Sacramento Power Authority at Campbell’s Campbell Cogeneration Project (Campbell, Campbell Soup) Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD)

Docket No. 93-AFC-3

November 30, 1994 Commission Decision Granting Certification

Staff Counsel: Dick Ratliff

Hearing Officer: Gary Fay

Presiding Member: Vice Chair Sally Rakow

Background

After the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s (SMUD)'s 913 megawatt (MW) Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Plant was closed by the voters in the June 6, 1989 election, SMUD conducted a competitive bidding and negotiation process with various powerplant developers in order to obtain replacement generation. In November 1991, Campbell Soup, along with SEPCO (Docket No. 92-AFC-2), Carson (Docket No. 92-SPPE-1), and Proctor & Gamble (Docket No. 93-AFC-2) were among the five local projects selected by SMUD for development.

ER 90 established criteria and guidelines that a municipal utility could utilize in a competitive resource selection process. In a March 12, 1992 submittal, SMUD asked the CEC to make a formal determination that SMUD’s procurement process complied with ER 90, and that the package of five chosen projects were therefore all in conformance with the integrated assessment of need under ER 90.

The Commission made the findings requested by SMUD on May 13, 1992, Docket No. 88-ER-8S, Order No. 92-0513-02. Therefore, the Campbell Cogeneration Project was already deemed needed and demand conformance could not be an issue in the AFC itself.

AFC Filing and Project Description

The Sacramento Power Authority at Campbell, a joint power authority that included SMUD, filed the Application for Certification (AFC) for the Campbell Cogeneration Project on October 29, 1993. The highly efficient natural gas-fired combined cycle powerplant would provide steam to the Campbell Soup Company manufacturing facility and 158 MW to SMUD. The AFC was accepted by the Commission as data adequate on December 1, 1993.

The project was located on a 5.8 acre highly disturbed industrial site adjacent to the existing Campbell Soup plant in Sacramento, approximately one-half mile east of the Sacramento Executive Airport. NOx emissions would be controlled to a level of 3 parts per million (ppm) by a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) unit. The natural gas fuel would be supplied by the SMUD Cogeneration Natural Gas Pipeline (SMUDGAS), Docket No. 92-AFC-2P.

Issues

The Campbell Soup AFC had no contested issues, as all matters were settled by negotiations. Two subjects are worthy of note.

Air Quality

CEC staff and the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD) used different methodologies for calculating the air emissions offsets required by both Campbell Soup and the Proctor and Gamble project (Docket No. 93-AFC-2). Staff utilized a worst case daily emissions basis for arriving at offset requirements, while the district based its mitigation upon quarterly emissions.

There were differences in the total offset requirement calculations. However, under staff’s approach, Proctor and Gamble (Docket No. 93-AFC-2) had excess offsets, which could be credited to Campbell Soup so that the calculations balanced.

CEC staff, SMAQMD, and the applicants reached agreement on resolving the problems of methodology by combining credits for the two projects. The matter was not adjudicated and neither applicant had to obtain additional offsets. (Pages 24-33 of the CEC Decision; Air Quality Findings and Conclusions 5-6 on pages 32-33 of the CEC Decision, and Air Quality Condition of Certification 47 on page 49 of the CEC Decision.)

Biology

The project would disturb 0.6 acres of foraging habitat for the burrowing owl, a species of special concern. The applicant agreed to mitigation in the amount of $3,000 to fund purchase of an equivalent amount of off-site compensatory habitat, a l:1 ratio. (Page 74 of the CEC Decision; Biology Condition of Certification 3, at page 80 of the CEC Decision.)

Adoption

The Commission Decision granting the Campbell Cogeneration Project AFC was issued on November 30, 1994 (within the one-year statutory time frame). SMUD constructed the facility, which went into operation in 1997.