Council to Consider Power Plant Moratorium

With a new proposal to adopt a moratorium on the approval of permits relating to the construction, modification or alteration of any electrical generating facilities within the Coastal Zone, the city of Redondo Beach will take an important step toward its goal of preventing the repowering of AES Redondo Beach.

"This proposed moratorium would specifically affect AES … the company currently operating the only electrical generating facility within the City of Redondo Beach Coastal Zone," according to a statement on the city's website. "While the AES power plant … is the only existing power plant in the City's Coastal Zone, this moratorium would also prevent any new power plants from being constructed within the project area."

The Redondo Beach City Council will hold a public hearing on the moratorium at its regular meeting Dec. 3 at 6 p.m.

A moratorium is a step toward creating a conflict between local zoning and the application to rebuild a power plant. This conflict, if executed properly, would force the California Energy Commission to perform an analysis to determine if power from a proposed power plant is necessary before approving the application.

The current AES Redondo Beach Generating Station must be retired, rebuilt, retrofitted or receive a special exemption to continue operating past 2020 due to a ban on once-through cooling, where ocean water is used to cool the superheated steam that spins the turbines.

• Complete coverage: AES Redondo Beach power plant

The new power plant, which would have less than half the generation capacity as the current one, would take up about 10 1/2 acres of the existing 50-acre site. If the plant is approved, construction and demolition of the old plant will begin in January 2016 and end by December 2020.