California’s ongoing energy crunch is bringing back a notion not widely seen since the days of bell-bottom jeans and AMC Gremlins,conservation.
During the booming 1980s and 1990s, conserving energy wasn’t on the minds of business executives in Orange County and the rest of the state. But higher utility bills and the threat of blackouts are making conservation, well, retro chic.
Local companies are cutting back air conditioning, dimming lights and shutting down computers and other office equipment that once stayed on all night. Much of the state’s conservation effort is expected to fall on businesses, which use around 60% of California’s energy supply.
At Conexant Systems Inc., the Newport Beach-based chipmaker, spokeswoman Lisa Briggs said she’s been working in the dark for weeks now. To save power, Briggs shuts off the lights in her office and relies on the windows and the glow of her computer screen to work.
“I don’t like fluorescent lights anyway,” Briggs said.
Throughout Conexant, workers are urged to shut off unneeded lights and to turn off computers, copy machines and other equipment overnight. The company’s semiconductor wafer fabrication plant, which needs constant power, is the exception.
During stage 3 power alerts, e-mails go out to Conexant workers urging them to cut power usage. Conexant, which has around 3,000 local employees, belongs to Southern California Edison’s interruptible program, in which it agrees to cut usage in exchange for lower electricity rates.
Conexant and other interruptible customers no longer face stiff fines if they keep using power during a shortage. Just the same, Briggs said the company still cuts back when notified by Edison.
Conexant plans to conserve power until the crunch eases, Briggs said. She said the chip maker is looking to generators and other alternatives to get through summer. But with the cost and time it takes to get generators up and running, they’re no quick fix, Briggs said.
At Quantum/ATL Products Inc., an Irvine-based unit of Quantum Corp., one of the company’s buildings is slated to be part of a test program that has Quantum running power from renewable energy sources such as solar. The program would have the building running independently of a power grid, said Quantum/ATL Chief Executive Kevin Daly.
“Plans for this started before the situation now, but it really works well with what is going,” Daly said.
Some industries, particularly healthcare, have to balance conservation with disruption to patients. UCI Medical Center in Orange, also an interruptible customer, switches monitoring machines and operating room equipment to emergency generators during stage 3 power alerts, said Ned Reynolds, the hospital’s director of facility services.
“Until about the 26th of January, we were required to interrupt when the call came,” Reynolds said.
Even though interruptible fines have been suspended, officials at UCI Medical Center “do our very best to contribute to (reduction) in demand,” Reynolds said.
Hospitals Strike Balance
Unlike other businesses, most hospitals are exempt from mandated blackouts because the Public Utilities Commission regards them as essential, similar to police and fire departments.
Reynolds said officials are looking at the use of natural gas-powered turbines, which would produce electricity for the hospital complex while “waste heat” could be used for heating, water heating and air conditioning. But any turbine project is years away, he said.
Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente, which has around 3,200 OC employees, has several conservation measures in place locally, said Scott Wendling, the managed care organization’s local operations support leader.
Those include turning off lights, personal printers and monitors, purchasing a gas-driven chiller and signing up for the Anaheim city-owned electric utility’s voluntary energy load reduction program, he said.
Kaiser workers, doctors, and patients have come up with their energy conservation ideas, according to Wendling. Kaiser began requiring janitors to shut off lights after people noticed them running at 2 a.m.
Kaiser: Happy in Anaheim
Kaiser’s 200-bed hospital and an attached clinic are customers of Anaheim’s utility, while other facilities get power from Southern California Edison, a unit of Rosemead-based Edison International.
“We’re glad that we’re within the boundaries of Anaheim,” Wendling said, noting that power from Anaheim costs around 25% less than energy from Edison.
Edison itself, which provides power to most of OC and employs around 4,000 people here, also is addressing conservation at its facilities. Steps include reducing lighting by 50% and shutting off all lights with the exception of emergency ones at 5:30 p.m. daily, said Glen Donley, an Edison facilities manager.
“Also, we are constantly doing energy audits,” Donley said.
Edison’s efforts apply to the utility’s field facilities in OC, but not the Irvine office tower that features the Edison logo and fronts the San Diego (I-405) Freeway. The site is home to Edison subsidiary Mission Energy.
“That is a lease situation,” Donley said. “That’s not our building.”
Hotels, which need constant power because they operate around the clock, are conserving where they can. The Sutton Place Hotel in Newport Beach has a backup generator capable of servicing its power demands, said Barbara Eidson, spokeswoman for the 435-room hotel. The facility has uninterruptible power supply units for potential power surges, she said.
Including natural gas, Eidson said Sutton Place’s energy costs have more than doubled this year.
Smaller businesses also are taking heed, including The T & O; Group, an Irvine-based advertising agency with 70 employees. T & O; Group dubs its conservation effort “lights out for lunch.”
“We turn out all the overhead lights, as well as the conference rooms, offices and desk lights, during the hours between noon and 2 p.m.,” said Gary Geyer, the agency’s creative director. Lights are left on for those who don’t go out to lunch, he said.
“If we all get behind this and reinforce its importance, it could reduce our workplace energy consumption by about 20%,” Geyer said. “Not to mention our utility bills.”
Jennifer Bellantonio, Sandi Cain, Michael Lyster and Andrew Simons contributed to this story. n
