Vistra is withdrawing its application for a proposed battery energy storage system (BESS) facility at the old Morro Bay power plant.
The proposed project called for a 600MW lithium-ion battery facility, which would be enough to power 450,000 homes.
The company informed the City of Morro Bay of its decision in a letter dated April 4.
Vistra’s Morro Bay BESS proposal timeline:
- 2020: Vistra submits BESS application to the city
- 2022: Assembly Bill 205 passes, allowing energy companies to bypass local jurisdictions, like city councils, and get state approval instead
- 2024: Vistra pauses its application with the City in October and said it would instead seek approval through the state.
- 2025: Earlier this year, the City Council approved a two-year urgency ordinance prohibiting the acceptance or processing of new BESS projects in the city.
A big question many people in the community have following Vistra’s withdrawal is if the company will be going to the State for project approval.
Vistra would not answer KSBY's requests for comment on this, instead directing community reporter Sophia Villalba to the letter sent to Morro Bay, which states, “When there is more to share about our redevelopment plans, including the potential to use the Opt-In Certification Program to objectively review a plan to renew and reuse the Morro Bay Power Plant site, we will inform you and the community.”
Back in October, a Vistra spokesperson told Sophia they had paused the application with the City, citing “timelines and consideration processes that would add at least 18 months of municipal review prior to any preliminary vote.”
At the time, the Texas-based company said it would be going to the state for approval of the project under Assembly Bill 205.
Passed back in 2022, it allows energy companies to bypass local jurisdictions, like city councils, for approval of energy projects.
The City of Morro Bay is currently under a two-year urgency ordinance prohibiting the acceptance or processing of new BESS projects in the city. This urgency ordinance will give the City two years to develop a permanent ordinance.
According to City Manager Yvonne Kimball, neither an urgency ordinance nor a permanent ordinance would prevent the California Energy Commission from approving a BESS facility in Morro Bay.
Some people in the community are happy the project won’t be moving forward, at least for now.
“Not good if seawater hits it. Well, it might catch on fire. Not a good deal,” said Bob Stuffelbeam of Morro Bay,
But Scott Murtishaw with the California Energy Storage Alliance says this is the kind of project the state needs for reliability, greenhouse gas emissions and to meet the state’s clean energy goals.
“We need to reduce greenhouse gases and California needs to lead the way just like we did for solar and wind energy,” Murtishaw said. “We were pioneers in developing renewable energy technologies and now we are pioneers for developing energy storage technology."
Murtishaw says storage is the key to using renewable energy.
“We know that wind and solar energy are the cheapest forms or energy, but we can’t just turn it on and off when we need them, so to make that energy reliable is to store it and use it when we need it,” he said.
In Vistra’s recent letter, the company stated it was declining the City’s request to gift its private property to the City.
The City has not yet responded to Sophia’s requests for clarification on this and whether the City had, in fact, requested the property be donated.
Sophia has been covering this story for more than a year and will have the latest on the company's withdrawal on KSBY News at 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Thursday.
