California Dam Crisis Leaves Power Market Short of Big Hydro
- Gas-fired generation needed to fill gap after Oroville shut
- State’s electrical grid has not been affected, spokesman said
The Oroville Dam spillway releases 100,000 cubic feet of water per second down the main spillway, on Feb. 13.
Photographer: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty ImagesA crippled spillway is threatening to submerge an entire region of northern California after a recent deluge of rain. And the state’s power market may already be feeling it.
As state officials rush to repair an emergency spillway for the Oroville dam -- just 150 miles (241 kilometers) north of San Francisco -- an 819-megawatt hydropower plant, capable of supplying about 600,000 homes with electricity, remains shut there until authorities judge it is safe to come back online. That’s the equivalent of two natural gas-fired power plants that will need to kick into gear elsewhere in California to make up for the lost supplies, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.