"For the past 12 months, we have been impressed with the caliber of work performed by Bechtel and Siemens," says Panda's Carter. "The quality of their work has confirmed to date that we made the right selection in choosing these companies to build and equip our plants."

"Bechtel sees a lot of potential in Texas' [combined-cycle] market," says Jeff Brightman, president of Bechtel's thermal business line. Panda's Temple and Sherman units "will be the three of the most efficient natural gas facilities in the U.S. and will create a combined 2,100 jobs," he says.

Bechtel is "one of the largest employers of craft construction professionals in Texas and looks forward to putting skilled craft to work and leveraging the expertise of Texas-based suppliers" to complete all three Panda projects, Brightman adds.

Houston-based FGE Power, meanwhile, plans to build a 726-MW, gas-fired combined-cycle unit in Mitchell County, west of Abilene. Construction is scheduled to begin by the end of this year, and the plant is expected to come online in 2016, says FGE President and CEO Emerson Farrell.

"Clearly one of the key strategic factors underlying the decision to move forward with the project is the need for new, efficient flexible generation capacity to meet the resource needs demonstrated in the recent ERCOT forecasts which reflect the rapidly growing Texas marketplace," Farrell says.

Citing competitive reasons, Farrell could neither confirm nor deny a locally published report that the project will cost about $500 million. "However," he says, "we can confirm that as a result of strategic alliances with vendors and other cost savings the project does have an all-in cost roughly 20% to 25% below the stated pricing of other recently announced projects in the marketplace."

NRG Energy of Princeton, N.J., one of the largest generators in ERCOT, is watching the Texas market closely and preparing to pounce, said John Ragan, president of NRG's Gulf Coast region.

"NRG wants to be ready to start construction on a new unit as soon as the economic conditions allow," Ragan says.

"Texas continues to see increasing demand as the population and number of businesses locating in the state grows while established capacity is predicted to begin declining," Ragan says. However, "in the face of exceptionally low energy prices now and expected in the near term, it is incumbent that changes are implemented in the market that will allow generators … to finance and construct new capacity."

NRG is seeking permits to add 330 MW of gas-fired combustion turbine capacity at its P.H. Robinson station near Texas City, as well as for two roughly 800-MW, gas-fired combined-cycle units—one at its S.R. Bertron station in Deer Park and the other at its Cedar Bayou station in Baytown.