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Vistra to Install New Gas-Fired Units at Permian Basin Power Plant

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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ERCOT Announces New Grid Research, Innovation and Transformation (GRIT) Initiative

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

Continued Solvency of TVA Questioned in Report

LCG, Nov. 25, 2003--Two accounting professors with experience in utility analysis have completed a study in which they say that the Tennessee Valley Authority, the government-owned utility, will find it difficult to avoid bankruptcy or the need for a federal bailout.

Dr. Paul MacAvoy, a management professor with Yale University, and Dr. Dennis Logue, the dean of the Oklahoma University School of Business, say that the inflated book value of nuclear plant assets is allowing the TVA to state a positive net worth. If those assets were written down to reflect their true economic worth however, or if the TVA should fare poorly after losing its monopoly status, the report concludes, the utility would find it unable to service its $25 billion debt load as its creditworthiness was downgraded.

MacAvoy told the Chattanooga Times/Free Press in an interview that "some of TVA's accounting is like what Enron did before its bankruptcy." MacAvoy and Logue warned correctly that nuclear plant projects begun by the Washington Public Power Supply System, and which were abandoned in the 1980s, pointed the way to a default.

Currently the debt of TVA is graded AAA by Standard & Poor's, and Aaa by Moody's Investors Service, which takes the TVA's government-owned status into account in assigning a high credit rating. Scott Taylor, with Standard & Poor's said that although the utility "is in a highly leveraged position ... it certainly is not in any dire straits." TVA is able to adjust its rates without regulatory approval. Dr. Logue cited a possible increase in interest rates and competition from other utilities as factors that could result in serious harm.
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