A 100-Megawatt Electric "Security Blanket" for Riverside
by Thomas P. Evans, Public Utilities Director,
City of Riverside Public Utilities Department
Riverside Report, Summer 2004

California learned many costly lessons from the Energy Crisis. Fortunately for the City of Riverside, our municipal utility can take independent action to protect our community. Due to the foresight of our Board of Public Utilities and the City Coucil, we now have their approval to build a 100-megawatt (MW) power plant and a local transmission line at the new Riverside Energy Resource Center (RERC).

The RERC will cost $75 million to build and will be located near the Santa Ana River east of the Wastewater Treatment Plant near Van Buren Blvd. and Jurupa Ave. The RERC will not be connected to the state grid. It will only serve Riverside customers.

The RERC will provide energy security for Riverside in three primary ways:

The RERC power will handle increasinf peak demands for a growing Riverside during the hottest days of summer for years to come.
In a disaster, it could provide the city with 100-MW of additional locally generated emergency power.
It could be used to protect our utility customers from future shortages in the energy market supply or volatile price fluctuations.
While the future is always uncertain, Riverside's energy future definitely will be 100-MW more secure once the RERC is completed, which could be as soon as May 2005.