City Manager Alex Nguyen asked the Oxnard City Council to authorize staff to seek state approval of a proposed four-year agreement with Genon that would convert the Ormond Beach power plant to a battery storage facility and lock in a date-certain closure for the fossil-fuel plant.

Nguyen said the corporate owner would make a $45,000,000 commitment to South Oxnard: $16,000,000 to establish a nonprofit legal-aid organization for low-income residents focused on immigration, housing and employment rights (including a $15,000,000 endowment and $1,000,000 for initial operations), and $29,000,000 to create a public facility serving South Oxnard. "We are asking our city council to approve our effort to actually seek state approval of this proposed agreement," Nguyen said, adding that city approval alone would not finalize the deal.

The proposal ties the plant's final closure to the operation of the adjacent battery storage facility: if the state approves the transition schedule, the plant would be removed from the state's extension-prone closure schedule and a date-certain closure would be established once battery storage comes online. Nguyen described the arrangement as a way to both maintain grid reliability during the transition and secure direct investments for South Oxnard.

Nguyen reviewed the plant's recent history: it was scheduled to close in 2020 but the state extended operations, and it was extended again under the 2023 schedule. The current closure timeline shows the plant on track to close in 2026, though Nguyen warned the state could again extend operations, potentially pushing decisions into 2029. "If that were to happen, we could be back here again in 2029 figuring out about yet another extension," he said.

On reliability, Nguyen cited a recent California Energy Commission report that, he said, highlights potential electricity deficits during major weather events and helps explain why past extensions were granted. He also noted that Genon's online time and the plant's community impacts have declined in recent years and that the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District's most recent annual report does not list the Ormond Beach plant among locations of high concern.

Explaining why battery storage is the preferred replacement, Nguyen said storage is central to the clean-energy transition and typically sited where it can "easily plug into the existing electric grid," avoiding the need for significant new transmission. He added that the city would expect the public facility design to be informed by workshops led by the council members representing South Oxnard (Districts 5 and 6) and said work on the facility could begin as early as 2027 if the plan and approvals proceed.

Nguyen described the plan as contingent on state approval and "a long shot," but recommended pursuing it. He asked the council to both authorize staff to seek state approval and to authorize the city manager or a designee to sign agreement documents if the state approves. The transcript does not record a council vote on the recommendation.

Next steps outlined by Nguyen are: council authorization to pursue state approval, formal submittal to the state for review of the transition schedule and, if the state approves, commencement of the battery storage permitting process and subsequent decommissioning of the Ormond Beach plant.