With the latest reports from the operators of the 2,300 MW San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) indicating that two units at the plant will remain idle for an indefinite period, officials at the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) told NGI Tuesday that the state grid operator is in “full contingency planning mode.”

In February CAISO reported that thermal generation from other sources jumped by more than 1,000 MW as a result of SONGS’ two units being down (see Daily GPI, Feb. 7). Unit 3 was shut down on a precautionary basis when a small leak in one of the unit’s steam generator tubes was discovered at the end of January. Two days later damaged tubing was discovered at Unit 2, which was in the midst of planned maintenance.

In its initial assessments, CAISO said the shutdown moved gas demand for power up by nearly 250 MMcf/d in the weeks following the outages.

There isn’t a revised or summer estimate for the amount of additional gas-fired power generation that may be needed in the event the SONGS outage is prolonged, CAISO spokesperson Stephanie McCorkle said. That sort of detail should be included in CAISO’s upcoming projections for the summer, which are due out the end of this month, McCorkle said.

She said the state grid operator and Southern California Edison Co. (SCE), the majority owner/operator of SONGS, are in close coordination on the development of a mitigation plan that will look at all contingencies, including an outage that runs into the peak-demand season and a summer of above-average temperatures.

Like other areas of the nation, California has been experiencing an unusually warm and dry winter, so hydroelectric supplies may be relatively scarce.

McCorkle said CAISO and SCE are looking at all options, including additional gas-fired generation, accelerated transmission line upgrades and stepped-up efficiency/demand response programs.

SCE Chief Nuclear Officer Pete Dietrich issued a SONGS status report last Friday, saying “everything we do — from normal plant operations and routine refueling outages to specialized repairs and equipment replacement — is done with the utmost care to protect the health and well-being of the community and our employees.”

There are two other planned outages at major nuclear generating plants in the West region slated for early spring: 1,247 MW Unit 3 at Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona (mid-March to mid-April), and the 1,122 MW Unit 1 at Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s Diablo Canyon nuke plant in California (April 22-May 31), according to a Bentek Energy report. Further complicating the picture is the fact that the SoCalGas system is planning to curtail gas supplies from the Transwestern-Needles receipt point as part of a pipeline integrity testing program April 9-May 5.

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