SSPC Article - Riverside, Calif., University Turns to Biofuel Firm to Combat Blackouts
May 21, 2001 (The Business Press - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via
COMTEX) -- An Ontario-based alternative energy firm has struck a deal with
university and Riverside city officials that could keep electricity flowing
during this summer's rolling blackouts.
Earlier this month, officials with the city and the University of California,
Riverside signed a $300,000 contract with Southern States Power Co. (OTC BB:
SSPC), an alternative energy company that creates a clean- burning biofuel made
of discarded cooking oil, virgin soybean oil, and regular diesel fuel.
The university essentially has agreed to provide 8 megawatts of power a day to
the city -- through a combination of portable generators and conservation -- in
return for a promise to spare the institution from rolling blackouts.
On the city's side, the deal could keep the power on for as many as 8,000
residents a day during the summer -- and spare decades-old research projects at
the university that stand to be destroyed should the city pull the campus power
plug.
"We have freezers with tissue samples 30 and 40 years old, and greenhouses with
plant materials that have been studied 10, 15, 20 years," said Mike Miller, the
university's director of facilities.
As part of the deal, the university will rent three biofuel-operated generators
for five months. Riverside Public Utilities will fund the installation of the
generators at the city's waste water treatment plant on Arlington and Van Buren
avenues and cover the cost of running the generators during electricity
blackouts, said Thomas P. Evans, the utility's director.
The portable engines will produce up to 6 megawatts of power at a time for the
city's electrical grid. Meanwhile, UCR officials have agreed to cut back on
energy use by 15 percent to 20 percent when the California Independent System
Operator announces rolling blackouts for the area, officials said.
In exchange, the city will use the generators to keep lights burning in the
classrooms, even if portions of the rest of the city go dark.
For each megawatt saved or generated, 1,000 homes get an hour of continued
energy, said Dave Wright, public utilities deputy director.
Officials expect the Riverside City Council to formally approve the agreement
with Southern States and the university on May 22.
"We received the purchase order two days ago," said Lawrence W. Taggart, chief
executive officer for Southern States on May 16. "We're just now preparing to
get the generator sets shipped from back east."
The university normally uses about 6 to 7 megawatts of power a day. But in peak
summer hours, 14 megawatts of electricity can course through the campus, Miller
said.
The California Independent System Operator, which runs the state's electrical
transmission system, has predicted up to 34 days of blackouts this summer. But
university leaders rest on the promise of the city to keep the juice flowing.
"Our power is secure," Miller said. "The ISO takes the power before it gets to
us."
Riverside Public Utilities uses close to 500 megawatts of power a day during hot
summer days to serve its 90,000 customers, said Evans. It uses about 250 in
winter months.
The city faced the threat of rolling blackouts about two weeks ago but avoided
darkness by cutting back on power used by a municipal water pumping system, and
by using landfill gases to operate the city's sewer treatment plant, Evans said.
The deal with UCR and Riverside is one of the first to use biodiesel fuel as a
backup energy source, Taggart said.
"It's very significant. It's one of the very first contracts in California and
the country where they're setting up a backup power generator on clean fuel," he
said.
Southern States' biofuel technology has undergone emissions tests at the
university's Bourns College of Engineering, Center for Environmental Research
and Technology. The firm counts among its top clients the Deer Valley School
District outside Phoenix, where 200 buses have driven 4 million miles on the
concoction.
The company has also forged an alliance with Redlands-based Green Aero Energy, a
company that is developing high-tech wind-based generators that can run on
Southern States biodiesel fuel.
Green Aero and Southern States representatives plan to present their alternative
energy project to the Loma Linda City Council on May 22. The city does not have
a utility company and gets its electricity from Southern California Edison.
By Darla Martin Tucker
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