San Onofre Nuclear Plant Shutdown: Rolling Blackouts Possible This Summer

Southern California Edison is working to keep the lights on this summer in the absence of power coming from from the temporarily inactive San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.

that led to the discovery of , San Onofre officials said this month the nuclear plant 

Edison International Chairman and CEO Ted Craver, in meetings with Southern California media representatives last Thursday, said that safety, not timelines, would determine when the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) restarts. 

"Due to safety inspections and testing that SCE is performing, the company expects to deliver a plan to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of July regarding the operation of SONGS Unit 2. The NRC, which must approve the restart of SONGS, will then need time to respond. As a result, SCE estimates SONGS likely will remain off line through August," an SCE released statement read. SONGS Unit 3 is also out of commission and is expected to take longer to come back on line, according to the statement.

Both SONGS units are currently shut down for inspections, analysis and testing. Unit 2 was taken out of service Jan. 9 for a planned outage. Unit 3 was taken off line Jan. 31 after station operators detected a leak in a steam generator tube.

The San Onofre station is jointly owned by SCE, San Diego Gas & Electric, and the City of Riverside. When operational, San Onofre generates about 2,200 megawatts of energy -- enough to power 1.4 million average homes at a given time.

Yesterday, Duane Cave, an SDG&E spokesman, addressed the San Clemente City Council.

"This will be the first summer [since the plant was built] we've ever gone without having San Onofre operating during summer," Cave said. "Customers must be made aware of the need to conserve during warm days more than ever before."

The ISO is the consortium that allocates electricity among utilities throughout the state.

Without the San Onofre nuclear plant, the California ISO figures show a capacity of 48,091 megawatts, Cave said. (One megawatt can power about 650 single-family homes.) The ISO estimates demand, during a normal summer, to reach only 46,352 megawatts—if lucky.