A study done by Electric Power Engineers Consulting and released by the Texas environmental group Public Citizen allays the biggest fear of moving quickly away from pollution-spewing coal fired power plants, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Public Citizen Director Tom Smith says the story shows that if all of the state's coal fired power plants are removed from service by 2021, which environmental groups are pushing for, it would not lead to black outs or a shortage of electricity to power the state's energy grid.
"If these big coal plants do retire, it is not going to be very much of the energy that we relay upon," Smith told 1200 WOAI news. "There are significant additional resources ready and operating, or projected, that will come in and fill the hole."
Smith says the state's handful of remaining coal fired power plants, in addition to being serious polluters, are 'too old, inefficient and dirty' to generate a profit and can no longer operate without losing money in the current energy market.'
He says the Electric Reliability Council of Texas is actually paying some utilities subsidies to continue operating the coal plants, out fear that shutting them down could lead to blackouts, under a program called 'Reliability Must Run.
'"We looked at seven , and six of the seven were not financially viable, even with or without scrubbers being added on to that."
Despite Texas' reputation as a fossil fuel heavy state, Texas, and San Antonio's CPS Energy, have been leaders in development and deployment of alternative fuels, and Smith says far cleaner burning natural gas has stepped up and brought large power generating facilities on line.
"People's lights will stay on even with the retirement of coal fired power plants in Texas,' Smith said. "We can move forward knowing power reliability in the absence of coal plants was not only anticipated but welcomed.
WOAI PHOTO