Dive Brief:
- California regulators could vote next week on a proposal from San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) to construct a new power plant in Southern California that would replace generation lost by the retirement of the 2,250-MW San Onofre nuclear facility.
- Environmental groups oppose the gas-fired facility, pushing instead for cleaner sources of energy, such as storage, U-T San Diego reports.
- SDG&E says the new fast-ramping gas plant is needed to help integrate variable renewable resources, but critics point to other utility energy storage purchases as an alternative to fossil generation.
Dive Insight:
Southern California is still trying to deal with the retirement of the San Onofre nuclear facility, and regulators could vote within a week to replace an aging plant at Carlsbad with newer, more efficient gas-fired generation at an adjacent site. But U-T San Diego reports environmental groups Sierra Club and National Resources Defense Council oppose the plan, pushing instead for more renewable power.
The city of Carlsbad initially opposed the plant, but has reversed its position.
An administrative law judge at the California Public Utilities Commission has recommended other sources of power be considered, throwing a potential deal between NRG Energy and San Diego Gas & Electric into doubt.
“We had the expectation that since we had this agreement (with NRG and SDG&E) that it was going to go through,” Calrsbad City Councilman Keith Blackburn told the newspaper. “It caught me a little off guard, and I was surprised at the proposed decision.”
Critics of the proposed plant say SDG&E should have considered options other than fossil fuel generation. They point to Southern California Edison's purchase last year of 250 MW of energy storage as an example of a viable alternative to a gas plant.
