SETTING

Typically, the analysis of impacts concerning the supply of electricity centers on whether a proposed project will use large amounts of electrical energy and whether the existing electrical supply is sufficient. These questions are not applicable to this project, which concerns the change of ownership of the electrical supply itself and thus deals with the production of electricity rather than its consumption. Therefore, the germane issue addressed in this chapter is the project’s potential impact on the reliability of the electrical supply system. The factors involved in reliable electric service are described below.

Reliable electrical service is an integral part of modern society, and its interruption can cause severe adverse consequences. Without electricity, police and fire services are disrupted, electrical mass transit systems are halted (potentially stranding people in tunnels), inhabitants of high-rise buildings are deprived of ventilation and elevator service, hospitals and medical clinics are limited in the care they can provide, perishable commodities spoil, and many businesses cannot operate. The consequences of a long-term electrical system failure can be particularly catastrophic. For example, in February 1998, the central commercial downtown of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, lost power due to multiple concurrent failures of buried transmission cables sharing a single transmission corridor. Repairs took many weeks and included constructing a major overhead transmission interconnection. In the interim, hundreds of businesses were forced to shut down at least temporarily.

Reliability is a primary consideration in the design and construction of electrical generation, transmission, and distribution systems, as well as a main concern of public utilities and their regulators. In determining whether to approve SDG&E’s divestiture application, the CPUC must ensure that facilities essential to the reliability of the electrical supply remain available and operational, while also fostering open competition and preventing an over concentration of market power.

Utilities and regulators alike recognize that maintaining 100 percent reliability in the electrical power supply system is impossible. Given this inherent limitation, the reliability of the electrical service system may be defined in several ways. From a customer’s perspective, system reliability is a function of the simple question, "Is the power on?" From the utilities’ and regulators’ perspectives, system reliability is determined by several criteria, including the availability of sufficient electrical power generation to meet growing customer demand; the time required to restore power to customers following an outage; and the degree of built-in system redundancy to handle unexpected problems.

The electrical service system consists essentially of three components (see Figure 1.1):

• Electrical generation facilities: including fossil-fueled, nuclear, geothermal, wind, solar and hydroelectric generators;
• Transmission systems: long-distance transmission systems and substations that efficiently move the generated power from these sources to the local distribution systems; and
• Local distribution systems: local networks of substations, transformers, and wires that deliver the electrical power to the customer.

SDG&E is the only provider of natural gas transmission services to the plants. Natural gas is provided via SDG&E’s intrastate pipelines operating at transmission-level pressures.

Public telephone service at the plants is provided by Pacific Bell. A number of other companies, including GTE, AT&T, and Cellular One are used for cell phone and pager communication services.

The San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) delivers water through about 24 wholesale agencies to about 2.6 million people in San Diego County and is the ultimate water supplier for the vast majority of water used at SDG&E’s power plants. SDCWA receives between 75 and 90 percent of its water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California system and about 15 percent from other sources (including groundwater and surface water from local watersheds). Water is conveyed to the San Diego area through a series of aqueducts, tunnels, and transmission mains, with open reservoirs providing storage at multiple points along the way.

Transmission mains deliver water into one or more of 33 terminal, raw-water, surface reservoirs in San Diego County. Treated water is held in any of 333 concrete or steel reservoirs. From these reservoirs and tanks, water is distributed throughout the county using a network of about 6,823 miles of pipeline ranging in diameter from 2 to 60 inches.

At capacity, the treated-water reservoirs within the county can hold approximately 1,304 million gallons. Water treatment is provided at multiple points along the water supply system. All water passing through each reservoir is disinfected. The SDCWA operates a system-wide sampling and testing program to monitor water quality.

The South Bay Power Plant receives water from the Sweetwater Authority (SWA). SWA is one of SDCWA’s wholesale customers and currently provides raw (untreated) water to the Cities of Chula Vista, National City, and Bonita; major industrial customers; smaller industrial and business customers; and agricultural customers. In total, SWA provides water to approximately 166,000 people throughout southern San Diego County.

SWA obtains raw water primarily from SDCWA and is exploring the possibility of developing local groundwater sources for the purpose of reselling the water to agricultural, industrial, and domestic users. SWA operates raw water conveyance, water treatment, and treated water distribution facilities.

The SWA’s primary raw water source is the Southern California Aqueduct, which delivers water into the region from the Colorado River. SWA delivers treated water to the South Bay plant for restrooms, safety showers, and water fountains. Unlike other SDG&E combustion turbines, the on-site CT at the South Bay Power Plant does not use municipal water for oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emission reduction. Instead, the South Bay CT uses steam from the on-site boilers for NOx abatement.

The Encina Power Plant is served by the City of Carlsbad Water Department, which serves all businesses and residences within city limits. The City of Carlsbad also receives its water from SWA. The on-site CT at Encina, like other SDG&E CTs (except the one at South Bay), uses small amounts of municipal water for NOx emission reduction.

The 7 combustion turbine sites where the 17 additional CTs are located are served by the local government water departments. The CTs are unmanned, meaning very little water is used at the sites for human purposes, though they do use small amounts of municipal water when running for NOx emission reduction. (All SDG&E CTs have atomized water, including steam, injected into the CT exhaust to reduce NOx emissions.)

The City of Chula Vista Department of Public Works operates and maintains the city’s sanitary and storm sewer infrastructure. The city’s wastewater collection, treatment, and disposal system consists of a combined sewer system (which collects both sewage and stormwater). Wastewater is transported to the City of San Diego’s Point Loma treatment facility. The collection and conveyance system consists of approximately 320 miles of various sizes of underground sewer pipes and transport structures located throughout the city. Ultimate disposal of the primary treated wastewater effluent is through a deep ocean outfall.

The South Bay plant discharges its domestic wastewater into Chula Vista’s combined sanitary/sewer system, pursuant to an industrial waste (sewer) discharge permit (No. 13-0019, Revision No. 00B) from the Cities of Chula Vista and San Diego.

The City of Carlsbad Department of Public Works operates and maintains the city’s sanitary and storm sewer infrastructure. The city’s wastewater collection, treatment, and disposal system consists of a combined sewer system (which collects both sewage and stormwater) and a water pollution control plant. The collection and conveyance system consists of various sizes of underground sewer pipes and transport structures located throughout the city. Ultimate disposal of treated wastewater effluent is currently through outfalls to the Pacific Ocean.

The Encina plant discharges its domestic wastewater into the city’s combined sanitary/sewer system, pursuant to a city permit.

The seven combustion turbine sites are normally unmanned and have no sanitary facilities associated solely with the CTs. Some of the sites are located adjacent to SDG&E maintenance facilities, which discharge small amounts of sewage into the local municipal sanitary/sewer systems. The CT sites do not discharge any wastewater to the sewers at the CT sites.

The South Bay plant does not utilize the city’s sewer infrastructure for stormwater collection. Stormwater runoff at the South Bay plant is collected by on-site, SDG&E-maintained stormwater collection facilities and discharged to San Diego Bay, pursuant to National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits (described in Section 4.4, Water Resources).

The Encina plant does not utilize the city’s sewer infrastructure for stormwater collection. Stormwater runoff at the Encina plant is collected by on-site, SDG&E-maintained stormwater collection facilities and discharged to the Pacific Ocean, pursuant to NPDES permits (described in Section 4.4, Water Resources).

Stormwater runoff at all the CT sites are currently routed into the stormwater collection system of the applicable city or military base. Disposal of stormwater runoff at the CT sites is currently not regulated. However, the State Water Resources Control Board has informed SDG&E of the Board’s intention to regulate stormwater discharges at the two largest CT sites, Miramar and Kearney, under NPDES General Permit No. CA S000001, Order No. 97-03-DWQ. Those two sites together account for 11 of SDG&E’s 17 CTs, and all but two of the CTs not located on military bases. The remaining two CT sites located on civilian land, at Division in San Diego and in the city El Cajon, are considerably smaller than the other sites, and thus have much smaller amounts of stormwater runoff.

Municipal solid wastes are generated from the office facilities at the Encina and South Bay Power Plants. The solid wastes at the plants are removed and disposed of by the Cities of Carlsbad and Chula Vista. None of the other sites generate solid waste. Hazardous wastes and the offsite disposal of the industrial waste treatment plant sludge from each plant are discussed in Section 4.9, Hazards.

CHECKLIST ISSUES

The project involves the generation of electricity, rather than its use. The plants being divested are not expected to consume substantially more electricity than they do currently. Thus, the project would not result in a need for new or substantially altered electrical power systems or supplies.

The project would result in changes to the electrical power systems such that the owners of the divested plants would not own the transmission and distribution systems. Presently, SDG&E operates its power plants so as to protect its assets – the power plants and the transmission and distribution systems. Under divestiture, new owners would also operate the power plants so as to protect their assets, but they would only own the power plant and not the transmission and distribution system. SDG&E occasionally must decide what is an acceptable electrical system failure (e.g., whether to "blow out" a transformer and let a portion of the electric grid fail, or to accept failure at a power plant and let the power plant shut down). Although the new owners would depend on the transmission grid for delivery of their generation, they would not necessarily have the same incentive to protect the grid and could be inclined to primarily protect their own newly acquired resources.

The Independent System Operator (ISO), a new state corporation created by Assembly Bill 1890, now coordinates the scheduling and dispatch of electricity and ensures that the reliability of the transmission system is maintained. The ISO controls and operates the state’s transmission system to schedule delivery of electrical power supplies and ensure all standards for transmission and reliability service are met. The ISO charges a tariff regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to cover the cost of operating the system to ensure reliability. Entities that meet the reliability standards established by the Western Systems Coordinating Council (WSCC) and CPUC can "ship" electricity on the transmission system. Additionally, the CPUC will continue to have some statutory responsibilities for system reliability.

Because the project would not substantially alter existing power systems or result in a need for new systems or supplies, impacts related to electrical power systems would be less than significant. In addition, the ISO, CPUC, the North American Electric Reliability Council, and the WSCC will retain their responsibility to periodically assess the reliability of the transmission grid and accordingly take action to ensure all reliability requirements are maintained.

With divestiture, new owners may tend to operate the power plants and CTs more, potentially increasing the amount of natural gas used. The exact amount of additional gas supplies needed, or whether this potential increased consumption would be more significant than load growth-related increases in gas consumption, are unknown. SDG&E’s gas transmission and distribution system currently has sufficient excess capacity during much of the year – enough to accommodate any reasonably foreseeable increase in gas consumption at the divested plants. However, gas deliveries into SDG&E’s service territory are occasionally curtailed during the winter heating season, which could force a switch to alternate fuel supplies at Encina, South Bay and/or the CTs during those times.

The natural gas delivery system in San Diego County is of sufficient size to accommodate any reasonably foreseeable increase in gas demand due to divestiture during most of the year, and the gas-fired plants targeted for divestment all have the ability to switch to alternate fuel supplies during the few times that gas deliveries are curtailed. The project is neither expected to result in a significant need for new natural gas systems or supplies, nor is it expected to substantially alter existing natural gas systems or supplies. Therefore, the project is not expected to have a significant effect on the delivery of natural gas within San Diego County.

There are no foreseeable communications systems effects that would result from the project. None of the power plants to be divested would have a direct impact on communication systems, and communication services for the plants and surrounding areas would continue after project implementation.

Because the project would not substantially affect communication systems, no impacts related to communication systems would result from the project.

The project could result in increased operations at the plants and therefore require additional water for cooling. Cooling water for the South Bay and Encina plants is supplied from the San Diego Bay and Pacific Ocean, respectively, which do not serve as a resource for raw water supply for local water districts. The great majority of water for the cooling processes at the fossil-fueled plants is returned to the water bodies from where it is drawn.

The cooling water system is separate from the treated, freshwater municipal systems that provide potable water to the plants and to the CTs. The water for domestic use at the fossil-fueled plants is supplied by the local water systems. The fossil-fueled plant operations do not currently use large amounts of domestic water. The use of potable water supplied by the water districts could increase if the plants were to employ more workers to operate the plants at higher levels, and could increase at the CTs if they were operated at higher levels. The amount of additional consumption would be small and would not have a significant effect on the quantity of raw water supplies for affected water utility districts. Therefore, the potential impact of the project on the availability of water in San Diego County is less than significant. (Impacts to surface and groundwater quality are discussed in Section 4.4, Water Resources, of this Initial Study.)

The project would not be expected to substantially increase demand for, or require alterations to, the domestic water supply or distribution facilities for affected water utility districts.

The project could result in increased operations at the plants. The potential increase in operations and employees at the South Bay and Encina plants could incrementally increase the volume of wastewater disposed of in the local sanitary sewer system. The potential increase in wastewater generation would not be expected to require extensions of new sewer infrastructure or alterations to existing sewer lines. All future wastewater disposal would be subject to the applicable city’s sewer permit, which would be transferred to the subsequent owner. In addition, the potential small wastewater increase would not be expected to significantly decrease the capacity of the applicable city’s wastewater treatment facilities.

The project would not result in significant impacts to wastewater generation, transmission, treatment, or disposal.

The project would have no effect on the volume or frequency of storm water drainage, and therefore would not be expected to require extensions of new storm water drainage infrastructure or alterations to existing drainage systems. All future storm water drainage would be subject to either the applicable city’s sewer permit or the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permits issued by the State Water Resources Control Board, either or both of which would be transferred to the subsequent owner.

The project would not result in significant impacts to existing storm water drainage systems.

The project may cause a slight increase in solid waste disposal as a result of minor construction associated with ownership transfer or the modest addition of employees at the plants. Potential increases in solid waste disposal are anticipated to be small.

An increase in operations and addition of employees at the plants under new owners would result in an incremental increase in the need for solid waste collection and disposal. Accommodating the potential increase in operational solid waste would not adversely affect solid waste disposal service or significantly affect the estimated lifetime of the landfills serving the plants.

Because anticipated increases in solid waste disposal would be relatively small, and some would be only temporary, impacts to solid waste disposal would be less than significant.

REFERENCES – Utilities and Service Systems

Independent System Operator (ISO), ISO Operating Procedure, Minimum Generation Commitment for San Diego, June 30, 1998.

Melby, David, Manager of Grid Control Operations, SDG&E, personal communication, August 14, 1998.

San Diego Gas and Electric, Proponent’s Environmental Assessment: San Diego Gas & Electric Company’s Proposed Sale of Its Electrical Generation Facilities and Power Contracts, December 19, 1997.

Sheaffer, Richard, Senior Transmission Planner, SDG&E, personal communication, August 14, 1998.

Weatherwax, Robert, President, Sierra Energy & Risk Assessment, personal communication, June 16, 1998.