Texas A&M System wants to put power plants on its land

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The Texas A&M College System on Wednesday invited builders to submit proposals for constructing a community of gas-fired energy vegetation on university-owned land across the state. Referred to as “peakers,” the vegetation are designed to activate for brief intervals when the state energy grid is strained.

The peakers are designed to function for only some hundred hours out of the yr, based on Doug Lewin, creator of The Texas Vitality and Energy E-newsletter. Lewin mentioned such vegetation will help fill in occasional gaps between rocketing demand for electrical energy and never sufficient provide.

The A&M System recognized roughly 30 websites the place intersecting energy and gasoline traces make the land viable for peaker vegetation. The system would like to construct the vegetation close to its campuses, however the Public Utility Fee of Texas will hammer out the logistics, based on John Sharp, chancellor of the A&M System.

“This may assist guarantee our campuses and their native communities by no means go darkish once more, whereas including energy to assist guarantee all of Texas is protected,” Sharp mentioned in a written assertion.

The development tasks might be eligible for low-interest loans from the Texas Vitality Fund, which the Legislature created throughout final yr’s session and funded with $5 billion to this point. Texas voters permitted the fund in response to the 2021 winter storm that shut down electrical energy and warmth for hundreds of thousands throughout the state and triggered a whole bunch of deaths.

Even with that monetary incentive, Ed Hirs, an power fellow on the College of Houston, expressed pessimism that the loans will likely be sufficient to draw firms into constructing the peakers. Utility firms earn essentially the most cash on the Texas grid when the worth they earn for promoting electrical energy surges together with demand, which is a scenario peakers are designed to assist stop. Hirs mentioned the financial construction discourages firms from including extra provide to the grid.

Joshua Rhodes, a analysis scientist on the College of Texas at Austin, mentioned he believes that firms have gotten extra open to investing in new energy technology as a result of the price of electrical energy has persistently stayed larger in recent times and due to not too long ago handed state monetary incentives.

Lewin and Hirs each mentioned that if firms construct peakers, it’s essential that they’re weatherized so the vegetation can function in freezing situations.

The PUC plans to start accepting mortgage functions for the Texas Vitality Fund on June 1.

Disclosure: Texas A&M College, Texas A&M College System, the College of Texas at Austin and the College of Houston have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full listing of them right here.

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