Carlsbad Energy Center Power Plant

Aspen assisted the California Energy Commission with the Staff Assessment for the Carlsbad Energy Center Power Plant Project. The Aspen Team was responsible for the evaluation of Waste Management, Geology and Paleontology, Cultural Resources, Air Quality, Socioeconomics, Traffic and Transportation, Water and Soil Resources, Worker Safety, Hazardous Materials, Public Health, Land Use, Biological Resources, and Alternatives.

The 23-acre project site is located in the City of Carlsbad, in San Diego County in an area zoned Public Utility, which allows electrical generation and transmission facilities. The project is a 558-MW gross combined-cycle generating facility configured using two units with one natural gas-fired combustion turbine and one steam turbine per or unit. As part of the project, existing steam boiler Units 1, 2, and 3 at the Encina Power Station will be retired upon the successful commercial operations of the new project generating units. The retirements will create substantial environmental benefits, including permanent air emission reductions from the boiler units; elimination of the 225 million gallons per day of cooling water (seawater) intake capacity for Units 1-3 and the resulting decrease in impingement and entrainment of marine organisms attributed to those unit’s cooling water flow; cessation of discharge of wastewaters to the Pacific Ocean from Units 1-3; and elimination of the use of potable water attributed to the existing operation of Units 1-3.