Davis Urges Drop in Voltage to Stave Off Blackouts

Dimming lightbulbs to reduce the chances of blackouts?

That’s the latest concept being directed at energy-conscious Californians, who may be asked to accept that prospect to help stave off the wider damage that full-scale rolling blackouts could wreak this summer.

By slightly dropping the voltage of electricity flowing to millions of California homes and businesses this summer, the state would save the equivalent of a large power plant’s output with almost no harmful side effects, proponents of the idea said.

Gov. Gray Davis embraced the proposal Tuesday, urging the Public Utilities Commission to quickly clear the way for utilities to drop voltage by 2.5% for the summer.

The notion of large-scale voltage reduction was hatched by Bill Wattenburg, a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory consultant, and Arthur Rosenfeld, a physicist and member of the California Energy Commission.

The two tested a 5% voltage drop on a group of typical homes and businesses and found no harm to motors and appliances of all sorts. (Voltage is a measure of an electric current’s force, much like the pressure of water in a hose.)

Wattenburg and Rosenfeld estimate that the plan could shave 500 megawatts--enough electricity to supply 375,000 homes--off the state’s peak demand.

Davis, through a spokesman, said the proposal “may well achieve new efficiencies and reduce electric bills for California ratepayers.”

Utility reaction was mixed.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District hopes to implement a 2.5% voltage reduction in its territory within a few weeks.

California’s two biggest utilities--Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric--say state regulators must change voltage guidelines before such a program can be implemented.

Edison is “intrigued” by the idea, said John Ballance, director of network engineering, but the PUC must first amend a rule that requires utilities to keep customer voltage levels between 114 and 126 volts. PG&E;, the San Francisco-based utility, says it is still studying the test results.

The idea would not work in Los Angeles, said Department of Water and Power spokesman Eric Tharp, because of the design of its system. For one thing, he said, reducing voltage would require manual adjustments at about 1,000 locations in the utility’s transmission system.

The proposed voltage reduction would dim the light from incandescent bulbs by about 5%, Rosenfeld acknowledged, but the energy savings would be enough to cut 1% from electricity bills through the summer.

But if consumers run out to buy brighter bulbs, where is the savings? asked Roland Schoettle, chief executive officer of Optimal Technologies, a Benicia, Calif., power consultant.

“It takes the same amount of energy to cool a room or to cook a meal,” he said, “so reducing the voltage will do nothing but make it take longer to do so.”

The discussion of voltage reduction came against the backdrop of a second straight day of searing temperatures across the West. The heat--and higher air-conditioning demand--caused California’s power reserves to dip low enough to cause electricity grid operators to declare a Stage 2 emergency but no blackouts.

Uncertainty about the workings of a new federal price cap on wholesale electricity remained, but power marketers appeared more willing to sell to California without knowing exactly how much money they would make, said Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources.

Confusion about price limits under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order discouraged several sellers from offering electricity to California on Monday, which was cited as a key factor in that day’s Stage 2 alert.

A FERC official confirmed that the commission is trying to resolve the confusion with state officials, but he blamed them for misinterpreting the commission’s order on what prices can be charged in the California market.

Times staff writers Mitchell Landsberg in Los Angeles and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington contributed to this story.