[Editor's Note: The Grant County Commission work session meeting on Oct. 10, 2023, lasted just shy of 3 hours, so readers can expect several articles. The fifth one continues with the review of the regular meeting agenda at the work session and reports made at the regular meeting.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

After the completion of presentations at the Oct. 10, 2023 work session, County Manager Charlene Webb began a review of the Oct. 12, 2023 regular meeting agenda.

The first item was a proclamation naming the week of Oct. 8 - 14, 2023 as Fire Prevention Week. At the regular meeting, District 2 Commissioner Eloy Medina read the proclamation. A group of fire chiefs from the county volunteer fire departments came forward to receive the proclamation.

Webb said Bob Karsted, project manager of the Great Divide Wind Farm project, would attend the regular meeting to present the latest update.

At the regular meeting, Karsted introduced Lenny Nguyen, who is working with him on the project.

Karsted said Scout Energy has been working on the project since 2016 when the agreement was signed. He noted that Covid in 2020 and 2021 caused "a hiccup in the project. We picked up steam in early 2022. We are working with El Paso Electric on their substation, and we will build the switchyard to fit their specifications. We have completed the 60 percent design of the switchyard/POI (power on/off interrupt). As part of that project we ordered five high voltage circuit breakers." He said later that it would take 90-142 weeks for them to be delivered. as they had to use EPE vendors.

"About this time last year, we commissioned a Class 3 cultural resources survey with Parametrics out of Albuquerque," Karsted continued. "It was a pedestrian survey in that the resource specialist actually walked the entire 27,000 acres of the project and inventoried culturally sensitive areas. They created a report that we submitted to the State Land Office because about 60 percent of the property is on state lands. It's required to comply with the Cultural Properties Act statute. It identified a few cultural areas for us to avoid. The mitigation is to reroute roads and maybe change where to place turbines."

He said last January, the project restarted its Tier 3 baseline eagle use and next surveys. "We already had two years of data from 2017-18 and 2018-19 and we met with US Fish and Wildlife and New Mexico Game and Fish in late 2019. Because of the 5-year gap, we decided to commission another year of eagle studies. To get the actual equipment and turbines from Interstate 10 to the site, we submitted a crossing and improvement application with our primary route on Separ Road. We met with Union Pacific and New Mexico DOT just after Thanksgiving last year. Union Pacific is going through the review and New Mexico DOT pushed our application up to the federal Department of Transportation for review. They have decided to let Union Pacific take the lead. Right now, we are looking at Separ Road primarily for construction traffic, not the heavy wind turbines. Because the off ramp has about a four-foot bump up and over the railroad track, we have engaged with Kinder Morgan, a couple of miles down the road, with a much more favorable off ramp over the railroad tracks that we think Union Pacific and NM DOT will find more favorable. So we are in discussion with Kinder Morgan about a right-of-way agreement across their facility. One of the landowners is more than happy to let us build a road on his property, which is just adjacent to the Kinder Morgan facility. We just have to get through the Kinder Morgan parking lot. We had a survey crew out there gathering data to feed into the engineering drawings that will be attached to our crossing applications. It will also trigger the next meeting with the railroad and the DOT. We hope to have that all done in the next few weeks."

Karsted said about this time last year, they were wrapping up a request for proposal for potential BOP (balance of plant, which is what general contractors are called in the wind business) bidders. "We did onsite tours and they submitted best-of-offer pricing, so we have an idea of how much general contractors are charging for their services, which feeds into our pricing for off-takers. About this time last year, we did our geotechnical survey by boring into the ground at each turbine site. That feeds into our foundation design, depending on the dirt and rock, which also feeds into our cost to build the wind farm. This summer we completed extending our land leases with our landowners through 2027. This is a big one—the line from the project to the substation to the switchyard point of connection. That line crosses the SunZia Line, as well as the South Line. We completed agreements with both those companies. They were amicable negotiations, although Covid put it off for two years."

He said that completes some major parts of the project construction, "pie," with the engineering procurement construction as another wedge, interconnection as a wedge and off-take as another wedge of the pie.

"We've realized constraints in each of these wedges," Karsted said. "The long delivery time for the high voltage circuit breakers and the transformer is at least a year and a half out, but will be here before the breakers. The cost of turbine prices will increase by at least 10 percent for the 2024 turbines and 6.8 percent for the 2025 turbine. EPE has a blackout time when we cannot touch that line, so we can only interconnect with El Paso Electric between October 1 and March 1. As a result of all these constraints, including not yet having an off-taker, our commercial operation date has been moved to March of 2027. We are constantly revising these schedules, but we are confident we can make that date. We expect to issue our notice to proceed in mid-2025.

"However our industrial revenue bonds must be issued by Dec. 31, 2023, so we are requesting to extend the issuance date to December of 2026," he said. "The industrial revenue bonds are a crucial part of the financing. Without having them the project is severely challenged. This extension will allow this project to be a profitable one. Scout Energy is committed to this project."

District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chris Ponce said he had received a call early that week from one of the ranchers in the area. "I would like for someone to go talk to the landowners on the timeline. He asked me if it was going to benefit the county."

"If you provide us with the names of the non-participating landowners, we would be happy to talk to them," Karsted said.

District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne asked when the final negotiation on the Pilot (payment in lieu of taxes) will come.

Karsted said he believes the pilot would be listed in the inducement resolution, "which we are trying to have it adopted within the next month."

Webb said part of the inducement resolution is how much goes to the county, to the schools, according to state statute.

Browne said the statute has changed twice while he's been a commissioner, "or is it based on when the bonds are sold."

"That's correct," Webb said. She agreed with Browne that it "could be" overridden by state statute.

District 3 Commissioner Alicia Edwards said she thought one-on-one with the landowners is a good idea. "But I really think we need a public meeting to let people know about the schedule and the updates so they know we are still moving forward with the project."

Karsted said they would put one together.

The next article will continue with review of the regular meeting agenda at the work session and decisions made at the regular meeting.

For the previous articles, please visit: https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/80944-grant-county-commission-holds-work-session-101023-part-1 ; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81097-grant-county-commission-holds-work-session-101023-part-2  ; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81122-grant-county-commission-holds-work-session-101023-part-3 ; and https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81142-grant-county-commission-holds-work-session-101023-part-4 .