The Riverside Energy Resource Center (RERC) is a power plant that will be owned by the City of Riverside to provide electricity for the City’s residents. The power plant consists of two 48 MW generators located adjacent to the City’s Water Quality Control Plant.

The power plant is built around two General Electric LM6000 combustion turbines. These turbines are used around the world in power plants and airplanes (such as the Boeing 757 and 767). Each LM6000 drives an electrical generator that produces about 48 megawatts (enough for about 480,000 100 watt light bulbs). Each engine is fitted with inlet and exhaust noise silencers to reduce their noise level (like the muffler on your car) and a Selective Catalytic Reduction unit (SCR) to reduce exhaust emissions (like the catalytic converter on your car). The electricity from the plant goes onto the City’s 69,000 volt high-voltage system for distribution to various substations around the City. From those substations the electricity voltage is reduced to 13.2 kV and then distributed to homes and businesses within the City.

The city is growing and as it grows the Riverside Public Utilities must secure energy supply for its growing demand for electricity. All of the energy produced from these generators will be for the benefit of the citizens of the city

A “peaker” is a power plant that can be started quickly to supply electricity when customer demand is at its highest, or said another way, when electrical demand peaks. The RERC will be permitted to operate for 2,660 total hours from both combustion turbines. The plant will typically operate during the hot summer months of May through October for short durations (4 – 6 hours) when electricity demand is highest and the electricity is the most expensive to purchase.

The RERC is located next to the City’s Water Quality Control Plant in an industrial area of the city where it will have minimal impact on residential areas, schools, hospitals, etc. Being close to the Water Quality Control Plant, the RERC will use the reclaimed water (the treated water that leaves the Water Quality Control Plant) for its source of water.

While there are several agencies that must issue permits (including the City of Riverside), the major permitting agencies are the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD). The CEC has jurisdiction for permitting all power plants that are larger than 50 megawatts. SCAQMD is responsible for permitting all sources of air pollution within the South Coast area. Applications have already been submitted to both agencies and are currently being reviewed. The CEC’s public hearings at Water Quality Control Plant on June 17 and July 16 are a part of this process.

The plant will be burning clean natural gas and will be operating with the best available emissions control technology to insure minimal impact on the environment.

Each LM6000 is fitted with an inlet and exhaust noise silencer. The power plant is being designed and built in accordance with the City’s regulations that require sound attenuation to 65 Decibels at the property line. 65 Decibels is about the same as average street noise.

The Power Plant will be equipped with a Continuous Emissions Monitoring System (CEMS), which will monitor all emissions from the plant continuously.

No, the plant will be using reclaimed water from the City’s Water Quality Control Plant for electricity production. Reclaimed water is water that leaves the Water Quality Control Plant that would otherwise be discharged to the Santa Ana River. In addition, RERC will be a zero liquid discharge facility, which means that there will be no industrial wastewater from the plant. There will be a small amount of drinking water used for the plant operators. The power plant will have state of the art air treatment and emissions control technology and be monitored continuously even it the turbines are not running.

The CEC review encompasses all aspects of the California Environmental Quality Act process. This includes noise, air, water, socioeconomic, prudency, traffic, siting, visual impacts, archeological, historical, paleontological, etc.

The goal is to have the power plant producing electricity for the summer of 2006.

There will be two power plant technicians used to operate the facility.

Please contact Bob Gill of Riverside Public Utilities at (909) 826-5837.