Saving Wasted Watts Is Better Bet

It was worth a try:

Two of the water districts that serve Ventura County tried their best to convince the Public Utilities Commission that they should be exempt from the rolling blackouts expected this summer because they offer vital services.

You and everybody else, was the implied answer. The PUC turned down the request from Calleguas Water District and didn’t bother to respond to one from Casitas Municipal Water District, according to district officials.

The Calleguas district had argued that outages at peak hours could cause water surges, ruptured pipes and broken streets. Casitas said blackouts could mean no water for firefighters during wildfire season.

The PUC has been stingy about who will be exempt from outages, limiting special treatment to such customers as hospitals, police and fire departments, commercial airports, some military bases, 911 dispatch centers, jails and anything vital to national security.

Such power users as water districts and treatment facilities are considered essential but not exempt. If they suffer a serious problem during a blackout, they can call a special 800 number to restore power.

The water districts’ action underlines the variety of unpleasant side effects that Ventura County residents can expect to experience from blackouts.

As various strategies to solve the electricity crisis are debated in Sacramento and elsewhere, there are a few things average residents can do to help ensure that enough watts keep flowing to power essential services.

One is to use less electricity. Conservation habits such as turning off unneeded lights, adjusting the thermostat, replacing incandescent lightbulbs with fluorescent ones and giving a break to nonessential toys such as pool heaters and hot tubs can help a lot--and reduce the shock of higher rates at the same time.

Another is to shift such energy-intensive chores as doing the laundry or running the dishwasher to off-peak hours.

Many businesses could make a plausible case that they deserve special consideration when the lights go out. Grocery stores, gas stations, schools--all can rightly claim that the public would suffer from their temporary shutdown. The PUC can’t grant every request. But if the amount of wasted wattage could be reduced enough to curtail some of the blackouts, that would help.