24 Jan 2001 | California's energy crisis will not have nearly the impact on campus that it will on most power users, but Berkeley will certainly feel the pinch.

Most campus facilities are not subject to rolling blackouts, yet campus energy officials still urge staff, faculty and students to conserve power. And while price increases don't affect the Berkeley campus like other customers, there still could be temporary price hikes.

Rolling blackouts shouldn't affect the central campus because it is considered a "transmission customer," which means it is connected directly to a power grid that is too important to jeopardize with power interruptions, said Paul Black, senior engineer in technical services in Physical Plant/Campus Services.

Electric power enters the campus from two sources: the new Hill Area Substation and the campus cogeneration plant. The Hill Area Substation receives power from PG&E's transmission grid; the cogeneration plant feeds power to a campus continued from page 1 switching station. A service interruption to the Hill Area Substation would not necessarily result in a campus power outage, according to Eric Haemer, director of Physical Plant/Campus Services.

That is not the case with some off-campus facilities, however, including Haste-Channing student housing, the University of California Press building (2120 Berkeley Way) and 2607 Hearst Ave. (across the street from Cory Hall). Those off-campus locations receive power from different suppliers and would be impacted by rolling blackouts. Many smaller campus facilities scattered around Berkeley could also be affected. Concerned employees are encouraged to determine from their building managers whether they work in buildings subject to blackouts.

Increasing electric prices
The energy crisis's biggest impact on campus may come in the power bill. Berkeley may face a 90-day price hike based on skyrocketing wholesale electric prices and the conditions of its contract with Enron Corp., a Houston-based power company. Berkeley's four-year contract with Enron locks in prices at approximately 5 percent below Pacific Gas & Electric Co.'s rates to consumers, said Black.

Black and Gary Matteson, associate director of Energy and Utility Services in the UC Office of the President, are awaiting word from legal counsel on a possible three-month surcharge that would raise the campus's power bills approximately 15 percent to 20 percent - or about one penny per kilowatt hour - for its electricity consumption from Jan. 1 through March 31, 2001. The surcharge would reflect steep market rate increases of about 10 percent recently introduced to consumers by the state's three major investor-owned utilities - PG&E., Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

UC is one of the largest users of energy in the state, consuming approximately 332 megawatts of electricity systemwide per hour at peak usage, compared with the state's overall power consumption of approximately 45,000 megawatts per hour.

A megawatt is 1 million watts of power. One megawatt is enough to power 1,000 homes for an hour. The UC system generates more than 100 megawatts of that amount on its own, through generation plants on several campuses, including UCLA, UC Riverside, the UC Davis Medical Center, UC San Francisco and Berkeley. Berkeley consumes approximately 25 megawatts (25 million watts) during its peak daylight hours. In the evenings and on weekends, the load drops to about 14-16 megawatts, Black said.

Natural gas prices rise
Current market prices for natural gas also are expected to impact the university's utility bill. The cost of natural gas is tied to the monthly market price of gas and no long-term, fixed-price arrangement is in place for the campus, said Ron Coley, associate vice chancellor for business and administrative services. Price changes will have an immediate affect, and they have increased to levels twice and triple the 1999 prices. Although they are expected to decline after January 2001, they are not expected to return to 1999 levels in the near future.

"The campus will face a substantial increase in utility costs for fiscal year 2000-01, resulting in a projected utility budget deficit in excess of $1 million," Coley said. "The impact of this anticipated deficit will be mitigated in part by utility budget surpluses. Most of these surpluses have been used to finance the purchase by the campus of the Hill Area Substation."

Unlike electricity, UC's contract for natural gas is not buffered by the same fixed rate agreement, but is sold at a floating rate, Black also said. When the contract, administered by the state Department of General Services, expires, UC will be left exposed to market prices, which are now twice and even triple the 1999 prices.

Natural gas is used by the campus cogeneration plant to produce electric power and to generate steam for heating and hot-water needs, Black said. A relatively small quantity of natural gas is used in campus buildings for laboratory work. Natural gas also is purchased to provide heat and hot water in off-campus buildings

A natural-gas service interruption to the cogeneration plant would not shut down steam production to the campus, because the plant is capable of producing steam using fuel oil in the turbine and boilers. A local service interruption to the campus gas grid would shut off gas to off-campus buildings and campus laboratories, but service personnel cannot recall a single service interruption in the past 15 years.

Conservation efforts "We've taken measures to curtail consumption, such as optimizing heating and ventilation systems, lowering building temperatures and turning off unnecessary pumps, motors and fans," Black said. But many buildings and temperature-controlled laboratories on campus have to be maintained at their present levels.

Among them are all labs and computing facilities in the physical sciences and life sciences, the Evans Hall central computing facility, the microcomputing facilities in Wheeler, Barker, Tolman, Moffitt and Dwinelle halls, and the thermally controlled vaults in Bancroft Library and paleontology museum.

Rather than concentrate campus conservation efforts on those facilities, power officials are alerting the campus to many ways in which staff can conserve power in their own offices.

Precautions urged in the event of stage 2 or 3 energy alert