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shortage occurred in 1984, according to John Beale, VVC
Facilities Planning Director.
The college was able to
save tens of thousands of dollars per year but
has lost all the savings by choosing to stay
open during a stage-three alert and paying penalties
($5,000 per hour).
The recent deregulation
of the California electricity industry may have
played a part in the energy shortage. "Deregulation is the change in state laws to provide power
on the open market. This forces the electric
companies to purchase electricity from other
sources," said Beale.
"When deregulation occurred
two years ago, actual rates weren't affected.
When rate caps went off, anticipated by deregulation,
it was hoped that prices would go down. Electricity
is in short supply, we've taken electricity
for granted for so long," Beale said.
"During a stage-three outage,
we are typically penalized for up to 18 hours
at that rate. Triple outages of six hours each,
running consecutively totals 18 hours. Approximately
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