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
Austin Energy Adds 500-MW of Wind Power to Its Portfolio
LCG, May 19, 2015-Austin Energy recently announced that it has added two commercial wind plants to its portfolio late last month. The addition of the Los Vientos III and Jumbo Road wind farms add approximately 500 MW of generating capacity, increasing Austin Energy's wind portfolio to 1,340 MW of installed wind energy capacity. Austin Energy's wind power will now account for approximately ten percent of the installed wind capacity in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) system.
"We are now able to add more renewable wind power because of the strength of the state's utility grid," said the General Manager of Austin Energy. "With successes like this, Austin Energy will be able to surpass its 2020 goal of 35 percent renewable energy production, and propel us toward the goal of 55 percent renewable energy power supply to our customers."
The city-owned utility contracts with private, for-profit companies that can utilize federal tax subsidies to construct and operate wind power plants. Austin Energy then purchases the electricity generated by the wind farms, which it sells into the statewide electric market.
On April 22, the Jumbo Road wind farm, located in the Texas Panhandle, began commercial operation. The 300-MW facility, which includes 162 wind turbines, is owned and operated by TX Jumbo Road Wind, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of BHE Renewables. Austin Energy will purchase all of the power from the Jumbo Road wind farm under an 18-year, power purchase agreement (PPA).
The Los Vientos III project, owned and operated by Los Vientos Windpower III, LLC, a subsidiary of Duke Energy Renewables, began commercial operation on April 24. The 200-MW project includes 100 wind turbines and is located approximately 100 miles west of Brownsville in Starr County. Austin Energy will purchase all of the power from Los Vientos III under a 25-year PPA.
In the future, Austin Energy also will purchase the output of the 200-MW Los Vientos IV wind farm, which is under construction in Starr County. The expected completion date for the project is in 2016.
Vestas supplied 100 V110-2.0 MW turbines for Los Vientos III and will service the project under a three-year operations and maintenance agreement. Vestas will also provide turbines for Los Vientos IV and V.
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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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