DWP Scrambles to Gauge Power Needs Before the Next Heat Wave

The Department of Water and Power has embarked on a block-by-block analysis of residents’ electricity needs, hoping to upgrade and enlarge its aging system of transformers before the next heat wave hits.

The move comes as officials acknowledged that the DWP badly underestimated the amount of electricity L.A. residents would need during periods of extremely hot weather, resulting in widespread blackouts last month.

During a record-setting two weeks in July, thousands of customers lost power for days as 860 transformers -- worth about $1 million -- malfunctioned or stopped working. Officials said Tuesday that hundreds of additional transformers may need to be replaced, and still more must be added to the system to keep up with increasing demand as more households add air conditioning, large TVs and other appliances.

Because Los Angeles traditionally endures hot weather through early October, the department is racing against time, trying to remediate as much of the problem as possible this year.

The heat wave represented a wake-up call for the utility’s power managers, who had not expected usage to spike as high as it did -- 6,165 megawatts on the worst day -- for several more years. The demand was “extraordinary,” according to a report presented to the utility’s board of commissioners Tuesday, and requires a significant revision of the department’s plans for dealing with energy usage in the future.

Power use hit new records because 100-plus-degree temperatures -- and record heat at night -- prompted many residents to run their air conditioners 24 hours a day.

But officials admitted in the wake of the blackouts that the DWP’s power use projections didn’t fully account for the increased energy use of today’s larger, highly electronic homes -- including the growing popularity of big-screen plasma TVs, which eat up about as much power as a large refrigerator and about a third the energy of a central air conditioning system.

Power engineering manager Marvin Moon said at the meeting that he expected to complete the study of the city’s electrical and infrastructure needs within 45 days. He will then develop a plan to upgrade the system and figure out what the work would cost.

But several commissioners criticized DWP executives for moving too slowly to address the heat-related problems in more detail.

Commissioner Nick Patsaouras asked Moon how many transformers the utility currently had in stock. Moon said he didn’t know offhand. Patsaouras responded, “Guys, this is your business. You should know.”

Patsaouras demanded that the department furnish the board with a monthly report of power outages that includes the time, place, reason and cost of repair.

He urged utility managers to hurry their development of a detailed plan for upgrading the system and managing the city’s power needs.

“Give us a master plan,” Patsaouras said. “How are you going to replace transformers? How are you going to deal with the demand that progress has put on those transformers?”

The report detailed several problems that came up during the heat wave, including concerns that many residents who lost power were unable to get information about when it would be restored. Altogether, 80,000 customers went without power for some period during the crisis, the utility said Tuesday.

According to the report, half of those calling the DWP during the heat wave gave up before their calls were answered. Callers had to wait on hold an average of nine minutes -- many for much longer.

Commissioner David Nahai asked Odell Mathieu, who oversees the customer call center, what was being done to better inform ratepayers about the special cooling centers that the city sets up to help people during heat waves.

When an aide to Mathieu said that a notice to that effect might go out in utility bills for October, Nahai said that would be too late.

“We talk about this crisis as if it’s behind us,” the commissioner said. “I don’t think it is. I think we’re in a lull right now.”

Patsaouras urged the department to develop a system of phone banks outside its regular customer call center so that during a crisis the DWP could quickly staff up with hundreds of additional lines and operators.

Commissioners also asked what the utility was doing to help people pay the unexpectedly high bills. Mathieu said that those who asked would be allowed up to 90 days to pay. That could change, however, because at Patsaouras’ request utility managers agreed to find out how much it would cost to allow customers up to one year to pay the July bill.

A key concern raised in the report and at the meeting was the speed at which Angelenos are increasing their use of power. The city’s system was designed at a time when most houses were smaller than those built today, when there were no televisions and few if any people had air conditioners.

Last month’s problems were more about the delivery system than the actual availability of power, as the transformers that reduce the current so that it can be used in homes and businesses overloaded and broke down. But the unexpected high usage during the heat wave showed that Angelenos are much closer than expected to exceeding the city’s power capacity altogether. To avert that, the report urged the DWP board to become much more aggressive in its efforts to urge customers to conserve.