Next week, the business and finance officers of the Claremont Colleges will meet to discuss continuing participation in Southern California Edison’s interruptible power program. Under the program, the colleges receive discounted electricity in exchange for agreeing to have their power curtailed during periods of high demand. The business and finance officers will make a recommendation to the Council of Presidents, which will make the final decision during a meeting early next week.

On April 3, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) gave customers on interruptible power plans a fifteen-day window to elect to opt out. At that point, the colleges did not elect to do so. "The abbreviated time frame and other ambiguities contained in the CPUC ruling were not conducive to making an informed business decision," Director of Campus Planning and Maintenance Jim Hansen explained.

In November, the window for opting out of the program will reopen, and the colleges could choose to discontinue their participation. However, there are arguments to be made for remaining in the plan. According to a CPUC report, the approximately 15 percent discounted rates normally paid by interruptible customers yield savings of $60,000 to $70,000 per megawatt per year. One megawatt is enough to power about 1,000 homes.

"The college has saved substantially since it joined the interruptible rate program. The savings last year (fiscal year 1999-2000) amounted to $340,000, and the Claremont Colleges collectively saved about $1.1 million last year," said Vice President and Treasurer Carlene Miller.

Additionally, the colleges have installed generators on all the campuses, with 4MW at Pomona and 6MW at the other colleges. "We now have the capacity to sustain regular operations in spite of remaining curtailments…and safely capitalize on lower power rates," said Hansen.

Finally, the CPUC has modified the interruptible program to make participation less onerous. "We also limit program use to one 6-hour event per day, 4 events per week, and 40 hours total per month…In January 2001, interruptible customers were asked to curtail load almost continuously," states the April 3 CPUC decision.

"We were experiencing 16 hours of curtailment per day back in January. I think this program modification by the CPUC, and the addition of our generators, will make curtailments much more manageable for the Claremont Colleges," said Hansen.

On the downside, if the colleges elect to remain in the program, they will be liable for the penalties that they would normally have incurred for breaking curtailments after January 26, when a CPUC ruling waived those penalties for educational institutions. "We’ll pay about half a million dollars in utilities…the college has contingency in budget," said President Peter Stanley.

Additionally, there is still a power outage during the switch from Edison’s power to the colleges’ generators. Equipment is on order to eliminate it, but it has not yet arrived.

Because all the colleges share a single link to Edison, Pomona cannot act unilaterally to remain in or opt out of the program. Regardless, the administration’s preference is to remain in the program.

"It looks to [Dean Quinley and me] that the logic [implies] staying on the contract…basically the idea is to take your hit up-front and then lock into the lowest rates," said Stanley.