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October 18, 2022

Vistra continues transitioning to clean energy

By Melissa Lowery

In January 2022, Vistra Corp. announced the expansion of its Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in Moss Landing, California. Already the world’s largest battery energy storage facility. The expansion will take the site’s total storage capacity from 400 MW/1,600 MWh to 750 MW/3,000 MWh.

The expansion is part of the company’s plan to grow its zero-carbon portfolio, Vistra Zero, while transitioning its power plant fleet into low-to-no emission sources of electricity.

“We are committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050,” said Heather Herndon Wright, director, supply chain diversity and sustainability. “Transitioning our fleet to clean energy sources is an important part of our plan to achieve this goal.”

California achieved a historic milestone in April when enough clean energy was produced to fully power the state. For about an hour on April 30, grid operators at the California Independent System Operator, which serves about 80% of the state, had enough electricity from solar, wind, geothermal and small hydropower dams to meet all of the demand in their area. More power was being generated than was needed at that moment, so some was exported to other Western states.

“That’s quite an accomplishment because it demonstrates if you can do it for one instantaneous hour, you can do it for longer periods of time,” Mark Rothleder, senior vice president at the California ISO, told NPR.

Vistra currently has about 3,300 MW of zero-emission generation online today with plans to more than double capacity to 7,300 MW by 2026. At the same time, the company is decommissioning some of its fossil fuel plants, including its entire Midwest fleet of coal plants.

Vistra is utilizing its existing facilities in this transformation. In fact, the Moss Landing battery system is co-located at a natural gas plant. The site has been generating power since the 1950s and the older power units have been decommissioned and demolished.

“It made sense to repurpose some of the site with storage because the facility is already connected to the Pacific Gas & Electric grid,” Herndon Wright said. “The storage system pulls in and stores excess renewable energy – in this case, primarily solar, but also hydro and wind – and then pushes it back out to the grid when it is needed. Batteries help ensure that power doesn’t go to waste thereby enabling intermittent renewables to do more.”

The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is a huge part of achieving net-zero but eliminating the remaining carbon emissions means developing a sustainable supply chain.

“Our iceberg is flipped,” Herndon Wright said. “For many companies, scope three emissions, or indirect emissions from their value chain, are the largest portion of their overall emissions profile with minimal contribution from scope 1 and 2 emissions. For us, it’s the opposite. If we can minimize our footprint in scope one and scope two, we achieve a bulk of our goal. However, we still have emissions from our supply chain we must consider, so we have also implemented a supply chain sustainability initiative.”

In 2020, Vistra joined the Electric Utility Industry Sustainable Supply Chain Alliance, a group of 26 electric utility companies working together to establish a robust and sustainable electric utility industry supply chain.

“One of my mantras right now is the three C’s — convergence, collaboration and communication,” Herndon Wright said. “The Alliance exemplifies all three. There are 26 of us who have come together to work on making our supply chains more sustainable.”

In 2021, the company continued its annual benchmark reporting on supplier ESG performance and began developing formal supply chain sustainability policies and procedures, beyond reporting. This includes requesting suppliers establishing their own sustainability policy, as well as a diversity and inclusion policy or program and Supplier Diversity Tier II Initiatives.

“We are committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions, and our supply chain will help us get there,” Herndon Wright said.

To learn more about Vistra Zero, visit vistracorp.com/vistra-zero.

To learn more about Vistra, visit vistracorp.com.