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news:
CSULB avoids blackouts
for the moment
By Alex Roman
Summer Forty-Niner
As the temperature
continues to rise and the state of California continues to
search for shortage solutions, the threat of rolling blackouts
seems inevitable. But the threats of those blackouts affecting
Cal State Long Beach have, for the moment, been avoided.
"We had requested
and received exemption status on the basis of public safety
issues," said Toni Beron, assistant vice president of
public affairs. "The exemption is only to rolling blackouts,
it wouldn't apply to the campus if we were to have a state
emergency."
CSULB sought exemption
status from their supplier Southern California Edison, which
serves the entire City of Long Beach, citing that the shutdown
of the University Police Department, public radio station
KLON and Student Health Services would all be detrimental
in the event of a blackout.
"A customer
as large as a university would have an account representative
that would notify them of the possibility they could receive
exemption status," said Steve Hansen, a spokesman for
Southern California Edison. "In the case of a blackout,
all the public services available on the campus would be vital."
Early learning
The university
learned of its exemption status recently, which lead to the
pulling of an advertisement that was to run in the Summer
Forty-Niner.
"The ad explained
to students where to go and what to do in the event a blackout
occurred," Beron said. "It was a similar ad to the
one we ran last spring. We decided to run it again in the
summer because some students on campus right now might not
have been around during that time."
Beron said the
university plans to run the ad at a later date depending on
how the crisis affects the state.
"If conditions
worsen in the state and it is determined that we need to do
it, then we'll run the ad," she said.
Exemption status
so far has been available to those companies that would be
important to the public in case of a blackout, such as hospitals,
police and fire departments, public radio stations and television
stations which are part of the emergency broadcast system.
SCE granted the
exemption status to CSULB during a time when they are reevaluating
the way which rolling blackouts are announced to the general
public.
"We were surprised
at the reaction we got by not announcing where the blackouts
would occur," Hansen said. "We're still trying to
decide a better way to get that information out to the public."
Recently the California
Public Utilities Commission began a process of possibly granting
other types of businesses exemption status if they could prove
that rolling blackouts would pose "imminent danger"
to public health and safety should they be affected.
More than 600,000
non-residential customers of Pacific Gas and Electric, San
Diego Gas and Electric and SCE were notified that they could
seek exemption status from rolling blackouts.
"We received
more than 10,000 applications," said Marcus Nixon, CPUC
spokesman. "An application needed to be completed that
stated what consequences would be if blackouts were to happen."
Some of the more
creative reasons listed by California businesses on their
applications, which were due June 15, included death from
spoiled food and civil unrest according to Nixon.
The energy crisis
has affected more than just the lights. The crisis has also
changed the political atmosphere of a state that needs someone
to blame for a major public problem. The American Taxpayers
Alliance, a predominantly conservative group, will spend an
estimated $5 million on an ad campaign, which blames California
Governor Gray Davis for the energy crisis.
Davis also released
38 long-term power contracts on June 22. Some of those contracts
protect generators from new state taxes and potential action
from federal regulators, as well as giving them a break on
environmental costs.
Monday, two members
of President Bush's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission met
with Davis in Sacramento to discuss the high price of natural
gas, which fuels most of the new electricity turbines in California.
The crisis is affecting
national politics as well. Federal officials have slapped
new ceilings on wholesale electricity prices last week. This
week a federal regulator began mediating Davis' demand for
approximately $9 billion in "overcharges" by power
generators.
Meanwhile, rolling
blackouts are becoming increasingly possible due to the recent
heat wave California is experiencing. Some of the planned
areas for the next blackouts include parts of Long Beach,
Carson, Lakewood and Bellflower.
Hansen explained
the best way for SCE customers to know if they'll be affected
by blackouts, is to visit SCE's Web site outagewatch.com,
and compare the areas that will be affected with the circuit
number located in the details section on the front of their
bills.
To keep energy
costs down, SCE suggests its customers set their thermostats
to 78 degrees. Instead of air conditioning, consumers should
use fans, which use far less energy. Even two or three fans
use much less power than air conditioners, according to Hansen.
In addition to
recommending ways to cut costs, SCE is still stressing energy
conservation to its customers.
"The need
to conserve energy is important," Hansen said. "For
one it will help prevent blackouts and two it will save our
customers time and money."
CSULB's exemption
status hasn't deterred the university from continuing its
conservation efforts.
While facilities
management did not make themselves available for this story,
Tim Ball, associate director of Facilities Management, did
confirm that the university is nearing completion on an electrical
retrofitting of 15 buildings that will decrease the use of
energy
consumption.
In the meantime,
however, CSULB has reduced the campus' daily electrical usage
by approximately 3 megawatts a day, according to Beron. One
megawatt equals one million watts of power, which means that
the university is conserving three millions of watts of power
a day.
"The entire
university has been very helpful, responsible and supportive
in their use of power and looking at ways to cut down their
usage," Beron said. "We know that this is a serious
problem and we've planned for blackouts with the anticipation
that we would not be exempt."
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