While they may be paralyzed in dealing with other parts of the energy crisis, state officials have managed to agree on touting conservation as the key to getting through the summer with minimal disruptions from rolling blackouts.
The hope is that conservation by businesses and residents could save some 2,000 to 3,000 megawatts this summer, a crucial savings when estimates are that the state will come up some 6,000 megawatts short on hot summer days.
But even as state officials have put money behind the rhetoric, the array of incentives from a variety of agencies has proven confusing. It seems that every utility and energy-related agency has its own rebate programs, with different application deadlines and different qualifications.
“My sense is that the vast majority of consumers out there are confused about these programs,” said Dina Lane, a consultant with the California Manufacturing Technology Center in Torrance. “You have to go to Edison or the DWP for the electric side, the Gas Co. for the gas side, and then you have to go to this state agency or that state agency and sort through all of their programs.”
The L.A. Department of Water & Power, for example, has rebates specifically for those huge chillers used in manufacturing plants, while Southern California Edison includes those chiller rebates as part of a broader program known as “express efficiency rebates.”
Building owners who want to install energy-efficient lighting can work through their local utility, but if they want rebates for using energy-efficient building materials or installing meters that monitor energy usage by the hour, they must apply to a fund administered by the California Energy Commission.
In March, Gov. Gray Davis unveiled a program encouraging consumers to cut power usage by 20 percent from the same two-month period last year in exchange for a 20 percent rebate on their bills. Then, last month, the Legislature passed and Davis signed a pair of bills earmarking $800 million in new funds for energy conservation, primarily in the form of rebates for installing energy-efficient equipment or implementing other energy-saving measures.
Most of these funds go to already existing conservation and rebate programs. “It’s faster to steer funds to programs that are already up and running than to set up entirely new programs, and speed is of the essence here,” said state Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Marina del Rey, who chairs the Senate Energy and Utilities Committee.
Crisis generates interest
In fact, Bowen and others said, many of these existing programs have long been underutilized. When power rates were low, few residents and businesses ever bothered to take advantage of them, if they knew about them at all.
“When deregulation began three years ago, we held seminar after seminar about energy efficiency and the availability of rebates, and almost no one showed up,” said consultant Lane. “Now, every seminar is jam-packed.”
Lane said that the next few months would be the best time to invest in energy-efficient equipment. Not only are all these rebate programs kicking in, but with electricity prices going higher, the amount of time needed to recoup the up-front investment costs is shrinking rapidly, making those investments all the more attractive.
But now that interest in conservation has risen, there are other problems. For starters, some of the rebate programs could run out of money if more residents and businesses than expected apply. “If you’re going to do this, you better get in early,” Lane advises.
State officials say they will be only too glad to pump more money into these rebate programs if they come up short it’s far preferable to going out on the spot market to buy additional power.
And then there is the aforementioned confusion over the vast array of rebate programs. To help remedy this, state officials are now putting together a single clearinghouse Web site for all energy conservation and rebate programs. The site, www.flexyourpower.ca.gov/rebates, is already up and running and is expected to be completed by the end of the month.
“For most business or building owners, especially those in an office environment, the first things to look at are lighting and air conditioning. Those are the biggest electricity hogs,” said Lynda Ziegler, director of business and regulatory planning for Edison. “If you’re a manufacturer with lots of energy-guzzling equipment, the best thing to do is to walk through your process and see what can be replaced.”
