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This Friday, officials from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, the California Energy Commission and the grid operator will delve into the rationale for keeping the Diablo Nuclear Power Plant online past 2025, when its operating license expires. It will be the focus of a late afternoon public presentation on the impacts of intense weather conditions on the electricity system and delays in adding generation due to supply chain issues and other challenges.

Those opposing an extension of the facility plan to show up in force. Their objections range from safety concerns because of deferred maintenance, the reneging of an approved settlement, the payout of millions of ratepayer and public dollars to discouraging renewable deployments. "Don't let Newsom Nuke Our Future!," the Oakland-based Local Clean Energy Alliance told its supporters Aug. 10

The Aug. 12 CEC meeting follows Commissioner Siva Gunda’s interview in which he told Current the state may need to delay retiring Diablo and gas-fired generation to protect the grid during emergencies in spite of agreements to the contrary and impacts on the disadvantaged. This near-term urgency affects more than the state because “if the lights go off in California, momentum for the climate effort in the rest of the country could be at risk,” Gunda said during last month’s interview.

At the end of July, Newsom signed the state budget that includes his proposed $5.2 billion strategic reserve for 5 GW of nuclear, fossil, renewable and diesel resources to supply the grid when it is highly stressed and ensure air conditioners keep running. It includes $75 million for Diablo’s possible extension. In addition, the reserve will be used to keep gas plants slated for retirement operating, including ones along the Southern California coast that use large quantities of seawater for cooling, with closure deadlines approved by the State Water Resources Control Board back in 2010.

V. John White, executive director for the Center for Energy Efficiency, complained that state officials have had 10 years to plan and procure replacement power for the old, inefficient retiring gas plants, and have known Diablo was scheduled to close since 2016, “Now, Newsom wants to keep all their generation options open, including the dirtiest, oldest, least efficient gas plants in disadvantaged communities,“ he warned.

He added that to date there's been “a total lack of focused low-income energy efficiency or flexible load-demand response procurements from third parties being considered in the Administration’s reliability reserve.” The CPUC just started a new proceeding on demand flexibility, demand response, Distributed Energy Resources and rate design, but it will take the CPUC many months to finalize this process. “We can’t wait that long if we want to increase resiliency and reliability between now and 2026,” White said.

According to the CEC, the workshop at the end of this week will discuss actions “needed to preserve the option of extending, for a limited term, the operating license of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, and how such an extension, if it occurs, could fit within California’s broader clean energy transition.”

The length of a “limited term” extension of the 2,200 MW Diablo is not yet known. But one lasting several years could interfere with planned offshore wind development beyond the coast of Morro Bay. The floating wind turbines would connect to the transmission lines now serving Diablo.

The Diablo plant has had one of two units go offline for extended periods over the last couple of years, including during a heat wave, so some question its use as a reliable backup in emergency situations.

Complexity

Extending the operations of Diablo is a complex venture and would require enabling state legislation. It also would require the undoing of the multiparty settlement that CPUC approved between owner Pacific Gas & Electric, ratepayer advocates and others. That agreement was followed up with approved funding to help PG&E workers and make up for the loss of income to the surrounding area, including schools in the San Luis Obispo region. SB 1090 by former Sen. Bill Monning (D-Central Coast) provided $430 million in compensation from all utility ratepayers to keep PG&E Diablo workers employed at the plant until 2025 for safety reasons and to help buffer San Luis Obispo County and the surrounding cities. The status of the funding would be upended by an extension, with Monning telling Current in May that the push for a plant extension was “socially and medically irresponsible.”

Newsom also is working on legislation to advance the state’s clean energy targets. It includes a carbon neutrality standard, and a framework for estimating the emission reductions from carbon capture and sequestration, as laid out in the governor’s July 22 letter to the California Air Resources Board.