San Diego Gas & Electric says it has sufficient power generation to meet the region’s needs, even without the San Onofre nuclear power plant, but it’s obviously hedging its bets by seeking approval for a natural gas peaker plant in Otay Mesa, one that state power regulators denied in March.
On June 21, SDG&E filed an amended application to the California Public Utilities Commission to approve the Pio Pico plant that would generate 300 megawatts. Peaker plants are so-named because they usually only run during periods of high demand.
The local power company, a unit of San Diego-based Sempra Energy, is amending its plans in light of the June 7 decision to permanently shut down the San Onofre plant by majority owner, Southern California Edison. The plant that is 20 percent owned by SDG&E hasn’t been operating since January 2012 when a radioactive leak in one of its reactors was discovered.
Jennifer Ramp, an SDG&E spokeswoman, said because of the San Onofre shutdown, the company needs to expand its local power capacity.
A Reliable Source
“This new facility will contribute to local capacity requirements and will be instrumental in maintaining a reliable electrical system,” Ramp said.
Previous to its problems, the San Onofre plant generated about 2,200 megawatts. A megawatt can power about 650 homes.
To make up for the loss, SDG&E points proudly to its Sunrise Powerlink transmission line, which has been operating since June 2012, as a key factor in maintaining regional power capability. The 117-mile Sunrise line is delivering between 800 to 1,000 megawatts of electrical power generated from solar and wind generating plants in the Imperial Valley. The project cost $1.9 billion and is part of the company’s strategy to comply with the state-mandated rule for power companies to generate 33 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020.
Besides the power derived from natural sources in Imperial County, SDG&E imports power from other sources beyond the county line. In fact on any given day, about half of the power is generated outside the region, Ramp said.
Last summer, SDG&E imported about 2,900 megawatts to the region. Because of a series of infrastructure upgrades initiated several years ago, the power company expects to import as much as 3,350 megawatts this summer, Ramp said.
Alternative Energy
On the alternative energy side, SDG&E has signed 36 contracts with a variety of generation companies totaling about 1,750 megawatts. So far, two of those projects have been energized: a wind farm in Ocotillo with a total capacity of 265 megawatts, and a solar plant near El Centro with a capacity of 130 megawatts.
Neither of these projects is fully built out. The wind farm at Ocotillo, which began operating in December, was halted in May after a blade broke off from a turbine. Operator Pattern Energy said the turbines would be switched on by the end of June.
Several other solar projects are under construction in Imperial County and should be brought online later this year or next year, Ramp said.
Given all this power capacity, some critics say SDG&E’s plan to build Pio Pico at a cost of about $300 million makes no sense.
Bill Powers, principal of Powers Engineering and a member of the Sierra Club’s local chapter, said Southern California “is awash in excess natural gas-fired power plant capacity due to a decade-long building boom that is still underway.”
He cited four power plants in the Los Angeles area that will be operating this summer that generate about 2,200 megawatts of electricity. Indeed, there is so much capacity that San Onofre was down for more than a year, and the region hasn’t missed it, according to Powers.
SDG&E is intent on building the Pio Pico plant despite the PUC giving the company direction to come up with new strategies of meeting capacity focused on alternative energy sources, Powers said.
“SDG&E desperately wants to build this thing not because it’s needed, but for other reasons,” he said.
Powers said the company, like most utilities, “makes money by building stuff.”