Alternative Energy Cogeneration Plant Bustles North of Bakersfield, Calif.
By Erin Waldner, The Bakersfield Californian -- April 3
An industrial kitchen of sorts is busy at work just north of Bakersfield.
Not many locals know it exists.
Donald Waln, vice president of Millennium Energy LLC, which provides asset
management and technical support services for Mt. Poso, recalled the time
someone visited the plant for the first time. When Waln later ran into him in
town, the person commented, "That's quite a place you've got out
there."
As a cogenerator, Mt. Poso uses one fuel source -- the petroleum coke, coal
and tire chips are blended into one product -- to produce two forms of energy.
Built in 1989, the plant generates 53 megawatts of electricity per year for
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. One megawatt will power 1,000 homes. The steam it
makes is pumped into the nearby Mt. Poso oil field to help recover thick, heavy
crude.
Plant manager Bill Dickson said he believes the plant provides a viable
service for California and the environment. The Integrated Waste Management
Board estimates the plant saves 1 million tires a year from being dumped into
Southern California landfills.
Mt. Poso began burning tire chips last year, "with no increase in our
emissions," Dickson said.
Tom Goff, permit service manager for the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution
Control District, said that is accurate.
Mt. Poso is one of three coal-fired cogens, or cogenerators, in the area. Mt.
Poso was the first.
The coal Mt. Poso uses is brought in from Utah by train.
Dickson said many people picture heavy plumes of smoke exiting into the
atmosphere when they think of coal-fired plants.
He and Waln stressed that's not the case at Mt. Poso.
They said the plant's original owners spent more money and time building a
plant that uses clean coal technology. A modern combuster burns the coal and
coke with fewer emissions than a conventional boiler would.
The white cloud visible at the top of the plant is not smoke.
"It's just vaporized steam," Waln said.
Ammonia, limestone and a fabric filter are also used at Mt. Poso to keep
emissions down.
Goff said Mt. Poso generates more pollution than a natural gas power plant of
comparable size, but that based on the magnitude of its emissions, Mt. Poso is
not among the worst polluters in the valley.
"It's state-of-the-art for a coal-fired plant for the time it was
built," Goff said, adding that older coal plants don't have the kind of
emissions control technology that Mt. Poso has.
The petroleum coke Mt. Poso consumes comes from the Shell Bakersfield
Refinery on Rosedale Highway. The refinery is scheduled to close its doors on
Oct. 1.
Waln said Mt. Poso will have to look elsewhere for petroleum coke and that it
may end up being too costly to continue using it.
The tire chips Mt. Poso uses come from a Los Angeles company that processes
used tires.
Once at Mt. Poso, wires in the chips are removed and sold for scrap iron.
Residual ashe is sold for different uses, including as a soil amendment.
Twenty-four employees operate Mt. Poso.
Two of them had their feet up in the plant's control room one recent
afternoon while they studied computer data.
"That's good," Waln said, adding that it meant everything was
running as it should be.
SUMMARY OF COGENERATION
In California, cogeneration, the technology that produces two forms of energy
from one fuel source, is about 25 years old.
"Maybe it's lost some of its sex appeal," said Bill George, general
manager of Cogen Works, an industry association.
Even so, he said, a cogeneration's still needed in California.
"They still generate electricity for the state grid. As you just saw,
we're barely meeting our (electricity) needs," George said, referring to
Monday's Stage 1 alert that electricity reserves were running low.
Cogeneration satisfies 12 percent of the state's total electricity demand.
Specifically, cogeneration is an energy-producing process involving the
simultaneous production of thermal and electrical energy from a single heat
store.
Mt. Poso, for example, is a cogen just north of Bakersfield that produces
electricity, which it sells to Pacific Gas and Electric Co., and steam for a
nearby oil field. The plant was built in 1989.
Kern County is home to about 35 large-scale cogen plants, many of which are
in the oil patch.
These days, most of the new cogens being built in California are small.
You'll find them at places where there are large air conditioning or heating
needs, said Rob Schlichting, a California Energy Commission spokesman.
Hospitals, colleges, public buildings sometimes use cogens.
The Frito Lay plant on Highway 58 has one.
George said cogeneration is also good for the environment because it reduces
greenhouse gas emissions.
"I think you'll see a continued move toward cogeneration. It's just got
enormous benefits," George said.
Cogen Works is a new coalition of California cogenerators. It has about 30
members. Their goal, George said, is to educate policy makers and regulators
about the benefits of cogeneration.
--By Erin Waldner
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