54.3 F
San Diego
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
-Advertisement-

SAIC Hired to Conduct Regional Energy Audit

SAIC Hired to Conduct Regional Energy Audit

Energy: Study Will Look Into Future Needs, Solutions

BY BRAD GRAVES

Staff Writer

San Diego County’s energy future, with all of its possibilities and variables, is the subject of a $400,000 infrastructure study to be completed in the early spring.

San Diego-based Science Applications International Corp. is drawing up the study, which will project the region’s energy needs 30 years into the future. Work is being done by SAIC’s Energy Solutions group, based in McLean, Va.

Picking up the bill for the study is the San Diego Regional Energy Office, the city of San Diego, the county, the San Diego County Water Authority, the San Diego Association of Governments, the Utility Consumers Action Network and the San Diego Unified Port District.

The study will project the regional demand for energy, the required supply, the role of public agencies in future energy markets and options for infrastructure.

The study is “fairly uncommon,” said Kurt Kammerer, executive director of the San Diego Regional Energy Office.

In the era before deregulation, Kammerer said, utilities handled planning for the energy supply.

“Essentially long-term planning is not happening,” he said.

The energy crisis of 2000 and 2001 spurred local leaders to get going on a regional energy plan, said a statement released by the energy office.

Topics to be addressed in the new study include:

– How to best balance in-county energy generation with out-of-county generation.

– The notion of adjusting energy use in light of overall supply and demand at a given time of day.

– The outlook for the “energy community” of San Diego County, Tijuana and northern Baja California. Power plants proposed for the latter region may add electricity to the grid but also add emissions to the environment.

– The availability and price of natural gas to fire future power plants over the next few decades.

– The role of the Rainbow Valley transmission line project, a proposal that has stirred up controversy in Riverside County.

– The economics of wind power and solar power.

– The idea of creating a municipal utility.

The study will evaluate various “trade offs” that San Diego faces, said lead author Todd Davis of SAIC.

Decisions the community makes today will affect the community for 30 to 50 years, added Kammerer.

Those working on the study say the document will be the basis for a civic dialogue on energy.

SAIC has performed other energy studies for North American and European markets.

Cox Begins Switch To Its Own Internet Service

Cox Communications, Inc. has turned January into moving month for its high-speed home Internet customers.

The Atlanta-based cable giant says it is now ready to host those customers on a network of its own.

Cox is overseeing the mass move to its self-managed network as its previous Internet vendor, Excite At Home, winds down business.

Bankrupt Excite At Home was ready to go dark in early December. Cox and other cable operators put up $355 million to keep Excite At Home running through Feb. 28.

Cox is sending out conversion kits this month to let customers transfer their accounts over to the company’s new Cox High Speed Internet network. Among other things, customers will get new e-mail addresses.

Wendy Sheldon of Poway said she is taking a wait-and-see attitude about the quality of her new Internet service. Sheldon said she depends heavily on e-mail and the Internet for her business. She sells Mary Kay cosmetics.

She is especially sorry she’ll have to give up the handle “motherof3@home.com.”

“I love my old e-mail address,” she said.

Cox estimates it has more than 100,000 residential Internet users in San Diego County. It has 555,000 customers using Excite At Home nationwide.

San Diego is home to one of the three main data centers for the new Cox network. The others are in Atlanta and Oklahoma City. Cox said it expects to spend some $150 million to build its network.

The first residential customers to make the transition to the Cox network, in Roanoke, Va., made the jump in December.

The Excite At Home bankruptcy has also affected roughly 7,000 Adelphia Communications customers in North County.

Adelphia transferred its customers to its own Power Link Internet service Dec. 27, said general manager Dave Foshee. The transfer was completed within the day, he said.

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

Oberon Eyes Europe for Renewable DME

Leaders of Influence in Law 2024

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-