Gas

Calpine to add peaking capacity near existing combined-cycle plant

Calpine said this effort was prompted by Texas regulators’ recent adoption of a policy designed to incentivize new generation.
Calpine to add peaking capacity near existing combined-cycle plant
(Calpine's Freestone Energy Center, a peaker plant in Texas. Photo by Calpine.)

Calpine plans to begin development on a 425 MW natural gas-fired peaker plant next to the Freestone Energy Center in Freestone County, Texas.

Calpine said this effort was warranted by the Texas Public Utility Commission’s recent adoption of a framework for implementing a Performance Credit Mechanism (PCM) designed to incentivize new generation.

Under the PCM, generators would be awarded performance credits based on how much capacity they make available during some as-of-yet-undefined number of hours of electricity scarcity. Load-serving entities—retail electric providers, co-ops, and municipal utilities especially—would be obligated to buy those credits from generators, generally passing costs on to customers.

The Freestone Energy Center is a 794 MW combined-cycle facility located near Fairfield, Texas. The plant consists of four combustion turbines, four heat recovery steam generators and two steam turbine generators, configured in two largely independent power blocks. 

The Freestone Energy Center was first commercially operable in June 2002.

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