Equipment for new Otay Mesa Power Plant is Unloaded at Port of San Diego

Tuesday, 25 March 2008

Heavy equipment for a new power plant in Otay Mesa was off-loaded today at the Port of San Diego’s Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal. Shipping company Chipolbrok America Inc. transported the 24 modules, some weighing 173 metric tons, from Korea aboard the ocean carrier Wladyslaw Orkan. The Port’s new business was generated during a recent trade mission to Asia by Port of San Diego officials. “This underscores the importance of forging strong relationships with customers and prospective customers in the international market,” said Port Commissioner Sylvia Rios, who met with Chipolbrok representatives in Shanghai, China, last year while she was Chairman of the Board of Port Commissioners.

Port officials met with over 50 people from 20 companies in Seoul, South Korea; Shanghai, China, and Tokyo, Japan. “By making market presence and recognition a priority, the Port of San Diego is poised to attract more business that would have traditionally gone to other ports,” said Commissioner Laurie Black, who was on the trade mission.

A second Chipolbrok shipment of power plant parts will arrive at the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal this summer. After off-loading at the terminal, the power plant equipment travels by truck to the Otay Mesa site. The Otay Mesa Generating Project is being built and operated by Calpine Corporation and is the first new power plant to be built in San Diego County in nearly 30 years. Once operational in mid-2009, the power plant will have a 596 megawatt capacity, enough to power 500,000 homes. The plant will be located on a 46-acre property in eastern Otay Mesa near the base of the San Ysidro
Mountains.

“It’s particularly convenient for Calpine Corporation to off-load at the Port of San Diego. The marine terminal is close to the freeways and it’s only a 45-minute haul to transport the modules to Otay Mesa,” said Jackson Hendrick, a surveyor representing Calpine Corporation. “It’s also logistically convenient to be able to store some of the parts at the terminal until we’re ready for transport,” he said.

The Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal has processed a variety of commodities for important regional construction projects including steel shipments for the downtown ballpark and convention center and vessel construction at nearby
National Steel & Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO), as well as oversize water pipes for the Escondido area. Sand and cement for local construction projects are imported regularly through the Tenth Avenue terminal.

The Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal processes a variety of specialized cargo, including regularly scheduled imports of fresh and frozen produce, fuel and breakbulk commodities such as transformers, windmill parts and steel products. They are called break-bulk because the products don’t fit in containers. Lumber and vehicles are handled at the National City Marine Terminal.