Pio Pico Energy Center

The Pio Pico Energy Center (PPEC) is located at 7363 Calzada de la Fuente, San Diego, CA 92154, and is situated on a 10-acre parcel next to the Otay Mesa Energy Center.

PPEC is a 300-megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired, simple-cycle power generation project consisting of three General Electric LMS100 natural gas-fired combustion turbine generators (CTG). Each CTG capable of generating 100 megawatts.

Otay Water District provides potable water directly to the project site through Otay Water District water lines immediately adjacent to the site. The project connects to the Otay Mesa area recycled water main. PPEC’s process water needs are supplied using recycled water and permanent potable water needs consist of drinking water, showers, sinks, toilets, eye wash stations, safety showers, and primary fire protection water. The water balance is based on recycled water quality parameters, which presents a worst-case scenario, based on volume.

The plant uses a partial dry-cooling system (PDCS) in a closed-loop configuration. This allows the plant water consumption to be dramatically decreased in two ways. First, the dry-cooling section reduces the total amount of water evaporated during the cooling process. Second, the closed-loop cooling allows the contaminants in the evaporative water to be concentrated to a much greater extent than in a traditional open-loop cooling system because that water does not pass through the combustion turbine equipment.

Compared to a typical open-loop system with no dry cooling, the PDCS described above decreases the annual plant water consumption by approximately 53 percent and the wastewater production rate by 59 percent.