Rancho Cucamonga Considers Energy Options
City leaders evaluate costs, long-term benefits of projects discussed at workshop.

By Selicia Kennedy-Ross
source: LA Times http://www.latimes.com/tcn/ontario/news/cityhall/la-iv0016400aug23.story

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- City leaders are exploring a number of innovative energy options, including using solar power, building one or more power plants and possibly even forming a municipal utility district, City Manager Jack Lam said Wednesday.

City officials met for an energy workshop last week and discussed several scenarios, including the use of solar panels to generate power for the city yard, generating power for city buildings and drafting a resolution to become a municipal utility to protect city power options. The resolution could come before the City Council as soon as next month.

Power Dynamics, an Oklahoma-based power plant consulting firm, approached the city with a proposal to build a 50- to 200-watt power plant for the city's use. Lam said that while the city is considering whether to become a municipal utility, there are no plans to sell power. "Are we going into the power business? The answer is no," Lam said. "All we're doing is considering our options."

He said it might, however, make sense to create energy for city facilities.

City engineer Joe O'Neil said solar power or a small power plant could be used to power the yard and possibly feed energy to the state power grid, offsetting the cost of energy to city buildings.

But O'Neil said solar panels are extremely expensive to install and while the energy savings would be immediate, those savings would go toward paying for the initial cost of the panels.

"It would take 20 years for a return on the investment," he said. "Our goal is to find some way to bring down the return time to where it makes sense. Edison also has a financial assistance plan that could help offset the cost."

Some cities, such as Corona, have already formed municipal utility districts, which allow cities the option of supplying electricity to residents. A few Inland Empire cities have long managed their own public utilities, including Colton, Banning and Riverside.

"We're not the only city looking at that," O'Neil said. "All we're doing is looking at what's available. We're not committing to anything.

"We would not be building power lines. We don't want to take over Edison's job. The investment in trying to build those kind of facilities would be astronomical."

The decisions of state lawmakers and the Houston-based power wholesaler Reliant Energy's substantial expansion of its Etiwanda Avenue power plant are elements likely to affect the city's decision about whether it could ever sell energy, O'Neil said.

"There can only be so much juice provided in an area," he said. "The power supply could eventually outweigh the demand, we just don't know because of the volatility of the energy market.

O'Neil said city officials would even be open to discussions about a public-private partnership with Reliant Energy.

"There is no plan to do anything right now," O'Neil said. "Right now the most important thing for us to do is to analyze what is out there and see what is right for Rancho Cucamonga and that's the direction we'll go."

Councilman Paul Biane agreed.

"What was presented to us was a long ways away from anything I would make a commitment to," Biane said.

"We're gathering information on power savings and looking at a municipal utility to power our own buildings. But it would be idiotic to get into the power business if the numbers don't make sense."