Update: Vistra Identifies Plants Under Consideration For Sale To Stay Under 20% Market Share In ERCOT After Dynegy Merger

Vistra, in a communication to employees, has identified several power plants under consideration for sale as a result of its proposed merger with Dynegy

EnergyChoiceMatters.com first reported yesterday that Vistra Energy President and Chief Executive Officer Curt Morgan said of market power issues resulting from the merger, "We will need to do some modest mitigation, roughly around 900 MW in ERCOT."

"We've got two paths that we could go down. We will be kicking off a divestiture process that we've already started, and we'll be going out in the market. But there's also another avenue that I won't get in too much detail on here, but there's another avenue where we wouldn't have to do any divestitures at all," Morgan said during an analyst call yesterday

An FAQ about the merger distributed to Vistra employees provides more details concerning potential mitigation

"With regard to Texas generation ownership, Vistra and Dynegy will file an application with the Texas Public Utility Commission for approval of the transaction. In that filing, Vistra will propose various options that will, in any case, ensure that the combined company is at or below the [ERCOT market] 20 percent cap at closing," the FAQ states.

Furthermore, the FAQ states, "We are exploring sales of the Graham, Trinidad, and Stryker plants in consideration of the regulatory requirement prohibiting us from owning and controlling more than 20 percent of generation capacity in ERCOT."

"Importantly, we are not saying that we would necessarily close these plants if a sales process is unsuccessful," the FAQ states

The Graham, Trinidad, and Stryker are gas-fired