Carlsbad Cool to SDG&E; Proposal for a New Power Plant

First came the immense Encina power plant and its bitterly debated 400-foot-tall smokestack. Then came a sewage plant that chronically reeks.

Now, Carlsbad officials say, the city has had its fill of the plants.

So, when San Diego Gas & Electric Co. representatives recently paid a courtesy call on the City Council to outline plans for a possible new 460-megawatt energy plant near the coastal Encina plant, the visit wasn’t exactly greeted with joy.

In fact, the council was left feeling virtually powerless to do anything about the project, which will be reviewed and eventually judged outside of local authority by the California Energy Commission in Sacramento.

“We want the right to say whether it’s in the best interest of Carlsbad,” Mayor Bud Lewis said Tuesday. “What they’re doing is saying, ‘We’re going to put it in your back yard whether it’s good or bad. You’re just a local yokel.’ ”

It will be at least a year before the commission decides whether to approve the plant and choose a site. But, so far, the reception in Carlsbad, one of five potential locations, has been cool.

“We have the sewer plant here, the power plant here, and San Onofre (north of Oceanside),” said Bailey Noble, president of the 120-member Terramar Assn., a subdivision south of the Encina plant. “We’re providing the power for everybody else and taking the brunt of the pollution. Carlsbad has done its share.”

However, the issue isn’t quite that simple.

SDG&E;, facing a 3% yearly increase in demand, figures there won’t be enough energy available for consumers by the mid-1990s unless something is done. The utility proposes a plant using natural gas as its main fuel to generate about 460 megawatts of energy, enough to serve an estimated 460,000 average residential customers. The plant would have a 150-foot-high smokestack.

“It’s crucial, if we’re going to provide energy at the most favorable cost,” said Walt Wendland, SDG&E; manager of engineering. “If we don’t build now, it (energy) would still be available but at a much higher cost” because it would have to be purchased from alternative sources.

The proposed facility would combine two types of power technology: a gas turbine that spins a generator to make electricity and a system to convert the turbine’s exhaust into steam to run a second generator.

The five sites being considered for the plant are the Encina Power Plant in Carlsbad, the South Bay Power Plant, West Sycamore Canyon east of Miramar Naval Air Station, Imperial Valley in Imperial County and Blythe in Riverside County.

SDG&E; says a coastal site would cost about $388 million, an inland location $432 million. The difference stems from the availability of water and natural gas. Each site has advantages and problems, but Wendland said no site yet enjoys favored status.

He said SDG&E; next week will file a notice with the state Energy Commission to begin the yearlong review process. The commission will investigate whether the plant is needed and decide where it should be built. SDG&E; wants to begin construction in 1993 and have it operating two years later.

Hearings would be scheduled near each potential site and, in the case of Carlsbad, the city could become an “intervenor,” giving it the right to question witnesses appearing before the commission.

The commission has jurisdiction over SDG&E;’s application, something that’s a sore point with Carlsbad.

Assistant City Manager Frank Mannen said, “We’re concerned about the impact of these facilities in the city, and we don’t want to be subject to an inordinate burden.”

Commission spokeswoman Susan Patterson confirmed that the commission “has authority to certify all sites and supersedes that (authority) of all state or local agencies.” The commission was bestowed such power to “streamline the siting process,” she said.

But that is no consolation to Carlsbad, where two older facilities have given it practical problems as well as problems of image.

The Encina plant, a 200-foot-high monolith, was opened in 1953, and its controversial smokestack was increased to 400 feet in the 1970s to more widely disperse plant emissions. Also, the Encina Water Pollution Facility was opened in 1961 and has created a long-standing odor problem.

“The feeling is,” said Mannen, that “the city is already doing its fair share in terms of the siting of regional facilities.”

Besides worrying about getting another power plant, city officials don’t see an economic advantage to Carlsbad because a 1989 state law requires that revenue from new power plants be distributed among taxing agencies throughout the county.

Carlsbad receives roughly $600,000 in taxes yearly from the Encina plant, where the assessed value is $300 million, according to city Finance Director Jim Elliott. But, under the law, the city’s share of tax revenue from a new plant would be much less once the money is spread among the county, other cities, special districts and more.

“Economically speaking, it no longer makes any sense to have a power plant in your jurisdiction,” said Elliott.

However, SDG&E; believes the expected $4.7 million in taxes from an inland plant would provide an overall benefit. “Every school district, every city, every redevelopment agency would see an increase to its tax revenues due to the plant’s construction,” according to a SDG&E; report.

Given its limited authority in the matter, Carlsbad has directed the city staff to evaluate a new plant’s impact. The city is already reviewing land uses in the Encina plant area.

“This is just round one of a long issue,” Mannen said.