Edison plans to give away efficient bulbs
Low-income families would get a chance to reduce their electric bills and help combat global warming if Southern California Edison Co. wins approval from state regulators to give away 6 million low-energy lightbulbs.
The Rosemead-based electric company said Thursday that it was seeking permission from the California Public Utilities Commission to start a $22-million program to distribute six-packs of power-stingy compact fluorescent bulbs to 1 million homes across the Southland.
Edison said the bulbs, which consume only about one-third the power of conventional incandescent bulbs, each year would save the average household about $72. The utility hopes to start the program this summer.
If all million homes use the bulbs, the utility would be able to eliminate the need to generate 278 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough power to run 35,000 homes, Edison said.
“This initiative is part of our company’s continuing commitment to industry leadership in promoting customer energy efficiency, purchasing renewable energy and supporting the emergence of plug-in hybrid [car] technology,” said John E. Bryson, chairman of the utility’s parent company, Edison International.
Edison hopes to pay for the bulb giveaway by asking the California Public Utilities Commission to approve a slight increase in an existing power bill surcharge paid by Edison’s 13 million customers in 11 counties of central, coastal and Southern California.
The commission is likely to sign off on the increase. In a statement released by Edison, PUC President Michael R. Peevey called the utility’s proposal creative and an example of “the strong partnerships between the state, its utilities and residential and business customers “ needed to meet California’s “groundbreaking greenhouse gas reduction goals.”
Energy efficiency advocates applauded Edison’s proposed bulb program. “It’s a good thing to do, even if it means a small increase” in surcharges, said V. John White, director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technology in Sacramento.
The Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco-based consumer group, said it supported the bulb program as “probably one of the most cost-effective measures we can take to cut back on energy consumption and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Executive Director Bob Finkelstein, however, said his group would monitor Edison’s request at the PUC to ensure that ratepayers were not being charged too much.
Environmentalists generally support the use of the squiggly compact bulbs because they are an easy-to-use, cheap tool to reduce electric power plants’ emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
But they acknowledge that the fluorescent bulbs do have some drawbacks: They contain trace amounts of mercury that can leach into groundwater if the bulbs are not properly disposed of.
Edison said it would advise all recipients that the used bulbs should not be put in household trash but instead must be taken to local hazardous waste collection sites, such as those that accept electronics and batteries.
Edison’s planned bulb giveaway is part of the utility’s broader efforts to promote the use of energy-efficient bulbs.
The company provides rebates to manufacturers and retailers, which Edison says pass along the savings by cutting the price of each bulb by as much as $2.50.
The utility has already subsidized the sale of 6 million bulbs, resulting in energy savings estimated at 330 million kilowatt-hours.
