Power Plant Plan Hits a Snag

A proposed power plant in Lancaster won’t be completed as scheduled this summer, the developer announced Wednesday, dealing another small setback to the state’s target of adding 5,000 megawatts of new electricity by this fall.

Steve Wilburn, president of Tustin-based Electricityprovider Inc., sent a letter to the California Energy Commission withdrawing an application that had been filed under Gov. Gray Davis’ 21-day emergency licensing program.

Wilburn said he intended to reapply for licensing, but would not be able to complete the plant by Sept. 1, as had been originally planned. Instead, he said, it was more likely to be finished next spring.

“We just basically ran out of time,” Wilburn said. The biggest hurdle, he said, proved to be a study required by Southern California Edison of the demands that the 240-megawatt plant would put on the utility’s transmission system.

“We’re realistic, and we’re not going to try to jump through hoops we can’t make,” Wilburn said. “We’re a little bit disappointed, obviously, and a little bit frustrated.”

It wasn’t the first setback for Wilburn in his effort to build power plants in the frantic atmosphere of California’s electricity crisis. His company owns La Jolla Energy Development, which recently withdrew its application to build a small power plant in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles after residents there overwhelmingly opposed it.

The Lancaster plant hasn’t stirred as much dissent, but has been opposed by both the Planning and Conservation League and the Natural Resources Defense Council--in part on the grounds that it could not realistically open on time, and therefore wasn’t eligible for the streamlined 21-day licensing process.

The Lancaster delay followed another developer’s decision to abandon plans to build a power plant in Chula Vista. Three major power plants have opened so far this summer in California and 10 small “peaker” plants are expected to open by the end of September.

Although the state appears certain to fall short of Davis’ goal of 5,000 new megawatts online this summer, the combination of new generation, mild weather and greater than expected conservation has eased the electricity crisis and staved off the blackouts that were expected to be frequent occurrences this summer.