Clean Energy Transition Challenges Face City

Pasadena Councilmembers heard a report detailing significant challenges in achieving the City’s goal of 100% carbon-free electricity by 2030 during a Municipal Services Committee meeting on Tuesday night, March 11.

A representative from energy consulting firm Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc. (known as E3) presented findings showing that transmission limitations and the current state of renewable technology might make completely replacing the City’s Glenarm power plant with carbon-free alternatives technically infeasible by the near-term goal of 2030.

“Replacing Glenarm is going to take a large amount of internal generation that by 2030 approaches the technical potential generally, and I think far exceeds what’s feasible to adopt by 2030,” said Mike Sontag, a Director at E3, while summarizing the initial learnings from their study.

The presentation sparked strong reactions from some Committee Members who said they felt they were being prepared for failure rather than given pathways to success.

“I felt handled and prepared like you were setting us up for failure,” Councilmember Jason Lyon said. “We retained you to say this is how you get to 100% without any limitations on it.”

E3’s analysis showed that Pasadena would need over 500 megawatts of local solar and 300 megawatts of four-hour storage to fully replace the 200-megawatt Glenarm gas plant. The City’s technical potential for rooftop and parking lot solar is approximately 500 megawatts total.

A key constraint is the City’s single point of connection to California’s larger power grid through the TM Goodrich receiving station, which is limited to 280 megawatts during normal operations. Under industry-standard contingency planning, that capacity drops to 140 megawatts if a component fails.

“We have to be considering this import capability derate even on days where there might be a lot of cloud coverage and limited solar generation,” Sontag explained.

While saying that fully replacing Glenarm appears unattainable by 2030, consultants proposed a compromise approach they called “mitigate Glenarm” — keeping the plant as an emergency backup while building enough renewables to avoid running it except during rare emergency events.

This approach would require approximately 50 megawatts of local solar, 100 megawatts of battery storage, and 35 megawatts of demand response capabilities by 2030, which E3 described as “a much more achievable number.”

E3 also discussed longer-term solutions including transmission upgrades, long-duration energy storage, and potential hydrogen conversion for the Glenarm facility, noting these would likely be viable in the 2030s rather than before the 2030 deadline.

Several residents expressed concern about scaling back climate goals, particularly after the community’s recent experience with the Eaton Fire.

“We are only nine weeks from the Eaton Fire, but how quickly a larger vision and a larger will for needed action fade,” resident Mark Rutkowski told the committee.

Caltech graduate student Sean P. Devey questioned whether planning around the 50-year-old Goodrich facility’s limitations was appropriate, saying, “It seems pretty clear that the Goodrich limitation might not actually be the right thing to be modeling around.”

Committee members requested more frequent check-ins on the City’s Optimized Strategic Plan and a dedicated conversation about increasing local solar generation. They also requested access to the draft reports E3 had produced.

“I would like to see these written reports,” Lyon said.

Councilmember Rick Cole advocated for a shift in thinking about the utility’s mission.

“The purpose of having a public department of water and power is not to sell electricity and water,” Cole said. “We do not have to sell it to them. If they can conserve, if they can generate their own electricity, we are meeting the needs of our constituents.”

The committee also heard a presentation about customer engagement plans for an upcoming electric rate study, with Lynne Chaimowitz, PWP Assistant General Manager (AGM) of Finance and Administration outlining a comprehensive approach to gathering public input before any potential rate increases are proposed this summer.