Power From Landfill Gas Will Supply Electricity for 500 Burbank Residences

Methane gas at the Stough Landfill in Burbank will be converted into electric power to serve an estimated 500 Burbank residences, according to an agreement approved by the Burbank City Council.

An electrical power production facility, which will use the gas to run an internal combustion electric generator, will be built and operated at the landfill by Pacific Lighting Energy Systems, a subsidiary of the Pacific Lighting Corp.

PLES will sell the energy to the city at rates set though 1994 in the 20-year agreement, approved unanimously by the City Council late Tuesday night.

Los Angeles Facilities

The firm is now building two similar facilities at landfills in Sun Valley and at Griffith Park, according to Jim Kennelly, the firm’s vice president of project development. Power from those facilities will be sold to Southern California Edison Co., he said.

PLES has 22 such projects under construction or in operation nationwide, he said.

Burbank city officials said that the Stough Park facility will provide an estimated 4.6-million kilowatt hours of energy annually to the city’s Public Service Department, which in turn will distribute the energy to Burbank customers.

Joy Hamilton, a program analyst with the Burbank Public Works Department, said the facility will help recover methane gas at the 1-million-ton landfill that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere and violate new Air Quality Management District standards expected to take effect in April.

Burning of Gas Avoided

Hamilton said the city would need to burn off the methane gas with a flare if it were not collected and converted into power. “Every landfill has to have some sort of a gas collection system,” she said. “We are fortunate in the fact that it appears our project is economically feasible and we won’t have to flare the gas.”

Burbank city officials said that exploratory drilling at the landfill should begin within the next month to determine exactly how much methane gas can be recovered from the 14-year-old dump. The power facility, expected to cost about $1 million to build, should be completed by July, 1986, they said.

Kennelly said the Sun Valley and Griffith Park facilities should be in operation by the end of this year.