California opts for fossil fuels to keep the lights on in extreme heat
California will continue to rely on three natural gas plants along its southern coast to keep electricity flowing during extreme heat events following an agency’s approval Tuesday, reflecting the state’s halting progress in weaning itself off fossil fuels.
The State Water Resources Control Board approved a Newsom administration plan to keep Ormond Beach, Long Beach and Huntington Beach plants online through 2026, rather than closing them this year as planned.
The administration has said the plants, which together can power more than 2.5 million homes, are needed to keep the lights on when heat threatens to trigger rolling blackouts. The facilities will only be used when forecasts project major surges in energy demand.
People who live near the plants accused board members and other state officials of breaking promises to close the plants — first in 2020 and then by Dec. 31 of this year — and of failing to procure carbon-free replacements.
“Reliability was in question because of bad decision-making,” Shane Ysais, a communications coordinator for the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, told the board Tuesday. “And that should not be our fault. When are we going to have the courage to stop these extensions?”
Extreme weather events are becoming more common due to climate change, and the combined effects of heat, drought and wildfires are multiplying threats to the grid. By summer 2025 a potential convergence of extreme weather events could leave the state 10 gigawatts short of demand, according to an analysis last year by a state advisory committee on water cooling structures. The committee recommended approving the extension.
The Newsom administration and the Legislature negotiated a deal last year to improve reliability. The agreement included extending operations at the nuclear Diablo Canyon Power Plant and creating a new "strategic reliability reserve" program.
The Department of Water Resources, which is in charge of the reserve program, contracted with the Southern California natural gas plant operators GenOn and AES to keep the plants online at a cost of up to $1.2 billion. The contracts were contingent on the water board’s approval.
The board’s approval was required because the plants rely on ocean water for cooling. The three facilities are expected to suck in and spit out about 633 billion gallons in the three extension years, killing about 2,400 pounds of fish that get pinned to intake screens and many thousands of other organisms ranging from seals and turtles to larvae, according to a board report.
The board on Tuesday also approved extensions of ocean cooling structures at Diablo Canyon and at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's Scattergood Generating Station.
