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Victorville power plant clears new hurdle
TATIANA PROPHET
April 12, 2007 - 11:46AM
SACRAMENTO — A $450 million hybrid power plant planned by the city has cleared a major permit hurdle with the California Energy Commission.
The commission voted 4-0 Wednesday that Victorville’s permit application has enough data to proceed with an environmental review of the plant. The clock is now ticking to a 12-month countdown, after which the CEC must make a decision on licensing the project.
“We’re well on target now,” said Buck Johns, president of Inland Energy. “The biggest hurdle is the data adequacy.”
Newport Beach-based Inland Energy, the master developer, has had a contract with the city since 2005 to plan and prepare the project’s permitting.
With an estimated $450 million construction cost, Victorville 2 will provide electricity to about half a million homes.
Not to be confused with the city’s municipal utility at its Foxborough Industrial Park, the much larger project would sell directly to the state’s grid.
It is scheduled to be built on 388 acres just north of Southern California Logistics Airport, about a half-mile west from the Mojave River.
Victorville has contracted with Inland Energy to pay the company $5.5 million to prepare the permitting, according to a city document.
In addition, Inland’s consultants receive expenses, approved on a case-by-case basis by the city, as well as payment to Inland employees at $150 to $250 an hour per consultant.
The plant is scheduled to have a capacity of 563 megawatts, with 513 megawatts fueled by natural gas and 50 megawatts fueled by 250 acres of solar-thermal collectors.
As a combined-cycle plant, the project will be more efficient than most existing plants in California — using the heat generated from the combustion of natural gas to make more electricity with a steam turbine.
This increases the energy efficiency, or heat rate, of the plant, estimated to be about 6,300 British thermal units per kilowatt hour. The statewide heat-rate average is 10,000 BTUs per kilowatt hour.
The solar collectors would heat a transfer fluid, then boil water to run a steam turbine, generating electricity.
While the project contributes some solar energy to the grid, it is not a large percentage of the entire output.
But it was the most cost-effective ratio, said Inland Energy’s Tom Barnett, because anymore solar would require another steam turbine — reducing energy efficiency.
Victorville 2 requires large amounts of water for the solar component and for cooling towers.
As part of the plan, the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority is set to supply up to 3,150 acre feet per year to the plant. An acre foot of water is thought to be enough to supply a family of four for a year.
It is not yet clear how the city is going to finance the project, said City Manager Jon Roberts.
The city could finance the plant or it could bring in a private-industry player as a partner in running the operation. A third option would be to spin the power plant off to a private company.
“We’ll be sitting down to figure out who are the right players,” Roberts said. “The options are wide open. ... Today it took a huge leap toward becoming a real project.”
The city’s contract with Inland calls for the developer to receive five percent of profits until a decision is made on the project’s assets.
If Victorville 2 receives a license from the CEC by February, construction would start in the summer of 2008, and the plant would be operating by late summer 2010.
A planned sister plant in Palmdale has still not completed the permitting process, with the permit scheduled to be submitted by May.
Tatiana Prophet may be reached at 951-6222 or at tprophet@vvdailypress.com.
