Direct Energy out of power game with $685M

PARIS, BASTROP, MISSION – Direct Energy, a subsidiary of Centrica PLC, is set to sell its Texas gas-fired power stations to Blackstone for $685 million. Direct Energy is getting out of the power generation game in Texas.

The three units, located in Paris, Bastrop, and Mission, have a combined capacity of 1,295MW — about 2 percent of the state’s total capacity.

The Texas power market is projected to be among the fastest-growing in the U.S., according to North American Electric Reliability Corp. State regulators are considering changes to market rules that would pay power producers to keep excess generation capacity in reserve as population growth threatens to outstrip supplies — a potential boon for the industry that UBS says could be worth $2.8 billion a year.