The City of Garland, Texas, last week told ERCOT it wants to mothball a 454-MW power plant for all but the summer.
The city’s municipal utility, Garland Power & Light, said it wants to run Gibbons Creek Generating Station only from June 1 to Sept. 30 each year, according to a notification of suspension of operations (NSO) filed Wednesday. The suspension would be effective Oct. 17.
Although Garland is a Dallas suburb, the 34-year-old coal-fired unit is located northwest of Houston. The plant is operated by the Texas Municipal Power Agency.
ERCOT stakeholders have until Aug. 2 to file any comments on the NSO as part of the standard reliability-must-run review.
The ISO also said on Thursday that it has determined a Union Carbide 40-MW gas-fired generator on the Texas Gulf Coast is no longer needed for transmission reliability needs and can be retired, effective Sept. 29. Union Carbide filed its NSO in June.
The cogeneration unit went into service in 2000. As a private-use network unit, it is connected to the ERCOT grid, but the load is netted with internal generation and not directly metered by the Texas grid operator.
— Tom Kleckner
