City aims to lower energy costs

The future of Huntington Beach will likely include high-tech, low-energy lighting, solar panels generating power at spots throughout the city, and plenty of incentives for green building—and it’ll be cheaper too, according to a city official.

The City Council held a study session Monday to listen to Energy Project Manager Aaron Klemm tell them how he planned to save the city money on its power bills. Klemm was hired at the beginning of the year to find ways to, and this update was the first time council members heard him present on what he’s working on.

One thing Klemm worked on so far was simply to make sure the city wasn’t paying any electricity bills it shouldn’t, he said. As it turned out, checking out the roughly 700 utility bills paid by the city saved about $192,000 this year, along with an annual savings of about $57,000.

“Most of these broke down into accounts being billed the wrong amounts, or some cell tower stations that should have been paying their own bills,” Klemm said.

But Klemm’s job is primarily to cut consumption, and his staff has already identified a set of projects that will save the city $329,000, he told council members. The one-time cost? Less than half that: $150,000.

But a second phase of more ambitious projects would be more costly, he said. Klemm sketched out plans to replace traditional sodium-yellow street lighting with energy-saving white lamps. Also in the works were ideas for about 2.5 megawatts worth of solar panels at various city buildings; if the city joined up with other nearby governments, the cost of the electricity would be comparable with conventional power plants, he said.

Ultimately, these more ambitious programs could cost the city around $4.3 million, but would save nearly $500,000 per year, according to city reports. But no matter what the savings, Klemm said he wasn’t prepared to suggest anything too draconian to swallow.

“It’s got to be delightful and fun; otherwise it’s not going to happen,” Klemm said. “Nothing I’m going to do is going to suggest shivering in a cave somewhere.”

The city government is getting enthusiastic about ways to go green, Mayor Debbie Cook said.

“The green committee meeting was really neat,” she said. “Some of the departments here seemed really excited about what they were working on.”

But Councilman Don Hansen jokingly brought up a more personal concern: “Can I bring you my Edison bill?”

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at michael.alexander@latimes.com.