‘Good news’ and ‘roadblocks’ on Renovo Energy project
RENOVO — Borough Council received a highly anticipated phone call from Tom Emero regarding the progress of the proposed gas power plant, Renovo Energy Center LLC, during Wednesday’s council meeting.
Emero, director of Innovative Power Solutions, was on speaker phone and gave council an update on plant construction plans at the old railroad yards along Erie Avenue.
He started out with what he called “good news” and ended the 20-minute report explaining some roadblocks the company has hit in the planning stages, prior to beginning to finance the Renovo project.
“The good news is that we continue to work diligently,” Emero said.
He explained the plans are for a two-turbine gas system with each turbine needing to draw 500-plus megawatts of power. Two electric utility companies would be needed — one for each turbine. Renovo Energy Center would run one turbine off the Pennsylvania New Jersey Maryland (PJM) system and the other off New York ISO.
Initially, Renovo Energy has been working with PJM in what has been a rather unexpectedly high dollar proposal for the interconnect. Emero explained the process, calling what has occurred “for the most part expected,” other than the costs.
Emero explained that during the applications to interconnect such a large power source, studies are “very complicated and often initially wrong.”
He said PJM’s initial cost for the interconnect came in at $180 million. Emero’s engineers have gotten that number down to $130 million, but he stressed there was no way he could take a $130 million price tag for a single turbine to the financing stage.
