[Razzz42]

Thanks for that, somehow the facts always get in the way of an agenda.

[af_vet_rr]

Thanks for that, somehow the facts always get in the way of an agenda.

It would not surprise me one bit if there was a solid business/technical reason for Austin Energy to end the co-ownership of their single coal burning plant and the politicians decided to spin it as getting out of coal for environmental reasons instead. They are some slick politicians. It's located near La Grange and if I recall, is around 35 years old or so, and co-owned with LCRA. LCRA has been selling off some of its properties.

They have 3-4 natural gas power plants within the proper Austin area they own, plus the coal power plant they co-own that they are trying to get out of, plus they are a 16% partner in the South Texas nuclear plant near Bay City.

A few years ago, they said they would be short 500-600MW by the time we reach 2020. There is no way they can shut down that coal plant and not only make up that amount but pick up the 600MW or so needed due to population growth without at least one new plant. They'll have to do something, because I'd hazard a guess and say that if they can't keep the air conditioning running in the summers for most folks and businesses, the politicians will quickly find their way into the unemployment line. You can mess with a lot of things in Texas, but air conditioning isn't one of them.

I think they need to add natural gas turbines. That seems to be the best tradeoff - natural gas turbines are more flexible than coal/nuclear, they can be spun up and down quicker based on load, and we've got a good natural gas system already in place.

Nobody is interested in working out how to get a lot more of the electricity out of West Texas' wind turbines and back east where it's needed, at least at a decent price, and nobody is interested in any large scale projects to store excess energy.

Rather than waste all their time on electrical cars and batteries, maybe they need to be figuring out a way to store excess energy, since the Texas' grid has to always be running and generates a lot of excess energy at times.