Calpine Corp said Monday it will expand its fleet of power plants in Texas, but delay construction of two "quick-start" peaker plants until a debate over electric market reform is settled. Texas, unlike many areas of the U.S., continues to see growing demand for electricity but tight financial markets and low wholesale power prices have stalled construction of all but a few new plants in the state's primary grid, overseen by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).State regulators have taken a number of steps to encourage development of new power plants, but a state legislator last week warned the Texas Public Utility Commission "to slow down" on proposed market changes.Houston-based Calpine, which already owns more than a dozen natural gas-fired power plants in Texas, said Monday it agreed to purchase the 1,050-megawatt, combined-cycle Guadalupe Power plant near San Antonio for $625 million, or $595 per kilowatt.Calpine will purchase the plant from MinnTex Power Holdings, LLC, which is owned by a private investment fund managed by Wayzata Investment Partners LLC of Minnesota.
Calpine Corporation (Calpine) is an independent wholesale power producer in the United States. Shares of CPN traded higher by 0.37% or $0.07/share to $18.98. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $17.16 and as high as $22.16. On average, 2764650 shares of CPN exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 2342599.
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