MAYVILLE - National Grid needs to connect the county's new methane-fired power plant to its lines before the county can begin producing electricity for a profit.
Concerns were raised by members of the Public Facilities Committee about the plant not yet being online. With an estimated $2 million budgeted in revenue from the plant in 2010, legislators Thomas DeJoe, D-Brocton, and Chuck Nazzaro, D-Jamestown, questioned what the continued delay will mean for the county.
County Executive Greg Edwards explained to the committee that the county is ready to move forward, but is being held back by National Grid. Once National Grid connects the plant to its system, the county can transmit and sell its electricity on the open market. National Grid has given no indication of when it will connect the county's plant to its lines.
"Unfortunately, we seem to be in a delay pattern where it's circling and we aren't allowed to get this connection done," Edwards said. "I've been pressing hard to get this connection done. I've reached out to some of our connections in the larger environment of energy to try and get some help to get this accomplished. Right now we're ready and we're at the mercy of the scheduling of National Grid for when they're going to do this connect."
Though the county is not yet producing electricity for profit, Edwards said the gas at the plant is currently being burned through a flare - earning the county carbon credits.
According to Edwards, the credits will help offset some of the money the county is losing as a result of the delay with National Grid.
"Certainly, the amount of money that we projected was an estimate," Edwards said. "The good news is that the amount of money that we're going to make for our carbon credits is going up. ... Additionally, as demand increases as manufacturing comes back online and as need increases, as we're experiencing now in our economy, our end price that we're going to get for our electricity increases."
"The bottom line," Edwards continued, "is it can't get hooked up quick enough, but we have been conservative in our budgeting to recognize that carbon credits do help us offset any loss from a delay in sale of electricity."
A ribbon-cutting event was held at the plant in September. At that time, officials said they expected the plant would begin generating electricity by November or December.
In terms of the history of the project, such optimism was not unfounded. Initially, when the county asked National Grid for a proposal for the project, National Grid estimated it could have the plant completed by 2012. That wasn't quick enough for the county, which then took on the project itself - requiring National Grid to only connect the end product rather than design and construct the facility itself.
The methane plant was discussed by the Public Facilities Committee on Wednesday because of a resolution set to go before the County Legislature later this month. According to Edwards, the county needs to turn over its rights-of-way easements and transmission lines for the project to National Grid.
The next meeting of the County Legislature is set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 27 in the Gerace Office Building in Mayville.