previous owner\u2019s standard build-and-divest business model<\/a>. The acquisition doubled Rayburn\u2019s balance sheet, and leadership initially worried the cooperative wouldn\u2019t grow into the plant\u2019s capacity until 2030 or later. That concern evaporated quickly. \u201cWe\u2019re projecting 25% growth over the next 10 years, and that\u2019s not counting any data centers or large loads\u2014just normal organic growth,\u201d Naylor said. \u201cWe grew into Rayburn Energy Station a lot faster than we anticipated.\u201d<\/p>\nProven Hardware, Sharper Response<\/p>\n
The station\u2019s original Siemens Flex-Plant 30 configuration remains intact: two SGT6-5000F gas turbines, two NEM USA Benson duct-fired heat recovery steam generators, an SST6-5000 steam turbine, and Siemens-supplied generators and controls in a 2-on-1 arrangement rated at 758 MW. The plant received a control-system upgrade in 2021 and gained peak-firing capability on the turbines in 2022 to boost flexibility and output, according to Alex O\u2019Brien, plant manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince Rayburn took ownership, both combustion turbines completed their first major interval inspections, reinforcing long-term reliability and ensuring the fleet is primed for higher duty as regional demand grows,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n
The Flex-Plant design was originally marketed on its speed\u2014first power in about 10 minutes and full combined cycle output in less than an hour. That responsiveness is still in use. RES primarily operates in load-following mode, with the fast-ramp capability deployed to shorten startups and lower costs when rapid response is needed, O\u2019Brien said. Since the acquisition, the plant has averaged an annual capacity factor of about 53%, peaking at 60% in 2024, and it has outperformed Rayburn\u2019s expectations. Beyond the turbine inspections, the cooperative completed a single-point-failure analysis and an inventory management overhaul to shorten recovery times and ensure critical spares are on hand.<\/p>\n
New Owner, Same Team<\/p>\n
Rayburn had never owned a generating station before acquiring RES, which made the operations and maintenance (O&M) transition the riskiest part of the deal. The cooperative contracted NAES Corp. for O&M\u2014and required that all existing plant staff be retained.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough employed by NAES, the 28-person team operates as an extension of Rayburn\u2019s staff, bringing deep institutional knowledge that made the 2023 transition seamless,\u201d said Christian Nagel, Rayburn\u2019s senior director of Power Supply and Production.<\/p>\n
The retained team\u2019s first real test came almost immediately. During the record-setting Texas heat wave of summer 2023, with local temperatures greater than 100F nearly every day in August, the facility experienced no heat-related outages or derates. \u201cYears of proactive maintenance, seasonal readiness work, and the team\u2019s experience allowed the plant to stay online when ERCOT and our members needed it most,\u201d Nagel said. \u201cAt RES, success during extreme weather is measured not by overcoming major problems, but by preventing them from occurring in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hardened Against the Extremes<\/p>\n
The plant performed well during Uri under its previous owner, but Rayburn has not treated that history as a guarantee. Since acquiring RES, the cooperative installed permanent windbreaks and protective enclosures, expanded and redesigned heat tracing and insulated piping, upgraded the demineralized water system, and added remote temperature monitoring for turbine enclosures and critical instrumentation, helping the station operate reliably through Winter Storms Heather and Fern.<\/p>\n
Those investments have paid off. \u201cDuring recent winter events the station sustained 98\u2013100% equivalent availability factor and delivered without weather-related interruptions,\u201d O\u2019Brien reported. In summer peaks, the enhanced monitoring and cooling visibility \u201cminimized derates and shortened recovery times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fuel security received the same attention. RES is fed by two independent gas routes\u2014an intrastate pipeline plus firm interstate service on the Gulf Crossing pipeline. \u201cWe rely on Gulf Crossing for its firm capacity, favorable tariff, and reliable access, while the second pipeline provides redundancy,\u201d Nagel said. \u201cThat dual-feed arrangement, combined with firm transport rights, materially strengthens fuel security during weather and reduces the risk of forced outages.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anchoring the Silicon Prairie<\/p>\n
Sherman sits roughly 60 miles north of Dallas in a corridor that has been called the \u201cSilicon Prairie.\u201d Texas Instruments is constructing a semiconductor manufacturing complex there expected to represent up to $40 billion in total investment, while Taiwan-based GlobalWafers has increased its investment in a Sherman silicon wafer facility to $7.5 billion. With electricity demand in Texas projected to increase by more than 25% over the next decade, the region\u2019s power system is bracing for substantial new load.<\/p>\n
Rayburn\u2019s members do not directly serve every large project in the corridor, but Nagel argues that ownership of dispatchable generation nearby changes the equation for the cooperative\u2019s four member systems. It \u201ccuts exposure to volatile wholesale prices, strengthens local reserve margins, and lowers the risk of costly emergency purchases that drive up member rates,\u201d he said. \u201cIn short, ownership of nearby, dispatchable capacity turns regional growth from a reliability vulnerability into a managed asset that protects rates and keeps power flowing during extreme events.\u201d<\/p>\n
Building Out the Fence Line<\/p>\n
The expansion room that helped sell Rayburn on the site in 2023 is now under construction (Figure 1). RES II is a purpose-built 570-MW simple cycle plant using 10 Siemens SGT-800 industrial turbines. \u201cCo-locating RES II inside the original RES fence line lets us leverage existing transmission ties, water and fuel hookups, control-room infrastructure, and an experienced operations team,\u201d O\u2019Brien noted. The fast-start SGT-800 fleet will provide rapid-response peaking capability that complements the combined cycle plant\u2019s baseload and intermediate flexibility\u2014and it\u2019s designed with black-start capability. Nagel said RES II will be able to re-energize RES and more than 1,300 MW of local generation after a blackout, restoring power quickly to critical industrial and community infrastructure.<\/p>\n
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1. Rayburn broke ground in June 2026 on Rayburn Energy Station II (RES II), a $685 million, 570-MW natural gas\u2013fired generation facility on the RES site. Courtesy: Rayburn Electric Cooperative<\/p>\n
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Timing worked in Rayburn\u2019s favor. The cooperative awarded long-lead equipment contracts\u2014turbines, transformers, and major balance-of-plant items\u2014in late 2024, capturing favorable pricing just before the gas turbine supply crunch tightened. According to Naylor, suppliers indicated that waiting even a couple more months would have meant significantly higher costs and delivery dates pushed out by three to four years. Commercial operation remains on track for June 2028.<\/p>\n
Financing is the other pillar. In June 2026, Rayburn secured a Texas Energy Fund loan through the Public Utility Commission of Texas that can finance up to 60% of RES II\u2019s project costs at a below-market interest rate. Of more than 125 initial applicants to the $10 billion fund the Texas Legislature created after Uri, only 17 were selected to advance\u2014and Rayburn is the only cooperative among them. Getting there required legislative work, because the original statute was written with investor-owned utilities and independent power producers in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to educate the legislature on how co-op financing works,\u201d Naylor said. \u201cFortunately, they recognized the issue and decided they really did want to make this available to all types of participants. That change will apply to any cooperative that wants to pursue that funding in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The low-cost capital \u201clowers long-term project economics, reduces upward pressure on member rates, and accelerates construction, delivering dispatchable capacity faster to shore up regional reliability,\u201d Nagel said.<\/p>\n
The Asset Beneath the Asset<\/p>\n
Ask the Rayburn team what gives the station its edge, and they\u2019ll point not only to the technology, but to the people who operate and maintain it. About 35% of the plant\u2019s team has been with the facility since commissioning, average tenure exceeds eight years, and veterans make up roughly 40% of the workforce, O\u2019Brien noted\u2014a combination he credits with 11 years without a lost-time accident and a pervasive safety-first culture.<\/p>\n
That continuity is the quiet through-line of the Rayburn story. The same operators who kept the plant running through Uri under a different owner now form the operational backbone of a cooperative that, five years ago, relied largely on the wholesale market rather than owned generation. \u201cOur people are RES\u2019s greatest asset,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. For a plant whose defining achievement is preventing problems rather than overcoming them, that combination of world-class equipment and an experienced workforce may be the most transferable lesson of all.<\/p>\n
\u2014Aaron Larson is POWER\u2019s executive editor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Rayburn Electric Cooperative, ownership of the 758-MW combined cycle plant in Sherman, Texas, means stable rates, hardened…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[139211,3413,139212,139213,62352,27,58946,29,28,36858],"class_list":["post-396364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-combined-cycle","tag-ercot","tag-naes-corp","tag-rayburn-electric-cooperative","tag-siemens-energy","tag-texas","tag-texas-energy-fund","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-winter-storm-uri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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