San Diego study warns against building new gas generation

A consortium of San Diego agencies has released draft results from a study that predicts a doubling in electricity demand by 2030 and warns against building new natural gas generation. The study calls on San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), which has the highest prices of any California utility, to invest in distributed generation and renewables. Less than 2% of SDG&E's portfolio comes from renewables, but recent state legislation is about to force the utility to increase its renewable energy portfolio by as much as 1.75% a year until renewables make up 20% of its energy purchases by 2017. The San Diego Regional Energy Infrastructure Study, released last month, warns that market conditions and infrastructure will continue to be poor for natural gas supply. Although the utility will have to build two gas power plants, it must build more if it does not soon begin adding renewables resources and build new transmission lines to the east and towards Mexico to bring in potential wind generation.