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Conservation Helps Avert Blackouts in Pacific Northwest by Michelle Cole, Oregonian staff The Oregonian, February 20, 2001

Conservation measures help avert blackouts in Oregon and Washington

Households and businesses in Oregon and Washington cut their electricity consumption by an estimated 2 percent to 4 percent through conservation measures in December and January, enough to spare the Northwest from blackouts during bitter cold, but possibly an insufficient level of savings to get it through summer.

The decline reflects voluntary cutbacks and also those forced by a slowed economy and sharply increased utility rates in Washington, officials said.

The consumption estimates come from electric utilities and government officials in an effort to measure response to pleas from Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and Washington Gov. Gary Locke to reduce energy use by 10 percent.

"Ten percent was an easily identifiable figure and an admirable goal for Oregonians and Washingtonians to achieve," Kitzhaber's spokesman Bob Applegate said Thursday. "But we'll take what we can get at this point. It's a good start."

Officials at Oregon's State Office of Energy said they think the slowing economy reduced demand for electricity, but that conservation purely for the sake of saving power accounted for as much as 2 percent. That meant customers of Portland General Electric, Pacific Power and the Eugene Water & Electric Board — the state's three largest electric utilities, which reported the Oregon declines — conserved enough energy to power five cities the size of Ashland, the state agency said.

Businesses and households in Seattle and Tacoma cut their electricity consumption through conservation by approximately 4 percent, according to the Washington Office of Trade and Economic Development. But sharp rate increases, some as much as 43 percent, may have influenced usage in Washington and may be reflected in the 4 percent conservation figure, officials said.

Clark County, Wash., showed perhaps the blurriest picture. Clark Public Utilities, serving 150,000 customers, reported a 9 percent usage decline in January but was unable to say whether mid-January rate hikes, warmer weather or voluntary conservation efforts had the most effect.

Officials in both Washington and Oregon cautioned the estimates were preliminary. They could not say whether the bulk of the savings were achieved by households, businesses or large industrial customers, such as paper mills. It is possible that one segment might be producing large savings while another remains unchanged.

PacifiCorp, which serves 1.5 million electricity customers in six Western states, estimates that its large industrial customers reduced their electricity loads by about 5 percent. The utility's smaller commercial and residential customers used about 2 percent to 3 percent less energy, it estimated.

The reductions were characterized as significant by Judi Johansen, former administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration who resigned in November to become an executive vice president at PacifiCorp.

"It was adequate enough to avert blackouts at critical times in early December, when the arctic blast came through and we were actually staring at the possibility of rolling blackouts in the Pacific Northwest," she said.

Still, Johansen warned, the region must step up its conservation efforts further as summer approaches.

"There's a high probability, in my view, if conditions continue as they are — dry — and California generation is not up to the level it should be that the blackouts could spread beyond California and occur sporadically across the West Coast," she said.

There were other signs that the public is taking notice of the power crisis:

• PacifiCorp in January received 1,245 customer requests for brochures offering energy-saving tips, up from the 212 requests received in January 2000.

• Home Depot reports Oregon sales of energy-saving, compact fluorescent light bulbs were up nearly 400 percent in the first week of February above last year. The retailer also is shutting off parking lot lights at its stores that close at night, saving enough energy from among its 80 Northwest stores, it says, to power 1,000 households.

• Following an order from its corporate headquarters, the Albertson's store in Tigard shut off half its indoor lights, dialed the thermostat back 2 degrees and started making takeout chicken in just one fryer instead of the usual two.

"I've had customers say, 'You really are turning off your lights. That's great,' " Albertson's store director Tony Schachtel said this week.

After cutting their investments in programs that promote energy efficiency in recent years, both PacifiCorp and PGE say they'll boost spending this year.

Last month, PacifiCorp offered two free compact fluorescent light bulbs to 83,000 residential customers in Portland, Astoria and Hood River. Between Jan. 22 and Feb. 7, more than 40,000 agreed to try the bulbs, which consume about a fourth of the electricity used by incandescent bulbs. PGE says it will soon announce a variety of measures to promote the efficient use of energy, including rebates on energy-saving washing machines and other appliances.

The Bonneville Power Administration also announced Thursday that it would spend $200 million in the next five years to fund conservation and renewable energy activities.

Oregon state officials are also looking at what they can do through legislation or a governor's executive order to spur further conservation, Applegate said.

"Conservation is the only tool in the short-term that can give us any degree of help," he said. "Let's keep it up, and please stay tuned — because we may need more."