Power Supply Is OK, but Utilities Urge Cuts in Use
Southern California’s power companies have a two-pronged message for consumers worried about blackouts: There’s plenty of electricity to go around, but please use less of it.
Even a 25% reduction in power supplied by outside producers after Saturday’s blackout won’t affect local residents and businesses, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Southern California Edison Co. said Tuesday.
But the rumble of air conditioners and the prospect of continuing triple-digit temperatures have prompted the two agencies to issue calls for conservation. Reducing the area’s power usage will help neighboring utilities that lack the resources to weather such crises, officials said.
“The DWP has adequate electrical reserves to meet all customer needs,” said Marcie Edwards, the agency’s director of bulk power. “However, we are joining with the state’s other major utilities in asking our customers to shift their nonessential electrical use from the 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. peak hours.”
Many consumers seemed to be heeding only one part of the power companies’ message.
Conservation? “I tried that on Monday,” said Larry Kendrick, a 37-year-old construction analyst who lives in one of the hottest parts of the San Fernando Valley, Tarzana, and works in one of the hottest parts of the San Gabriel Valley, Monrovia.
“We set the air conditioning at 80 degrees. But when we came home the place was 110. We never cooled off. I’m not doing that again,” he said Tuesday, when the temperature hit 104 in Monrovia.
Although conserving electricity to save money is appealing to some, many agreed with Kendrick that a heat wave is not the time to start changing habits formed over a lifetime.
“I work hard and I’m willing to spend whatever I need to,” said Stefani Lennon, a manager of a Hollywood apartment building. Her last DWP bill was $129, she said. “Conserve? If I’m warm, I put it on,” she said about her air conditioning at home. “But I turn my lights out when I leave the room.”
But officials were targeting air conditioners, not lights, as temperatures soared throughout Southern California.
The highest temperature reported in Los Angeles was 109 in Woodland Hills. Although Tuesday’s top reading of 94 in downtown Los Angeles made it one of the hottest days of the year at the Civic Center, several days this year have been hotter.
The DWP’s Edwards said that the two messages--that utilities have enough power and that people ought to conserve anyway--are just prudent advice to save consumers money and to maintain supply.
“I had some concerns that the customers would have some difficulty understanding how to respond,” Edwards said. “In terms of our immediate reserves, everyone is OK, all the utilities have sufficient reserves, but the temperatures are extreme. We have just come out of a significant outage condition and prudent use of our resources is definitely warranted.”
Steven Conroy, a spokesman for Southern California Edison, agreed: “I know it sounds like we’re saying two different things, but they both complement each other.”
DWP and Edison officials said their calls for conservation were a routine response to the blackout and the hot weather, and that air conditioners are the major energy-eaters in homes.
Ron Nunnally, manager of grid planning and strategy for Edison, said the company is in good shape but he agreed that some Northern California and Arizona utilities are facing problems caused by the heat wave and the effects of the blackout.
A DWP statement simply suggested that “nonessential electrical use” be shifted away from peak-use hours and that air conditioners be set at 78 degrees or higher and at 85 if no one is home.
Edison issued a generic-sounding statement written in 1994 that focused on money-saving hot-weather tips: “On nice days and during evening hours, open windows for cross ventilation,” plant shade trees, weatherize your home with caulking and insulation, use fans and set air conditioners’ thermostats at 78.
That advice came as the western power grid, which is overseen by a consortium known as the Western Systems Coordinating Council, ordered a 25% reduction in the amount of electricity transmitted into California from the Pacific Northwest. Energy officials plan to increase that to a 33% cutback today in hopes of preventing another blackout on what they call the Pacific Intertie power grid.
Such power cutbacks won’t have much impact in Southern California, where Edison Co. and the DWP have their own generating facilities and purchase only a small percentage of their electricity from the Intertie, officials said. And at any one time, power from the Pacific Northwest only makes up 670 megawatts of the 21,000 megawatts Edison could deliver, they said.
In any event, there is not much individual consumers can do to forestall such blackouts, utility officials and members of the environmental movement agreed. The issue, both groups say, is not a lack of energy.
Ralph Cavanagh, energy program director for the National Resources Defense Council, said that although the country has enough energy to meet demand, the recent blackouts are an indication that high usage can tax the delicate system.
“It’s an amazing fact that under the current system everyone in the West is tied together under an extraordinarily vulnerable power grid and an incident anywhere on the grid can affect all of us,” Cavanagh said. “The best insurance against this kind of damage is to reduce the load on the grid.”
And a real reduction in demand is only realistic in terms of greater efficiency on the part of the utilities--not a reduction in consumer use, Cavanagh said.
Although the DWP saw a 3% drop in power usage Tuesday in the wake of its conservation request, Edison did not. Customers are more quick to respond to energy-saving requests “when it’s a monetary thing . . . the bill is a great motivator,” said Edison spokeswoman Cathy Sedlik.
Those enjoying their air conditioning Tuesday agreed.
Throughout Westside shopping districts, stores had their front doors wide open, inviting customers in and slightly cooling the sidewalk in front of their stores.
Jill Frankel, 28, a legal assistant who lives and works in Beverly Hills, admitted that she finds air conditioning wasteful. But she acknowledged that her streak of energy conservation is born of financial prudence.
“I really don’t think that the Westside of L.A. gets so hot that a fan and loose comfortable clothing won’t keep you cool,” Frankel said.
Westlake Village salesman Victor Grauaug had a similar view.
“I haven’t changed my habits at all,” he said. “If you can afford to pay extra money to pay a higher electric bill, pay it. If you can’t, cut back.”
Some, of course, were trying to cut back.
Even though it was 104 Tuesday in Monrovia, Gary Wilcox said he only uses his air conditioning when he is home, setting it at 78 degrees.
“Seventy-eight is like heaven compared to this,” the 42-year-old contractor said as his 11-year-old son, Aaron, helped him load building supplies into a van.
Others were more altruistic. Bob Castruita, 42, said he relies on ceiling fans to cool his El Monte home. “This is the only Earth we’ve got,” he said, explaining his ascetic lifestyle. “It’s 30 watts if I set my six ceiling fans on slow motion. Eighty watts at maximum speed--which is still less than a lightbulb.”
That would cheer Martin Ross’ heart. A professor of electrical engineering at Cal State Los Angeles, the Arcadia resident was already planning to delay an afternoon laundry load until the evening to save electricity during peak-use hours.
Why should others follow the example set by him and Castruita? “They’ll have to build new power stations if we don’t,” Ross said, “and it’ll pollute the air more.”
Will the public see the light? “No,” Ross said. “They’ll do whatever’s convenient for them.”
Times staff writers Nicholas Riccardi, Andrew Blankstein, Miles Corwin and Eric Malnic contributed to this story.
* MORE PROBLEMS LOOM: The West’s complex power grid promises to come under increasing stress. D1
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Keeping Cool
Here are a few ways to keep cool without breaking the bank with high electricity bills.
* MONITOR YOUR THERMOSTAT: Set the temperature at the highest level that’s still comfortable. Keeping the control at 78 degrees, instead of 70 degrees, can cut air-conditioning costs by as much as 30%. Lowering the thermostat doesn’t cool a home faster, it merely continues to cool after the house is already comfortable.
* TRY A CLOCK THERMOSTAT: An automatic, timed thermostat can be set to keep the home cool when occupied and turn off the air conditioning when no one is home.
* USE ROOM AIR CONDITIONERS: They are more flexible and efficient since they are used as needed to cool specific areas rather than the whole house.
* WEATHERIZE: Insulation, caulking and weather stripping can help you use energy more efficiently and can reduce energy use for air conditioning by as much as 40%. A full-scale change in equipment, such as evaporative coolers, whole house fans, high-efficiency electric central heat pumps and central air conditioning can also help save on energy bills.
* THE OBVIOUS: Use fans and shading--such as plants, trees and awnings that keep the sun from pouring in through windows.
SOURCE: Southern California Edison
