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Environment

Cities Weigh In On How To Replace San Onofre Power

By Alison St John / Reporter
Published January 8, 2014 at 3:00 AM PST
This story was published more than 10 years ago.

Cities Weigh In On How To Replace San Onofre Power
The city of Solana Beach votes Wednesday night on whether to formally oppose building new fossil fuel power plants in San Diego to make up for the loss of San Onofre’s nuclear power.

Solana Beach could become the next city to register opposition to SDG&E's plans to use natural gas to help cover the 400 megawatts of nuclear power lost when San Onofre shut down.

The cities of Encinitas and Del Mar already have written to California's Public Utilities Commission to support the Sierra Club, which opposes the fossil fuel option.

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SDG&E has received preliminary approval to resurrect a new gas-powered plant that was rejected last year. The CPUC might reverse itself and approve the Pio Pico plant in the South Bay, citing San Onofre's closure as the reason for its change of heart.

SDG&E spokeswoman Stephanie Donovan said the company needs to use all its options, and the Pio Pico plant would be able to generate up to 300 megawatts of power. It would be a "peaker" plant, used to generate energy only at times of peak demand. Donovan said SDG&E also is developing new wind and solar energy, but that will not be enough.

"Which is why we need to maintain some traditional, base-load natural gas-fired power plants," she said, "as well as all of the renewables, and these peaker units, such as Pio Pico, that will help provide the stability of the grid and the reliability of the system overall."

But Solana Beach Deputy Mayor Lesa Heebner said her city council will consider sending a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission, urging them not to approve the new gas-powered plant.

"There's all sorts of capacity for clean energy that will be able to take up the slack," she said. "It's not in SDG&E's financial plan to have solar rooftops in their portfolio as a generator, because they can't control it."

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The Sierra Club argument is that, if Pio Pico is approved, other gas-powered plants that have been rejected as unnecessary could be approved, making it more difficult for the region to meet its goals of cutting down on pollution.

The group has released a new poll that suggests a majority of customers in San Diego would prefer a plan that uses only clean, renewable energy sources and more energy efficiency in Southern California

Another new gas-powered plant is in the works in Carlsbad, where the Encina power plant will shut down in 2017.

The PUC will consider Pio Pico plant in the South Bay on Feb. 5.

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Environment EnergyNorth County
Alison St John
Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.
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