In Texas no power plants are on standby, not since 2001. But they are talking about it as of late.
“... no power plants are on standby ...”
-
Have to be; there is no other way to provide instantaneous demand.
You and I might not be using the terms “stand by” and “idle” the same way.
Don’t know about Texas, but here in Georgia we have a good mix
of hydro, nuclear, coal fired boilers, petroleum fired boilers, and natural gas turbines.
Many of our coal-fired boilers have been taken off-line (idled).
One of the most interesting is a big hydro dam
that uses water to generate electricity during the day
and then consumes some of the excess electricity at night
to pump the river water back up stream to use again the next day.