Magnolia Power Plant Petition to Amend & Distributed Energy Backup Assets Award

Magnolia Power Plant Petition to Amend & Distributed Energy Backup Assets Award

The Magnolia Power Plant (MPP) is a 323-megawatt, combined-cycle natural gas facility. The project was certified by the California Energy Commission (CEC) in March 2003 and began commercial operation in September 2005. On November 17, 2025, the CEC made two discretionary decisions to 1) approve the Applicant’s Petition to Amend the 2003 Commission Final Decision and 2) provide Distributed Electricity Backup Assets (DEBA) grant funding under two related agreements numbers DBA-25-003 and DBA-25-004. The pair of decisions will enable the Applicant to install efficiency upgrades and operate the facility to improve the turbine’s thermal energy conversion process allowing MPP to generate an additional 54 MWs during hot-weather ambient conditions, and to make the incremental capacity available for dispatch to the grid on a day-ahead and real- time basis during extreme events (project). This megawatt increase would make up for lost power output that has occurred due to power degradation. As a power facility ages it experiences power degradation, which refers to a decrease in power output over time. Power degradation is a result of several mechanical and material degradation factors including but not limited to thermal and mechanical stress, corrosion and erosion, fouling and aging infrastructure. Power degradation is a normal occurrence at power facilities. As the project owner, the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) filed a Petition to Amend to update the MPP’s Conditions of Certification (COCs) to install and operate the proposed efficiency upgrades. The approved Petition to Amend updates the Commission’s 2003 Final Decision, adds to and modifies the COCs for the facility, and permits the Applicant to install and operate efficiency upgrades to the existing turbine including the installation of an Advanced Gas Path (AGP) and an upgrade to the Air Compressor (AC) Package. The efficiency upgrades will improve the turbine’s thermal energy conversion process allowing MPP to generate an additional 54 MWs during hot-weather ambient conditions. On November 17, 2025, the CEC approved the above-described project change and Petition to Amend to add, modify and delete the COCs for the MPP pursuant to the CEC’s regulatory program certified by the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency under section Public Resources Code section 21080.5 and California Code of Regulations, title 14, section 15251(j). The CEC implements its certified regulatory program through California Code of Regulations, title 20, sections 1701 et seq. The CEC’s approval of the Petition to Amend was based on a staff assessment and the CEC’s findings that: *The petition meets all the filing criteria of California Code of Regulations, title 20, section 1769(a) concerning post-certification project changes; *The new and modified COCs will not change the findings in the CEC's Final Decision, pursuant to California Code of Regulations, title 20, section 1748; *The findings required under California Code of Regulations, title 20, section1748(b), are not applicable to this petition; *The project will remain in compliance with all applicable laws, ordinances,regulations, and standards, subject to the provisions of Public Resources Code, section 25525; *Any environmental impacts will be less than significant with the addition of new or amended conditions of certification: (AQ-2b, AQ-11, AQ-22, AQ-23, AQ-25, AQ-27, the addition of new COCs AQ -2c, AQ-9, AQ-11a, AQ-25a, and the deletion of the existing COC AQ-2a); *The proposed project change does not meet the criteria requiring the production of subsequent or supplemental review as specified in California Code of Regulations, title 14, section 15162(a); *Notice of the staff assessment was mailed to the CEC’s list of interested parties and property owners of all parcels within 500 feet of any affected project linears and 1,000 feet of the project site as well as emailed to the MPP subscription list; and *The staff assessment was posted to the docket on October 2, 2025, and was subject to a 30-day comment period. Comments received during the comment period are addressed in the errata adopted by the CEC. On November 17, 2025, The CEC also approved two funding agreements through the CEC’s funding opportunity GFO-23-401 under its Distributed Electricity Backup Assets (DEBA) program that supports efficiency upgrades at existing power plants. The awards were made to the City of Burbank (City) as the operator of the Magnolia Power Plant. The first agreement (DBA-25-003) awards the City $23 million to upgrade the MPP with an advanced compressor system, and the second agreement (DBA-25-004) awards $12 million to upgrade the MPP with an advanced gas path system. Both of these awards will support the purchase, installation and performance of these upgrades to improve the aerodynamic performance of the MPP, to increase the hot-weather power plant rating by 54 MW, and to make the incremental capacity available for dispatch to the grid on a day- ahead and real-time basis during extreme events. The staff assessment prepared for the CEC’s consideration of the Petition to Amend was prepared under the CEC’s certified regulatory program, and fully considered the potential environmental impacts of all of the installation and operational requirements of the DEBA awards. In approving the Petition to Amend, the CEC adopted staff’s recommended findings based on the staff assessment that there were no significant impacts associated with the Petition to Amend. In approving the Petition to Amend, the CEC made a further finding that the project change does not meet the criteria for requiring the production of subsequent or supplemental review as specified in California Code of Regulations, title 14, section 15162(a). For the same reasons and based on the staff assessment for the Petition to Amend, the CEC made a determination that approving the DEBA awards does not meet the criteria requiring the production of subsequent or supplemental review as specified in California Code of Regulations, title 14, section 15162(a). This is to advise that the CEC has approved the Magnolia Power Plant Petition to Amend and Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Awards on November 17, 2025, and has made the following findings and determination on the DEBA awards: 1. The DEBA awards will not have a significant effect on the environment. 2. The DEBA awards do not meet the criteria for requiring the production of subsequent or supplemental environmental review as specified in California Code of Regulations, title 14, section 15162(a). 3. Mitigation measures were not made a condition of the approval of the DEBA awards. 4. A mitigation reporting or monitoring program was not adopted for the DEBA awards. 5. A Statement of Overriding Considerations was not adopted for the DEBA awards. 6. Findings were made pursuant to the provisions of CEQA. The Commission docket files containing the Final Commission Decision, the staff assessment, and other information regarding the record of the CEC approvals of the Petition to Amend and DEBA awards are available online at Docket Number 01-AFC-06C, https://efiling.energy.ca.gov/Lists/DocketLog.aspx?docketnumber=01-AFC-06C, or available for public viewing at: California Energy Commission, 715 P Street, Sacramento, California, 95814. This information is also available on the Energy Commission's project webpage https://www.energy.ca.gov/powerplant/combined-cycle/magnolia-power-project.

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