Summit moves back deadlines

The groundbreaking for the Texas Clean Energy Project has been delayed and Summit Power Group officials have asked the City of Odessa to push back the financing and employment deadlines for the project.

Ground breaking for the project, expected to cost between $2.2 and $2.5 billion, was to have been in December or the first part of this year.

"We are targeting July 1 for a groundbreaking," said Laura Miller, of Summit. “We had hoped for a December groundbreaking, but the negotiations with the companies that will build and then operate and maintain the project took quite a bit longer than we had anticipated. All of that was completed in December, so we are meeting with potential investors for the project now.”

In the mean time, officials have asked the Odessa Development Corporation to work with them as they tie up loose ends to ultimately get the project to the finish line.

Summit’s request to amend their economic development agreement is on the agenda for Thursday’s today’s ODC board meeting.  ODC members will consider changing the required date of financial closing from March 1 to Sept. 30 and the full employment deadline from Dec. 31, 2015, to June 30, 2016.

“When they set a deadline on these things it is a timeline they hope to accomplish,” said Guy Andrews, economic development director for the Odessa Chamber of Commerce.  “I think it still all on track.”

Up to now, the Summit project has progressed at a steady pace and Miller insists the project is still moving forward.

"While we are breaking ground later than we'd hoped, we have continued to meet our other engineering, design and contract milestones and are currently still anticipating a 2015 operations date," Miller said adding that officials are meeting with investors and all of the relevant contracts have been signed.

“Engineering on the project continues so our 2015 completion date has not slipped,” she said.
In 2011, Summit reached several milestones.

The next hurdle is securing a water supply. Summit was in talks with the City of Midland for use of reclaimed water. Summit officials are looking at a variety of options – obtaining effluent water from Midland or even using brackish water from plentiful aquifers located in the Permian Basin.

And Miller says Summit is also still pushing for a regional desalination effort with Odessa or is looking for a water supply using effluent water.

In September the Department of Energy blessed the project by announcing that $450 million in federal funding had been approved to help build the TCEP, a major hurdle in getting the project off the ground. The $450 million grant comprises about 19 percent of the total cost, Miller said. The other funds will come from private investors and banks, she said.

At the time, Miller said this was the push needed to get the project off the ground and the approval will allow federal funding to be used to help build one of the world’s most advanced and environmentally clean coal-based power plants.

Also last year, Summit secured contracts to sell three sellable by products including electricity, CO2, and urea or fertilizer.

The Texas Clean Energy Project is to be located in Penwell, 15 miles west of Odessa. During construction, the energy plant is set to create 2,000 jobs with about 200 permanent jobs created once the project is completed.

The 400-megawatt plant is designed to capture 90 percent of the carbon dioxide it produces. Summit plans to sell the CO2 as enhanced oil-recovery, which will help companies bring more oil out of the ground.

@OAciti