Status of P.H. Robinson Power Plant as a Peaker in 2006 Up in the Air

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). NRG Energy, Incorporated (NYSE:NRG) (Princeton, New Jersey) once again faces the question as to if it is going to prepare any of the units at the P.H. Robinson Power Station for operational readiness? The P.H. Robinson plant, located in Bacliff, Texas, is a 2,319-megawatt (MW) natural gas peaking station, and has been idle since late 2003, except for a short run in 2005. As of yet, there have not been any indications from the Energy Regulatory Commission of Texas (ERCOT) that it would require P.H. Robinson this year.

In early May 2005, ERCOT contacted officials at Texas Genco (former owner), and informed them that they would need P.H. Robinson‘s Unit 02, a 485 MW natural gas unit, to be operationally ready by June 15, 2005, as part of the Reliability Must Run (RMR) contract it had with ERCOT. The unit underwent a turbine inspection, valve work, and extensive boiler work on the 39-year-old unit, which was first shuttered in October 2003. On June 15, 2005, the unit was operationally ready and available, and it ran for 360 hours over a 90-day period, and then was once again shuttered in September 2005. P.H. Robinson is under the operational control and responsibility of NRG officials at the Cedar Bayou power station.

In early 2006, the P.H. Robinson plant, along with the rest of the Texas-based fleet owned by Texas Genco, LLC, was purchased by NRG Energy, Incorporated for approximately $5.8 billion. This expanded NRG’s domestic portfolio of power generation to approximately 26,158 megawatts of generating capacity.

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