The plant will provide 200 MW of clean coal electricity to CPS Energy; 90 percent of the carbon will be captured and used for enhanced oil recovery in the West Texas Permian Basin.
The new agreement is more favorable to CPS Energy customers, as power prices in the ERCOT market have dropped while the project has been in development.
“We remained hopeful this project would be built and that CPS Energy customers could take advantage of this low-carbon source of power,” said CPS Energy CEO Doyle Beneby. “Adding clean coal to our portfolio dovetails with our strategies to diversify and reduce the carbon intensity of the power we supply to our customers.”
Adding clean coal also could help CPS Energy and the state of Texas meet stringent new federal carbon emissions guidelines, he added. Clean coal is an important part of the U.S. government’s strategy to reduce carbon emissions, and the project has received support from the department’s Clean Coal Power Initiative.
The plant, to be built roughly 15 miles west of Odessa, Texas, is expected to be online in 2019.