In the midst of a real potential cold weather energy/supplycrisis hovering over the state, the California Energy CommissionWednesday approved a new 500 MW natural gas-fired electricgeneration plant that could help head off shortages in 2002 and twopeaking plants totaling 371 MW that should be online by theupcoming summer of 2001.

The largest of the new plants is a joint venture plant at ElkHills in the southern end of the state’s central San Joaquin Valleythat will be built and operated by affiliates of OccidentalPetroleum and Sempra Energy; the other large plant is the $180million 320 MW Sunrise Power Project developed by Edison MissionEnergy in Midway-Sunset oil field as an offshoot of enhance-oilrecovery program on a 20-acre adjacent to the oil field, which likeElk Hills is located in Kern County — one of the richest oil andagriculture areas in the U.S.

On a 4-0 vote of the five-member state energy commission,Sunrise was approved as the first new peaking plant to be licensedsince the California legislature passed a new law last summer aimedat accelerating construction of temporary facilities. The projectshould be operating in both the summers of 2001 and 2002, theenergy commission news announcement stated. Edison Mission’seleventh-hour purchase of the project from its former developer, awholly owned subsidiary of Texaco, brought the project back ontrack with the advent of increasing power shortages facing thestate.

“With its single-cycle ‘peaker’ design, the plant will no longerbe producing steam for the oil fields,” the energy commission said.As a temporary peaking plant, it can operate through 2002, at whichtime “it must be shut down or converted to either a combined-cycleor a cogeneration facility.”

Also on Wednesday, El Paso Merchant Energy got the go-ahead forits proposed 51 MW peaking plant at San Francisco InternationalAirport to go through the new four-month fast-track approval.

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