ALTAIR — The Kerrville Public Utility Board (KPUB) is breaking ground on a large tract of land on Highway 90A near Altair. Until recently, KPUB purchased power for its customers from other electric sources at the best possible rates. The utility company, increasingly worried about the energy market’s volatility, voted to wholly own its own generation project.
KPUB’s power supply contract will end in a few years, which provides a large share of its power supply to its current customers. Volatility, market scarcity, rising power demand and extreme weather events provided the impetus for KPUB to invest in its own infrastructure.
The power plant will be a nat- ural-gas-fired reciprocating inter nal-combustion engine generation plant. Designed to be independent of wind or sun, it is highly effi cient, with almost zero water consumption for cooling thanks to its closed-loop cooling system.
The KPUB power facility will be located about 10 miles south of Columbus. The site was deemed ideal for a Kerrville plant due to its infrastructure and proximity to four major natural gas pipelines. KPUB says the plant will be built next door to an existing generation facility, Sky Global Power One. Construction began in April, and operations are planned for June 2027, adding at least 100 megawatts of new dispatchable generation capacity to ERCOT’s grid, with a peak output of 122 megawatts from KPUB’s power generation facility.
At an estimated price point of $175 million, KPUB and the Kerrville City Council realize a rate of return that can be maximized in a few years, since KPUB’s existing electric contract has averaged almost $21 million annually over the last four years and is expected to rise significantly.
The project was partially funded by the Texas Energy Fund, with the balance financed through tax-exempt revenue bonds in Kerrville. The project will not cost the residents of Colorado County any money.
Connecting through the South Texas Electric Cooperative Rock Island Substation and with the LCRA system, electric power will be delivered to the overall Texas power grid, managed by ERCOT and will become available statewide to all counties.
The generated electricity will not flow directly into the Kerrville homes but shared through the grid managed by ERCOT.
