Orange County’s two daily newspapers, both big consumers of energy, are being pinched by the power crunch.
The Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Times, both customers under Southern California Edison’s interruptible program, have been told to shut down or pay exorbitant penalty rates during energy shortages.
The Times, which has been told to cut power 16 times since May, relies on emergency generators to keep the presses running, according to spokesman David Garcia.
“We were able to continue publishing the newspaper using back-up power systems,” he said.
The paper is trying to avoid steep fees that amount to many times more than rates companies would normally pay per kilowatt hour.
But that’s not the case at the Register. The paper did not disclose the number of times it was told to shut down last year, but indicated it was close to the maximum allowed under its contract,25 times, or no more than 150 hours.
So far this year, it has been called on to shut down at least three times for one- to four-hour periods.
“We opted to pay the penalty on those days that an interruption has been called,” said Tom Grochow, the Register’s director of facilities and property operations.
On Wednesday, Grochow was told to cut power for four hours because of a shortage.
During interruptions, which have become more frequent, the Register trims its power use by 25% or “as much as we reasonably can to maintain business operations,” Grochow said.
That means running one elevator instead of seven; turning off a chunk of lights during the day; and shutting down half of the air conditioning systems. The Register does not turn off computer systems.
But these efforts aren’t enough under its Edison contract, which calls for the paper to cease operations entirely.
However, that contract,or at least a portion of it,is a point of contention for Grochow and other interruptible customers. They want to exercise their right to opt out of the interruptible program or change their service levels at the end of each year,an option that was suspended by the California Public Utilities Commission in October. A commission spokeswoman said state regulators wanted time to review the contract and the program. A decision on whether to let customers opt out of interruptible contracts is set to be made by March 31.
In the meantime, the Register, which had planned to get out of its Edision interruptible contract in November, is stuck,and not happily.
Grochow recently sent full payment of the Register’s electric bill, which included penalties, and a letter of objection to the commission, arguing that it shouldn’t have to pay penalties when its contractual rights were not honored.
The commission, however, ruled against the Register, which has been an interruptible customer since 1996, according to Grochow. Legal action would be the next step, but Grochow said the Register has not taken that route as of last week.
Despite the difficult times, Grochow said the Register isn’t looking for sympathy and takes full responsibility for signing up for the program, realizing the negatives and positives, such as saving as much as 20% on electric bills.
Grochow said that, like other interruptible contract customers, the Register just wants Edison to live up to its end of the deal. He finds it “objectionable” that the utility “took a no-position position” with state regulators back in October. Plus, he said, he is “100% convinced the situation will get extremely worse.”
“I guess if they have the legal right to remove my contractual right to opt out of the plan, then they have the legal right to change any of the rules they want to change,” Grochow said.
