Gas-Fired

In an effort to make up for 2,200 MW of generation lost when the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) was closed last year, Edison International’s Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) has signed five contracts for nearly 1,700 MW of natural gas-fired generation and another 69 deals providing the rest.

Several natural gas-fired power plants are under consideration in northern Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio that would take advantage of locally produced gas in the Utica and Marcellus shales.

With 58% of California now in exceptional drought conditions, the state’s source of hydroelectric power is down sharply, while reliance on natural gas-fired generation and renewables increased steadily during a dry period stretching back to 2011.

The use of natural gas for power generation in the Lower 48 is expected to increase to 1.6 billion megawatt hours (MWh) by 2040, a 1.3% average annual increase, in part due to development of several shale plays, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Following the closure of a major nuclear power plant in Southern California, NRG Energy Inc. expects to obtain final state regulatory approvals for a long-standing plan to repower and redevelop part of its existing natural gas-fired Carlsbad generation plant along the Pacific Coast in San Diego County, NRG CEO David Crane said Thursday on a 2Q2014 earnings conference call.

While stressing preferences for renewables and energy conservation, California regulators on Thursday left the door open for new natural gas-fired generation when they approved plans for replacing the output of a closed nuclear plant and several older gas-fired plants along the Southern California coast.

The nation’s largest municipal utility, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), a major force on the California energy landscape, is surrounded by public controversy at the start of the new year, caught between political infighting with a newly-elected mayor and an entrenched utility union boss. As a result, LADWP General Manager Ron Nichols resigned suddenly last Thursday.

For the second month in a row, gas-fired power generation gained ground on coal-fired plants compared to the previous year by not falling off nearly as sharply, according to Genscape Inc.’s “Generation Fuel Monitor Report.”

Although the handwriting has been on the wall for several years now (see Daily GPI, Aug. 30, 2011; July 1, 2011), the momentum has picked up in Utah for accelerating the switch from coal- to natural gas-fired electric generation.