Dive Brief:
- The Logansport City Council voted unanimously to move ahead on an $800 million deal to build a new natural gas plant for Logansport Municipal Utilities (LMU) that would replace the electricity it now gets from Duke Energy.
- French company Total Concept Solutions (TCS) would build the plant under a 25-year, 150 megawatt power purchase agreement (PPA) with LMU at “an initial rate not exceeding $0.055 per kilowatt-hour.”
- Financing for the undertaking, which would have a phase one generating capacity of 300 megawatts to 500 megawatts, has not yet been finalized but will include a $1.75 million franchise fee for Logansport, is likely to include investment by TCS, and would include an arrangement for the City to receive a share of the plant’s sales into electricity markets.
Dive Insight:
Plans call for the project to eventually have as much as a 2,000 megawatt generating capacity and include a capability to run on biogas derived from waste.
The plan includes stipulations for LMU’s energy requirements to be met by 2019 even if construction is not complete, price adjustments to be made beginning in 2021, and the eventual transfer of ownership of the facility to the City.
The PPA includes a transmission agreement that, though not finalized, will make the plant’s excess generation available to the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) power market.
