https://www.utilitydive.com/news/reserve-margins-tighten-in-ercot-as-plant-retirements-loom/513385/....More generation is planned in the Lone Star state to help to pad the reserve margin in coming years. Even so, a spike in power plant retirements has shrunk the safety net for electricity consumers for the short term....
..."Planning reserve margins fluctuate over time," ERCOT CEO Bill Magness commented on the latest assessment. "We see these types of shifts as the ERCOT market experiences cycles of new investments, retirement of aging resources, and growing demand for power."
The grid operator expects a 7,200 MW decrease in overall generation capacity for summer 2018, which it says is primarily due to recently announced retirements, project delays beyond the summer 2018 peak demand period and other factors. The new report also includes almost 3,800 MW in new generation resources that began operating this year.
More than 14,000 MW of resources that meet the criteria to be included in the CDR are planned to be in service by 2020. ERCOT expects system-wide peak demand to grow by an average of about 1.7% annually over the next 10 years. The operator forecast peak demand for 2018 is just under 73,000 MW, a 1,175 MW decrease since the May report, likely spurred by a suite of retirement announcements. ...
