News
LCG, September 30, 2025--Vistra Corp. announced yesterday that it will proceed with the next phase of its capital plan to support grid reliability in Texas. In 2024, Vistra identified over $1 billion worth of potential capital additions in generation capacity within the Texas ERCOT market by 2028 if market conditions were supportive. Now, with West Texas' growing power requirements, particularly the state's expanding oil and natural gas industries, Vistra reached a final investment decision and confirms it will build two new advanced natural gas-fired power units on-site at its Permian Basin Power Plant.
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LCG, September 24, 2025--Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc. (ERCOT) yesterday announced its new initiative to increase its efforts to fully use and apply innovation and transformation through industry collaboration to best overcome the challenges and opportunities facing future grid operations. The new Grid Research, Innovation, and Transformation (GRIT) initiative will advance research and prototyping of emerging concepts and solutions to better understand the implications of rapid grid and technology evolution and position ERCOT to lead in the future energy landscape.
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Industry News
EIA Issues Summary of Planned Power Generation Retirements for 2025
LCG, February 25, 2025--The EIA today issued an analysis of planned utility-scale power generation retirements in 2025. Total retirements for the U.S. are estimated to be 12.3 GW, a significant increase relative to 2024, when 7.5 GW of capacity was retired.
In 2025, planned coal-fired electric generation capacity retirements total 8.1 GW, which accounts for two-thirds of planned retirements (66%), followed by natural gas-fired (21%) and petroleum-fired (13%) facilities.
The largest planned coal plant retirement for 2025 is the 1,800-MW Intermountain Power Project (IPP) in Utah, where an 840-MW natural gas (and hydrogen) fueled combined-cycle power block is planned to commence operations this summer. Two other planned large coal plant retirements are J H Campbell (1,331 MW) in Michigan and Brandon Shores (1,273 MW) in Maryland.
Natural gas-fired planned unit retirements in 2025 are primarily simple-cycle turbine units, which have a low efficiency. In addition, old, inefficient steam units, like V H Braunig Units 1, 2, and 3 (859 MW) in Texas and Eddystone Units 3 and 4 (760 MW) in Pennsylvania, are planned for retirement in 2025.
Looking into the future, planned retirements are not necessarily a given. For example, Georgia Power, a Southern Company subsidiary, recently filed its 2025 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC). To maintain reliable and economical electric service, Georgia Power stated it must continue to invest in its foundational resources, which includes continuing the operation of coal-fired Plant Bowen Units 1-4, and extending the operation of approximately 1,100 MW at Plants Scherer (coal-fired) and Gaston (natural gas-fired) beyond the previous target of December 31, 2028 to 2034 or later.
The uncertainty in unit retirements has increased in part due to the election results and the new Administration, which has goals to demonstrate national energy dominance, reduce regulatory hurdles and accelerate growth in the U.S. economy (which would increase the demand for electricity). Furthermore, the new Administration supports the development and production of fossil fuels and may reduce support to renewable power.
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UPLAN-NPM
The Locational Marginal Price Model (LMP) Network Power Model
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UPLAN-ACE
Day Ahead and Real Time Market Simulation
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UPLAN-G
The Gas Procurement and Competitive Analysis System
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PLATO
Database of Plants, Loads, Assets, Transmission...
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