MINUTES
of the
POWER PLANT TASK FORCE
Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at 6:00 p.m.
Potrero Neighborhood House
953 DeHaro Street, San Francisco, California
1. INTRODUCTIONS AND ROLLCALL
Chair Philip DeAndrade called the meeting to order at 6:10 p.m.
Present: Joe Boss Richard Millet
Philip DeAndrade Steven Moss
Karen Pierce
Absent: Al Collins
2. CHAIR'S SUMMARY
Mr. DeAndrade: the Task Force is concerned with the siting of three of the combustion turbine generators (CTs) and is prepared to make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. The question is: will the three 50-watt CTs to be sited at the foot of Potrero Hill be sufficient enough to take over the RMR (Reliability Must Run) contract from Mirant but not sufficient enough to close the Potrero Power Plant. The Task Force does not want to approve the CTs unless there is a guarantee that Potrero will close.
3. REPORT FROM MIRANT
Robert Driscoll, Sr. VP, Head of Asset Management, US Region. From Georgia reporting:
At a certain time, the Potrero Plant will close. As a private company, Mirant has a responsibility to the Independent System Operator (ISO) to run the plant for the requirement for reliability for SF. The ISO may determine that the Potrero Plant is no longer necessary. When the RMR contract expires and there is no longer a need for the plant to generate power, Mirant will look for what is the best and highest use of the property.
Mirant stated that it would sign a lease for the TransBay cable power station on the Potrero site if conditions were met. However as important as the cable is to the area's electric reliability, it will not be able to shut down the Potrero Plant. New in-City generation will be necessary for reliability to be met.
The action plan is: the TransBay cable becomes operative; 2) the CTs are sited; 2) the Potrero Plant closes. But no one can predict when these milestones will occur. Mirant is not considering any proposal to re-power Potrero should the RMR contract run out.
Power Plant Task Force
Minutes
January 23, 2007
Page 2.
In response to a question from Stephen Moss re the Water Board permit, Mr. Driscoll said that if the ISO requires Mirant to continue operating, it would deal with the cooling issue. Otherwise, it will not spend the money.
4. REPORT FROM THE CALIFORNIA INDEPENDENT SYSTEM OPERATOR (ISO)
Gary DeShazo and Julie Gill appeared on behalf of the ISO. The identified Action Plan transmission projects needed to allow the ultimate removal of the RMR Potrero contract have been completed by PG&E, except for the Hunters Point-Martin cable that has been extended to 2008-09.
However, since the Action Plan was established, the Energy Policy Act required all energy companies to meet new standards. Transitioning from RMR to Resource Adequacy requires PG&E to serve 117% of the peak load. PG&E must buy generation to serve the load. With present reliability requirements, SF needs generation in addition to transmission. Further, the Action Plan is out of date because the Plan was based on the load at the time, which has grown faster than anticipated. It was predicated on RMR contracts, which are no longer issued by CAISO.
In consideration of the new information in the report from the ISO, the Task Force did not think there was enough information to take a vote on the siting of the CTs.
5. ADJOURNMENT
Mr. DeAndrade adjourned the meeting at 8:20 p.m.
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