Brazos Electric Power Cooperative


Brazos Electric Power Cooperative is an electrical generation and transmission cooperative based in Waco, Texas.

Operations

Brazos began constructing its current headquarters back in 2013 current headquarters in Waco's Texas Central Industrial park.
Brazos operates four plants which can produce up to 2,909 megawatts of electricity. Brazos was an initial investor in the Comanche Peak Nuclear Generating Station but later sold its interest to TXU. Brazos also began purchasing energy from Duke Energy's Lapetus Solar project in Andrews County, Texas via a power purchase agreement in January 2020.
Brazos serves 16 local utility cooperatives and three municipal-owned electric companies.

Congressional Testimony

In 1967 Brazos sent general manager H. A. Dalton to appear before the 90th United States Congress to give testimony on introduced amendments to the Federal Power Act which were seeking to ensure electrical power service throughout the nation in the event of an emergency. During the hearing Brazos' representative would affirm that the legislation would help prevent power loss, as had been seen during a local blackout in November of 1965.

Lawsuit

The Brazos Electric Power Cooperative was brought to court by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality over the TECQ denying an ad valorem tax exemption which ultimately would be settled in the Texas Supreme Court in May of 2019. In the case, the TCEQ claimed that heat recovery steam generators, devices the Texas Legislature considers "pollution control property," should not be exempt from the previously mentioned tax and that the legislature did not have the ability to give said exemption. The court would rule that the legislature had the ability to exempt such generators and upheld the tax exemption and that the commission had in fact abused its discretion.

Member cooperatives