Power Plant Lakes Still in Operation 2020

Can anyone send me to or give me a summary on which Texas power plant cooling lakes are still in operation - generating warm water in cold weather, please? I guess "clean" coal isn't coming back? All I care about is fishing somewhere (within range) when it's too cold everywhere else!

These are the ones in the Luminant system. There are only 2 that I think generate nearly all time. the rest are as needed.
1. Comanche Peak nuclear
2. Martin Lake coal
3. Graham gas
4. Hubbard gas
5. Striker gas
There are a couple more but they don't have public lakes. Oak Grove and Trinidad
A couple more in the DFW area that are not Luminant so I don't know if they run any more are
Handley Plant on Lake Arlington, Mountain Creek on Mountain Creek Lake and Lake Lavon(I think they still have a plant)

Since I don't know where you are, check these out:

Fayette County Lake - appears to run 24/7/365.
Lake Bastrop - runs sometimes.
Brandy Branch Reservoir - I know it runs sometimes.
Coleto Creek Reservoir - appears to run 24/7/365.
Arlington - as far as I know, running.
Doesn't Braunig and Calveras still run?

Dead:
Monticello
Gibbons Creek
Fairfield
Isn't Decker dead also?

I am sure others will chime in.

Im in Denton, but drive hundreds of miles regularly for fish.

Squaw...

Calaveras Lake plant (San Antonio) is still in operation!

Martin Creek runs 24/7 . Crappie fished there last Saturday and the bass wore me out.

Fayette doesn't seem to be running

Why do you think Fayette is not running?

from every report I've read over the past month of 65 degree water, even at the discharge.

63º to 65º seems to be the temp of all the power plant lakes in south Texas.

Coleto Creek Reservoir - does not operate 24/7. but I can't figure out its schedule. Fished many days on this lake and they were not releasing water into the lake.

Fayette is a good bet they are releasing hot water into the lake. But last year I seemed to hit 3 of the days they were not.

Unfortunately Austin owns part of the Fayette plant and we all know how liberal Austin is. There's a plan to shut it down by 2022 and it seems they're pushing to do that early.

That's a new one to me, do you have a link to that story?

https://www.austinmonitor.com/stori...-reveals-no-news-inspires-working-group/

Just one of several stories...it seems to all be related to Obama era rules on coal....unfortunately we may see the loss of some power plants in Texas as a result. Liberal environmentalists funding studies doesn't give me a lot of hope towards these plants.

Well, I guess what will be will be. What I don't understand, is why aren't coal plants being converted to natural gas since we have so much that it is being flared because the price is so low. Looks like a win, win, win to me. Low emissions, a market for producers, and low cost power for the consumer.

Bills you can build a new natural gas plant cheaper and more efficient than trying to change a coal plant over to gas.
There are so many things that don't transfer from one source to another it's unbelievable. Plus my guess is that it would take less time to build than it would to convert to a different fuel.

the cost is to high. It is cheaper to build a new plant. They thought about going from coal to gas with Monticello a few years back but the cost was to high. They but scrubbers in at Welsh and it cost a ton of money. The war of coal killed a lot of coal plants..

So, we continue flaring the gas at a cost to producers, polluting the air, and keep shutting down coal plants? Sounds like a very good plan to me. We can all freeze in the dark.

Back on track now ...
Saw a Fox Sports Southwest on Calveras, where host caught plenty of dink reds - which I would be ecstatic to do! - and I drove past it going even further south to Port Mansfield to hit the salt back in October. I am from the Valley, so I have always gazed at Calveras in passing. IF YOU LEAVE North Texas early enough, you can really zip down to Calveras actually (took us 5 hours).
Wondering about Bastrop?
Thinking those temperatures mentioned would be warmer at the discharge, if memory serves (back when I was doing Fairfield).
Considering our political climate (not the earth's), and paraphrasing Rodney King heavily, "Why can't we all just go fishing?"

Does Sam Rayburn still have a plant? Used to be good fishing there when they generated.

I never knew Rayburn had a plant on it but I just worked 38 years in the electric generation industry.

Rayburn and Toledo Bend are hydroelectric turbine plants. No combustion process.

Those hydroelectric plants might warm up the water on the downstream river but don't do anything for the lake. I like fishing below dams when the water is running swiftly.

Yep

Fayette is running. 89 degrees at discharge as of yesterday 12/22.

My lights still work, Fayette is our electricity source in Brenham.

Bastrop was cold when we fished it last February

62 max on Bastrop last Saturday.

UFO's fill up at Lake Arlington plant
frequently

Just because a power plant is next to you does not mean that is where you get your electricity from. When electricity hits the grid it can go most anywhere within reason. ERCOT controls the grid so it is sent to the transmission system they want it to go to.

What type fish are you after?

I have fished Lake Palestine and Fork with ice forming on my line and catching bass left and right!
Catfish in all the lakes LOVE cold weather and are biting well right now.
Crappie are bunched up right now on deep water humps in most lakes.

Point is .... you don't need to look for a warm water lake to catch fish!

They don't flare gas just to be flaring it ... there is a reason ... usually it is a sour well and the flare is burning the gas it takes to dump water and other reasons, it is really a very small amount in comparison.

Not according to TCEQ that just issued permits to flare gas. Producers claim there is no market for the gas because the price is so low.

A major pipeline operator is suing the Texas Railroad Commission — the state agency that regulates oil and gas drilling — alleging that it has blatantly disregarded longstanding state law that restricts the controversial and growing practice of burning off natural gas.

The lawsuit, filed Nov. 20 in Travis County District Court, is the latest development in a first-of-its-kind dispute between Tulsa-based Williams Cos. and Exco Operating Co. over the Dallas-based company’s authority to flare natural gas that comes up with the oil it pumps from the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas. In December 2017, Exco asked the Railroad Commission for permission to burn off excess gas from dozens of oil wells and later asked for a two-year extension of that authority.

The request was unusual because the wells were already connected to a pipeline gathering system owned by Williams that's capable of transporting the fossil fuel to market. When oil and gas producers ask the Railroad Commission for permission to flare, which they have increasingly done amid a historic oil boom in the state, it is often because they are unable to hook up to a pipeline.

But in this case, Exco, which emerged from bankruptcy in July, said it was because the company didn't have a contract with Williams and couldn’t afford its rates to transport the gas even if it did. The company also noted that Williams historically had only been able to accept 70% of its gas, so it would need a permit to flare, anyway.

With oil production reaching historic levels in the Permian Basin as new pipeline construction has lagged, the price of natural gas in West Texas has traded in negative territory several times this year, prompting oil producers to flare it or pay pipeline operators with spare capacity to take it away.

In the case of oil wells flaring the gas used to push the oil out .... I look for that to stop real soon.

I spend most of my time lately in my old age working with gas wells, but I have spent time in South Texas and West Texas on oil production and I look for them to have a gas fired compressor on each location real soon and flare stacks removed. Pipeline does charge to transfer the gas, and some oil wells have gas injection to push the oil up, so they have to pay for the gas coming and going.
With a compressor, they can recirculate and the pads usually have several well on it, so one compressor can run them all.

They have permits.

i believe so

I have asked this in several different forums. DOES ANYONE KNOW OF ANY NEW GAS POWERED GENERATION FACILITES THAT HAVE BEEN BUILT IN TEXAS WITHIN THE LAST 10 YEARS?

Luminat ownes most of the plants in North Texas. All gas fired plants have been closed. With the nuk plant in Glen Rose and the wind mills out west they have not built any gas fired plants in years.

TGaylon that is not a correct statement. Luminent has 4 gas plants still running. Graham, Hubbard, Striker and Trinidad. There is a plant called Wolf Hollow that is around Granbury somewhere but not on Lake Granbury. Garland Power & Light did have a gas fired plant on Lavon but I don't know for sure it still runs.
I almost forgot Handley Plant on Lake Arlington and Mountain Creek Plant on Mountain Creek Lake

These plants were put into operations in the last 10 years to replace the coal fired plants that were shut down or are going to be shut down?

Those plants are all 0ver 40 years old and everyone was in operation before any of the lignite plants were built.

So we close down power plants without having replacements for them. Genius.

Rayzor, the companies that owned the lignite/coal fired power plants didn't have much choice. The EPA rules that Obama put in place made these plants unable to comply. It was either shut them down or pay millions in fines.or spend millions that the companies could not recoup again because of the de-regulation rules to be able to run. I worked 35 years in the electric power generation industry and I said 10 years ago we were headed for blackouts in Texas. It hasn't happened yet but it has been close several times and I still think it will happen.

machinist - thank you so much for your informative post. I can understand not wanting to pay millions for fines. That's throwing money out of the window. But someone has got to produce electricity and make it at a profit. Surely someone has the money to build new plants and make those profits. Being expensive to build anything has not stopped any kind of construction, if there is enough profit to be made.

Rayzor, part of the problem is with the Dems and their Green plan and the Repubs wanting to reduce regs no one is sure what the rules are. If a company spent say 500 million using todays rules and Biden gets elected it would almost be money thrown away. Comanche Peak is a good example. Texas Utilities spent more money making modifactions after the 3 Mile Island fiasco than they spent building the original plant. The other problem is the tree huggers think renewable energy is the answer but they don't understand how electricity is made and sent to where it is used. Worst case scenario, wind is not blowing so windmills are not making any electricity. Its cloudy so solar is not making any electricity. Results the state goes in the dark. If that ever happens it will take many months to recover.

Good thing we can store energy in capacitors and batteries for when it’s cloudy and windless.

Lake Colorado City is an Luminant power plant lake but the plant has changed to gas so no discharge. The lake was restocked about a year ago. One can still launch the State Park with a pass there.

So where are these capacitors and batteries? At this point we don't have the technology to store enough electricity to supply the state.

Are y'all trying to hide Welsh from being on the list, or is it Welch??

Duracell has a top secret underground facility out in west Texas. It is full of millions of rechargeable copper top batteries and pink bunnies. No problem.

BTW - the way things are going, Welsh might be the last coal-fired power plant in Texas before too long. Just think what the crowds will be like in the Winter then!

I thought it was funny.

I’m pretty sure he is well aware we don’t have that technology. That’s the funny part.

Gibbons Creek fired back up in August so you know.

I don't know if it ever fired up again but it's not going to anymore.

https://theeagle.com/news/local/gib...71f7e10-e755-11ea-bf19-9b41fc8d67d4.html