U.S. Natural Gas-Fired Plants Prep for 150+ Maintenance Projects as Prices Spike

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Often called a "bridge" fuel between once-dominant, now-declining coal and ascendant renewable generation, natural gas actually benefits from the trends driving the former down and the latter up: U.S. natural gas consumption has skyrocketed as it replaces closing coal-fired power plants and serves as a backup for new renewable capacity. But natural gas production in the U.S. is struggling to keep up with demand, sending commodity prices to multi-year highs and underscoring the need for gas-fired power generators to keep their existing equipment in the best possible shape. Industrial Info is tracking more than 150 maintenance-related projects at U.S. gas-fired power plants set to begin before the end of the year.

The pandemic-induced whiplash of last year's flat production and this year's dramatic jump in demand (following the lifting of lockdown measures), along with record-high exports, sent U.S. Henry Hub prices soaring to more than $4 per metric million British thermal unit (MMBtu) this summer. Last year, COVID-19 took natural gas prices to their lowest point in three decades, causing U.S. production to drop 1.9%.

Click on the image at right for a heat map of maintenance-related projects at U.S. gas-fired power plants set to begin before the end of 2021, from Industrial Info's Geolocator tool.

The pandemic-driven drop put the brakes on a long-running trend: Marketed production of natural gas grew 76% in the U.S. between 2009 and 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), with Texas, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma accounting for 53% of the nation's natural gas production in 2019. Indeed, Texas accounts for 20 maintenance-related projects at gas-fired plants that are set to kick off before the end of 2021, more than any other state. Three of those maintenance projects are from Calpine Corporation (Houston, Texas), involving the 519-megawatt (MW) Block 1 at Freestone Energy Center in Fairfield; the 499-MW Block 1 at Hidalgo Energy Center in Edinburg; and the 371-MW Unit 4 at Guadalupe Generating Station in New Braunfels. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project Database can read detailed reports on Calpine's Freestone, Hidalgo and Guadalupe projects.

Another company with multiple maintenance projects in the Lone Star State is TexGen LLC (Houston), which is preparing for outages on the 289-MW blocks 1 and 2 at the Colorado Bend Energy Center in Wharton and the 1,656-MW unit block at the Wolf Hollow Power Station in Granbury. Subscribers can read detailed reports on TexGen's Colorado Bend and Wolf Hollow maintenance projects.

Pennsylvania, which sits atop the Marcellus and Utica shale plays, has become a major natural gas supplier to states in the U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions--including Virginia, which is home to some of the highest-valued maintenance projects at U.S. gas-fired plants. Panda Power Funds' (Dallas, Texas) 750-MW maintenance of its Unit 1 at the Panda Stonewall Energy Center in Leesburg is valued at about $13 million, while LS Power Group's (New York, New York) 371-MW Unit 2 maintenance project at the Doswell Energy Center in Ashland is valued at about $8 million. Subscribers can read more in Industrial Info's reports on the Panda Stonewall and Doswell maintenance projects.

Pennsylvania's own gas-fired maintenance projects include Caithness Energy LLC's (New York, New York) 514-MW Unit 1 at its Moxie Freedom Energy facility in Berwick, and Invenergy LLC's (Chicago, Illinois) 495-MW Block 2 at its Lackawanna Energy Center in Jessup. Subscribers can read detailed reports on the Moxie Freedom and Lackawanna projects.

The Marcellus and Utica shale plays accounted for 34% of all U.S. dry natural gas production in the first half of 2021, according to the EIA. Both plays are located in the Appalachian Basin, which by itself would rank as the third-largest natural gas producer in the world during the first half of 2021, behind Russia and the rest of the U.S., according to the EIA.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI database can click here for a full list of maintenance-related projects at U.S. gas-fired power plants set to begin before the end of 2021.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn.