O.C. Set to Make Energy on Small Scale

Orange County officials have come up with an unusual plan to get cheap electricity for the offices at the Santa Ana Civic Center -- make it themselves and save the county government $4 million to $5 million a year.

The project would serve the county Hall of Administration, the Superior Court, the federal office building and other government buildings.

County supervisors are scheduled to vote on a financing plan for the project today. Under the one being considered, the project would cost $34 million.

Supervisors have been enthusiastic about the project. They have approved several moves in the last few years to push it forward, and today’s vote is viewed as a major go-ahead, though the board would have to approve other components as the project developed. The project would be completed in about two years and is expected to pay for itself in seven years.

The county would buy two 5.2-megawatt natural gas-fired generators to produce electricity. The equipment would also use the energy produced to fire boilers to heat and cool the government buildings.

Also included is a proposal to use about $900,000 of the project’s funding to buy photovoltaic panels for the roofs of county parking structures to produce solar power.

Bob Wilson, the county’s director of internal services, said officials wanted this type of project for some time but that it was too expensive.

Then came the state’s power crisis of 2000 and 2001, when a combination of increasing electricity demand and market manipulation by wholesale power companies led to surging prices and rolling blackouts. County government joined a program in which customers agreed to lose electrical service when there was high usage in exchange for discounted prices, and government buildings were knocked offline more than once.

“With the increase in electricity costs and the idea that we might lose power from Edison on occasion, the project became salable,” Wilson said.

Although it is not unusual for cities to own municipal utilities, these kinds of small power plants that produce electricity and use the byproduct for heating and cooling are more frequently found on college campuses and at hospitals. Corona and Victorville may be the only California cities that have them.

The plan is not without economic risk: The price of natural gas, which will fire the generators, has doubled in the last year, according to Platts Gas Daily. And Edison rejected a proposal that would have brought the county additional money by selling surplus electricity.

“In a time of big increases in natural gas [prices] and smaller increases in electricity [prices], we would encourage the county to re-look at those economics in their current costs,” said Gary Green, the director of technical support for Edison, which has worked with the county to develop the plan.

Wilson said the county had a long-term contract that insulated it from some of the natural gas market’s volatility but that the plan made sense even if prices did rise.

“This is the wave of the future,” said Supervisor Lou Correa. “We’ve just got to do it.”

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County power plant proposal

The county may be able to generate power to run certain government buildings in Santa Ana, if the Board of Supervisors approves a $34-million cogeneration plant at the civic center.

Why cogeneration?

The county says it will save money because the plant will simultaneously generate electricity and turn excess thermal heat into steam to run existing heating and cooling systems.

Natural gas is burned in combustion turbine

Turbine powers two electrical generators

Electricity is routed to government buildings

Heat recovery system converts hot exhaust from turbine into steam

Steam will be used to heat and cool buildings

Source: Orange County Resources and Development Management Department