Editor's note: This email was originally sent to people on Councilman Bill Brand's mailing list. We are republishing it with permission.
An article in the Los Angeles Times recently reports on the possibility that the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) could be down for maintenance through this summer—the peak demand period for the year.
Unlike , the SONGS is critical to the reliability of the electrical grid in our local area during peak months. Without SONGS this summer, AES Redondo could become a critical backup component to the LA Basin. But as AES officials themselves have said, we can't look at this year, or even the next few years to determine the need or lack of need for a new plant in Redondo beyond 2018.
Both SONGs units have been recently upgraded, and once this cooling pipe issue is resolved, they will be generating power for the foreseeable future. Likewise, many new sources and transmission upgrades will be added. The combined power generation capacity planned for 2018 and beyond shows significant excess capacity—more than enough to permanently retire AES Redondo.
The California Independent System Operator, a non-profit organization that manages the electrical grid in California, issued a report (see attachment) to its Board of Directors last week on how it plans to respond to this unexpected and prolonged shut down. A brief it gave to its Board is linked in the report.
Remember, three plants that were eventually retired in San Francisco and Chula Vista and all were critical to their local areas when the push to retire them began. Redondo is in a much better position from a reliability perspective than any of those plants were, and like I said, they were eventually retired after upgrades were made.
Bill Brand
Second District Councilman, Redondo Beach
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