The Los Angeles City Council has approved a $1 billion retrofit of the Scattergood Generating Station, authorizing the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to proceed with converting the coastal gas-fired plant to run on a blend of hydrogen and natural gas despite sustained opposition from environmental groups and local residents who argue the investment locks in fossil fuel infrastructure for decades. The decision effectively greenlights one of the largest single energy capital projects in the city’s recent history and signals that LADWP views hydrogen-capable gas turbines as a necessary bridge to meet reliability requirements while pursuing its 100% clean energy target by 2035.
The Scattergood retrofit centers on replacing three aging gas turbines with new units capable of burning up to 30% hydrogen by volume initially, with a pathway to 100% hydrogen as supply and technology mature. LADWP has framed the project as essential for grid stability during the transition, citing the plant’s strategic location in the South Bay and its role in supporting voltage and frequency regulation as renewable penetration increases. Critics counter that the hydrogen supply chain remains speculative — green hydrogen production at scale does not yet exist in the region — and that the capital would be better directed toward storage, demand response, and transmission upgrades that deliver emissions reductions sooner.
The vote reflects a broader tension playing out across Western utilities: how to maintain reliability amid accelerating retirements of coastal gas plants driven by California’s once-through cooling regulations, without overbuilding fossil assets that become stranded. LADWP’s integrated resource plan leans heavily on hydrogen as a long-duration storage medium, but the economics remain unproven at utility scale. The Scattergood decision may set a precedent for how other municipal utilities in the state navigate the reliability-decarbonization trade-off, particularly as the California Independent System Operator tightens resource adequacy requirements.
Community opposition has focused on localized air quality impacts in the Harbor Gateway and Wilmington neighborhoods, where cumulative pollution burdens are already high. Advocates have pressed for a full environmental impact report rather than the mitigated negative declaration used to advance the project, arguing that hydrogen blending does not eliminate nitrogen oxide emissions and may increase them at certain blend ratios. The council’s approval, while a procedural milestone, does not end the permitting process — the project still requires sign-off from the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the California Energy Commission, where further challenges are likely.
Read the full report at CleanTechnica.