Colleges Balk at Voluntary Cutbacks of Power Usage

The fourth consecutive day of electricity shortages Thursday created hardships for some major users who said they can no longer comply with voluntary conservation measures.

Officials at two colleges in the Santa Clarita Valley said they are refusing to shut down their lights but fear exorbitant penalties will severely affect their budgets.

The colleges are among about 1,500 major customers of Southern California Edison Co. that have been paying lower electricity rates for years under agreements that they would voluntarily cut power usage during electrical shortages. The voluntary cutbacks were rarely ordered, until recently.

Since Monday, Edison has called for all of its 4.3 million customers in Southern California to reduce their electrical usage, particularly from 4 to 7 p.m., including delaying nightly displays of holiday lighting. Colleges and other major users participating in the voluntary conservation plan were asked to cut power altogether for the past several nights.

The agreements “carry penalties if they don’t participate,” said Edison spokesman Paul Klein, who said penalties vary depending on the agreements.

Edison customers include all residents outside the city of Los Angeles. The company serves San Fernando, Hidden Hills, Calabasas, Santa Clarita, Palmdale and Lancaster, as well as unincorporated areas of Los Angeles such as Stevenson Ranch, Acton, Agua Dulce and Castaic.

Not affected by the statewide shortages are most residents of the San Fernando Valley--those within the boundaries of Los Angeles, which owns the Department of Water and Power, as well as Burbank and Glendale, which operate their own public utilities.

“As media reports detail power shortfalls and rising energy costs to customers, the DWP is in good shape--to the benefit of our customers,” said S. David Freeman, DWP general manager. “Our rates are firm and our electricity surplus plentiful.”

The municipal utilities are separate from the California Independent System Operator, which runs the electricity system for about 75% of the state, including Southern California Edison, one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, which serves a population of more than 11 million in a 50,000-square-mile area.

Edison asked customers Thursday to reduce power under a Stage 2 emergency, which was later raised to the state’s first-ever Stage 3 emergency, carrying the possibility of rolling blackouts.

Officials at Valencia’s College of the Canyons refused to comply with the voluntary blackouts this week. Officials at nearby CalArts said Thursday they would no longer comply with the requests that left thousands of students in the dark earlier in the week.

In the past few months, College of the Canyons has been charged $116,000 in penalties by Edison for failing to comply with cutback requests, said Sue Bozman, college spokeswoman. The penalties represent more than a 20% increase in the college’s annual electricity budget, she said.

“Our administration is very concerned,” Bozman said, adding that officials are trying to find a way to get out of their voluntary conservation agreement with Edison. She said administrators are in contact with other schools and major utility users, including the Claremont Colleges, seeking to immediately end the agreements. Negotiations with Edison and the Public Utility Commission so far have failed, she said. The agreements are due to expire in May.

Bozman said daily penalties have been as high as $18,000 and could climb to $70,000, depending on the number of hours users are ordered to shut down. Normal electrical costs for the campus average from $1,200 to $2,000 daily, she said.

She said the college initially signed up for the voluntary program because the rates saved taxpayers money, and officials believed voluntary cutbacks would help protect the community from rolling blackouts.

“It worked very good for a number of years,” Bozman said. “But this year is a whole different ballgame.”

At CalArts, officials said the campus was preparing for two of its major dance and theatrical productions of the year, which were to open Thursday night and continue through Saturday. Students were forced to use flashlights during dress rehearsals Wednesday, when power to the campus was cut from 5 p.m. to 9:25 p.m., said Anita Bonnell, CalArts spokeswoman.

Blackouts were imposed only twice in all previous years, but increased to 12 times this year, she said. “It has now become a terrible hardship for us. We certainly want to do our part, but it is interrupting the education of our students,” Bonnell said.

She called the performances this weekend “the one big event of the year” and said the school will refuse to comply if additional blackouts are ordered.

“We are going to go on with those performances,” she said. “If it means a penalty, we’ll have to accept it. We can’t just turn away audiences that are coming from all over.”

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Times staff writer Jason Song contributed to this story.

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* BLACKOUTS THREATEN

California’s strained electricity grid nearly ran out of juice, threatening blackouts across the state. A1