California Steel Industries Fontana
Large load · 14000 SAN BERNARDINO AVENUE, Fontana, CA
California Steel Industries in Fontana, California, is the largest steel producer in the Western United States. It does not make raw steel: it reheats purchased slabs in natural-gas-fired furnaces and rolls them into sheet and line pipe, about 1.5 million tons a year. A 2008 filing put its electricity use at about 300,000 MWh a year, supplied by Southern California Edison. In 2022 the company told California regulators that an independent study found electrifying its slab heating would be untenable on cost and that the availability of the required electricity was questionable according to Edison.
Overview
- Annual energy use
- 300,000 MWh
- 2008
CSI heats slabs weighing about 25 tons each to roughly 2,350 degrees Fahrenheit in natural gas furnaces, hot-rolls them, and processes the coil downstream into pickled, cold-rolled and galvanized sheet and line pipe. The plant has operated in the Inland Empire since 1984 on 430 acres, with about 115 acres under roof. It is a joint venture of Nucor Corporation and JFE Steel.
Profile
- Electricity use and cost
- In an August 2008 letter to the California Air Resources Board, CSI said it used about 300,000 MWh of electricity a year and roughly 4 million MMBtu of natural gas. It said its electricity cost per MWh was about double that of competing mills in most parts of the country, a disadvantage as large as $20 million a year. The same letter urged regulators to protect demand response and interruptible programs, which it said give rate relief and help sustain the grid during shortages.
- Electrification of heat
- In June 2022 CSI told the Air Resources Board it had commissioned an independent engineering study of electrifying its heating. The study found the cost untenable, the availability of the massive amounts of electricity required questionable according to Southern California Edison, and total greenhouse gas emissions higher given the utility's fossil generation. CSI said its gas use was approximately 10,000 MMBtu a day, nearly 75% of it for heating slabs.
Facility
- Activity
- Hot-rolled, pickled, cold-rolled and galvanized steel sheet and line pipe made from purchased slabs
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Site type
- Facility
- Operating status
- Operating
Reported Jun 24, 2022
- Demand flexibility
Related records
Timeline
- Aug 11, 2008
- CSI told the Air Resources Board it uses about 300,000 MWh of electricity a year
www.arb.ca.gov
- Jun 24, 2022
- CSI reported an independent study found electrifying slab heating untenable
www.arb.ca.gov