New Energy Supplies
In the years to come, we will need to keep up with the growing demand for electricity in our region. Our success depends on building a smart, balanced energy portfolio.
Renewable resources play a vital role in our portfolio, but they’re only part of the larger picture. It’s important to remember that changing weather patterns can limit production of energy sources like wind and solar. Since the availability of renewable resources can fluctuate with the weather, we must also maintain other means to provide our customers with reliable power.
That’s why we are adding new energy centers and working with peaker plants.
Today’s Energy Centers
The Palomar Energy Center, located in Escondido, CA.
Energy centers, which are cleaner and more efficient than some existing, older power plants, will help us meet the region’s rising electricity needs in an environmentally friendly way.
New, modernized energy centers in San Diego County are either already in service or under construction:
- The Miramar Energy Center has two 46-megawatt power generation stations. The first unit was completed in July 2005, the newest unit started service in August 2009.
- The 550 megawatt Palomar Energy Center in Escondido started service in 2006.
- The 573-megawatt Otay Mesa Energy Center is targeted to come online in summer 2009. We have signed a 10-year contract to purchase competitively priced power from this energy center.
Getting Extra Help from Peaker Plants
Sometimes, the region’s demand for electricity will be higher than usual, like during hot summer days. That's when we use peaker plants, which are generating stations that only run during periods of extremely high electricity demand.
To be prepared for that occasional necessity, we have made power-purchase agreements with two other companies. These companies will supply 138 megawatts of on-demand electricity from three small, efficient plants located in San Diego (Miramar) and Orange County.