Because the problem exists. And if I’ve learned anything around here over the years it’s that if the problem exists then those in power are doing nothing.
“This top-down approach of ERCOT’s desired outage limits does not consider the minimum needs of the thermal resource fleet and leads to overall decreased reliability of the ERCOT system if those resources cannot obtain the outage time necessary to complete needed maintenance,” said a Calpine representative in written comments from April opposing ERCOT’s proposed methodology in NPRR1108.
Calpine might be trying to save face, but I’m inclined to believe they’re not exaggerating their desperation for maintenance, considering most of their fleet is natural gas.
Cases 5 through 8 in this EIA study are an interesting read for those curious about the maintenance costs various configurations of gas plants face per start and accumulate per hour.
Stupid reply, link to who said they were doing a good job? Just asking for you to show us he is doing nothing and he can just throw money at it and fix it. Those electric plants that are shut down because of expense, what do they use to produce electricity that is so expensive?