IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 4, 2007
Los Angeles – The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is participating in the national Public Power Week celebration, Oct. 9 -12, signifying the special relationship between municipal utilities and their customer owners.
Highlights of the week in Los Angeles include recognition of eight large non-governmental customers that partnered with LADWP in implementing significant energy saving and/or environmentally-sensitive projects. LADWP will also hold three public events providing information on services and programs for customers and special distribution of water and energy conservation materials at its 15 Customer Service Centers.
“The annual national Public Power Week celebration, sponsored by the American Public Power Association, is the time of the year to celebrate the significant contributions that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and other public utilities provide to their customer owners,” said David Nahai, president, Board of Water and Power Commissioners.
He went on to say that among the benefits for customers of the municipally owned LADWP are water and power rates significantly below investor owned utilities while helping to support many environmental City initiatives such as the Million Trees program.
Robert Rozanski, acting general manager said, “The LADWP is in partnership with our customers. As an example we are honoring several large customers during Public Power Week that have saved vast amounts of energy due to their participation in the utility’s rebate and other programs.”
Five of the large customers honored for participation in energy efficiency rebate programs saved more than 16 million kilowatt hours resulting in 9,907 tons of C02 emissions avoided, equivalent to taking 1,730 cars off the road.
These large customers are being honored for implementing either major lighting retrofit projects and/or installing new energy efficiency chillers, Rozanski said.
These five companies honored are David Young Lee, Figueroa at Wilshire, AT&T, Catellus Development and the Wilshire Grand Hotel.
Three additional customers are honored for other innovative programs that support the environment and promote operational efficiencies in the use of energy.
Loyola Marymount University established an Energy Curtailment Program developing an organized procedure to quickly reduce load during California Independent System Operator alerts, or LADWP peak energy crisis alerts requesting voluntary conservation.
Yusen Terminal is being recognized for participating in the Alternative Maritime Program (AMP), which enables ships docked in the Port of Los Angeles to plug into the City’s electric grid rather than running auxiliary engines to generate their own power thereby reducing NOX, PM and C02 emissions and helping to improve air quality in the harbor area.
Maguire Properties enrolled many of its buildings in the LADWP sponsored Energy Load Monitoring Program, software enabling them to more closely track their energy usage and maximize their operational energy efficiency efforts.
In addition to recognition of large customers, LADWP is sponsoring three public events around the City to provide information on its programs and services. An Electric Safety Demonstration will be offered at the downtown event. The three community Public Power events are as follows:
Van Nuys Governmental Center
(Erwin St. Mall – walkway)
Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007
9 a.m. to 3 p.m. LADWP Crenshaw Service Center 4030 Crenshaw Blvd. Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Downtown – El Pueblo – Olvera Street
Near the Plaza and King Carlos of Spain Statue
Friday, Oct. 12, 2007 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Also, special information will be distributed at all 15 LADWP Customer Service Centers all week, Tuesday to Friday, Oct, 9-12 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Further information about Public Power Week and the listing of LADWP Customer Service Centers can be received by logging on to http://www.ladwp.com/ or phoning 1-800-342-5397.
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is the nation’s largest municipally owned utility. It has provided utility services to residents and businesses of the City for more than a century.
Media Contact:
Walter Zeisl, (213) 367-1342, cell (213) 792-552
Email: walter.zeisl@ladwp.com
Kimberley Hughes (213) 367-4417, cell (213) 792-9599
Email: kimberley.hughes@ladwp.com
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