Natural Perspectives:

Big Brother is now watching us. Workers from Corix Utilities, under contract to Southern California Edison, just installed what Edison calls a smart meter at our house under Edison’s new SmartConnect program.

We got a mailer several weeks ago that told us the smart meter was coming, but it didn’t say when. Monday, the doorbell rang, and before I could get to the door, our power was out. They need to disconnect the power for a minute while they remove the old meter and install the new one. Fortunately, we have power backups on both computers, so we didn’t lose any work. (Actually, Vic was at work and I was taking a short nap, so that wasn’t really an issue. Hey, I’m still catching up on my sleep after my trip to France.)

The new meter is the same size and shape as the old one, only it’s shiny and new. Instead of a metal wheel turning slowly around with rows of analog dials above the wheel, this new meter flashes digital numbers that show how many kilowatts we’re using. Pretty cool. This two-way meter also tells Edison how many kilowatts we use in real time.

The days of door-to-door electric meter readers are over.

Throughout May and possibly into June, these meters will be going in at homes in Corona del Mar, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Midway City, Seal Beach, Sunset Beach and Westminster.

The idea behind the smart meter is that consumers can now see how much electricity they are using at any given time of the day or night. The information will be available the day after use in your personal account at www.SCE.com.

You’ll be able to see how much higher the meter reads when you’re running a load of laundry or dishes, or when every TV in the house is on. For us, that’s one TV, but many households have multiple televisions. And if you have a big-screen plasma TV, you can see what a big energy suck it is.

Because these are two-way communicating meters, Edison also can see how much electricity you’re using at any given time of day and can charge you accordingly. Ah, that’s the real bottom line on these new meters, isn’t it?

Some time next year, Edison will change its pricing plans. One scenario is that you will be charged a higher rate for power use during weekdays, particularly afternoons, when there is more demand for power. At night or weekends, demand is lower. But power can’t be stored like water. So by pricing electricity more attractively at night, Edison is hoping to encourage people to run electric appliances like washing machines and dishwashers at night.

The actual pricing plans haven’t been announced yet, but it also may be possible to stay on a tiered rate plan as is currently available. That might be more beneficial for households where people are home during the day.

Edison hopes that consumers will respond to knowing how much electricity they use by conserving more. Certainly if the electricity costs more, people will conserve more. Edison hopes that the energy savings under the new system will be the equivalent of taking 79,000 cars off the road.

Other changes are coming to California’s coastal power-generating plants. On Tuesday last week, the State Water Resources Control Board approved a new policy that will require coastal power plants to reduce the intake of seawater used for cooling by 93%. That will affect the AES-owned, natural-gas-fired power plant in Huntington Beach.

First, let’s have a quick review of how electricity is generated. Basically, turbines have to turn inside a magnetic field in order to generate electricity. Those turbines can be powered by falling water as at a hydroelectric plant, or by wind or steam.

Here in Huntington Beach, natural gas is used to boil water to generate steam. That water is highly purified water in a closed system. Then the steam is cooled to condense it so it can be reused.

The cooling water is currently seawater that comes in through a large pipe set well offshore.

The new ruling means that AES will at some time in the future no longer be able to use seawater to cool and condense the steam. That’s good news for saltwater fish and other marine life that are being killed by the intake pipes. Every day, billions of larvae that represent tomorrow’s fish and invertebrates are sucked into the pipes and killed. But don’t look for change any time soon. AES has until Dec. 31, 2020, to comply.

Cooling technologies other than seawater are available, such as large cooling towers. That option is under consideration for the San Onofre nuclear power plant.

But the tall towers are unsightly and generate large amounts of fog at night. There is also a technology called dry cooling, as well as smaller cooling towers. Only time will tell what changes will be proposed for the AES plant in Huntington Beach. Whatever the new cooling technology is, it will undoubtedly be more costly than the current system.

One thing is for sure. The AES plant isn’t going to go away.

Even with coming growth in wind and solar power, we’ll still need traditional power plants to fill in those gaps in the grid when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].