What you need to know
According to the news release, Entergy officials have seen an increase in energy usage that will require major upgrades to keep up with demand across its Texas service area, which includes Montgomery and Liberty counties as well as a small portion of Harris County.
"This anticipated surge in energy consumption requires the Southeast Texas power grid to have an additional 1,600 [megawatts] of generation capacity by 2028, which is approximately 40% of Entergy Texas’ current generation capacity," Entergy officials said in a news release.
Entergy submitted its Southeast Texas Energy Plan to the Public Utility Commission of Texas for approval to take a number of initiatives to increase energy production, which includes:
- Constructing new power plants near existing generation facilities
- Building new natural gas power plants
- Increasing renewable energy generation
- Replacing old transmission lines
Quote of note
"Over the last three years, Entergy Texas reached commercial operation on a state-of-the-art 993 MW natural gas plant, contracted a 150 MW solar facility and started construction on a highly advanced 1,215 MW natural gas plant, but that’s still not enough to support the extraordinary growth we’re seeing in Southeast Texas,” said Eliecer Viamontes, president and CEO of Entergy Texas.
What's next?
The STEP plan will go before the PUCT in June, with additional requests to improve power generation in the following month, according to the news release.
Editor's note: This story was updated to include Jessica Shorten as the author.
