As California and utility energy strategists have expected, natural gas for power generation could jump this summer if temperatures soar, following action by federal regulators Tuesday to keep Southern California Edison Co.’s (SCE) San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) closed infinitely, pending work on equipment failures at the 2,200 MW, two-unit facility.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) sent SCE a confirmatory action letter outlining what is needed to be done before it allows one or both of the SONGS units (2 and 3) to be restarted.

“The utility will only bring the units on line when we and the NRC are satisfied that it is safe to do so,” said SCE President Ron Litzinger.

Neither SCE, which is the majority owner (78%) and operator of SONGS, nor NRC would speculate how long the plant could remain offline following a problem with tube leaks in both units.

Prospects for a summer without SONGS in operation prompted the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) to call for restarting an idle gas-fired plant in Huntington Beach in Southern California, as well as other contingencies (see Daily GPI, March 22). Gas plants account for about two-thirds (67.5%) of the state’s 50,341 MW of available capacity, CAISO noted.

Before the full magnitude of the SONGS outage was available, natural gas and renewables were given higher profiles in California’s energy picture in the state’s final 2011 Integrated Energy Policy Report, which was approved in February by the California Energy Commission (see Daily GPI, Feb. 10).

In addition, a separate analysis by the state’s grid operator concluded in January that California faces a seven-year window (2017-2024) in which adequate amounts of gas-fired power is uncertain without costly upgrades to an aging fleet of coastal facilities. This conclusion was reached despite the state’s large array of proposed gas-fired plants, according to the long-term strategic plan (see Daily GPI, Jan. 26).

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