From: "Tim Alton" To: Jay Ross , John Zamora , Bob Dhillon , Jay James , MECcomments , Honorable Mayor Ron Gonzales , "linda.lezotte@ci.sj.ca.us" , "charlotte.powers@ci.sj.ca.us" , "cindy.chavez@ci.sj.ca.us" , "manny.diaz@ci.sj.ca.us" , "frank.fiscalini@ci.sj.ca.us" , "district7@ci.sj.ca.us" , "alice.woody@ci.sj.ca.us" , "john.a.diquisto@ci.sj.ca.us" , "pat.dando@ci.sj.ca.us" , "Docket@energy.state.ca.us" , Forrest Williams , "ChuckReed@aol.com" , "PlainDave1@aol.com" Date: Sun, Nov 12, 2000 10:33 PM Subject: DENY MEC 11-12-00 Dear Mayor Gonzales, Commissioners and Council members, The proposed MEC power plant is inconsistent with the current General Plan. It will obviously be a heavy industrial plant rather than campus industrial which the G.P. recommends and will be a large source of local air pollution in South San Jose. It should be denied, there are better solutions close at hand. The site is basically a convenient place for use by a corporation that builds large power plants. Defenders of the plant refer to the summer's shortages and claim the plant is needed for local reliability. It may be a solution to local reliability but not the only one. Local reliability is studied annually by PG&E, looking 5 years out and proposing transmission solutions to grid reliability problems. At San Jose's nearest major power source, Moss Landing, the power plant expansion (1,100MW) has recently been approved and PG&E will identify any requirements to allow sufficient power to flow into our area. The project that is most required by summer 2002, one year before MEC could be on-line, is designated T590 which will increase import capacity by 1,000MW versus MEC's 600MW. The other hot button is local voltage support and reactive power, which is truly imaginary power. This is currently achieved by capacitors that are switched into the system as required. New silicon based technology to be deployed at Newark substation will allow these to be used more effectively. If it's good enough for Newark then it's good enough for San Jose too. Transformers and capacitors at Metcalf substation do not produce any emissions. But what about the emissions at Moss Landing? Well that project will result in a 90% reduction of local emissions at Moss Landing. MEC would obviously not reduce emissions in South San Jose since there aren't any. It seems like a win-win situation. Deregulation of electricity generation, has produced this process where independent power producers decide where they want to build a plant. They pick sites in their own best interests. The Air Quality Management District approves it based on the fact that the technology being used is as good as the last plant that was built (BACT), the height of the smoke stack, and the smoke and mirrors of Emission Reduction Credit trading. This provides no incentive for MEC to use state of the art technology, which is why they settled for merely good enough. The CEC then approves the plant, which is their record to date. The only forces pushing back against this juggernaut are local land use policies, planning commissions, and city councils. You are well within your rights to deny this plant the zoning changes required. You are the consumer in the free market who can say: "I am not buying it!" Some South Bay industries have written letters to the CEC in support of MEC. Hanson Cement of Cupertino are a case in point. They voluntarily shed 38MW of load when a stage 2 emergency occurs as happened several times this summer. For many years they have been part of this program and never been called upon, but collected a 20% discount from PG&E for being on call. Now they want a power plant in South San Jose so they can continue to have their cake and eat it too. The Permanente site was the subject of analysis for an alternative site due to its proximity to the Monta Vista substation which is where MEC will supply its power en-route to Silicon Valley. The site was dismissed as unsuitable for a plant of this size due to the lack of gas transmission capacity. Once again the one-size-fits-all solution was the only one offered. Other industrial facilities such as Gilroy Foods and the packing plants in King City have Calpine plants of 100MW sizes. The power plants contribute process steam to their hosts, making them efficient smaller plants. If Hanson Cement did this then they could provide waste heat to preheat kiln input material, reduce the amount coal burned, eliminate their load dropping requirement, provide voltage support nearer the load center than MEC, and make money selling excess power especially at peaks. No, they think a plant in South San Jose and 20% off the rate is a better idea! The real problem is peak summer load caused by power hungry air conditioning equipment. Are we more productive on a day when the peak hits 36,000MW or a hotter day when it hits 46,000MW. No. About the time of deregulation the CEC commissioned a report on the effects of the load shifting techniques of thermal energy storage systems for air conditioning, that chill water or make ice at night for use the next day. Load shifting means dirtier peaking plants don't run as a much, and the larger plants run more efficiently and cleanly at night with increased loads. Only this year was PG&E allowed to start offering rebates for purchases of load shifting equipment. As we have seen this summer peak electricity costs up to ten times more than the average rate. These systems will play a role in cost conscious industries, who will have tremendous incentives when real time energy meters are used. They will also reduce those problem peaks. Direct storage of electricity at off-peak times for use during day is being demonstrated in new technology projects capable of supplying 15MW. These clean load shifting solutions will go a long way to reducing peak loads and eliminating transmission and power plant construction just for the 10% of the time when these loads may occur. The buzz word in the power industry these days is "distributed generation". This does not mean a full time diesel generator on every corner. There are new cleaner turbines that catalyze the natural gas instead of burning it (XONON) and achieve ultra low emissions without the use of expensive exhaust clean up systems such as SCR. There are fuel cells and fuel cell turbine hybrid projects which achieve 60% efficiency and emit no toxins or criteria pollutants. The plants are small and suitable for on site location in an office park. No longer will increased efficiency mean massive plants such as MEC. One of the reasons for choosing the Metcalf site is the availability of large transmission lines for both electricity and gas. The real load center of the South Bay is obviously in the north of the county, smaller scale new clean distributed generation would be of great value in reducing the transmission lines that are currently being built and will have to be expanded in the future to get power from MEC or anywhere else into that area. Another topic is the use of dirty diesel backup generators. Would you want to go to a hospital that does not have a backup generator? These are a necessity for most businesses too, simply because grid reliability is 99.9%, which means 8 hours of lost supply per annum. MEC will not eliminate the need for these installations or their increased use in the next two summers. Also the often cited older dirtier plants are mandated to clean up their act by BAAQMD Reg 9, Rule 11 by end of 2004. This means in most cases using the very same SR emission control technology as MEC to reduce their outputs by 90%. I feel the local chapter of the American Lung Association were deceived into their endorsement of MEC because the reasons they cited did not take this into account. The best quote I have heard in this long process came from the CEC staff member working on the air quality issues. "This is an exciting time for new developments in the industry. I am not referring to this project, unfortunately someone always gets stuck with the last of the old dirty stuff". You can prevent my neighborhood and San Jose as a whole from being stuck with this solution and hold out for something better! Yours Sincerely, Tim Alton 243, French Ct, San Jose CA 95139 CC: staction