They provide needed and reliable energy—as the rolling black-outs recently attest—and need to stay open.
This article from California Globe discusses current meetings to ensure they do.
An excerpt.
“This week, environmental organizations, officials from numerous cities, and energy company officials are mounting eleventh hour fights before the State Water Resources Control Board meets next week to decide if several natural gas plants in Southern California will get an extension to stay open.
“One to three year extension possible for four gas power plants in Southern California
“The upcoming decision focuses on four natural gas plants along California’s coast in Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Oxnard, and Redondo Beach. The plants, which rely on seawater cooling, have all been deemed inefficient and not environmentally sound. All four are slated for closure in the early 2020’s, with the largest, the AES plant in Redondo Beach, slated to close in 2023.
In their place, green energy such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric power plants are to be built, along with any future environmentally friendly sources of power. This is all part of California’s initiative to have 60% green power by 2030 and be 100% green by 2045.
“However, the rush to close plants and install green energy at that fast pace has seen many bumps in the road. Battery capacity for green energy sources has proven a challenge, as wind and sunlight for wind power and solar power can only be generated at specific times. With power storage issues in California, nighttime usage, thanks to the gap from solar energy only generating power during the day, became an issue.
“But this also caused issues in the power grid. Without a steady supply during hotter months, when air-conditioning and other high-power use items are used en masse, rolling blackouts begin to happen, as evidenced during the last few weeks across California due to high temperatures.
“Planned closures, failed power grids
“Despite having a decade to figure out how to make up the power without seawater cooled gas plants due to a Water Board ruling in 2010, California has not kept up. Energy officials have begged for extensions of the 4 gas plants in questions for years due to the drastic shortfall. The companies who own the plants say they need an extension to help California to avoid any power gaps and see through to its 100% green energy promise.
“The Water Board vote on keeping the Huntington Beach, Long Beach and Oxnard plants open for an additional three years and the Redondo Beach plant open for another year was seen as more unlikely than likely only a few weeks ago. But with the California power grid nearing collapse and green power not taking up enough of the slack of fossil fuel plants right now, state officials have now been signaling that an extension is likely.
Environmentalists and city leaders where the contested power plants lie have been against the extensions. Environmentalists want the plants closed to fight climate change sooner rather than later, with city leaders wanting the plants out of their cities due to pollution, the plant facilities taking up prime seaside real estate, and those plants only generating a small amount of energy.”
Retrieved August 24, 2020 from https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/four-gas-power-plants-may-see-operation-extensions-due-to-blackouts-grid-issues/
Be well everyone!
Parkway Blog 