CALIFORNIA WITHOUT SONGS

California energy officials plan for life without San Onofre; As officials make short-term plans to cope while the San Onofre plant is off line, they're also starting to think about the possibility of a nuclear-free future.

Abby Sewell. June 24, 2012 (LA Times)

“California energy officials are beginning to plan for the possibility of a long-range future without the [San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS)]…The plant's unexpected, nearly five-month outage has had officials scrambling to replace its power this summer and has become a wild card in already complicated discussions about the state's energy future.

“That long-range planning process already involves dealing with the possible repercussions of climate change, a mandate to boost the state's use of renewable sources to 33% of the energy supply by 2020 and another mandate to phase out a process known as once-through cooling, which uses ocean water to cool coastal power plants, that will probably take some other plants out of service…”

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“…Before the current shutdown at the plant, officials had planned only for a scenario in which one of the reactors would be off line. No one had anticipated a complete shutdown…The plant's 2,200 megawatts of power provide electricity to about 1.4 million homes, but the facility also provides voltage support to the transmission system that allows power to be imported from elsewhere…Plant operator Southern California Edison has not yet submitted a plan to fix the issues…and has said the plant will remain shut down at least through the summer…Officials said that with contingency plans in place for this summer, including temporarily bringing two retired gas-fired units in Huntington Beach back on line, Southern California should not see rolling blackouts under most circumstances. But an extreme heat wave or outage at another power plant or on a major transmission line could strain the system.

“California ISO officials said they are beginning to plan for the possibility that the plant will still be off line next summer…One of the main solutions cobbled together for this summer, bringing the Huntington Beach units back into service, will not be available next summer because that plant's air emission credits will go to a new plant opening in the City of Industry…That plant should be on line by summer 2013, but it's not as well situated as the Huntington Beach units to make up for the power lost from San Onofre…The ISO is also beginning to look at long-range scenarios in which California would use no nuclear power from either San Onofre or the state's one other nuclear plant, Diablo Canyon…”

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