Two more coal-fueled power plants in Texas will be closing resulting in the loss of an estimated 650 jobs. Vistra Energy Corp.based in Dallas made the recent announcement saying its Luminant subsidiary will shut down the coal-fired Big Brown and Sandow plants.
The announcement followed an earlier one in which Luminant said it would also close its Monticello plant. The company cited low wholesale power prices, low natural gas prices and what it called an oversupplied renewable generation market.
Luminant’s move will result in more than 4,000 megawatts of coal power will be taken offline in Texas in early 2018. The Sandow plant is located in Milam county located between Temple and College Station. The Big Brown operation is in Freestone County situated east of Waco and south of Corsicana.
Together, the two plants have a combined generation capacity of 2,300 megawatts of electricity which is enough to power about 460,000 homes.
“It is never easy to announce an action that has a significant impact on our people,” said Curt Morgan, Vistra’s chief executive. “Though the long-term economic viability of these plants has been in question for some time, our year-long analysis indicates this announcement is now necessary.”
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas still must approve the closings.
“These closures are because these two sites are economically challenged and have been for some time given low wholesale market prices,” explained Allan Koenig, a spokesman for Vistra.