It was this electrical crisis upon which the San Jose, Calif.-based power company Calpine Corp. was banking when they first proposed the Metcalf Energy Center for the Coyote Valley area of South San Jose. However, the plant was shot down by the San Jose City Council last November, a move fueled largely by the energy center's would-be neighbor Cisco Systems' vehement opposition to its industrial nature. Cisco is in the process of building its own hotly debated 688-acre Coyote Valley Research Park in the area, and claimed it was not properly zoned for a power plant. However, the center is still up for consideration before the California Energy Commission, which according to Calpine has the legal right to overrule the City Council's objections.

"At this point, the state Energy Commission is holding hearings (on the issue)," San Jose public outreach manager Tom Manheim tells GlobeSt.com. "I don't know that any (similar proposed projects) are in the Bay Area."

The Commission will later this month continue to hold evidentiary hearings on the Metcalf Center, but even if it is approved, Manheim states, there's a long road between getting the thumbs-up and the actual construction of a new area power resource. "The timeline for building a power plant tends to be very long - years and years and years," he says. "As I've understood it, most of the problem we're experiencing right now is that the building of power plants hasn't caught up with the demand."

But the City of San Jose is taking a cautious attitude toward future construction of those plants, says David Vossbrink, spokesman for San Jose mayor Ron Gonzales. "At this time the major issue, I think, is a statewide one about making sure that the California energy system ... can continue to provide necessary power throughout the state," Vossbrink says. "The issues of power here in Silicon Valley is certainly something Mayor Gonzales is concerned about, and we will be working with other leaders here in the Valley, and with business leaders as well, to make sure there is an understanding of how Silicon Valley can be part of a solution."

Vossbrink, however, did not elaborate on those particular ways, saying only that Gonzales and other city leaders plan on taking an active role in helping heal the area's power-related wounds.

"We're looking at long-term issues, and obviously there needs to be some serious discussions that the mayor and the city of San Jose will be part of over the coming months," he says. "But at this time, there is no specific plan for developing a power-plant system in Silicon Valley right now. It's obviously something we all need to take a look at ... But the city of San Jose is not directly in the power business right now, and it never has been."

Instant Insights /

Valley Politicos Cagey About Future Power Plants

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