Our Actions/Impact
Energy can be obtained, delivered and consumed in a way that minimizes the impact on the environment. But there are trade-offs between impact and cost. For example, for consumers, super-efficient LED lights cost more than less-efficient compact fluorescents, which cost more than inefficient conventional incandescent light bulbs.
Energy companies face trade-offs as well. Renewable energy is not always reliable (the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow). And the cleanest energy is not inexpensive: rooftop solar power costs significantly more than natural gas-fired generation.
At Sempra Energy, our business units reduce our impact on the environment through our low-carbon approach while balancing customer needs for high reliability and reasonable costs.
Our Emissions
In 2010, total emissions remained steady. Direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions from SDG&E, SoCalGas and Sempra Generation were approximately 10.3 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent. This figure does not include emissions from our Sempra Pipelines & Storage or Sempra LNG business units. In addition, emissions from electricity purchased on behalf of our SDG&E utility customers totaled 4.8 million metric tons of CO2. The major sources of greenhouse gas emissions (see below) were from electricity generation and fugitive emissions (unintended release of gases or vapors) from natural gas pipelines. This data is undergoing third-party verification and may be revised once the independent review is complete.
Emissions Reporting
At Sempra Energy, our business units comply with the mandatory emissions reporting requirements of the California Air Resources Board and will begin reporting to the federal Environmental Protection Agency starting in 2011.
Because of the complexity in emissions reporting, we believe that developing reasonable reporting standards should be an industry priority. Our California utilities and Sempra Generation power plants are also members of (and report emissions to) the voluntary Climate Registry, which helps to create transparent and verifiable reporting standards for greenhouse gas emissions.
We also report our emissions annually to the Carbon Disclosure Project, an independent nonprofit organization that works on behalf of institutional investors to engage with more than 3,000 companies around the world in a dialogue on climate change and carbon-reduction strategies. For more information, visit www.cdproject.net.
The emissions intensity of our business units’ power-generation fleet remained steady, increasing slightly by about 1 percent to 735 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour of net generation. Our emissions intensity is about 40 percent below the national average.
What Is Emissions Intensity?
How much CO2 is emitted when 1 megawatt-hour of energy is generated? This is what we mean by “emissions intensity.” According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the answer depends on how that energy was produced. Under typical conditions, burning natural gas produces roughly half as much CO2 as burning coal to generate the same amount of energy. The main reason our business units’ emissions intensity is 40 percent below the national average is that we rely heavily on natural gas and renewable resources to generate power.
In addition to greenhouse gas emissions, our business units also generated 545 tons of nitrogen oxide and 36 tons of sulfur dioxide emissions at an intensity rate far below the national average.
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Reducing Our Operational Impact
At Sempra®, our business units encourage their customers to reduce environmental impact by improving energy-efficiency. But they also look closely at their own operations and facilities to find ways of decreasing energy and water usage, improving recycling efforts and reducing the impact of their vehicle fleets.
Reducing Energy Use
Reducing electricity consumption is a priority. For 2010, our California utilities set a goal to reduce electricity consumption by 23 percent at the largest employee-occupied facilities compared to a 2003 baseline. We met this goal and achieved a reduction of 24 percent, with improvements including installation of energy-efficient lighting, heating and cooling system retrofits, and building envelope improvements. Our business units continue to focus on improving energy-efficiency at data centers and are installing a new high-efficiency Uninterruptable Power System and making cooling system improvements.
Reducing Water Use
Electricity generation can require a lot of water. This is a critical issue because our business units own and operate power-generation assets in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where water is a limited resource.
In 2010, our business units’ generation facilities in the United States and Mexico used approximately 2.8 billion gallons of fresh water, 4.9 billion gallons of saltwater* and more than 2 billion gallons of reclaimed and on-site wastewater. Our use of wastewater helps to reduce our impact on fresh water supply. Additionally, nearly 5.4 billion gallons of fresh, salt and reclaimed water were recycled back into the environment, in compliance with environmental permits and water quality laws.
Our business units’ power plants save water in a number of ways:
- SDG&E’s 560-megawatt Palomar Energy Center in Escondido, California, uses reclaimed water (treated wastewater) to generate electricity. This process saved more than 835 million gallons of fresh water in 2010.
- Sempra Generation’s 480-megawatt El Dorado power plant near Boulder City, Nevada, uses dry-cooling, which requires only 10 percent of the water used by traditional wet-cooled power plants, saving more than 500 million gallons of fresh water in 2010.
- Sempra Generation’s 625-megawatt Termoeléctrica de Mexicali (TDM) power plant in Mexicali, Mexico, uses untreated sewage, cleaned in our own water treatment plant, to cool the plant. As a result, we saved 1.2 billion gallons of fresh water resources in 2010.
Our business unit SDG&E also encountered a specific challenge in the area of water use.
Since December of 2009, SDG&E has been working to identify multiple water sources for use during construction of the Sunrise Powerlink transmission line. Recycled water is the first choice for the project because of environmental benefits, but regulatory barriers have prevented its use. SDG&E has so far been able to use raw surface water for about 60 percent of the total water requirement and potable water for the rest.
SDG&E is working with leaders in San Diego on a long-term solution that will streamline the process and help SDG&E and other construction projects to purchase recycled water in the future.
SDG&E and SoCalGas also continued to reduce water use at their largest offices. Through water-efficiency improvements such as installation of low- and no- flow urinals and low-flow shower heads, faucets and flush valves, water use was reduced at these facilities by 4.4 percent from 2009 levels, just short of a 5 percent goal. For 2011, our goal is to reduce water use by at least 1 percent compared to 2010. Although that might not sound like much, we have been working to reduce facility water consumption for many years and have already made sizable improvements.
Our Fleet Operations
SDG&E and SoCalGas continued to make progress on a goal to reduce fleet vehicle emissions 15 percent by 2012 compared to a 2007 baseline of 56,023 metric tons of CO2e. By adding more than 150 alternative-fuel vehicles to their fleet in 2010 and providing employees with eco-driving training to maximize fuel efficiency, they reduced emissions by nearly 10 percent as compared to 2007 levels. When the goal of 15 percent is reached, it will be the equivalent of removing about 1,600 gasoline-fueled passenger sedans from the road.
Our Waste and Recycling Efforts
Our business units’ waste and recycling programs use the best practices and latest technology to divert waste from local landfills and limit the use of natural resources. The programs generated more than $5.6 million in revenue in 2010. Our utilities promote paperless billing to their customers and we promote paperless paychecks to all of our employees.
2010 Recycling Highlights
More than 17.3 million pounds of material, equal in weight to nearly 700 school buses, was diverted from landfills.
- Metals and meters: 15.8 million pounds
- Lead cable: 64,880 pounds
- Paper and cardboard: 1.32 million pounds
- Electric transformers: 5,643 units
- Transformer oil: 371,355 gallons
Paperless Billing Pays Off For The Environment
At our SDG&E and SoCalGas business units, more than 1.6 million customers have signed up for paperless billing. SDG&E has achieved one of the highest participation rates for online billing of any U.S. utility – more than one-third of residential customers.
Environmental Compliance Activities
Each of our business units is held strictly accountable for following all environmental regulations and laws and obtaining all required permits. Detailed compliance plans include extensive training, monitoring and performance evaluation. Our business units spent $41 million in 2010 on environmental compliance activities such as environmental mitigation measures, improvements to electric and natural gas systems, and emissions-control equipment.
In 2010 we had solid compliance results. Ninety-six percent or 276 out of 287 total governmental agency inspections resulted in no notice of violation issued. Thirteen notices were received that were not self-reported. $25,125 in fines and penalties were assessed. This compares with 11 notices and $23,993 in fines in 2009. Full details of our business units’ response and actions following each notice of violation can be found here.
In 2010, our business units generated 7,289 tons of hazardous waste, 4,467 of which came from historical manufactured gas site remediation activities. The waste was properly managed and disposed of in accordance with applicable law.
Progress continues to be made on a 1990 voluntary agreement with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control to clean up 42 historic manufactured-gas plant sites in Southern California (see story below). Since 1990, 38 of the 42 sites subject to the agreement have been remediated. Our Mobile Gas subsidiary has also entered into the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s Voluntary Cleanup Program to remediate a manufactured-gas plant site in Mobile, Alabama.
An Example Of Historic Manufactured-Gas Plant Remediation
From 1885 to 1930 SoCalGas owned and operated a facility at Aliso Street in downtown Los Angeles that manufactured gas from coal and oil. Manufactured gas was first used for street lighting and was later delivered to homes and businesses for heating and lighting. The Aliso Street facility was the largest of 42 such plants in southern and central California. Leaking process tanks and pipes and waste byproducts contaminated the soil (and in some cases the groundwater) around the plants.
From 1942–1947, the U.S. Government ordered SoCalGas to restart the plant to manufacture butadiene (a key component of synthetic rubber) for use by the military in World War II. Additional soil and groundwater contamination occurred during this period.
Starting in 1998, SoCalGas began cleaning up the Aliso Street site under a Voluntary Cleanup Agreement with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control. At just one of the Aliso Street parcels, 180,000 tons of heavily contaminated soil was removed for disposal and ultimate destruction at a cost of $28 million. As the soil has been removed the groundwater quality has improved.
SoCalGas’ efforts to cleanup these 42 properties is just one example of our environmental stewardship and commitment to improve environmental quality in our service territory.
*Although we own only 20 percent of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), we include our pro-rata share of water usage for this facility. In 2010, about 15 percent of the electricity generated or purchased on behalf of SDG&E customers came from SONGS.
Environmental Compliance
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agency Inspections | 266 | 301 | 403 | 287 |
| Notices of Violation (NOV)1 | 9 | 6 | 11 | 132 |
| Percentage of agency inspections with no NOV issued | 97% | 98% | 97% | 96%3 |
| Fines and Penalties4 | $14,750 | $27,261 | $23,993 | $25,125 |
| Internal compliance assessments and audits | 238 | 325 | 329 | 460 |
| 1 | Self-reported violations and are not included. |
| 2 | Two of our 2010 NOVs (a reporting oversight and improper dumping by others of tires and rubbish on undeveloped property) were neither self-reported nor a result of an agency inspection. |
| 3 | The calculation for this percentage does not include the two NOVs that were neither self-reported nor a result of an agency inspection. |
| 4 | Does not include settlements. |
Notice of Violation Details
| NOVs | |
|---|---|
| SDG&E |
|
| SoCalGas |
|
| Sempra Generation |
|
| Sempra Pipelines & Storage |
|
Hazardous Waste1,2 in tons
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20,695 | 6,678 | 2,187 | 7,289 |
| 1 | As defined by U.S. and Mexico federal regulations |
| 2 | The significant year-to-year changes in hazardous waste are a result of changes in the amount of manufactured-gas plant site remediation activity performed each year, which causes the amount of contaminated soil disposed to vary. |
Our Approach to Biodiversity
At Sempra Energy, we are committed to protecting and preserving the environment (see story below). Through our business units, we make it a priority to meet or exceed the laws protecting threatened or endangered species and the environment, and we track and measure the results.
SDG&E has purchased close to 10,000 acres of property in San Diego and Imperial Counties for preservation, including properties on El Cajon Mountain, at Long Potrero, and near the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. These purchases will protect habitat that benefits six federally listed, three state listed and one California species of concern including the Peninsular Bighorn Sheep, Barefoot Banded Gecko, Quino Checkerspot Butterfly, Coastal California Gnatcatcher, Least Bell’s Vireo, Southwestern Willow Flycatcher and Southwestern Arroyo Toad.
Additionally, along with Southern California Edison, SDG&E implemented the San Dieguito Wetlands Restoration Project which is restoring 150 acres of coastal wetlands in the San Dieguito River Valley within the cities of Del Mar and San Diego.
From 2005 to 2008, more than 700,000 sea urchins, sea snails and sea cucumbers were relocated, and 5,000 Ferocacti (barrel-shaped cacti) were transplanted to enable construction of Sempra LNG’s Energía Costa Azul facility in Baja California. Once construction was complete, using GPS tagging, the Ferocacti were returned as close to their original locations as possible. Since then, through the continuing operation of an on-site nursery, more than 10,000 additional specimens of these plant species have propagated. An environmental and training coordinator oversees the process of populating other areas within the site with these cacti, and is planning to offer plants to the local community for its own beautification projects.
During the construction of Sempra LNG’s Cameron LNG receipt terminal, located 18 miles from the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, Sempra LNG worked with federal and state agencies to design a facility that would minimize impacts on the local environment. Working together, they developed an innovative plan to use dredge material from the terminal construction to create more than 100 acres of new wetlands, about twice the amount required. Since active work on the project ended in 2008, water quality has improved, and increased vegetation growth now provides better nesting sites for egrets, herons, cormorants and other species. Sempra LNG will monitor and maintain this crucial wildlife habitat for the next 20 years.
Sempra Generation operates mostly in the southwest deserts of Arizona, Nevada and California, as well as Mexicali, Mexico. During project development they work with community leaders and environmental organizations to understand and adapt to the local habitat. For example, they are collaborating with the San Diego Zoo on a multi-year study to help better understand the flight patterns and territories of the California Condor and the Golden Eagle along the U.S.-Mexico border near their proposed Energía Sierra Juárez wind facility. The Mexico-based Instituto de Ecología (INECOL) has also conducted avian and bat studies and assessed the flight and migratory patterns of other birds and bats in the area. Post-construction monitoring will also be conducted.
Did You Know?
Sempra Energy and its business units’ eight “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” (LEED)-certified facilities total nearly 500,000 square feet. That’s equivalent to eight and a half football fields!
Did You Know?
Energy champions have been designated at our California utility worksites to monitor their workspaces for inefficient practices and provide employees with tips on how to conserve energy.
Did You Know?
The permitting process for selling recycled water requires approvals from multiple agencies in order to ensure appropriate public health and environmental concerns are addressed. At this time, none of the three feasible purveyors of recycled water in the County of San Diego have permits to sell recycled water outside their service areas, which would be required for the Sunrise Powerlink project. Our business unit SDG&E is currently using potable water from the City of San Diego and from the Padre Dam Municipal Water District for this project, and at the request of the community and local elected officials, has committed to not use well or groundwater because of its scarcity.
Did You Know?
Our SoCalGas business unit completed a major landscape modification project during the fourth quarter of 2009, which contributed to our 2010 water conservation results. Approximately 12,000 square feet of turf was removed and replaced with an eight-foot-wide decomposed granite walkway and drought-tolerant native landscaping at the unit’s Redlands, California facility. The project reduced this facility’s irrigation consumption by approximately 30 percent and reduced overall consumption at the site by approximately 5 percent.
Did You Know?
As of 2010, SDG&E had replaced over 82 percent of the passenger vehicles in its fleet with alternative-fuel vehicles!
Did You Know?
Direct emissions are emissions that a company produces. An example of our direct emissions would be emissions from the power plants we operate. Indirect emissions are the emissions a company causes another entity to produce. An example of our indirect emissions would be emissions from electricity purchased and used in our operations.
Did You Know?
Not all greenhouse gases have the same impact on the environment. For example, one unit of sulfur hexafluoride has 23,900 times the impact of one unit of carbon dioxide. For the sake of simplicity and clarity, when an organization calculates its greenhouse gas emissions, it reports them as though they were equivalent to a given volume of CO2. This is CO2 equivalent or CO2e.
The 20-Gallon Challenge
SDG&E partners with the San Diego County Water Authority to promote “the 20-Gallon Challenge,” a call for residents and businesses to reduce our region's water use on average by 20 gallons per person, per day. SDG&E also offers customers complimentary Home Energy & Water Savings Kits and promotes energy-saving tips with respect to water usage. For example, SDG&E advises its customers to buy cold water detergents and wash clothes in cold water to save energy and money.
Did You Know?
Not all greenhouse gases have the same impact on the environment. For example, one unit of sulfur hexafluoride has 23,900 times the impact of one unit of carbon dioxide. For the sake of simplicity and clarity, when an organization calculates its greenhouse gas emissions, it reports them as though they were equivalent to a given volume of CO2. This is CO2 equivalent or CO2e.
Did You Know?
Although we own only 20 percent of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), we include our pro-rata share of the electricity it generated in our emissions intensity calculation. In 2010, about 15 percent of the electricity generated or purchased on behalf of SDG&E customers came from SONGS.