MINUTES
of the
POTRERO POWER PLANT CITIZENS ADVISORY TASK FORCE
Thursday, September 26, 2002
City Hall
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 408
1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
The meeting was called to order by Chair Philip DeAndrade at 4:10 p.m.
Present: John Borg Babette Drefke
Absent: Bob Boileau
2. REPORT FROM THE CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Deputy City Attorney Jackie Minor reported that the Final Recommendation of the Task Force, passed at its last meeting on May 15th, 2002 was transmitted to the California Energy Commission as part of the City's file.
There have two rounds of hearings with a third round scheduled for Oct 28th through30th. There has been a conscious decision not to take up any controversial topics. The CEC is not prepared to say that they want to suspend or continue the hearings until such time as the biological opinion is issued by the EPA working with the National Marine Fisheries Service. But the effect of what they have done is to not take up any topic related to the cooling system or air quality.
Potrero Power Plant
Minutes
September 26, 2002
October meeting topic will be reliability, which addresses whether the design of the plant meets the reliability needs of the grid and the issue of the impact of Potrero 7 being considered a single contingency power plant. Other topic is efficiency, whether there is enough natural gas. Other October issue is a continuation of the transmission system engineering issue. Not clear that there will be anymore hearings after October before the end of the year.
3. REPORT FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Mr. DeAndrade combined this item with No. 4 on the agenda, City Energy Resource Plan.
Anne Kelly, for the Dept. of the Environment, discussed the Executive Summary of the Energy Resource Plan. Between period of draft edition and the final edition serious problem discovered that is expected to occur in 2004 and 2005. In 2005 both Hunters Point and Potrero come under new compliance emission standards. The plants will not be in compliance as they now exist. Mirant plans to do a retrofit. Would have to shut down Potrero in 2004 for six months and do retrofit. There is no time in SF when six months period can be set aside when there is no peak. Therefore, Hunters Point would have to supply the power. PG&E is under same compliance rules and must also retrofit Hunters Point. They plan to use emission credits but cannot run plant beyond 2006.
City must plan several scenarios to deal with this. Best-case scenario is to use three new jet-fueled peakers plants of 50 megawatts. These plants are cleaner than Potrero, even with the retrofit. City can use power to generate municipal load. Financing could be a problem.
Ms. Kelly answered questions from the Task Force.
The Task Force elected to invite Ed Smeloff of the PUC to the next meeting to discuss the Energy Resource Plan. It was agreed that Mr. Borg would prepare written questions for Mr. Smeloff in advance of the meeting. The Task Force agreed to send a copy of the questions to Ms. Kelly.
Mr. Greg Asay of Supervisor Maxwell's office announced that there was an informational hearing on the Energy Resource Plan and Supervisor Maxwell wants the Board to now adopt the plan as policy.
Potrero Power Plant
Minutes
September 26, 2002
4. SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF THE TASK FORCE
Mr. DeAndrade announced that the existence of the Task Force was to terminate in November pursuant to legislation. Ms. Drefke moved to ask the Board of Supervisors to extend the mandate of the Task Force for one more year. Mr. Millet seconded the motion. It was unanimously carried.
The Task Force also discussed its mission and composition. Mr. Moss moved to expand the membership to eleven and it would add a Mission Bay resident and a Hunters Point resident. John Borg seconded the motion and it was adopted.
Mr. DeAndrade reported that he contacted Ms. Karen Pierce of Hunters Point, and that she is willing to serve on the Task Force. A request will be made to the President of the Board to appoint her.
5. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 6:20 p.m.
