CA: Power plant construction lags projected 2008 need

Mercury News ^ | 7/26/06 | Sarah Jane Tribble

[NormsRevenge]

California has approved 18 power plants to be built in the next few years, but only two are under construction and will cover only half of the expected growth in peak energy demand state officials are predicting by 2008.

Five years after the state's power crisis, anxiety over insufficient supply stems from a more cautious power market in which generators want to be sure they can sell the energy they produce before spending billions on new plants. Energy experts warned that the record-setting heat wave alone should not spur a power plant boom.

The two plants being built will add 960 megawatts to the state grid when they come online in the next two years -- enough to power 720,000 homes. That falls short of the California Independent System Operator's prediction that 1,787 more megawatts will be needed during hot summer afternoons in 2008.

--snip--

On Tuesday, power demand hit 49,761 megawatts -- about 8 percent more than the 46,000 grid operators expect on an average summer day. Conservation pleas prodded California's residents and businesses to once again shave more than 1,000 megawatts off the power grid, ...

Since the 2000-01 power crisis, California has built 36 new power plants producing almost 13,000 megawatts of electricity. With power lost from older power plants that have been retired, including two big plants this year, only about 6,700 net megawatts of energy have been added to the power grid.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said his office was working to get more power plants built in coming years, but noted that the permit and building process for each plant can take years.

``We're doing it as quickly as possible, and I think that we have been very successful providing'' energy, Schwarzenegger said, also pointing to initiatives such as promoting solar power.

[steve8714]

Are they still building natgas plants, driving the price of home heating in the Midwest through the roof?

[TChris]

The Fed Gov should require that new power plants be nukes. The Nat Gas plants make too big of an impact on the (yes, interstate) NG market.

[ElkGroveDan]

thanks I was just looking for something like this

[LM_Guy]

I am surprised the Left Coast Envirmntl's don't go thru the roof about all the CO2 from NatGas power plants.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Are they still building natgas plants, driving the price of home heating in the Midwest through the roof?

They are the only type of power plants the environmentalists find acceptable. California needs more nuclear plants built well away from the fault lines.

[TChris]

I am surprised the Left Coast Envirmntl's don't go thru the roof about all the CO2 from NatGas power plants.

That's because it's their CO₂ and their CO₂ doesn't count.

[yobid]

away from the fault lines.

You could put a US nuke plant on a fault line without worry. The only seismic event that can harm a nuke plant is one that would swallow it whole.

[bpjam]

And while California has been sleeping, Nevada has already built two new power plants right on the California border after the 2001 blackouts (thank you, Gray Davis). So this summer when California goes black they can buy their electricity from Nevada at mini-bar prices instead of Enron.

There has never been a free market that the government of California hasn't screwed up to the detriment of their citizens.

[mdwags]

"That's because it's their CO2 and their CO2 doesn't count."

Bingo!! We have a winner!

[Little Bill]

Any Ahole that builds a Generating plant in Kali is not worth investing in.

[calcowgirl]

... a more cautious power market in which generators want to be sure they can sell the energy they produce before spending billions on new plants.

I'm sure regulating greenhouse gas emissions will really make them happy. /s

[calcowgirl]

This site is kind of cool--you can see (almost) real time tracking the system load from the ISO Energy Management System:

http://www.caiso.com/outlook/SystemStatus.html