Porterville - The Tule Indian Reservation is looking for more water out of the South Fork of the Tule River to supply its growth needs, says Alec Garfield who heads up the water committee of the tribal council. Garfield, the former chair of the tribe from 1970 to 1983 says the tribe has hired both an attorney to represent them in a claim on South Tule water and an engineering company to provide options to the tribe that include a new water reservoir.
"Our treatment plant for domestic water supplies is too small," says Garfield, "and we've been talking to the South Tule Independent Ditch Co. and riparian users downstream for over a year" on what could be a water claim that ends up in a federal court.
"We're trying to work it out so it won't be too much different from current water use," he says. "Growth on the reservation has been faster than we anticipated," says Garfield pointing to homes and the expansion of Eagle Mountain along with new projects like the gym that just broke ground this past week on the reservation and plans for a new health clinic.
The tribe is represented by the Colorado-based Native American Rights Fund who will draft a settlement proposal for presentations to the downstream users including ditch members and riparian users. Attorney for the tribe is Tracy Labin.
Labin says the "Tribe seeks a legally binding water right" and is going through a negotiated settlement process. Labin says the view of the tribe is long term. Water in California and elsewhere is now "so valuable it is important to have a legally established right" she maintains. Labin characterizes the discussion as slow and does not expect a settlement anytime soon. "I wouldn't be surprised is all this took five years or even ten." Whatever settlement comes down is likely to be finalized in federal court.
Civil Engineer Dick Schafer who represents the ditch company and the Tule River Association says the two sides are negotiating over who may have priority use of the water based on law. The reservation was established in 1873 - after a number of water users below the reservation established water rights. But the tribe is maintaining that its water rights predates the 1873 reservation establishment to back in the 1850s.
Schafer says the groups have had some meetings over a two year period.
Schafer says the tribe "wants to quantify their rights" to portions of the 30,000 acre feet average that flows into Lake Success. Adding all forks of the Tule, the average flow into the lake is about 140,000 acre feet. In a dry year like this the South Fork will not flow year round, he says.
Garfield says they have hired the firm Natural Resources Consulting Engineers to advise them about options for a water reservoir that could be built at upper elevations of the reservation - above Eagle Mountain to provide a permanent water supply for the tribe. "We're looking at five different locations" for the reservoir that could be as small as 480 acre feet or as large as 15,000 acre feet, he says.
Besides providing a permanent water supply, the tribe is looking at producing their own power at the reservoir, adding a fish hatchery and other recreational opportunities that a lake might offer. To fund such a project Garfield says they would look to Washington for help once the water claim was settled. "We hope we can work it out with the downstream users over the next year," he says, a more optomistic assessment than the tribe's attorney.
Schafer says the tribe has been assisted by a representative from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
He says the Tule River Association includes members not just above the dam on the south fork but below the dam because the water flow of the Tule below Lake Success could be impacted.
Garfield points out that just because the tribe impounds water upstream doesn't mean downstream users won't get it.
Schafer says tests for a water agreement is "reasonable and beneficial use." Water rights on the south Tule were supposedly settled in a 1922 settlement where the reservation was represented by the government. "We really weren't at the table when they negotiated this in 1922," maintains Garfield.
Labin say they welcome all interested parties to get involved in the negotiation process. "We want to be 100% inclusive."
Developments on the reservation are scattered along the river in mostly steep hilly areas that characterize the reservation. The site was originally selected to be far away from Valley settlers. The tribe established the Eagle Mountain Casino on one of the few flat areas along the river, 12 miles up from Highway 190. The reservation includes lands that rise up over 7000 ft. including some lands with Giant Sequoias. But much of the back country is remote. The tribe had a timber harvesting company that no longer operates. A number of creeks in the high mountain country drain to the South Fork of the Tule within the 42,000 acre reservation.
Visalia - If the board of Kaweah Delta Hospital was hoping to get a quick affirmative answer on the sale of the city owned land to build new health care facilities they were disappointed this week. In fact at least three members of the Visalia City Council indicated they would likely not offer the Akers/198 land to Kaweah Delta even if it were not under contract to a shopping center developer – Westlands Development.
At the invitation of Kaweah Delta - the two boards meet in joint session this week.
Kaweah's board was hoping to go from an open session discussion of the need for more land to build new specialty centers and even a new surgical hospital to a scheduled closed door property negotiation that might set the plan in motion, but it didn't happen. "The property is not available – it's under contract," suggested Council Member Jim Harbottle who said he didn't want to "pussyfoot around" over the issue. Harbottle said he was "disappointed that the issue came up" because of the effect on the long term goal of developing a retail complex at the site. "If I were a tenant considering that site I'd wonder what is going on." Instead Harbottle repeated the longterm city council mantra of support for the hospital's expansion downtown. "I will do everything I can to help you expand downtown." said Harbottle.
Both City Council members Jesus Gamboa and Bob Link said they would look to put the Akers land "out to bid" if the developer Craig Mangano did not move forward on the development of the 30 acres at the southwest corner of 198 and Akers. Mangano has a June 18 deadline to move forward on his retail development site he has in escrow with the city.
In the joint session hospital Administrator Lindsay Mann had laid out the district's view that the additional land was needed to accommodate the plans for both new short term projects as well as long term growth needs.
Over the issue of whether that growth would happen Downtown or elsewhere Mann suggested it wasn't a question of "either/or" but both. The hospital has spent some $30 million on the downtown campus just in the last two fiscal years and acquired four properties for a total of $1.1 million he said. At the same time they have expanded on the 23 acre Cypress campus where four medical centers (including the big Lifestyle Center) are located "on land that 10 years ago was bare dirt." That was land they bought from the city.
Mann argued the additional 10 to 30 acres across the street on the cityowned Akers property made sense as an expansion of the Cypress campus. "We can have both a vital Downtown campus and vital Cypress campus in the future," he told the council, offering maps, renderings and charts to make his point.
Earlier Mann had laid out a plan for two major expansions that would likely happen downtown including the addition of six beds to the ER and a "new wing of the hospital" downtown to be built near Taco Bell – a Heart Institute. Mann said these projects would happen Downtown because the facility needs access to ICU and other emergency service facilities and the Starr Wood cardiac care specialists who have helped the hospital become one of the top 100 hospitals nationwide.
"We look like we're doing high strategizing but really our focus in on good patient care," said Mann on the districts ambitious plans that took over an hour to lay out to the city council. Complicating the district's dilemma is a long term facilities expansion study that is being carried out this summer, the results of which to be announced August 23 said Mann. The study – carried out jointly with funding from the city and hospital will consider the best locations for future long term acute care beds and could potentially call for a new hospital location. Staff of the hospital believe it is too costly to do a seismic upgrade of the older part of the District's hospital to maintain all the 301 beds (estimated at $85 million). Besides the seismic issue "to keep the beds we have now" the district is looking at the need to add at least 125 additional beds by 2010.
Some Council members fear the hospital's consultants will suggest a new acute care hospital away from Downtown with the existing hospital converted to some less intense medical use like skilled nursing – down the road.
Helping to maintain the council's wariness of the district's plans was Kaweah's purchase of 100 acres at Lovers Lane and Caldwell a few years ago. The district said it was buying it just in case they needed a new site for the hospital as the state was pushing the seismic upgrade issue. The district now has said they would not likely relocate to that site although their consultant study is not yet done.
Council members were excited about the idea of adding on to the downtown hospital with the Heart Institute - a joint venture with both Hanford Community and Tulare District Hospital. The council plans to take a rendering of the expansion shown at the study session this week, back to Washington to lobby for $6 million to help build a new parking garage adjacent the hospital that would help both Downtown and the parking needs of the hospital.
Parking problems for the hospital are big downtown with the latest news being the fact CalTrans rejected the district's plan to build a pedestrian overcross across Locust to connect with the parking garage. Board member Sue McAllister said she was intrigued by the city council suggestion that they could lobby CalTrans to allow a parking garage over the 198 freeway - as has been done in some places - a plan that would allow parking right next to the main hospital.
At one point in the discussion, council member Gamboa pointed out that there might be more room at the existing Cypress campus "if we try to think outside the box." A ponding basin and a park to the east of the Cypress campus could potentially be utilized, suggested some. "We would not have thought of that," said hospital board member Sue McAllister.
Council member Jesus Gamboa asked why the district would not consider expansion at the Court St. medical campus - the site of the old Visalia Community Hospital - Mann said they were spending $1 million to relocate a 32 bed transitional care unit from the main hospital to Court St. this summer to help make room for more acute care beds downtown.
"Why not build some of these facilities multi story," asked mayor Don Landers? Mann pointed to the design of the proposed new single-story cancer care center hooked up to a new imaging center ideally to be co-located with a new surgical hospital and medical offices - requiring at least 10 acres. Multi story might be a possibility says Mann. Mann said the district liked the Akers/198 location in part because of the good freeway visibility and the fact it was the premier location in the city.
The hospital is concerned about a private hospital bid to build a 20 unit surgery hospital across the freeway. The project led by Dr. James Billys could result in a $3 million loss for the district, said Mann, if it is built. Mann says KDDH would like to co-venture the surgery hospital with the physicians and only build one complex in town instead of two. Dr. Billys' group has said it was moving forward on their announced new surgery hospital in any case and denied some sort of joint venture was under discussion.
Some hospital supporters suggest the era of having one main acute care facility is over and specialty facilities and separate joint ventures with partners are the future of health care. Cypress Surgery and the cardiac care program are both examples of that. Joint venturing a cancer care center in both Hanford and Visalia is another example. The district feels that if it doesn't do these projects they will not be financially strong in the future. So-called profit centers allow them to take care of the large indigent population here. The hospital was the recipient of one of the highest awards in health care nationwide this spring with receipt of the Foster McGaw award that highlighted their roll of reaching out to the community partnering with other community groups. Without the profit centers in the district the hospital couldn't afford to do as much community outreach.
So where does that leave the two public boards on their decision making? Up in the air. While the district suggests it would not abandon downtown when pressed to define their future presence they have to wait for the outcome of their consultant study late this summer before that presence can really be defined.
As to the Akers and 198 initiative - for now Kaweah got the word that the property "is not available" making it harder to head off the rival surgery hospital plan with an offer of the potentially larger, arguably better located site for a facility and new medical offices on the south side of Akers at 198. Dr. Billys group has selected a site on the north side of 198 west of Akers that enjoys freeway visibility.
So while the majority of the city council appears to want to sell the hospital on "smart growth" principles like "going multi story" and building onto the downtown campus with the help of the city the hospital wants to sell the city council on their perceived need to spread out.
KDDH administrator Lindsay Mann suggested after the meeting that the session was "a good beginning" and a "valuable dialogue" and would now wait to see what happens on the Akers/198 property. Still hoping to convince the city that "while retail is important" there are "other places" in town where retail can thrive. He pointed to the number of jobs the medical projects would bring - a major focus of the city besides sales tax monies.
San Joaquin Valley - The 12-county member San Joaquin Valley Rail Committee made some waves the past week passing a resolution that calls for the suspension of the High Speed Rail Authority effort and relocation of the planned sixth Amtrak train route in the valley to the Highway 99 rail corridor owned by Union Pacific. "This is a vote of no confidence in the current effort," says rail advocate Paul Bartlett. The resolution was faxed to Governor Davis this past Friday.
In a unanimous resolution members of the committee that runs from LA to Alameda said despite 12 years of study of high speed rail no "actual rail improvements" have taken place despite "costly studies" promoting plans that are "seriously flawed" and the prospect of "many more delays." The group resolved that the Governor and legislature suspend the efforts of the High Speed Rail Authority and redirect "new and workable plans to promote fast trains than a Tehachapi crossing" at a more affordable price tag.
Board member Fresno rail advocate Paul Bartlett who penned the resolution says the group sees the high priced plan to promote a $30 billion rail plan "a magic lantern show" full of illusion that amounts to a "deception of the public" who will be asked to vote to pay for it.
Bartlett says the resolution shows united dissatisfaction with the three year High Speed Rail Authority effort and the Governor should pull the plug on the agency's $14 million budget request for this coming July 1 budget year.
This week it appears the Governor has decided to cut the $14 million for future studies down to a mere $1 million to keep the HSRA treading water this next year. However, there is no indication Davis is unhappy with the way the agency is operating. Rather, the issue may be the fact the state is in a financial crisis because of a slowing economy and the energy crisis.
Bartlett feels that the High Speed Rail Authority is off base in their plans to:
• Spend multi billions to lay out an entirely new high speed line
• Trains could or should travel at over 200 mph up and down the valley
• Trains should run a separate rail corridor than existing lines
• No effort is made to cross the Tehachapis into the Antelope Valley to LA
• The HSRA is now planning a 30 mile tunnel through the coast range from Modesto to San Jose - a project that rivals the cost and length of the English Channel tunnel.
Instead of this ambitious plan to speed of the trains, Bartlett and the group like the idea of building on Amtrak's/CalTrans efforts to speed up existing rail traffic through the valley on existing lines. "We think we can have higher speed rail - not in 20 years but in the next year," he says.
Instead of planning a new track on farmland in the valley, Bartlett envisions trains from the BNSF line (through Hanford) going 110 mph up from the 70s currently and the addition of more trains including a 6th Amtrak on the Union Pacific rail line up Highway 99. "That's an idea we all agreed on," says Tulare supervisor Connie Conway who sits as a representative on the Rail Committee. "It's not like it is going to happen tomorrow but we have to start somewhere." Conway is happy Amtrak and CalTrans, who attended the SJV Rail Committee meeting, heard the idea, supported it and agreed to add bus connections from Porterville in the future to the Hanford station. Bartlett says he envisions a daily valley train connecting Tulare County to Fresno in the morning so people can travel for the day to the Bay Area or Sacramento and return that same day. Amtrak has said they could add a 6th valley train next year.
Bartlett says tax payers are more likely to support incremental improvements the state can afford them at $1 to 3 billion rather than a $30 billion price tag. Given the state's electricity crisis he sees it likely the Governor could pull the plug on the ambitious plan. "We still believe in high speed rail travel," says Bartlett.
In defense of slower speed, Bartlett notes that high speed Japanese trains don't travel over 180 mph and average far less in part to save on wear and tear and reduce noise levels. "We think we can do a high speed rail piecemeal and still cut running times in half," says Bartlett.
Conway says what she has seen of the High Speed Rail Authority's efforts has seemed like a way for passengers to get from LA to San Francisco in a big hurry" and that so far the studies have amounted to "a lot of money going nowhere."
The City of Visalia has supported the High Speed Rail line idea as long as it included a rail stop near Visalia. To date Visalia is shown only as a dot on the map on the adopted route west of 99.
Dinuba - After years of being mothballed, at least four electricity producing power plants that use wood and ag waste as fuel source are coming back to life. First will be a 12.5 megawatt plant in Dinuba that will crank up Wednesday May 16, says Sheldon Schultz, engineer wit Idaho-based Yanki Energy.
The plant co-owned by Yanki and now Fresno State college will sell the power to the state. "Eventually we hope to sell power back to Fresno State when the legislature again allows direct marketing." The cogen plant has not been used in years located next to the closed sawmill. Once they power up to full capacity they will operate 24 hours a day.
In about two weeks the company will also bring their Soledad biomass plant online, says Schultz. The 13.5 megawatt plant has been dark since 1995.
Sometime this fall Yanki may crank up a third shuttered cogen at the old sawmill site in Auberry, says Schultz, a project that would require as much as $800,000 in refurbishing costs to accomplish. It will depend on a steadier electricity market and availability of wood fuel, says Schultz before they make a commitment to reopen the plant.
"We'd like to be able to sell the electricity directly to an end user like the casino just down the road from Auberry who could take all the power we produce at 9 cents Kwhr." Right now the state law doesn't allow such direct deals from producer to end user. Schultz expects the legislature to again allow such transactions that could ease load on the grid and encourage businessmen like Yanki to invest in facilities.
Also to open up soon is a Madera cogen plant owned by Energy Producers of Idaho.
Schultz says the current arrangement of having all power sold through the state or ISO operating like monopolies doesn't encourage energy producers.
He says a state law that offers $10 a ton to biomass plants for take wood waste and orchard waste that might now go up in smoke to be burned by controlled combustion is a positive move. The law will encourage less open field burning he predicts. The state subsidy funded through the local Air Board and just began last year.
Added up the 4 power plants are relatively small. But using a renewable fuel that would otherwise go up in smoke in our valley skies, every megawatt will be welcome this summer.
California consumers remain uncertain this week just how much their power costs will go up and how long the lights will black out this summer. But it appears the answer is yes.
The state Public Utilities Commission ruled that rate increases dating back to late March are in effect and consumers will see the rate jump on their June bill. Just how much your rate at your home, farm or small business will go up varies with industrial consumers going up as much as 50%, agricultural rate payers facing 15 to 20% increases and residential users looking at a tiered pricing system based on how much electricity the household uses. Critics argue that the current energy baseline dating from the 1980s is unfair to hotter areas like the San Joaquin Valley.
Assembly member Sarah Reyes is holding a press conference May 18 in front of the PG&E office in Fresno to press the case for the PUC to "recalculate the electricity baseline" that has not been updated since the 1980s and "classifies air conditioning as a luxury." The PUC allows a residential user 130% of baseline use but for an average Valley home that falls short of needed power in hot weather.
If the price is in question - so is the supply this summer. There are predictions that blackouts instead of lasting one hour a day could go on 3 to 4 hours every afternoon with industry watchdog group North American Electric Reliability Council predicting an average of 20 hours a week of blackouts in the state. Fresno County supervisor Bob Waterston told the Voice this week that he hopes that local fire departments are "preparing for Depression-like conditions" setting up centers where seniors can come for the afternoon to stay cool, for example. Other dire predictions from state health authorities suggest that blackouts can hurt local water supply asking consumers not to use water during prolonged power shortages.
But local SCE spokesperson Glenn Cardonella doesn't see extended blackouts this summer saying such events "aren't likely for more than an hour at a time" in one neighborhood. He says the rush to buy small home generators at the hardware store "is a big waste of money." He says they would be lucky to run a big fan on one of these small units.
Kings County Public Works director Harry Verheul says the 600,000 sq. ft. county government center depends on a $530,000 back up generator that can be used in an emergency to keep the lights on in the jail and the 911 system operating in case of blackout. But if the county uses the system for more than 100 hours in a year they need to put on a $200,000 ceramic filter to clean up emissions from the diesel generator. "We told them we want to use clean diesel" that brings the emissions way down but the Air District offers no credit for that he says.
Verheul says the Air Board will not allow them to turn on their generators unless blackouts are imminent or happening as in a Stage 3 alert. The county supports legislation in Sacramento Assembly Bill 31X that would allow back up generation to be turned on before rolling blackouts kick in. The proposed legislation would allow them to turn it on in a Stage 2 alert when statewide power supplies are considered critically low. Affecting the county decision on investing in the expensive filter is the fact that only one other entity in the state is using it.
Other cities in the Valley have asked the local Air Board to approve a permit for their emergency generators, but have been told it will take 6 months to get the permit. Using it without permit may result in a substantial fine.
Public agencies and private companies have invested big in the past 6 months on back up generators - some in the 2 to 4 megawatt range ready to be put in service rather than go dark.
Pushing the Air Board to more closely regulate diesel back up generation is the fact that the EPA has declared diesel soot a carcinogen, says Air Board member Bill Sanders.
Still with thousands of megawatts of back up power ready to be turned on in a real emergency its hard to see how day after day of multi hour blackouts will be tolerated when the generators are right out the back door.
Predictions of energy shortfalls statewide are made worse by needs that go up to a third of current power needs is offline this month for one reason or another amid charges of energy price gouging.
In other electricity news the state of California launched its Public Power Authority this week modeled after municipal districts in the state and in New York that would own power plants and provide electricity to California side by side with private power entities.
Also Kings River Conservation District announced they would pursue a public power authority in their district including the city of Hanford. KRCD has long sought to purchase the power plant owned by PG&E on Pine Flat - something that could be closer to reality now the big utility is bankrupt.
Tulare County - Duke Energy, like all other power producers looking for sites for new power plants factor three main ingredients before picking Avenal for their big 600 megawatt (1200 total with the second phase) proposed facility. The three ingredients are: access to water, access to a power substation and proximity to a high volume natural gas pipeline.
Avenal happens to be located along two electric grid pathways, along a major Gas Company pipeline that connects from Bakersfield and is along the California Aqueduct.
Gas Company manager Colby Wells says the company has only a few high pressure lines in the mid Valley. One is along Highway 99 the second connects Avenal to Bakersfield. A third major line goes from Avenal to Lemoore before it "spiders" into many smaller lines.
Wells says these are along locations where a major power plant - above 100 megawatts - would want to locate if it uses a natural gas as a fuel source. Even Highway 99 line does not have extra capacity like the other lines because during the winter months when natural gas is used for heating the company maintains excess capacity in the pipeline for very cold weather (a 1 in 30 winter).
That's why so called peaker plants - designed to run only in the hot summer months - can be located along gas lines without excess capacity along 99 and along 198. But large year-round plants would likely require a location on the west side of the valley where there is less residential demand for gas. Wells says in part to increase capacity on the Highway 99 main line through the valley the company plans to increase capacity by 5% by this fall adding compressors to the line.
Currently peaker plants under 50 megawatts are planned for this problem at sites along west 198 near Goshen and in Tipton along Highway 99.
Ironically, a company affiliated with El Paso Natural Gas who is now being accused of manipulating gas prices in California, wanted to build a competing pipeline 5 years ago but the Mojave Natural Gas project failed. If it had been built there would be a competing gas pipe going up 99 right now.
The city of Visalia ran into this problem when it has been wooing power plants to set up in our industrial park where there isn't an electric substation. Out at the county dump where they do produce power from methane in the landfill, there is an electric tie in but no gas line to tie into if someone wanted to increase power production there.
SCE spokesman Glenn Cardonella says power plants need access to power substations as well and while they are numerous, it is less likely you will find locations with both a big gas line and a substation.
The biggest electric line that passes through Tulare County goes from north to south from Big Creek in the Sierra just east of Visalia (by Hope Ranch) through the big Rector substation and down the middle of the County to Kern and on to LA. That power line has been stepped up to 220,000 volts from nearly 66,000 volts because the power travels a long distance.
GWF Power Systems engineer Riley Jones says their company's plans for 95 megawatt peaker plant are moving forward but a second 98.7 cogeneration plant that will operate year round is on hold in part because PG&E "does not have the capacity to move the electricity out" of the area. GWF already has a 23 megawatt coke fired plant on site and expects the peaker to be online September 1. But the lack of PG&E capacity will keep the planned cogen, called the Hanford Energy Park, from moving forward. GWF had hoped that cogen would help draw a food processing company, adjacent the plant cogen, someone who could use the steam from the proposed "combined cycle" plant. To feed that plant the company was going to have to build both gas and power lines to existing lines. The gas line will be 2 and ½ miles long.
If a food processing project comes along they potentially could turn the peaker plant into a combined cycle facility, he says, taking it to around 135 megawatts.
Cardonella says PG&E and SCE are not likely to have the money to increase the grid capacity like some power producers would like. He points out that wind turbine producers in Tehachapi say they could produce more power if Edison upgraded its lines. "They would love us to pay for it," says Cardonella.
Pipeline capacity in the state has been the key issue in higher gas and electricity prices this past year. Riley Jones points out that "we have no shortage in natural gas. We have a shortage in space in the pipelines."
Plans announced for a potential 1000 mw Calpine Powerplant in the city of Fresno are doubted by some who say a location where there is a high capacity gas line - where residential gas demand is not a factor - is more likely.
One major upgrade getting federal monies to expand is a $220 million Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) funding to expand capacity along Path 15 that runs along Highway 5. The state and PG&E are working to expand this link north and south.
In other infrastructure news, Southern California Gas will build a 32-mile pipeline from near the town of Victorville north through the Mojave Desert to tap into the large Kern-Mojave pipeline. The expansion will add capacity for enough gas to power three 500-megawatt power plants that could provide enough electricity for 1.5 million homes.
Combined with $15 million in improvements to the transmission system announced in March (mentioned here), the expansions will boost Southern California Gas' capacity by 11 percent.
Both projects are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Towns like Visalia and now Delano and Bakersfield to work to keep power produced locally from entering the grid to be directed statewide are gaining momentum. In Bakersfield there is a "Bakersfield first" movement on plan to start a mothballed power plant owned by North American Power Group. The shuttered plant is owned by PG&E which can't sell the plant by PUC rule.
In Delano they are looking at a municipality meaning they would have to buy the local grid from SCE or the state depending on who owns it in the future.
In other power news, The California Energy Commission suggested that oil refineries be included in the list of essential services who aren't subject to curtailment since a refinery who loses power for just a minute can result in a total shutdown of the refinery for up to 3 weeks. The power problem can hurt the gas shortage as non-payment by utilities for power production has forced at least one Kern refinery to close even as state gasoline prices have skyrocketed.
The California Energy Commission has determined adjusting standard times to save electricity would be helpful in saving from 400 to 1600 megawatts on daily peak electricity at some times of the year.
California regulators are weighing a realtime pricing plan for large electricity customers in the state that could help cut up to 22,000 megawatts that would include installation of upgrades of 20,000 meters at a cost of $35 million. Customers using more expensive electricity are targeted for higher cost when they use prompting conservation on a realtime basis.
• To the degree companies generate their own electricity on site either with full-time or backup power they reduce the demand on the grid to deliver more power or forcing regions to blackout because of inadequate supply. However, those who want to generate their own power with diesel have a regulatory problem in that Air Board will not allow them to run their emergency power until there is stage 3.
• Emergency (rolling blackouts). Some want to change the law allowing them to turn power on in a stage 2 emergency prior to blackouts. The addition of thousands of on site power producers could save the grid during the peak hours but foul the air, critics say.
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
May 16, 2001
