Media contact: Libba Letton, 1-800-776-5272, Ext. 2657; Krista Umscheid, Ext. 3365

WINCHESTER — The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) has purchased land for a facility that could help LCRA keep down the cost of power to its wholesale electric customers. The land is the future site of a small, natural gas-fired power facility near Winchester, north of La Grange in Fayette County.

LCRA is planning to build a 200-megawatt “peaker” plant that could be in commercial operation for the summer of 2009. Such “peaking” technologies can provide a less expensive, quick-start capability to be used during times of peak energy use. Peak use can happen at any time, but typically occurs on very hot summer afternoons or cold winter days.

The facility will be fueled by clean-burning natural gas. LCRA expects to begin construction in early 2008.

“The addition of this facility should have a positive impact on our customers,” said Jerry Bain, utility director of the City of Fredericksburg, one of LCRA’s 43 wholesale electric customers. “With the demand for electric power growing each year, this project will help us to keep costs as low as possible for the people we serve.”

The facility would help offset LCRA’s dependence on more expensive purchased power and provide additional diversification to its portfolio of power sources.

“In times of peak demand, LCRA has more demand for energy than it can provide with its existing generation alone,” explained Dan Kuehn, LCRA’s executive manager for Wholesale Power Services.

“Rather than buy more and more of this additional peak-time power directly from the open market, which is expensive, LCRA prefers to build its own small generating facility to be used during these peak times. This will help reduce our exposure to volatile market prices.”

“A generation facility like this is relatively quiet and environmentally friendly,” said Tom Glynn, LCRA’s manager of Generation Services. “It would generally only be in use during times of peak electricity demand, rather than being a 24/7 operation.”

LCRA is a conservation and reclamation district that provides energy, water and community services to improve the quality of life for the people of Texas. LCRA generates electricity and sells it wholesale to city-owned utilities and cooperatives that serve more than 1.1 million people. LCRA also builds and operates transmission projects through a nonprofit corporation, manages and protects the waters of the lower Colorado River, operates parks, and helps communities with economic development. LCRA operates on revenues from the sale of electricity, water and other services. It cannot levy taxes and receives no tax money.