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Photograph by Jeff Kearns
Community Service Officer Chris Klingborg, left, watches a Hamilton Avenue intersection while traffic signal technician Dave Mooso checks the control box after an outage. The city of Sunnyvale escaped the full brunt of the rolling blackouts.
Sunnyvale not severely affected by outages
City, local businesses escape blackouts relatively unscathed
By Daniel Hindin
While the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group (SVMG) reports that 75 percent of their member businesses experienced major losses of power during the Jan. 17 and 18 rolling blackouts, Sunnyvale's largest employers say they felt little to no effect.
SVMG, a major representative of 190 of the largest employers in the Silicon Valley area, held a press conference on Jan. 18, following a meeting between 80 of the area's top employers and several state legislators. SVMG president and CEO Carl Guardino reported, "In four hours yesterday, our businesses had tens of thousands of idle employees and lost tens of millions of dollars as a result."
Guardino opened his post-meeting report by saying, "The time for pointing fingers is over," and called for "a partnership between businesses and the state."
Guardino continued, "We're a valley of doers and don't-ers, not talkers and sayers. If you don't have a reliable source of power, the impact on the bottom line is great. This makes it hard to compete in the international economy. This isn't a threat, it's a reality, but I've heard from many CEOs that they have exit strategies in place. They're saying, 'If we can't meet the demand here, where can we meet it.'"
But representatives of some of Sunnyvale's largest employers, such as Lockheed Martin, Juniper Networks and Philips Semiconductor don't echo Guardino's sentiments. None of these businesses report having any such 'exit plans' in place, and none even experienced serious effects from the outages.
Juniper Networks Facilities Director Mike Bangs added, "Juniper is planning to stay in Sunnyvale and to expand in Sunnyvale. We recently purchased 70 acres of land [in Sunnyvale] and we plan to move forward."
Despite feeling little effect from the blackouts, all three companies report participating in such energy conservation measures as dimming their lights or lowering their heat.
Guardino announced SVMG's goal to reduce power consumption by 10 percent within the next two years. But Lockheed reports that their company's conservation measures have already reduced energy consumption by 15 percent. Large stores have also participated in conservation efforts. Orchard Supply Hardware reportedly keeps half of their lights off while maintaining the same level of service quality.
The city of Sunnyvale, too, continues to conserve as much power as possible.
"We've asked our facilities managers to reduce power consumption while keeping up the service level," says Sunnyvale Director of Public Works Mark Dettle.
"We have achieved a 5 percent power reduction, and at our water pollution control plant we're working to become an exporter of power instead of being an importer," he adds, referring to the city's plan to create power by burning gas from Sunnyvale's closed landfill.
Cathy Merrill, Sunnyvale's building services superintendent, reports of additional conservation efforts by the city.
"The fountains at the community center and parks have been shut down," she says. "Night lights at tennis and basketball centers have been turned off with the exception of Las Palmas Tennis Center, where lights are restricted to where they are in use. Also, if the blackouts continue, we'll shut down the tennis center and the Sunken Gardens Golf Course during the evening hours."
Dan Rich, Sunnyvale's assistant to the city manager, reports Sunnyvale has continued to run smoothly through the blackouts. "Most city facilities are exempt from blackouts," he says.
Exempt facilities include the public library, the department of public Safety, the hospital and city hall.
While Merrill says the city has received ample warning--up to an hour--from PG&E when their nonexempt buildings will lose power, businesses and residences receive little to no warning.
"[PG&E] tells us a day or two in advance when we're going to be vulnerable, but we never get a call right before it happens--that would really help," says Ross Anderson of Philips.
Dettle explains, "PG&E doesn't communicate with cities in terms of when or where residential outages will occur. This is because of security issues; there would be an added potential for crimes [in areas experiencing outages]. However, they do notify county emergency services who then notifies the city's public safety department."
Despite the worries about increases in crime, Capt. Chuck Eaneff of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety reports, "We haven't observed any change in crime patterns. Officers and businesses are aware of the potential [increase in crime] and are on the lookout."
Dettle also points out another safety issue: many of Sunnyvale's traffic signals have periodically gone out in areas throughout the city. He cautions, "If people approach a signal that's not working, they need to treat it like a stop sign."
So, while businessmen speculate and participate in high-powered meetings with state politicians, city authorities urge Sunnyvale residents to do their part by concentrating on these sorts of day-to-day activities to keep things running smoothly.
"The city has made a major effort to cut down on energy consumption, especially during peak hours," Rich says. "And we encourage residents to do the same. It really comes down to the simple things like turning off lights, computers and even coffee pots when you're not using them."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
