Features

FOLSOM— State officials are negotiating with federal pollution regulators to keep some power plants online this summer during power emergencies even though they may exceed air emission limits. 

“Peaker plants” – small facilities that typically operate only a few hours a day during the hottest months – have been running frequently this year as state power grid officials struggle to keep the lights on. 

The peaker plants are likely to exceed federally imposed annual pollution limits next month and could be required to shut down or face federal fines and other penalties. 

Combined, the plants produce about 1,450 megawatts, enough power for just over 1 million households as California struggles with a tight electricity supply. 

The state Air Resources Board is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to let the plants continue running when they are most needed this summer. 

So far, the EPA has balked at letting the plants violate federal pollution limits, said Tracy Bibb, director of scheduling outage coordination for the California Independent System Operator, which oversees the state’s power grid. 

Negotiations so far have been at the regional level, Bibb said Thursday. 

“Our goal is to find ways to increase generation without increasing emissions,” ISO board member Cal Finney said. 

The ISO has delayed installation of pollution control equipment at five plants until winter so those plants can operate through the hot summer months. 

The ISO has also scheduled all routine maintenance shutdowns to be completed by mid-June, Bibb said. 

As the ISO continued to work with the EPA on the emission limits, the EPA reported Thursday that emissions from coal- and oil-burning power plants in California increased 93 percent from 1998 to 1999. 

The increase, EPA officials said, is mostly due to the Stockton-based Posdef Power plant, which burns coal. The plant reported a release of 90,464 pounds of ammonia in 1998. That jumped to 629,008 pounds in 1999, said EPA spokesman Adam Browning. 

Posdef officials said they thought the tests were incorrect and are investigating the ammonia release with their local air district. Ammonia is not considered a regulated pollutant under the federal Clean Air Act. 

Meanwhile, officers of six large California businesses said energy conservation is the state’s best and perhaps only hope to avoid devastating blackouts this summer. 

Representatives from Agilent Technologies, The Home Depot, Hewlett-Packard, Intel Corp., NEC Electronics and Safeway Inc. said Thursday that they are cutting back their power use in response to soaring prices and dwindling supplies. 

The trick is getting enough businesses and individuals to do likewise fast enough to forestall blackouts the business leaders said could devastate their industries. 

Agilent Technologies is spending $20 million the next two years to cut its energy use by 15 percent. Of the money, $7 million will be spent in California to install more efficient lighting and equipment. 

Also Thursday, another group of businesses joined together to create the California Alliance for Energy & Economic Stability to ask the state Public Utilities Commission to restructure its proposed rate increases to not pose serious harm to businesses. 

California ISO: www.caiso.com 

U.S. EPA: http://www.epa.gov/