Exelon plans to expand natural gas-fired plants
Chicago-based Exelon Corp. began construction this week of major expansions at two natural gas-fired power plants in Texas.
The projects, which are roughly $750 million each, will triple the amount of power production at Exelon’s Colorado Bend Generating Station in Wharton, southwest of Houston, from 498 megawatts to 1,498 megawatts. The second 1,000-megawatt expansion is at the Wolf Hollow Generating Station outside of Fort Worth.
“It’s a clean-burning technology, and you’re able to produce larger amounts of power,” said Dave Sikora, Exelon’s head of engineering and projects. “It’s what the market is driving us to.”
Exelon is using combined-cycle gas turbines made by General Electric that are the first of their kind in the U.S., Sikora said. They rely on water cooling systems that use about 10 percent of the water normal gas turbine plants require, he added.
“It’s more expensive to build it that way, but we’re doing it knowing that water is becoming a more scarce resource,” Sikora said. “The populations are growing. They’re going to need the electricity. It’s really what the market in Texas needs and is demanding.”
The two projects are expected to be done before the summer of 2017, he said.
Exelon, which focuses more on natural gas and nuclear power plants, has generally supported the federal government’s push to curb emissions, which has a greater effect on coalfired plants. It also touts its increasing investments in wind and solar power. Exelon has six gas-fired plants in Texas, including the Wharton plant and its ExTex LaPorte Generating Station.
The 1,000-megawatt expansion, enough to power nearly 750,000 homes, adds to the existing sixunit natural gas power plant in Wharton.