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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

Western Resources, PNM Break Off Merger Talks

LCG, Aug. 14, 2001--Public Service Co. of New Mexico announced that talks with Western Resources Inc. on their proposed $4.4 billion agreement have broken off, but added that the deal isn't dead and the companies will try to resolve their differences.

PNM said in a news release yesterday that the two companies "are in disagreement about the future of the transaction" but Jeff Sterba, the company's chief executive, said "PNM remains committed to the strategic benefits of bringing the two companies' electric operations together."

Western Resources issued a statement saying that PNM's "characterization" that the Kansas company had broken off the talks was wrong. "We have continually expressed our willingness to work with PNM and believe the current transaction can be completed without significant modification of the economic terms," said David Wittig, Western's chief executive.

Recent rulings by the Kansas Corporation Commission appear to be the fly in the ointment. In one ruling last month, the commission blocked Western's restructuring plan, which would have split its regulated electric utilities off from its unregulated business. Western says the restructuring is an essential part of the merger. In another ruling, the regulators denied a $151 million rate increase for the regulated utilities.

Sterba agreed that the rulings were at the heart of the problem. "We continue to believe that the merger agreement with Western, as currently structured, cannot be consummated if the KCC orders stand and the KCC's expressed concerns are not addressed by Western," he said.

Western's two utilities, Kansas Power & Light Co. and Kansas Gas & Electric Co., serve 636,000 customers in the Sunflower State. Together, they are the state's largest electric company.

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