Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has ended plans to rebuild three coastal gas-fired power plants, and instead will focus on energy storage and other clean energy technology as it pursues a 100 percent renewables goal.
The decision marks the end of a multi-year debate over the city’s plan to invest $2.2 billion in gas-fired power plants, which the Department of Water and Power said the plants are critical to the city’s electrical system, the Los Angeles Times reported. The three plants are: Scattergood in El Segundo; Harbor, in Wilmington, by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach; and Haynes, in Los Angeles.
The Scattergood and Harbor gas plants sit in communities with some of the worst pollution in California, state data show.
Garcetti said his office concluded the city’s Department of Water and Power (LADWP) could maintain reliability if the 326-megawatt Scattergood gas plant is to retire by 2024 and Haynes and Harbor by 2029, as long as DWP keeps investing in batteries and other clean energy technologies.
It also follows a decision by state lawmakers last year to pursue a 100 percent clean energy target by 2045. Los Angeles has already moved away from coal for electricity, divesting from the Navajo plant in Arizona and announcing plans to stop buying power from Utah’s Intermountain plant by 2025.
