Air quality, visual issues dominate Carlsbad power plant workshop By: BARBARA HENRY North County Times January 24, 2008

CARLSBAD ---- The city of Carlsbad wants an air quality monitoring device installed at the Encina Power Station, so that neighbors can see what a recently proposed addition to the facility could produce.

City officials also are asking for temporary "story poles" ---- sticks used by developers to show a proposed building's height ---- to be placed where the power plant's owners want to put two rapid-fire, "peaker" power plants.

"We'd like to get a feeling for what it is we're looking at," said city senior analyst Joe Garuba, who is handling the city's review of the Encina power plant proposal.

Garuba made his requests during a workshop Thursday hosted by the state Energy Commission. The event was the first of several that the state expects to have in the coming months to discuss details of the project before the state commission votes on the issue.

In plans filed with the state last fall, Encina's owners are seeking to build two small plants capable of producing a total of 540 megawatts, or nearly enough power for 400,000 homes. The two generators, their smokestacks and their cooling equipment would go on 23 acres on the eastern edge of the 94-acre Encina site between Interstate 5 and the railroad tracks. The area now contains several giant oil storage tanks, which Encina officials say are mostly unused.

The two new plants would be the first phase of what's planned to be a complete change in the way the site produces energy. Eventually, plans call for Encina's 400-foot-tall smokestack and the massive concrete building with its five generators to be demolished once several more peaker-style plants are built.

That's way in the future, but the company says it will shut three of the oldest generators inside its main building once the two new plants start running.

Carlsbad resident Jacques Romatier, one of some 30 people in the audience at the workshop, asked how much overlap there would be between the startup of the new equipment and the shutdown of part of the old stuff.

"There will be no overlap in operations, the only exception will be when the new plant is tested," said Gary Rubenstein, a consultant on the project.

"I'm glad to hear that," Romatier responded, and then asked how long testing would last. Ninety to 180 days was the response.

Other people at the session, including Carlsbad officials, wanted a commitment on how frequently the plant would operate. Tim Hemig, who's managing the project for power plant owners NRG Energy Inc., said it would run more often than the current equipment, but because it has newer pollution-control technology and uses an air-cooling system rather than seawater, it would be much more environmentally friendly.

Air quality and the proposed plants' visual impact dominated Thursday's 5 1/2-hour workshop. State commission staff said land use issues would be the key topics at the next session. That workshop is expected to occur sometime in late February.

Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com