Chevron Richmond Refinery
Large load · 841 CHEVRON WAY, Richmond, CA
Chevron's Richmond refinery in Richmond, California, is a petroleum refinery that runs an on-site cogeneration plant but still depends on outside power from Pacific Gas and Electric. Its grid story has two parts. A 2014 bilateral contract lets PG&E buy as-available energy and capacity from the refinery's existing generating units and from new bottoming-cycle combined heat and power units planned at the site. A January 2026 outage showed that the refinery still needs external electricity, because its own plant does not cover the whole facility. Two PG&E power lines serve the refinery.
Overview
- Planned demand
- 28 MW
- planned
PG&E filed advice letter 4351-E on February 5, 2014, asking the California Public Utilities Commission to approve a power purchase agreement with Chevron Products Company for the Richmond refinery. The agreement replaces a legacy qualifying facility standard offer contract and was negotiated bilaterally. It covers as-available energy and capacity from existing generating units at the refinery and about 28 MW of new bottoming-cycle combined heat and power facilities, plus a potential 8 MW of renewable generation. PG&E said the new efficient CHP facilities would serve more of the refinery's electrical demand without additional fossil fuel combustion or grid purchases. The contract term is twelve years.
Profile
- January 2026 outage and grid dependence
- On January 9, 2026, the refinery lost its outside electricity after a bird contacted equipment on one of two PG&E lines. PG&E had removed the other line for maintenance the day before, so a single fault left the refinery with no outside power. Chevron said its on-site cogeneration plant creates its own electricity but does not provide enough to power the entire facility, and a Chevron representative said the refinery also needs external electricity. With no outside power, the refinery sent gases to its flares for about eight hours, and the flaring released more than 3,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide, according to the company's report to regulators.
- Self-supply in the early 2000s
- An Energy Intelligence analysis of West Coast refinery power supply listed the Chevron Richmond refinery at 225 thousand barrels per day of capacity as self-supplied, meaning it generated its own electricity rather than relying on a grid supplier. The same analysis noted that some refineries had their own cogeneration plants, which produce both electricity and steam used in processing. The 2014 PG&E contract later added as-available deliveries from those existing units to the utility, alongside new bottoming-cycle capacity.
Facility
- Activity
- Petroleum refinery
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Site type
- Facility
- Operating status
- Operating
- Demand flexibility
- Sells as-available energy and capacity to PG&E under the Richmond PPA
Related records
Timeline
- Feb 5, 2014
- PG&E filed advice letter 4351-E asking the CPUC to approve the Richmond PPA with Chevron.
www.pge.com
- Jan 9, 2026
- Bird contact on a PG&E line cut outside power to the refinery; Chevron flared gases for about eight hours.
Pollution Release at Chevron’s Richmond Refinery Was Triggered by a Bird | KQED