The possibility of the City of Brownsville, the Public Utilities Board and Tenaska building a 800-megawatt gas-powered plant just got a little bit dimmer.
The Valley Morning Star published a story in today's edition announcing the start of construction bu Coronado Power Ventures on a $400 million, 650-megawatt power plant.
The plant, the paper reported, is projected to fuel as many as 700,000 homes. The city's website demographics information states that there are a total of 23,245 housing units in the city. Brownsville, just 23 miles south lists 49,871 housing units.
On the other hand, Tenaska has not started construction on the 800-megawatt power plant it announced with much fanfare in January 2013.
The Tenaska-City of Brownsville Public Utilities Board deal to build a $500 million, 800 MW gas-generated electric plant has been delayed and last year announced it was moving its planned construction completion from the summer of 2016 to sometime in 2018.
When it was announced, Mayor Tony Martinez hailed it as a landmark achievement to attract big industry and manufacturers to Brownsville.
Despite the fact that critics pointed out that the coming online of at least two other gas-powered, electric generating plants (Edinburg and Harlingen) would make the construction of the Tenaska -PUB plant unnecessary for the needs of the city, Martinez and the city commission inked the deal and raised PUB rates to meet its bond obligations.
The cost to PUB was said to be some $325 million, which would guarantee it 200 MW of the 800 planned production.
Bu there was a caveat.
Tenaska announced that it would begin construction when it had found customers for the other 600 MW.
Fitch Ratings said at the time that adding the plant's capacity to the energy already available would exceed the area's projected total requirement of 426 MW.
There is a 700-megawatt plant near McColl and Monte Cristo roads in Edinburg that has pumped power into the local grid for more than a dozen years. And the South Texas Electricity Cooperative, a member-owned collective nonprofit based in Victoria, is building $200 million gas-fired power plant with capacity up to another 225 megawatts.
Additionally, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in November 2013 to issued a permit for the construction of a similar plant under the name of La Paloma Energy Center, LLC (LPEC). The permit authorizes LPEC to construct and operate a 637-MW to 735-MW natural gas-fired power plant in Harlingen, Texas.
Nonetheless, and despite the fact that construction of the plant would prove costly and redundant, PUB and the city commission went ahead on December 2012 (before the plant's January 2013 announcement) and approved steep five-year planned hikes in rates for electricity, water and sewage services to all its ratepayers.
The new Harlingen power plant will help meet the region’s growing demand for energy, said Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell told the daily.
Now, does that mean that the rate hikes local residents have been paying since 2013 to pay for the Tenaska plant will be scaled back or refunded to the ratepayers?
The Tenaska-City of Brownsville Public Utilities Board deal to build a $500 million, 800 MW gas-generated electric plant has been delayed and last year announced it was moving its planned construction completion from the summer of 2016 to sometime in 2018.
When it was announced, Mayor Tony Martinez hailed it as a landmark achievement to attract big industry and manufacturers to Brownsville.
The cost to PUB was said to be some $325 million, which would guarantee it 200 MW of the 800 planned production.
Bu there was a caveat.
Tenaska announced that it would begin construction when it had found customers for the other 600 MW.
Fitch Ratings said at the time that adding the plant's capacity to the energy already available would exceed the area's projected total requirement of 426 MW.
There is a 700-megawatt plant near McColl and Monte Cristo roads in Edinburg that has pumped power into the local grid for more than a dozen years. And the South Texas Electricity Cooperative, a member-owned collective nonprofit based in Victoria, is building $200 million gas-fired power plant with capacity up to another 225 megawatts.
Additionally, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in November 2013 to issued a permit for the construction of a similar plant under the name of La Paloma Energy Center, LLC (LPEC). The permit authorizes LPEC to construct and operate a 637-MW to 735-MW natural gas-fired power plant in Harlingen, Texas.
Nonetheless, and despite the fact that construction of the plant would prove costly and redundant, PUB and the city commission went ahead on December 2012 (before the plant's January 2013 announcement) and approved steep five-year planned hikes in rates for electricity, water and sewage services to all its ratepayers.
The new Harlingen power plant will help meet the region’s growing demand for energy, said Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell told the daily.
Now, does that mean that the rate hikes local residents have been paying since 2013 to pay for the Tenaska plant will be scaled back or refunded to the ratepayers?
4 comments:
We the rate payers of Brownsville want a refund now!
Just watch, it will now be "extra money", and you know what THAT means!
Yea more worthless buildings
one of the reasons I moved to a part of Brownsville that doesn't use PUB for it's electricity. Every year I get to pick which electric provider provides me the lowest rate. you wouldn't believe the amount of money I save each year compared to when I used PUB.
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