News CPS Energy to retire aging gas units in 2025 San Antonio’s municipal utility says the three natural gas-fired units at the Braunig plant are “nearing their operational end of life.” Kevin Clark 3.20.2024 Share (The Braunig natural gas-fired units. Photo source: CPS Energy.) CPS Energy has informed ERCOT it plans to retire the three natural gas-fired units at the V.H. Braunig facility by March 31, 2025. The Braunig units, located in Bexar County, Texas, total 859 MW of capacity. Units 1, 2 and 3 came online in 1966, 1968 and 1970, respectively. “The retirement of the Braunig units is part of our Board approved generation plan,” said a CPS Energy spokesperson in a statement. “These power plants are nearing their operational end of life and we took official steps to notify ERCOT of our intent to retire these units in 2025.” ERCOT will now conduct grid reliability studies to determine whether they will approve the retirement of these units. CPS Energy said it would continue to have collaborative discussions with ERCOT during the review process. Electric reliability and resource adequacy concerns in Texas have dominated headlines over the last few years as the state has faced significant demand growth and high-profile weather events. CPS Energy did not answer questions about how it plans to replace the capacity from Braunig’s retirement. But according to its generation portfolio plan, the utility plans to add a mix of gas, solar wind and energy storage resources. Exponential community growth is expected to require an additional 115 MW of capacity per year, officials have said. CPS Energy, which is San Antonio’s municipal utility, plans to retire 2,249 MW of dispatchable generation capacity by 2030. Outside of Braunig, the utility plans to retire two units at the Sommers natural gas-fired plant. The 420 MW Sommers 1 came online in 1972 and would be retired in March 2027. The 410 MW Sommers 2 came online in 1974 and would be retired in March 2029.c CPS Energy said like at Braunig, the Sommers units are “reaching their end of design life,” according to utility filings from 2021. The utility also plans to retire one unit at its Spruce coal-fired plant in 2028 and convert the other unit to natural gas by 2027 The generation portfolio plan was approved by the CPS Energy Board of Trustees in January 2023. Related Articles Dominion Energy approved to extend North Anna Power Station operations for 20 more years Alabama Power gets green light to cut payments to third-party energy producers Study suggests a big role for grid battery storage as Illinois shutters its coal power plants Geothermal east of the Rockies? Meta and Sage team up to feed data centers
