Moss Landing power plant being demolished, iconic smoke stacks will stay
By FELIX CORTEZ
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MOSS LANDING, California (KSBW) — The iconic Moss Landing power plant is in the process of being demolished and that has many wondering what will become of the landmark twin smokestacks that can be seen for miles along the Central Coast.
“It’s been something that sailors have used and I would imagine even aircraft use when they’re flying through the area, luckily they are not coming down, so they’ll be an icon that’ll remain in Moss Landing for years and years,” said North Monterey County fire Chief Joel Mendoza.
County leaders say if anything, the current owner of the plant, Vistra Energy out of Texas, is investing money in the smokestacks to make sure they’re still standing years from now.
“It’s considered they can stay there for another 75 years, they are inspected every year or two pretty thoroughly. I can’t remember the number that Vistra gave me, but I think it was like 25 or $50,000 it cost them to maintain those annually,” said Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church, who represents the area.
The huge power plant was originally built by PG&E, with the plant going online in 1950, producing energy for millions of homes over the decades.
But deregulation in 1998 forced PG&E to sell the plant and it has gone through several owners.
Vistra is demolishing the plant to make room for expansion efforts. The energy company already operates the world’s largest energy storage facility at the Moss Landing plant, using thousands of lithium-ion batteries to store renewable energy.
Since the facility has been up and running, firefighters have responded twice to the plant for incidents involving batteries overheating.
“I’ll stop short of saying you’re not going to have incidents when you have the number of battery packs and batteries you have in a place like this. You’re going to have incidents now. I’m not going to say you’re going to have fires every time,” Mendoza said.
PG&E and Tesla operate a similar plant next door, and last year, a fire broke out at that facility, forcing a partial closure of Highway 1 and a warning for people to stay indoors.
“The incident happened last year where you had a plume come up and you had people having to shelter in place, the highway was shut down, there’s no silver lining in that. That’s a that’s a real concern,” Church said.
If county leaders have concerns, neighbors have questions of their own; that’s why a town hall meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday to address any concerns and questions people may have regarding operations at the two energy storage facilities.
That meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at the North County Recreation Center at 11261 Crane Street in Castroville. The meeting runs from 6:30-8:30 p.m. and will include state and local leaders, first responders, and representatives from Vistra Energy and PG&E.
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