Report dims chances of power plant in Oxnard

Oxnard city staffers want to pull the plug on a plan to build a mini power plant by the ocean.

In their critical report, city staffers said the proposed $50-million facility at Mandalay Beach would do nothing to improve coastal access and add an 80-foot smokestack that intrudes on Oxnard Airport flight paths.

They also said the proposed Southern California Edison plant did not meet the key test of being “coastal dependent” -- it would not have turbines that needed to be cooled by seawater or any other compelling reason to be located along the beach.

The report appears to dim chances that the natural gas-powered facility -- intended to provide backup power to prevent summer brownouts -- will win the approval of the city Planning Commission. The panel will consider the proposal at a 7 p.m. Thursday meeting at Oxnard City Hall.

Planning Commissioner Deirdre Frank called the staff report “a thorough analysis” and said she planned to reject the project. “I don’t know how you can mitigate an 80-foot smokestack,” she said.

Another commissioner, Saul Medina, said it would take a very convincing presentation by Edison to persuade him to vote in favor of a project that would be located near the ocean and sensitive wetlands. He also cited public opposition. “We have to be very careful,” he said.

The California Coastal Commission in August ordered the utility to produce an additional 250 megawatts of power by this summer. Record heat last year led to power shortages around Southern California.

Edison is building four other 45-megawatt “peaker” plants -- in Norwalk, Ontario, Stanton and Rancho Cucamonga -- as part of a $250-million plan to boost capacity. Edison officials say the scattered plants are needed, in part, as protection against an earthquake crippling its supply network.

The small plants, which like the proposed Oxnard facility would provide enough energy to power 29,250 homes, also can be revved up quickly in the event of a power shortage.

Mark Nelson, Edison’s director of generation, planning and strategy, countered the city staff’s objections by arguing that the area around the proposed site has been devoted to energy-related uses for decades. A bigger former Edison power plant, now owned by Reliant Energy, operates on Mandalay Beach, and a major 1,500-megawatt plant is located farther south at environmentally fragile Ormond Beach.

The new plant, Nelson said, would be “an expansion of the existing energy infrastructure.”

If the plan is rejected by the Planning Commission, Edison could appeal first to the Oxnard City Council and then, if necessary, to the California Coastal Commission.

greg.griggs@latimes.com