LAUSD to Pay DWP Millions More As Discount Ends

Los Angeles schools will pay as much as $3 million more a year for electricity starting Wednesday when a long-standing agreement for reduced power rates expires.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials said they’ve tried to persuade the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to continue the 5 percent discount on electricity, but the utility has said no.

“At a time when the ratepayers of Los Angeles are subject to a rate increase, to give a straight, arbitrary 5percent reduction is not the desirable way to go,” said DWP General Manager H. David Nahai.

Nahai said the utility is willing to provide incentives for solar and energy efficiency so the district can lower its electricity costs.

But LAUSD board member Tamar Galatzan said the utility should be willing to cut a deal with the school district. “We’re a huge customer and most businesses give huge customers a discount and incentives,” she said. “In addition to the budget hit from Sacramento, that’s another unexpected expense that the district is going to have to figure out a way to manage.”

The DWP has given the LAUSD and about 30 other large customers a 5 percent discount for the past 10 years. The contract with the LAUSD expires today.

The contract was controversial because it prohibited the LAUSD from generating its own power by installing solar panels. That has frustrated environmentalists and some school officials who saw an opportunity to generate clean power from school roofs.

Now, the district has a major school-construction program and a plan to install solar photovoltaic panels on school facilities to generate as much as 50 megawatts of power by 2012.

LAUSD officials said they had hoped the DWP would be willing to make a deal – continue the electricity discount and offer more incentives for solar – in order to help the utility meet its goal of generating 20 percent of its power from renewable, green sources by 2010.

“We’re offering something of value to DWP that no other customer can offer,” said Randy Britt, director of sustainability initiatives at the district. “We’re offering them the initiative to install megawatts of solar in their service territory, which would go through to renewable service standard.” The agencies are to meet today.

kerry.cavanaugh@dailynews.com

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