The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Dec. 11 accepted an Oct. 24 filing by AES Huntington Beach LLC of a new Reliability Must-Run (RMR) agreement for calendar 2014 for Huntington Beach Generating Station Units 3 and 4.
The RMR is with the California Independent System Operator, which needs these units in operation for grid stability purposes. The Oct. 24 filing didn’t draw any protests or adverse comments.
RMRs are needed when a power generator wants to shut capacity, but the local grid operator, in this case CAISO, wants to keep it running for a while longer while compensating grid fixes are completed. In a Jan. 4 order, the commission accepted the current RMR agreement, effective as of Jan. 9, which expires at the end of this year. The RMR agreement provides CAISO the ability to dispatch Units 3 and 4 to provide voltage support when required for local reliability.
In the meantime, AES Southland is working on the gas-fired, 939-MW Huntington Beach Energy Project as a replacement for the existing plant.
The existing plant has five steam generating units (units 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5). Units 1 and 2 are currently operational. Effective October 2012, Units 3 and 4 ceased commercial operation. In September 2012, the California ISO approved a must-run contract on Units 3 and 4 to convert to synchronous condensers to provide voltage support to southern Orange County and San Diego. Unit 5, a 133-MW peaker, was retired in 2002.
