LAS CRUCES — Doña Ana County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to notify developers behind Project Jupiter of a potential violation of their bond agreement.
The vote came after the commissioners emerged from a closed session. Although their discussion was private, commission Chair Manny Sanchez said the breach was “regarding their proposed power generation plan” for the massive and controversial data center project in Santa Teresa.
A plan presented by Oracle, one of the main companies behind the project, to offset El Paso Electric customers’ utility costs as developers work to strike a deal with the utility for backup power drew ire from commissioners upon its seemingly sudden introduction at an Oct. 13 meeting.
The data center buildings remain without power pending an air permit application — a regulatory process through the state Environment Department that has been riddled with roadblocks.
Sanchez said at the Oct. 13 meeting that working with El Paso Electric would require an amendment to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds the county approved over a year ago, as a condition prevents Project Jupiter from impacting utility customers’ rates. The plan has been for a separate on-site Bloom Energy fuel-cell power source for the data center.
Oracle wrote in an Oct. 13 news release that it proposed to provide up to $55 million annually in direct credits to El Paso Electric customers for up to three years, and $100 million over 10 years to El Paso Electric itself.
El Paso Electric seemed receptive to the plan.
“We welcome the opportunity to facilitate Oracle’s credit to further affordability for our customers,” President and CEO Kelly Tomblin said in an Oct. 13 statement.
“Our intent was that we were doing something nice,” Mahesh Thiagarajan, executive vice president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, said at the Oct. 13 meeting, following pushback from commissioners. “Obviously, that was incorrect. So we take that back. We want to work with you. You tell us how you want to do the [El Paso Electric] thing. … I would never do anything that this county is not happy with.”
During a media tour of the site that same day, Thiagarajan said Oracle would not necessarily back out of the El Paso Electric agreement but rather would work with the county to “hear their feedback.”
The county has not provided The New Mexican with the notice that will be sent to developers, and did not respond Wednesday to questions about the breach and what repercussions would look like.
Neither Oracle nor El Paso Electric responded to a request for comment Wednesday.
Julia Gentin is a reporter for The Las Cruces New Mexican, The Santa Fe New Mexican and Searchlight New Mexico through a partnership with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. She covers the Southern New Mexico region. Learn more about Report for America at reportforamerica.org.
