CIUDAD JUºREZ - Financing has been secured, and border-area plastics processors may reap benefits from a huge electric power plant to be constructed beginning in June near Ciudad Ju rez. The $647 million plant - dubbed the Samalayuca II - is to begin generating electricity by 1998, and some of the power is to be sent across the border to customers in El Paso, Texas.
Contracts guarantee that the plant will be able to provide power to enough customers in sufficient amounts to repay the significant debt being incurred to build the plant.
A private consortium including General Electric Co. and Emica, a Mexico City construction concern, will build the plant and lease the facility for 20 years to the state-run Mexican utilities system.
But an El Paso Electric spokeswoman, Skosh Moore, was unaware of any arrangements made to link the Samalayuca plant, 30 miles south of El Paso, to that city and its strong plastics processor community.
``We provide some service to Ciudad Ju rez,'' said Moore, noting no plans were available for determining how the Texas utility would change its power transmission practice to its current U.S. customers or the Mexican city when the new power plant goes online.
