1,200-megawatt power plant planned for outside Austin

“This project and others like it is exactly what we need to continue powering the nation’s leading economy.”

Pablo Vegas, ERCOT CEO and president

Sandow Lakes Energy Company will construct a 1,200-megawatt gas-fueled power plant to operate within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, eventually powering as many as 800,000 Texas homes.

The company announced it would construct the plant on the Sandow Lakes property, which stretches between Milam and Lee counties outside Austin, with construction beginning next year and powering homes by 2028. Sandow Lakes has an agreement with Siemens Energy for two gas turbines, which the companies are calling “ultra-efficient.”

“As Texas continues to grow, increasing the capacity and reliability of our power grid is critical,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement.

The site is formerly a 1950s industrial coal plant with 1,200 megawatts of coal-based power generation. In 2018, Sandow owner Luminant, which is based in Dallas, closed the plant and two others in Texas because they weren’t profitable thanks to cheap natural gas and plentiful wind energy.

“We are pleased to see developers bringing more dispatchable capacity to the Texas market,” said Pablo Vegas, ERCOT CEO and president. “This project and others like it is exactly what we need to continue powering the nation’s leading economy.”

Meanwhile, state regulators have been working with Pattern Energy, a private company, to create the “Southern Spirit Transmission.” The partnership could create a 400-mile transmission line from the Texas/Louisiana border, through Louisiana and into Mississippi to connect with grids in the southeastern part of the country. Garland Power & Light is also a part of the plan because the lines would connect to Texas in a partnership with Garland. The utility would operate a substation on the Texas border and 30 miles of transmission lines leading to it.

Recently, Texas’ grid has been running up against capacity issues during extreme hot and cold weather events. ERCOT occasionally calls for conservation based on power demand.

Texas’ total generation capacity is about 84,000 megawatts, with more than half of that coming from natural gas, according to ERCOT and the Texas Comptroller’s Office. But that capacity is being pushed by the state’s growing population, which added about 470,000 people between 2021 and 2022 and surpassed 30 million people.

Texas power demand peaked at 85,435 megawatts on Aug. 10, 2023, when temperatures climbed to 107 degrees in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Sandow Lakes Energy Company was incorporated in Delaware in November.