IHI Power Permanently Closes Two Kern County, California Cogen Plants

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--IHI Power Services Corporation (Aliso Viejo, California), a subsidiary of IHI Corporation (Tokyo, Japan), has permanently closed two coal-fired cogeneration power plants located in Kern County, California.

The Rio Bravo Poso and the Rio Bravo Jasmin plants, located in Bakersfield, each produced 35 megawatts (MW), and had been operating as peaking plants since 1989, using coal and petroleum coke. The steam generated was used for enhanced oil recovery.

The Rio Bravo Poso plant had a 30-year power purchase agreement with Pacific Gas and Electric Company's (NYSE:PCG) (PG&E) (San Francisco, California) that was due to expire in 2019, and negotiated out of the contract in March this year. The Rio Bravo Jasmin 30-year contract with Southern California Edison (SCE) (Rosemead, California), was recently closed.

Both plants were identified as Kern County's "dirtiest," based on emissions levels per kilowatt power generated. This was cited as one of the reasons for shutting down the plants, as well as low natural gas prices.

IHI had plans to invest some $20 million to convert the plants into biomass facilities back in mid-2013, but those plans were put on hold due to the investment costs and higher operating costs associated with biomass power.

IHI will continue to operate its other four biomass power plants in California, which are located in Jamestown, Fresno; Lincoln and Ione.

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