CARLSBAD
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A proposal for a new power plant looming over Interstate 5 probably will not get the backing of the Carlsbad City Council, which has eyed the land for a future hotel and park.
NRG Energy, which operates the oceanfront Encina Power Station at Cannon Road and Carlsbad Boulevard, has applied to the California Energy Commission to build a plant on its 95 acres on the south shore of Agua Hedionda Lagoon.
The state commission, not the city, has authority over the plant, so Carlsbad can only offer its input. The council will discuss the power plant proposal Tuesday. A staff report recommends that the council oppose the current proposal.
Councilman Matt Hall said he does not oppose a new power plant in the city, but he'd like to talk about where it gets built.
“Does it have to be at this current location?” Hall said.
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Carlsbad City Council
When: 6 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Carlsbad City Hall,
1200 Carlsbad Village Drive
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Called the Carlsbad Energy Center, the 540-megawatt plant would generate enough electricity to supply 350,000 homes. It is expected to come online in 2010 or 2011 and operate in tandem with a scaled-back Encina Power Station until the older plant is closed in 2016.
Encina has the capacity to generate 965 megawatts from five steam-driven turbines. The plant's most obvious feature is its 400-foot-tall stack, visible for miles. That stack would be demolished once the old turbines are retired.
Encina cools its turbines by sucking in seawater from the lagoon – a controversial process because it kills fish and small marine organisms. Faced with a new set of environmental regulations, NRG last year applied to build an air-cooled plant on 23 acres farther from the ocean. It would have two 100-foot stacks, partially sunk into the ground.
The Encina property is also where Poseidon Resources plans to build a desalination plant.
Hall said he agrees the region needs a future source of electricity, but the Encina site “is probably the most valuable coastal land left south of Oceanside.”
“We would try our best to find acreage in Carlsbad” for a new plant, Hall said. The city has suggested two locations: Maerkle Reservoir, where Vista, Oceanside and Carlsbad meet, and Carlsbad Oaks Business Park, off Palomar Airport Road near Vista.
In a filing with the state energy commission, NRG said both those sites are near houses and face other environmental challenges.
NRG representatives could not be reached yesterday, but Lori Neuman, the company's communications director, said in an e-mail, “While we are disappointed by the staff recommendation, the Carlsbad Energy Center Project is vital to help meet the region's energy reliability needs, and the current plan relocates our facilities in the most cost-effective manner.”
Michael Burge: (760) 476-8230; michael.burge@uniontrib.com
