Best Electric Utility Company Carlsbad Near Me

4worldlovers: California is known for its leadership in clean energy. San Diego County needed a more efficient power plant to replace the Encina Power Station on Carlsbad’s coast. Initially constructed from 1954 to 1958 as a three steam-boiler plant before expanding in the 1970s to a five steam-boiler plant, Encina’s units could take up to 18 hours to ramp up.

Maintaining grid reliability was a big factor, too. After losing 2,200 megawatts of capacity with the retirement of the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station, the region was faced with the prospect of losing another 965 megawatts when Encina was decommissioned.

Encina’s history is captured in the Encina by the numbers snapshot.

Our integrated approach offered a myriad of environmental benefits—like improved air quality and reduced water consumption—in addition to ensuring grid reliability.

San Diego Gas & Electric officials estimate that the new plant will help California meet its target of 33 percent clean-energy generation by 2020 and 50 percent by 2030. The air-cooled facility doesn’t use any ocean water but instead uses recycled water for all industrial needs.

The new plant is designed to work with California’s emerging renewable generation fleet.

The plant operates during periods of peak demand, cycling on and off as needed. Demand peaks during the day, and then again after the sun goes down, at which time solar generation drops. The plant ramps up quickly when renewable resources aren’t providing energy to the grid.

Substantially more efficient than Encina while permitted to run less frequently, Carlsbad Energy Center gives the region the energy it needs. The project provided more than 400 construction jobs over its three-year construction.

Carlsbad Energy Center is built to produce over 500 megawatts with five flexible, fast-starting turbines. These allow for quicker outputs of energy, in comparison to the older retired plants.

This is an important step to providing the region with reliable, efficient output in the event of severe weather—which is known to impact wind, solar and hydro power generation—or earthquakes and wildfires, which threaten transmission lines.

We were recognized by the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce as the 2015 Clean Tech Business of the Year.

Beyond the delivery of efficient and reliable power, we’ve supported community programs to help improve the quality of life in Carlsbad and North San Diego County.

Our stewardship of the Agua Hedionda lagoon helps sustain the watershed’s biodiversity, while also helping meet the region’s needs for sustainable drinking water and seafood.

And the Poseidon Water’s desalination project, located on the Encina/Carlsbad Energy Center land, is the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere—converting 50 million gallons of ocean water into drinking water each day and providing a drought-resistant option to the community. Encina has maintained the cooling water pumps on behalf of Poseidon Water’s desalination project while Poseidon prepares to install its own dedicated intake and pumping system adjacent to Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

In a 2014 Settlement Agreement between the city of Carlsbad, San Diego Gas & Electric, and NRG, a commitment to transform the Encina Power Station site was born. In addition to moving forward with the Carlsbad Energy Center, NRG committed to the decommissioning and demolition of Encina within three years following its retirement. Encina retired on December 11, 2018 and Carlsbad Energy Center came online the next day. During the initial 12 months following Encina’s retirement, NRG proceeded with shutdown and decommissioning activities, which have entailed disconnecting the Encina Power Station from the electrical grid and the natural gas supply, removing the oil and chemicals, and retiring the air permit which supported its operation. These activities will come to a close during the 4th quarter of 2019, after which NRG will proceed with demolition activities. Larger demolition equipment will be apparent in early 2020 as NRG methodically removes Encina to the plant grade over a two and a half year period, concluding by the end of the 2nd quarter of 2022. Decommissioning and demolition activities follow a thoroughly planned process guided by our CA Energy Commission license. Public and employee safety and strict adherence to environmental regulations are at the forefront of this project each day. The CEC license outlines permit conditions and mitigation measures to ensure no environmental impacts. The project includes a Noise Hotline (888-211-2074) with which the public can provide its comments or concerns.