South Bay Power Plant’s closure is Chula Vista’s target
Gina McGalliard
San Diego News Room
10/26/2009
Units three and four, which represent half of the generators at the South Bay Power Plant, will be decommissioned on midnight of Dec. 31. Chula Vista city officials and the Port of San Diego, hope it is the beginning of the plant being decommissioned entirely.
“At one time it obviously served a purpose, and at one time it was necessary to provide adequate power to the region,” said Jim Sandoval, Chula Vista’s city manager. “But the technology is very old, it was built in the 50s and at this point in time there are other plants that are coming online, so it’s not needed. Beyond that, we’ve been concerned about some of the environmental concerns for our community with the emissions, and also the impacts on the bay.”
The Port of San Diego, who bought the plant from SDG&E a decade ago, also wants the plant to be decommissioned and eventually demolished. “Even when the port was buying the power plant, the port’s position was it was buying the power plant to decommission it and to clear the land for the public,” said Ronald W. Powell, chief spokesman for the Port of San Diego. Powell also said the Port intended to decommission the plant in accordance with the wishes of California’s Independent System Operator (ISO), which operates the power grid for the state.
A primary reason for decommissioning is that the plant uses older technology, causing pollution to the south portion of San Diego Bay.
“The regional board considers the power plant to be what we would term a considerable stressor to the aquatic system of south San Diego Bay,” said David Barker, supervising engineer for San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. “The chief effect of the power plant deals with what’s called the impingement of aquatic life, [which] occurs when water is withdrawn from the bay and used for cooling purposes…the withdrawing of the water causes adverse impact when aquatic organisms are trapped against the facility’s intake screen where they cannot escape and suffer injuries.”
The other type of impact the plant has on aquatic life is called entrainment. San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board senior engineer Brian Kelley described it as “Fish getting entrained into the system through the screens, becoming very stressful for them as they go through the system. A lot of them essentially die through that process, either by the heat or the severe pumping conditions.” Other environmental effects caused by the plant include elevated water temperature and copper being emitted into the bay.
The board has no official position on the plant being removed. However, shutting down two of the four units “will reduce the amount of cooling water they withdraw from the bay and discharge by over 200 million gallons a day, which is a substantial reduction in their flow discharge volume, which in turn would reduce adverse effects on the bay,” said Barker. He also said the plant does not violate standards under the California Water Code and the federal Clean Water Act and is not currently violating any permit conditions.
Chula Vista Councilmember Steve Castanada said he has had complaints from community members about the air quality due to the plant. “We’ve had people that have come to our city council that have said that there’s soot on their cars,” he said.
The city is confident that the eventual decommissioning of the plant will not result in a power shortage. “I think if you look at the region, there’s other plants coming online, so I don’t think we’re going to be at a deficit as far as energy,” said Sandoval. “The city is willing to do its part if there’s an appropriate location for another type of energy generating facility and it’s newer, cleaner technology, but the bay front is not a place where we feel it should be.”
An Oct. 15 press release from Dynegy, the entity that operates and leases the facility, stated the ISO has designated units one and two, as well as a small turbine peaking unit of the power plant as “Reliability Must Run” (RMR) for the year 2010, citing the need to maintain power reliability while other power facilities are being brought online.
The ISO said they have plans to decommission the other two units at the plant, but does not know when this will be possible. A study will be conducted to determine if the units will run in 2011. If the plant were to close prematurely, the ISO said, federal reliability standards might be compromised and San Diego could experience a power shortage.
If and when the plant is decommissioned, it will take 27 months to dismantle.
