Nonprofits, Others Feel Energy Price Pain

California’s spike in energy prices is creating a season of pain for public institutions and nonprofit agencies that run on thin budgets and cannot pass along surging costs to those they serve.

For a high school in Agoura Hills, a ballooning gas bill means turning down the thermostat on a pool used by shivering swimmers.

For a group of San Diego hospitals, an extra $570,000 a month in electricity bills means slicing into a bare 1% surplus.

For Claremont McKenna College, it meant unplugging computers and cutting the lights at the library while students crammed for finals.

For homeless shelters in Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley, it’s all about juggling larger bills while keeping the furnace on and the hot meals coming.

“You would think that shelters would get some sort of relief, but it doesn’t happen,” said Jerry Roberg, president of the Rescue Mission Alliance in Oxnard. “Like everybody else, you suck it up. I just hope and pray we are not sitting around here working in the dark.”

A statewide energy crisis has resulted in a decision by the state Public Utilities Commission to clear the way for the state’s biggest private utilities to charge higher electricity rates as soon as Jan. 4.

For now, jaw-dropping price hikes in most parts of the state have been limited to natural gas bills that are just beginning to show up.

That’s a particular concern at large state institutions like UCLA that burn natural gas, and lots of it.

UCLA’s bill jumped from $619,000 last December to more than $3 million for this December. The Westwood campus uses natural gas to fire its cogeneration plant that produces 85% of the electricity and uses the residual heat to warm campus buildings used by about 55,000 students, staff and professors.

So far, the effect of high gas prices has been muted because most students and staff are gone for the Christmas break, allowing custodians to turn off lights, computers and turn down the heat.

Anticipating a towering gas bill when the new term begins in January, administrators have sent out an appeal to students, faculty and staff to turn off lights, shut off copiers and coffee pots, avoid space heaters and take other steps to conserve power.

California’s hospitals are particularly vulnerable to utility bill hikes, partly because nearly two-thirds of them are already operating in the red. They also have limited options for conservation, given their dependence on high-tech equipment and mission to save lives.

And hospitals, unlike many big businesses, cannot easily pass on surging utility bills to their customers, said Mike Murphy, president and chief executive of Sharp HealthCare.

Sharp HealthCare’s six hospitals and other medical clinics in San Diego County were among the first to get walloped by spiking electricity bills, paying an extra $570,000 a month until the Legislature approved a rate cap for customers of San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

Almost a fourth of patients are too poor to pay anything for medical care, Murphy said. Others are either covered by predetermined rates from the federal or state government programs--or by set contracts with insurance companies.

He expects the pain to be worse at other hospitals that are not doing as well. “We, fortunately, are making a 1% margin,” he said. “Hospitals are not going to be able to absorb these rate increases.”

A contributing problem to many institutions is the age and design of their buildings. Public schools are vulnerable to energy price increases because so many of them were built decades before energy-saving innovations came along.

Heating, cooling and lighting antiquated classrooms and drafty gymnasiums can quickly run up costs--and deplete districts’ mandatory 3% cash reserves--at a time when public schools are feverishly attempting to keep pace with costly academic reforms.

The California Assn. of School Business Officials plans to ask the Legislature for an emergency measure to provide financial relief, said Kevin Gordon, the association’s director.

Meanwhile, the Las Virgenes Unified School District ordered Agoura High School to turn down the thermostat on the gas-heated pool where boys and girls play water polo, swim laps and compete.

The steps were needed, Deputy Supt. Donald Zimring said, because Agoura’s gas bill soared in October to more than $9,000, up from $1,000 for October 1999.

Las Virgenes has tried to be smart about its utility bills. It signed up for a program with Southern California Edison that offered big energy users a 15% to 20% break in rates in exchange for the willingness to shut down power on a mere 30 minutes’ notice.

For years, that has been a good deal for schools, colleges and universities that are often idle during the summertime peak--when air conditioners are working overtime to keep buildings cool. But this year’s energy crisis--prompted by the state’s deregulation plan--has made such voluntary shutdowns more commonplace this fall and winter.

The seven Claremont Colleges were among those institutions that canceled evening classes, postponed night basketball games and even shuttered libraries to honor its commitment to Southern California Edison.

Such headaches grew unbearable during four evening shutdowns during the week before final exams.

That was when Claremont McKenna seniors were trying to wrap up their theses; other students were cramming for exams.

“When power goes out, we have a 30-minute warning,” said campus spokesman Stephen Siegel. “But the word doesn’t always trickle down to the students. Some of them were typing away furiously when the power went down.”

Finally, Claremont McKenna refused to pull the plug when when the shutdown order came, opting instead to pay the penalty: rates that jump from 7 cents to $7.20 per kilowatt-hour.

Now a consortium of private colleges, along with other institutions, is trying to leave the discount program.

The nonprofit agencies that look after society’s most vulnerable--the homeless, the poor, the elderly and disabled on fixed incomes--are also scrambling.

John Record, director of Cots in Petaluma, applied for $4,800 from Sonoma County to cover an anticipated hike in heating bills for the Northern California shelter.

Such relief centers worry not only about their own fate, but what will happen to low-income people who are barely getting by--people who might show up at shelters if they are pushed over the brink.

Clyde Reynolds, director of Turning Point Foundation in Ventura, marvels at how some mentally ill manage to stretch $700-a-month disability checks into independent living. Now they face unforeseen bills that will not be covered by Social Security benefits.

“They may have a roof over their heads, but they may not have heat or lights,” Reynolds said. “This is something that could put them over the edge.”

Info Link Orange County, a help line for low-income families, has been flooded with calls from people torn between paying their rent and paying utilities. Some fear it might nudge people into homelessness.

“One senior who was paying $80 a month in San Clemente said her bill was over $200,” said executive director Mary Ellen Hadley. “She was terrified. Another woman said because of the increased costs, she and her family were burning candles at night and wearing sweats to keep warm.”

Elizabeth Chur worries about the same teetering population at the St. Anthony Foundation in San Francisco, which dishes out 2,100 hot meals a day.

“‘The people we work with don’t even have $1 in wiggle room in their budget,” said “People are already making hard choices. Seniors are choosing between medication, food and rent.”

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Times staff writer Julie Marquis contributed to this story.