County Board of Supervisors VAN NUYS - One year after a heat storm knocked out power to 80,000 homes, Los Angeles officials said Thursday the city is better prepared but warned that electric cutbacks could be required unless residents voluntarily conserve energy. And officials also warned that, despite their efforts to boost the system, a 9 percent electricity rate hike is needed over two years to fund a $1 billion upgrade to the city's outdated utility network. The Department of Water and Power announced last month that the two-year electricity rate increase would be needed, along with a 6 percent hike for water.
"We have always spoken honestly with the public, and the fact of the matter is we are going to need that money to improve the system," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said during a news conference at the DWP Maintenance Yard in Van Nuys. "We are committed to making sure we have a reliable energy system, and it costs money." The rate hikes are part of a $4 billion budget for fiscal year 2007-08 tentatively approved by the Board of Water and Power Commissioners.
While the agency is consulting with neighborhood councils and will hold at least six public hearings before adopting the rates in October, board members have indicated they support the proposed hikes. This year the key will be conservation, with Southern California stuck in a months-long drought and a warmer-than-normal summer expected, the mayor and other officials said. "At this point, we are looking at voluntary measures," Villaraigosa said.
"We don't want to have to mandate cutbacks, but if we have to, we will." Last year's heat wave, which drove temperatures up to 119 degrees in the Valley on July 22, was the worst in history and caused more than 300 transformers to burn out. "The problem was we didn't have replacement transformers available, and it took us three days to get power restored," said Henry Martinez, chief of the power system.
Since then - after calls by Villaraigosa and the City Council - the DWP has purchased 3,000 extra transformers to have on hand this summer and is committed to having 2,000 on hand at all times throughout the city. In developing an improvement plan, Martinez said some of the older areas of the city, including North Hollywood and downtown, have been targeted first. Power poles and transformers there are the most vulnerable to outage, he said.
Councilwoman Jan Perry, who chairs the council's Energy and Environment Committee, said the only way the city can get through the summer well is through a voluntary conservation effort. "Over the past several months, we have discussed and debated what we can do to avoid what happened last summer," Perry said. "That's why energy conservation is so important.
" Councilman Greig Smith, whose Northwest Valley district was hit the hardest last year, said it is up to the public this year to help. "Last year, the Valley was ground zero," Smith said. "We think we are prepared this year to avoid the problems of last year with extra transformers on hand.
But we all have to be part of the effort.
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