AES Unveils Plans for New Power Plant

After months of speculation fueled by a preliminary proposal filed with the State Water Resources Control Board, officials from unveiled their plan to rebuild the aging power plant at a packed City Council meeting.

The AES discussion at Tuesday's meeting lasted until 10:30 p.m. and grew acrimonious at times, despite Mayor Mike Gin's pleas for quiet.

• Watch: Nov. 8 City Council Meeting

The meeting began with a presentation from AES officials on preliminary plans for the new plant, and also included a public comment session, during which opponents of the plant went on the offensive.

The new plant, which would not pump water from the ocean to cool the superheated steam produced by the boilers, would be smaller, more efficient and more environmentally friendly, said AES Southland President Eric Pendergraft.

"We want to eliminate the use of ocean water for cooling," he said. AES Redondo Beach must reduce the amount of ocean water it uses by 97 percent by 2020 to comply with a new law banning ocean-water cooling in California.

Pendergraft called the new plant, which has a generation capacity of 630 megawatts—half the capacity of the current plant's 1310 megawatts—a necessary part of California's goal to generate 33 percent of its electricity using renewable resources by 2020.

Because electricity cannot be stored in large amounts with current technology, natural gas plants like AES Redondo Beach must be in place to pick up the slack when the wind stops blowing or the sun isn't shining, Pendergraft said.

"The plant today is pretty ill-suited to help integrate those renewables," said AES Redondo Beach project manager Jennifer Didlo. The current plant can take more than 36 hours to start up from a total shutdown. If one of the old boilers is already running, it still takes 12 hours to start up one of the newer boilers, which generates electricity.

The new plant would be much more flexible, as it would be able to start up in less than 10 minutes and get to full generating capacity in less than five minutes, according to Didlo.

"[The new plant is] going to support those renewables, and it's going to be as clean as it can possibly be," Didlo said.

The new plant would also have a catalyst to reduce the amount of carbon monoxide emissions from 500 parts per million to 4 ppm, according to AES' calculations. The plant would also produce half as much NOX emissions—reducing the current plant's 5 ppm to 2.5 ppm—and halve the amount of ammonia released from 10 ppm to 5 ppm.

Besides reducing the plant's capacity to 630 megawatts, the new plant's footprint would be reduced from 52 acres to 19 acres. It would have four stacks with a height of 120 feet, instead of the current 219 feet.

"The new facility will be smaller, and it will be more efficient, and finally, it's going to be environmentally superior," Didlo said.

Additionally, the plant would not be seeking an exemption from air-quality regulations. As required by state law, a number of emissions offsets will be retired from the Southern California Air Quality Management District's bank of offsets; the new plant would use the same offsets as the old plant.

According to Didlo, the new plant would also benefit the city of Redondo Beach by increasing property taxes. Currently, the plant pays $2.1 million in annual taxes, of which $827,000 goes to Redondo Beach entities, such as the school district.

AES wants to build the new plant on the current one's site because it's near transmission lines, officials said. The company would incur additional expense if the plant were relocated because AES would have to build new infrastructure that's already in place at the Redondo site.

"Even if you could find alternative sites to be able to construct new plants, they just can't be moved elsewhere without incurring significant additional cost," Pendergraft said.

Nevertheless, AES officials said that if they did not get a permit to build the new plant or a long-term contract to generate electricity, they would be open to alternative uses for the land—including a park.

In fact, a new power plant might not be needed—a recent study from the California Independent Systems Operators (CAISO) showed that in 2015, there would be excess capacity for electricity generation in the Los Angeles basin, even if Redondo's plant were retired.

"We're definitely going to be evaluating alternative uses for the land, and we really recognize and encourage a lot of city and community involvement in that," Didlo said.

Still, Pendergraft emphasized that the CAISO report only looked at 2015; preliminary results for a CAISO study on projected energy needs in 2020 will be released in March 2012.

"In reality, we don't know right now how many new power plants and how much electricity" the Los Angeles basin will require, he said, later adding, "We will only move forward [with] actually constructing the new plant if it is needed, and if we're able to secure a long-term contract that will support being able to get financing for the facility."

Nevertheless, Pendergraft also said that even though nobody knows if Redondo's plant will be needed, AES must start now on the permitting process so that it is in a position to secure a long-term contract.

As to whether AES would just walk away from the property, "I can't imagine a situation where we would just walk away from it," Pendergraft said; however, he also said that "we're open to selling [the property] at the right price."

Besides Councilman Bill Brand, who has been an outspoken opponent of the power plant, the councilmen and the mayor had not publicly indicated their positions on the issue until Tuesday night.

"Because we haven't been outspoken one way or another doesn't mean we're inviting [AES] to stay in forever," Councilman Steve Aspel said. "If it comes to happen, we're going to hold [AES] to some claims you're making."

Residents respond

Though the discussion between the councilmen and AES officials was amicable for the most part, the public comment portion grew heated.

Of the two dozen people who spoke, none came out in favor of the new power plant. One praised the plan as "a fabulous marketing pitch," but added AES appeared to have a history of misleading residents.

Hermosa Beach resident John Wike said he didn't understand the need for a new power plant in a densely populated area like Hermosa Beach and expressed his support for turning the AES property into a park.

"We have an opportunity where we can create something [to] truly benefit our local community, but [also] other communities in the surrounding area … make it a destination, much like King Harbor," he said.

One attendee suggested AES was presenting plans to rebuild the plant in order to increase the property's value for an eventual sale.

"My personal opinion is that they're not really getting ready to fire up a new plant," said Dean Francois. He also told councilmen that "if [AES officials] don't talk to us, use some eminent domain procedures" to seize the land and build a hotel and a smaller park.

Lezlie Campeggi, one of the women leading the No Power Plant group, which along with controlled-growth group Building a Better Redondo is leading the charge against the power plant, asked the council to adopt a resolution Tuesday night to oppose the plan.

"I want to impress upon you that not taking a position means that you don't oppose a power plant being built," she told councilmen. The new plan is "an illusion; it's an impression; it's an idea," she said. "It's not a fact; it's not solidified."

Building a Better Redondo founder Jim Light approached the podium with a large stack of documents detailing the blighting influence of the plant, its health effects and other negative consequences. Even when his three-minute period ran out, he continued to speak to the council, despite Gin's pleas to step down and let someone else have a turn.

Light asked the council "not to sit here and just pontificate ... sitting here and not doing anything is not the way to stop the power plant."

"I also want to tell you that I am one of those 'pitchfork' people, and I urge you all ... please, read the documents that Mr. Light has brought in," added Melanie Cohen during her turn at the podium. "We're not a bunch of pitchfork people. We're asking our representatives to represent the city of Redondo Beach. We have an enormous opportunity—an enormous opportunity."

Multiple speakers asked how the council could trust AES, a company speakers claimed has been implicated in illegal dumping, prolonging the California energy crisis at the beginning of the millennium and numerous air quality violations.

'They don't want a new power plant there'

After hearing public testimony, Brand took Pendergraft to task, saying that Pendergraft had once said that AES did not want to do anything that the residents of Redondo Beach didn't want to do. Because it seemed as though residents don't want a power plant, "Would you still move forward to build one?" Brand asked.

Pendergraft said he didn't recall making that statement, adding that he thinks the proposed plant may have more support than it seemed to have at Tuesday's meeting.

"I also don't think we've heard from a representative sample of the entire community yet," he said.

Brand disagreed, saying that since the turn of the 20th century, residents of Redondo Beach have not wanted the power plant: "I would submit to you that ... you've had nothing but message after message after message from the community [telling you] that they don't want a new power plant there!"

Brand took his fellow councilmen to task, too, saying that they didn't want to take a position on the plant "because they're afraid of getting sued"—something that Councilman Pat Aust openly admitted to.

Pointing to neighboring Hermosa Beach's issues with Macpherson Oil, Aust said, "Am I afraid that could happen to us? Yes."

"We do need to be concerned about lawsuits," Gin said later in the meeting. "There's no question about that."

Still, Councilman Matt Kilroy indicated that in a perfect world, the community would not be having this discussion.

"I don't think I would sit there and put a power plant right there in the middle of it, but there it is," he said.

And Councilman Steven Diels, who found himself on the opposite side of Building a Better Redondo during the Measure G harbor rezoning battle, took issue with the speakers' admonishment not to trust AES.

"We are on the opposite sides of a ," he said. He also called the South Bay Parkland Conservancy, which does not want the power plant rebuilt, "a front group to sue the city."

Amid cries of "Spin!" from the audience, Diels encouraged the group to find constructive ways to work with AES instead of outright fighting the company.

"If you want to convince me [to do something], you have to work with me," he said. "It's very easy to be angry and point fingers."

Aspel agreed.

"We had 24 people out here telling us we're morons," he said, adding that constituents have told him that they were afraid to attend the council meeting and speak out in support of the plant because they were afraid they would be heckled.  "I find it offensive ... we represent more than 24 people."

He continued, "In a perfect world, we'd have a nice park there ... We have other issues in this city besides just the power plant ... We're not just a single-issue council.

"Yelling at me is the exact opposite way of getting me to come to your side."

As usual, Gin struck a more conciliatory note, saying that he was not in favor of moving forward on the issue until the council hears back from the city attorney. City Attorney Mike Webb is expected to make a report on the legal issues surrounding the power plant at a future meeting.

"We need to understand our options as a city and as a community," Gin said.