The City of Morro Bay has increased the amount of a contract to study the environmental impacts of a proposed Battery Energy Storage System or BESS.
Vistra Energy has proposed building a 600 megawatt BESS on the old power plant property, which Vistra owns but hasn’t produced energy since 2014.
Vistra’s project was first proposed in 2020 and an application was put in for a Coastal Development Permit (CDP) in 2021. That March, the City hired Rincon Consultants to conduct the project Environmental Impact Report (EIR) with an opening contract of $158,000. Vistra has agreed to pay all these costs through a reimbursement deal with the City.
A year later, in April 2022, the City first amended Rincon’s contract to include impacts from the demolition and removal of the three, 450-foot tall smokestacks and the power generating building, which rises some 16 stories. That addition came with the City’s beginning of a Master Plan process for the 103-acre power plant property, to include a BESS facility, and the future uses of the powerhouse and stacks areas (about 14 acres).
That amendment added $123,000, increasing the total contract amount to $281,000, and extended the contract to the end of March 2023.
A month later in May 2022, the second amendment was approved for another $23,000, adding a study of “geologic and hazard impacts,” according to a City report.
In July 2022, the third amendment was approved increasing the contract by another $172,000 for a new total of $304,000.
This amendment added the “Phase 1” of the Power Plant Master Plan, a document required under the City’s planning rules. This also extended the contract life to April 30, 2023.
A fourth contract amendment, for $6,000, was approved in May 2023 and added analysis of a community survey the City conducted on the Power Plant Master Plan and brought the total up to $483,000.
The fifth amendment was added last January, adding $47,000, bringing the total Rincon contract up to $531,000 and extending the contract to the end of 2024.
This sixth contract amendment (submitted on Aug. 19), asked for another $94,000, and increases the contract to over $625,000. The latest increase arose because of extensive interest by the public.
“A primary reason for this request,” the report said, “is to cover Rincon’s cost to review and prepare responses to a higher-than-expected volume of comments on the Draft EIR. The City received 213 written comment letters totaling over 1,000 pages in response to the Draft EIR.”
However, this sixth amendment doesn’t extend the contract past the Dec. 31 end date.
Rincon is going through these letters and will respond to each in writing and include that information in its Final EIR, most likely as an addendum. They also have to go through comments made in public forums that were held as part of the EIR and Master Plan processes and more.
“Additionally, Rincon is seeking additional budget for hearing attendance, community engagement, and additional revisions to the Draft Master Plan, and project management.”
With the contract amounts already changed six times, how’s Vistra doing in keeping up with the payments?
Initially, Vistra paid the City $197,000 — the initial contract amount plus 20% — a requirement before the City would accept the application. Since then, Vistra has replenished the reimbursement account four times, at $175,000 each time (in February 2023, May 2023, November 2023 and March 2024).
