The 619MW Russell City Energy Center, a natural gas-fired power plant, is located in Hayward, while Los Esteros Critical Energy Facility, which first began commercial operations in March 2003 as an 188MW peaking power plant, is located in San Jose.
The Los Esteros Critical Energy Facility is now been upgraded to a combined-cycle facility capable of generating up to 300MW.
The two plants will have a combined generating capacity of more than 900MW, which is enough to power about 750,000 households.
The power generated from the plants will be supplied to Calpine’s customer, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), which will also supply the natural gas fuel, under 10-year power purchase agreements.
Calpine CEO Jack Fusco said, "We are particularly proud of the environmental attributes of these facilities, with Russell City being the nation’s first power plant to volunteer to accept a permit with a limit on greenhouse gas emissions."
The Russell City Energy Center uses the most advanced emissions control technology available today for a natural gas-fired power plant.
Additionally, the zero-liquid discharge plant will conserve water by using reclaimed wastewater from the City of Hayward’s Water Pollution Control Facility for all cooling and boiler makeup.
