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Whos Backyard is Next? With San Diego Power Plant Shut, SDG&E Turns To Fossil Fuel

Posted on June 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

natural gas power plant

With San Diego’s nuclear plant shut for good, utility officials are reviving a proposal for a major new natural gas power plant in an industrial zone south of San Diego.

Plans for the Pio Pico Energy Center, adjacent to an existing power plant in unincorporated Otay Mesa, were rejected in March by the California Public Utilities Commission, saying there was no need for the facility until at least 2018. But the door was left open for a repeat application.

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San Diego Gas & Electric President Mike Niggli said circumstances have changed with the closure of the San Onofre nuclear plant.

“I think what we see now is the opportunity to take a facility that has been through the entire process of having a competitive bid, the lowest cost facility for our customers, and have that come on as a good solid supply,” Niggli said.

Under the previous application, the Pio Pico project would cost utility customers more than $1 billion under a 20 year contract. Exact terms were not made public under rules designed to protect competitive bidding.

The power plant application kicks off efforts to redraw the Southern California energy grid without San Onfore’s twin reactors, which generated enough energy to power 1.4 million homes. Advocates for alternatives to fossil fuels vowed to challenge the proposal, saying it would cut short efforts to meet energy needs though through conservation, rooftop solar and energy efficiency and other clean technologies.

Under California law, those resources are given priority over the development of fossil fuel plants in an effort to reduce air pollution and forestall climate change.

SDG&E officials have argued that Pio Pico and other quick-start natural gas plants will be needed to offset more solar and wind energy generation that varies with the weather. Utilities are required to generate one-third of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

The state announced Monday that it is moving forward with new energy storage requirements that can help even out the availability of power generated by wind, solar and other renewable sources.

California’s main grid operator is forecasting adequate energy supplies for this summer, but also is actively preparing consumers to conserve energy on short notice in the event of extreme hot weather or the failure of power plants and transmission lines or both.

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San Diego – Proposed Electrical Hike; What Does It Hold?

Posted on April 30, 2013 | Leave a comment

State utility regulators are weighing a proposal to increase electricity and gas rates by at least $723 million over a four-year period for customers in San Diego and southern Orange counties.

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More than a year past due, the contested case before the California Public Utilities Commission could come to a vote as soon as early next month and will apply retroactively to rates starting Jan. 1, 2012, and extending through 2015.

Closely watched by utility investors and consumer advocates, the deliberations will determine how much can be spent on the region’s complex web of electrical wires and gas pipelines, along with the training, salaries, incentives and retirement of people operating them.

“We’ve been able, in past years, to find some kind of middle ground,” said Bob Finkelstein, general counsel for The Utility Reform Action Network in San Francisco, among more than a dozen advocacy groups contesting SDG&E’s requests. “This time … the gap was too large. It was a bridge too far to get to figuring out a settlement.”

The result is an itemized, 1,300-page proposed decision by an administrative law judge in the case, John Wong, that could still undergo changes as it comes to a vote before the five-member, governor-appointed utilities commission. Rate increases for SDG&E affiliate Southern California Gas also are addressed.

The proposed decision would bump up SDG&E revenues retroactively by $140.2 million to $1.75 billion, effective Jan. 1, 2012.

That’s a one-year, 8.7 percent increase (though it will be applied to bills gradually over more than two years to prevent hardship). The impact on individual utility bills would be less significant because state-authorized rate increases do not affect commodity, transmission and some other charges.

Stephanie Donovan, a spokeswoman for SDG&E, said costs are being driven up by safety and reliability needs, new electric grid technologies, expanded environmental regulatory requirements and higher insurance costs for wildfire liability and employee health care.

Competing efforts

The judge’s recommendation would reject $99.4 million of SDG&E’s request. That prompted a formal warning letter last week to investors in SDG&E’s San Diego-based parent company, Sempra Energy.

Wong summarized in writing competing efforts to sway the commission.

“Parties who oppose the proposed increases contend that due to current economic conditions, ratepayers cannot afford any increase in their electric and gas rates,” he said. “The applicants contend that despite the state of the economy, their costs have been increasing due to additional federal, state, and local regulations, as well as increases in the cost of materials and new technology, and the growth of their respective utility systems to meet growing demand.”

Among the slashed requests: $29.8 million for energy storage projects, designed to even out the availability of solar-generated electricity and other renewable power.

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San Diego – Utilities Smart Meters Optional

Posted on April 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

State regulators are allowing San Diego-area utility customers to opt out of wireless “smart meters” that relay detailed information about home electricity use by radio frequency to the local power company.

San Diego Gas & Electric residential customers who do not want a wireless meter, for whatever reason, can choose to have an analog electric meter or gas meter or both, under provisions approved Thursday by the California Public Utilities Commission.

Opt-out customers will be assessed an initial fee of $75 and a monthly charge of $10 thereafter. Low-income and other customers enrolled in the California Alternate Rates for Energy program pay a $10 fee and a monthly charge of $5.

The charges and fees do not come close to covering the expense of maintaining analog equipment inventories, and they could be increased during upcoming proceedings about implementation costs.

SDG&E has installed more than 1.3 million smart meters for the vast majority of its customers, an effort that began in 2008.

The utility’s network of wireless equipment does away with meter readers and holds out the promise of helping people better understand how they are using electricity — and eventually how they might save power and money.

A small fraction of customers have health concerns about the effects of adding yet more wireless signals to the modern home. Some customers also oppose sharing information about their hourly energy use with the utility, or suspect they might be penalized by conservation incentives.

Customers who were placed on a smart-meter delay list while the opt-out plan was being crafted will still get a wireless meter unless they elect to participate in SDG&E’s opt-out program, the utilities commission said on Thursday.

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Tag Archives: sdg&e

Whos Backyard is Next? With San Diego Power Plant Shut, SDG&E Turns To Fossil Fuel

San Diego – Proposed Electrical Hike; What Does It Hold?

Competing efforts

San Diego – Utilities Smart Meters Optional

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