Two energy companies are laying out plans for the $250 million transformation of the more than 40 year-old Escalante Generating Station in Prewitt, New Mexico.
In early 2020 the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association announced a schedule for the closing of the station, noting that the decision was “driven by the economics of operating the power plant in a competitive power market.”
Tri-State is based in Westminster, Colorado, and is a not-for-profit supply cooperative providing power in four states.
Last month Newpoint Gas LLC, of Columbus, Texas, in a partnership with the Plymouth, Connecticut-based Brooks Energy Company, announced plans to purchase the Escalante station from Tri-State.
As proposed, what is being called the Escalante Hydrogen Project will see the facility transformed from a coal-fired generation plant to one producing hydrogen. If successful, it will be the first effort of its kind in the country.
In a statement, Robert Price, president of Brooks Energy, said the transformed and repurposed station will be designed “with the goals to provide clean reliable power and an additional focus on empowering local New Mexico communities.”
If the purchase of the station becomes reality, the project will also see the construction of a 3-mile long pipeline needed for transporting natural gas to the plant, as well as the building of injection and monitoring wells, and a hydrogen purification system.
By Garry Boulard
