur D’Andrea, the PUC chair who was appointed to the post after former PUC head DeAnn Walker resigned March 1, one of several resignations or firings—including the head of the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s grid operator—of officials in the wake of the February power outages.…

Texas PUC Chair Resigns as Outage Probe Continues

March 2, 2021

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The chairwoman of the Public Utility Commission (PUC) of Texas has resigned, stepping down after the state’s lieutenant governor earlier on March 1 called for her resignation, along with that of the CEO of the state’s power grid operator.

DeAnn Walker, the PUC chair, in her resignation letter Monday to Gov. Greg Abbott, defended her actions and leveled criticisms at others as state lawmakers and energy officials continued to spar over who is to blame for widespread power outages in mid-February that left millions of electricity customers in the dark for days, many without both heat and water.

The PUC regulates the state’s electric, telecommunications, and water and sewer utilities. Walker, whose commission is appointed by Abbott, testified before state lawmakers last week, along with Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) CEO Bill Magness, as the legislature held hearings to address why the state’s power grid could not cope with cold temperatures that brought several days of power outages.…