Desal Costs Slashed

The Clean Energy Alliance (CEA) has signed an agreement with the San Diego County Water Authority to supply electricity to the Poseidon Desalination Plant in Carlsbad beginning in January 2025. The plant supplies about 10% of the water used by the region. The production of desalinated water is energy intensive, with the original design based on a baseline power consumption of 31.3 megawatts hours (mWh) per day with a total annual energy consumption of 246,000 mWh/year (or 246 gigaWh). Recent modifications have reduced the baseline power level consumption by onsite regeneration, with a corresponding reduction in energy costs/year of almost $12M. Switching power supply from SDG&E to CEA will provide additional savings as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions from plant operations since the electricity provided by CEA is cleaner. When CEA service to the Poseidon plants begins, the plant will consume about 18% of the total CEA power load, much more than the power consumed by the City of Del Mar.