FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Terrie Prosper, 415.703.1366, news@cpuc.ca.gov
PUC APPROVES CLOSING PG&E'S HUNTERS POINT POWER PLANT
SAN FRANCISCO, March 15, 2006 -- The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) today approved the closing of Pacific Gas and Electric Company's (PG&E) Hunters Point Power Plant, located in the Bayview-Hunters Point area of San Francisco.
"This is a great day for the Commission, for the City of San Francisco, for PG&E, and most of all for the residents of the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood," said PUC President Michael R. Peevey. "The residents and business owners from Bayview-Hunters Point have lived with the plant for all these years and have persevered through - and constructively engaged in - the process that is now culminating in the plant's closure. In particular, I appreciate their active support for approval and construction of the Jefferson-Martin transmission line, which, by bringing more power to San Francisco, is the lynchpin of the decommissioning plan."
The plant will be closed 10 business days after PG&E provides written notice to the California Independent System Operator and the Commission that both the Jefferson-Martin and Potrero-Hunters Point transmission upgrades are fully operational - expected early April 2006.
In 1998, PG&E entered into a Commission-approved agreement with the City and County of San Francisco in which PG&E agreed to permanently shut down Hunters Point Power Plant as soon as the facility was no longer needed to sustain electric reliability in the San Francisco Bay Area.
To that end, the Commission approved a number of transmission projects for PG&E, including the Jefferson-Martin 230 kV transmission line and Potrero-Hunters Point 115 kV underground transmission line, as well as the San Mateo-Martin 115 kV #4 reconductoring.
"It is the upgrades to the transmission system - development of a more robust infrastructure that can reliably move power into San Francisco - that has allowed us to shut down this plant," said Commissioner John Bohn.
The Resolution approving the closing of the plant is at http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUBLISHED/AGENDA_RESOLUTION/54404.htm.
More information on the PUC, please visit www.cpuc.ca.gov.
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