Calaveras Power Station, Power plant complex at Calaveras Lake, Texas, US.
Calaveras Power Station is a CPS Energy complex southeast of San Antonio, beside Calaveras Lake in Bexar County, Texas. It holds three plants: the retired J.T. Deely coal plant (two units, 871 MW, 1977–2018), the O.W. Sommers natural gas plant (two units, 892 MW), and the J.K. Spruce coal plant (two units, 1,300 MW).
The O.W. Sommers natural gas units entered service in 1972 and 1974, followed by the J.T. Deely coal units in 1977. J.K. Spruce Unit 1 was completed in 1992, and Unit 2 followed in 2010 at a cost of $1 billion. Deely ran until 2018, and in January 2023 CPS Energy's board voted to shut down Spruce Unit 1 and convert Unit 2 to natural gas by 2028.
Two plants carry the names of CPS Energy general managers: O.W. Sommers, who led the utility before the Sommers units entered service in 1972 and 1974, and Jack Spruce, honoured in the J.K. Spruce plant. The site's name comes from Calaveras Lake, the cooling reservoir beside it.
The facility receives regular coal deliveries by rail from Wyoming to maintain operations. Visitors should know this is an industrial power generation site with limited public access to internal operations.
The facility sources coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin delivered daily by train, connecting San Antonio's power supply to regional mining operations. This rail network demonstrates how modern electricity production depends on resources from distant locations.
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