Crew working on stacks at Morro Bay Power Plant. What’s happening?
The usually quiet Morro Bay Power Plant property was bustling with activity this week while a construction crew inspected the three, iconic smoke stacks.
Despite all the hubbub, there’s no cause for alarm.
The construction crew was performing a routine inspection and maintenance on the stacks, according to Vistra, the company that owns the property.
The 1950s-era power plant was closed in 2014, but the stacks still loom over the bay — and they require maintenance.
In 2017, Vistra bought the former property owner, Dynegy, and acquired the power plant, the stacks and the 107-acre site.
As a result, Vistra is responsible for maintaining the mothballed power plant and its three, 450-foot-tall smoke stacks.
Vistra applied to build a 600-megawatt battery energy storage facility on the property but withdrew its application from the city after facing strong community opposition to the project and managing the fallout of a fire at its Moss Landing battery plant in Monterey County. Vistra could still apply to the California Energy Commission for project approval.
In November, Vistra hired a crew to remove a “small area of concrete on the stack due to some cracking” on the first of the three stacks built on the property, Vistra spokesperson Meranda Cohn wrote in an email to the Tribune.
The procedure left a large, dark square of exposed rebar, to which the crew applied corrosion protection, she said.
That crew returned on Monday to perform a routine inspection of the stacks and “replace the concrete that was previously removed,” Cohn said.
Vistra inspects the stacks every two to three years, she said.
“None of the work was/is associated with the structural stability of the stacks,” Cohn added.
The inspection and construction will conclude by the end of Thursday, she said.
This story was originally published April 23, 2025 at 6:40 PM.
