Vistra CEO Jim Burke said Wednesday that Luminant’s generating fleet has performed well amid Texas’ ongoing heat wave, which has led to multiple demand records this summer.

“The units are running hard. There’s no end in sight for this heat that we’re in,” Burke told analysts during the company’s quarterly conference call. “The team is doing a terrific job keeping these units online, and I would say overall, the ERCOT grid and the operators have done a nice job keeping the grid supplied. It’s a daily focus for us.”

The Texas grid operator set three new highs for average hourly demand this week, breaking 84 GW and 85 GW for the first time Thursday. ERCOT’s new mark of 85.44 GW broke previous records set Monday and Wednesday at 83.85 GW and 83.96 GW, respectively. The new demand peak is unofficial until settlements are made.

ERCOT staff projected demand to peak at 82.74 GW in its final summer resource adequacy assessment. Demand has met or exceeded that projection 46 times this summer, 14 times since Thursday. The ISO still is operating under a weather watch, its fourth of the year, that has been extended twice through Friday because of the higher temperatures and demand and a potential for lower reserves. Grid conditions are expected to be normal and ERCOT is not calling for conservation.

Burke said that while the Texas grid’s ’s newest ancillary service, ERCOT contingency reserve service, has helped maintain a plump cushion of reserves and avoided emergency conditions, “it does not solve the broader problem that we entered the [2023 legislative] session trying to solve.”

He said although lawmakers’ objective was to retain and incent new thermal generation, “we ended up with a menu of things.”

“Frankly, it’s a ton of work for the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT to work through this. They’re going to have their plate more than full,” Burke said. “There’s a lot still to figure out, and we’ll obviously be active and work with stakeholders involved to try to bring clarity to it.”

The Irving, Texas-based company completed a 350-MW expansion of its Moss Landing energy storage facility in California during the quarter, increasing its capacity to 750 MW and, according to Vistra, making it the largest battery storage resource in the world. It also said it’s making progress on its announced acquisition of Energy Harbor.

Vistra reported $1.01 billion in ongoing operations adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), an improvement over the $756 million realized during the same period a year ago. It said the increase was driven primarily by higher energy margins through its hedging strategy, backing down generation when prices were below unit costs, and strong performance in its retail segment, partly offset by less favorable weather.

The company uses adjusted EBITDA as a performance measure because, it says, outside analysis of its business is improved by visibility into both net income prepared in accordance with GAAP and adjusted EBITDA.

Vistra’s share price closed at $30.69 Thursday, up $1.87 from Tuesday’s close.

OGE Energy Retiring, Replacing 2 Gas Units

OGE Energy also released its quarterly financial results Wednesday. Oklahoma Gas & Electric’s parent company reporting earnings of $88 million ($0.44/diluted share), up from last year’s same period of $73 million ($0.36/diluted share).

The company said it has requested approval from Oklahoma and Arkansas regulators to retire and replace two aging gas-fired steam turbines at its Horseshoe Lake power plant in eastern Oklahoma with two newer gas combustion units. The proposed $331 million project would replace the two units that also can burn fuel oil with 450 MW of more efficient generation.

The two retiring units have a combined capacity of 383 MW. They have been in service since 1958 and 1963.

“These units are a great first step in meeting the future generation capacity needs of our company,” CEO Sean Trauschke told financial analysts.

OGE said it has submitted four funding applications to the Department of Energy under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to help pay for the project.

OGE’s share price closed at $34.46 Thursday, up 18 cents from its close Tuesday.