The growing availability of cheap energy is about to cost around 70 Grimes County workers their jobs as the 30-year-old, coal-fired Gibbons Creek Power Plant reduces its operation to summer-only.
Plant Manager Gary Miller says the same cost considerations caused the plant to be put up for sale last fall, but after considerable negotiations with the entity that was going to purchase it, that’s no longer a possibility and that’s just not gonna happen.
So, Miller tells Navasota News, the Texas Municipal Power Agency notified the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas of its intention to reduce Gibbons Creek’s operations at the end of September, and then not bring it back online until next June.
But Miller admits ERCOT has the power to adjust that schedule as it sees fit, and if it determines that Gibbons Creek is needed for reliability purposes of the electrical grid, they could order us to keep it open year-round.
Miller says ERCOT now has 60 days to make any adjustments to TMPA’s schedule, so about the time we’re expecting the Gibbons Creek plant to shut down, we could possibly learn they’re gonna have to leave it open.
Watch this space.
