Redondo Beach AES Plant Could Remain Operational Through 2023

REDONDO BEACH— The AES power plant across from King Harbor in Redondo Beach may remain online for a few more years despite strong opposition from some city leaders who had hoped to purchase some of the property for a park as part of efforts to revitalize the waterfront. The Statewide Advisory Committee on Cooling Water Intake Structures (SACCWIS) met on March 26 and recommended that the State Water Resources Control Board extend the closure deadline for the nearly 70-year-old generating station to Dec. 31, 2023. The State Water Resources Control Board is expected to consider the recommendation at an upcoming meeting. Regulators set a deadline of Dec. 31, 2020, for the owner of AES Corp. to shutter the Redondo Beach power plant and several others along the Southern California coast as part of the 2010 Once-Through Cooling Policy, which required the eventual closure of all coastal power plants that used cooling water intake structures due to the harmful effects on marine and estuarine life. In 2020, the water board extended the deadline for the Redondo Beach AES plant to Dec. 31, 2021. The extension came after August 2020, which was the hottest on record in the state. The August heatwave resulted in the California Independent...