John Wayne Airport wants to take control over its electricity.
The airport is planning to build a $16.8 million power plant, a move that could help avoid outages like the one a week ago that shut down security screening and delayed flights at the Thomas F. Riley terminal.
Southern California Edison Co. currently supplies all of the airport’s power.
Power outages have hit the airport from time to time, John Wayne Airport spokeswoman Jenny Wedge said.
During the latest outage, some jets were put into a holding pattern because of delays on the ground. Backup generators kicked in until power was restored.
Control tower operations weren’t affected by the outage, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.
The airport plans to build the power plant near the intersection of McArthur Boulevard and Campus Drive.
John Wayne officials soon plan to put out a request for bids for construction of the plant. The airport wants four natural gas turbines capable of generating 1.75-megawatts each. (One megawatt is enough power for about 750 homes.)
Construction bids are due in August, with building set to begin by the end of the year. The plant is expected to be completed by the end of 2007.
About 95% of the airport’s electricity should be supplied by the power plant when it’s finished, according to officials. The rest will come from Edison.
“Because we will provide our own energy in the future, it is less likely an outage will occur similar to what occurred” earlier in May, Wedge said. “We’ll still have SoCal Edison as a backup, and (other) emergency backups.”
The airport expects to save $817,000 a year in energy costs by producing its own power, Wedge said.
John Wayne’s plant will use turbine engines fueled by natural gas to generate heat and electricity.
The “cogeneration” plant will capture excess heat thrown off by the process of creating electricity. That heat can be distributed through steam pipes to heat or cool buildings, improving the airport’s energy efficiency.
Conventional coal or natural gas plants don’t retain the excess heat, which is emitted through cooling towers.
Earlier this month, state regulators approved an 8% hike in electricity rates for Edison customers,the third increase this year for California’s second largest electricity provider. Edison is using higher fees to help pay for upgrades to its network, among other uses.
John Wayne is readying for other expansion plans.
It will start collecting a $4.50 per passenger fee marked for the airport’s five-year building plan that calls for a new terminal and parking garages. The fee, which will be collected until 2022, is expected to fund about three quarters of the $437 million expansion plan, Wedge said.
