Hunters Point Power Plant


The Hunters Point Power Plant was a fossil fuel-fired power plant in the Hunters Point area of San Francisco, California, operated by Pacific Gas and Electric Company from 1929 to 2006. It was one of two electric power plants in San Francisco, the other being the Potrero Generating Station.

History

It was one of the oldest and dirtiest oil-fired power plants in the state and was a major source of pollution. Residents and community activists pushed to have the plant shut down. In 1998, the City of San Francisco entered an agreement with PG&E to shut down HPPP "as soon as the facility is no longer needed to sustain electric reliability in San Francisco and the surrounding area and the FERC authorizes PG&E to terminate the Reliability Must Run agreement for the facility".
On May 15, 2006 PG&E permanently shut down the plant once transmission lines along the Peninsula were upgraded to carry reliable replacement power. It was demolished in 2008 and cleanup of the site was nearing completion in 2014.

Design

In 2004, the plant had a large boiler with a thermal power of and two diesel-fired turbines with thermal power ratings of each. Steam from S7 was used to generate 170 MW electric output, and the two standby gas turbines were rated at 26 MW electric each. S7 was permitted to burn natural gas or fuel oil, but the oil-burning capability was deleted in the 2004 permit application. Previous to that, the plant also had four other boilers with a collective thermal power of which were shut down in 2001.
S1 and S2 were collectively designated Unit 1, and began operation in 1976. S7 was designated Unit 4, and began operation in 1958. Unit 4 would have required retrofitting of selective catalytic reduction equipment to meet tightening NOx emissions requirements beyond 2005.