Utility TXU Corp. to put 9 power plant units up for sale

The Dallas-based utility, which provides electric service to 2.2 million customers in the Metroplex and North Texas, will also offer for lease the electricity output or even management of six other units, including the DeCordova unit in Hood County.

Collectively, the plants put up for sale or contract amount to 6,124 megawatts of capacity, or 61 percent of TXU's total gas-fired generating capabilities. TXU also generates electricity from its nuclear power station at Glen Rose, as well as four lignite-powered plants in East Texas.

John Wilder, TXU chief executive officer, has said that the utility prefers to shed its older, less efficient gas-fired units and buy power from the newer generators that have been built by independent operators around Dallas-Fort Worth.

"The Texas competitive wholesale electric market is strong," said Richard Wistrand, TXU Power senior vice president. Wistrand said the request for proposals would "determine the value of these assets in the market."

The Eagle Mountain generating station has a capacity of 665 megawatts (1 megawatt equals 1,000 kilowatts). TXU has already sold its Handley station, in east Fort Worth, and the Mountain Creek station in southwest Dallas County, to Exelon Corp. of Philadelphia.

TXU's recent offer comes after the Electric Reliability Council of Texas told TXU last month to delay retirement of several generating plants for fear that the state's margin above peak generating loads, now about 25 percent, could dip below the ERCOT minimum of 12.5 percent by 2007.