Texas has signed a ninth low-interest loan from the Texas Energy Fund, this time for a natural gas power plant in Reeves County in far West Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday.
The plant, developed by Pecos Power Plant LLC with Mercuria and Continental Resources as co-sponsors, is expected to add more than 450 megawatts to the state's main power grid, run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. The governor's office says that is enough electricity for roughly 110,000 homes, and that the plant should start producing power in 2027.
The announcement did not give the size of the loan.
How the program works
The fund, launched in 2024, offers grants and loans for building and upgrading electric facilities. Its largest piece, run by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, lends to plants that can be turned on when needed, known as dispatchable generation. Under that program, projects must add at least 100 megawatts to the ERCOT grid.
The state offers 20-year loans at a fixed 3% interest rate and can cover no more than 60% of a project's cost, according to the commission. The program is capped at 10,000 megawatts in total.
Before Wednesday, the commission had finalized eight loans worth $3.65 billion for 4,994 megawatts, all of them for natural gas plants. One is in North Texas: a $411 million loan to Rayburn Country Electric Cooperative for a 570-megawatt plant expected in 2028. The commission lists four more applications, totaling 2,233 megawatts, in due-diligence review.
