Southern California Wildfires Evacuate Power Plant Employees from Homes, Potentially Delaying Return from Outage

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Wildfires in Southern California are a way of life for the residents in the desert-like area. Every year, an average of more than 1.5 million acres burn in the state — anything from dried chaparral, dead trees, underbrush, homes, businesses, cars and anything else in the way. This year, the fires have affected the Palomar Energy Center outside of Escondido, not because of fire threatening the plant (yet), but because plant personnel have been evacuated from their homes and can't make it to work. Oddly enough, the plant was just about to come out of a one-week winter-prep outage, but its return might be delayed because of a lack of personnel available to get the units up and running. “We were supposed to be in start-up today, but most of our workers have been evacuated and can't make it in,” one worker said.

The “78 Fire,” which got its name from the area near Highway 78 where it had been primarily focused, has already consumed nearly 3,000 acres according to Cal Fire, California's state office for fire prevention and contamination/extermination. Unfortunately, the town of Ramona (population 36,000), about 10 miles from the plant, has been ordered to evacuate. Quite a few Palomar workers live in Ramona.

There is no immediate break in the region's forecast, either, as the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is forecasting extremely dry Santa Ana winds to continue to blow across the region, with temperatures expected to soar into the 90s throughout the affected areas. Humidity is 15% or less in the region, as well, which does not bode well for citizens in the area hoping for a quick end to the blazes, nor fire personnel responsible for trying to contain and extinguish them.

The Palomar Energy Center is a 540-megawatt generating plant which is operated by San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E). The facility is efficient and clean-burning compared to most other power stations, and brings reliable power generation to the San Diego region. In fact, the combined-cycle, natural-gas-fueled plant produces 45% more energy using the same amount of natural gas fuel as older plants.

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