Reliant Energy owns generation assets utilizing well-established fuels such as natural gas and coal. We also own or purchase power from generation assets that use renewable energy sources such as:
Wind
We are utilizing Texas’ environmentally beneficial resources to provide power to its customers through the use of renewable energy sources, including wind power for fueling power generation. We have a purchase power agreement (PPA) with the owner of the King Mountain Wind Ranch in West Texas to purchase up to 202 megawatts of power and the associated renewable energy credits (RECs) from this facility. Additionally, we have purchase power agreements to purchase RECs from the owner of the 114 megawatt Callahan Wind facility, and to purchase the RECs produced from 90 megawatts of the Horse Hollow Wind Farm, both of which are located in Taylor County, Texas.
Solar Energy
Reliant Energy has a long-term agreement with Power Light Corporation to purchase Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs) in one of the largest SREC deals ever transacted under the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities’ Clean Energy Program. The transaction will support the development and installation of solar systems in New Jersey.
Landfill Gas
We have purchase power agreements to purchase all of the power and the associated RECs from a company that utilizes methane gas from four landfills located in the Houston metropolitan area as a fuel for electric generating engines. The four facilities have a total installed capacity of approximately 25 megawatts.
The Reliant Energy Seward Electric Station utilizes coal refuse to generate electric power, bringing economic and environmental benefits to Pennsylvania. The 521-MW Seward facility is built on the site of the 1920s vintage, 196-megawatt coal plant that was retired late 2003. The facility incorporates Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) technology, which is capable of reliably burning coal refuse to produce electricity while meeting stringent environmental requirements. In fact, the facility is capable of producing more than twice the power with lower emissions than the plant it replaced. For these significant accomplishments, the Seward facility was named the ‘2004 Power Plant of the Year’ by POWER Magazine and received the ‘2004 Pennsylvania Governor’s Environmental Excellence’ award.
The state-of-the-art facility incorporates the latest innovations in energy efficiency and environmental controls by “… turning lemons into lemonade is such an elegant and environmentally beneficial way”, according to POWER Magazine.
To fuel the Seward Station, more than 100 million tons of low-grade coal refuse will be removed from the Pennsylvania landscape over the next twenty years. Since waste coal is a significant source of acid mine drainage (AMD), elimination of this waste material will result in cleaning up the Conemaugh River and Kiskiminitis River basins. Beneficial use of the plant’s coal combustion products to remediate abandoned mines will further reduce the potential for future AMD from old mine sites. Utilization of coal refuse broadens the diversity of fuels used in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland Interconnection, providing fuel supply flexibility for generators when prices of other fuels – oil and natural gas, for example – increase due to market imbalances in supply and demand.
