L.A. BETTER ON GREEN POWER AUDIT: DWP STILL NEEDS TO INCREASE RENEWABLE SOURCES.

Byline: James Nash Staff Writer

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is spending money more wisely on its program to use cleaner energy sources, but has yet to ratchet up use of solar, wind and water power in Los Angeles, City Controller Laura Chick said Wednesday.

Chick said the DWP's $60 million Green Power program no longer wastes millions of dollars on marketing and public relations, but has yet to wean the municipal utility from its reliance on coal and natural gas for electricity.

Chick released an audit of the program Wednesday as a progress report on criticisms she leveled in an August 2002 audit that sharply criticized the DWP for spending millions of dollars on marketing and a failed effort to develop an electrical leaf-blower.

``The good news is, they've gotten their act together,'' Chick said. ``They're monitoring contracts better. They're not just paying hundreds of thousands of dollars on a contract that says 'community relations.'''

Chick called on the DWP to more aggressively pursue clean energy sources in Los Angeles, a call echoed Wednesday by Mayor James Hahn and Councilman Tony Cardenas, who chairs a council committee dealing with energy. Cardenas is hosting a renewable energy summit today at City Hall.

Hahn and Cardenas on Wednesday said they are asking the DWP to generate at least 20 percent of its power from renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal by 2017.

``The DWP has not done enough when it comes to renewable energy standards,'' Cardenas said. ``We want them to be responsible; we want to make sure they're out there on a track of finding out what's available and what's reliable.''

The DWP currently gets most of its day-to-day power from coal-powered plants in Arizona, Utah and Nevada. Between 3 percent and 8 percent of its power comes from renewable sources, depending on whether the utilities' large-scale hyrdroelectricity plants are counted. Private utilities are required under state law to buy 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2017 but municipally owned utilities can set their own green power goal.

DWP officials said they are searching for reliable and clean energy sources but note that in the urban Los Angeles Basin, projects like wind farms and large hydroelectric generators aren't practical.

DWP Chief Operating Officer Frank Salas said the utility has developed wind power in the China Lake area and geothermal electricity in the Owens Valley. The DWP also is tapping energy from biomass, fuel cells and turbines at landfills such as Lopez Canyon in the Northeast San Fernando Valley.

``It's a matter of practicality, it's a matter of reliability and it's a matter of cost,'' Salas said. ``Given that, we can move in any direction of policy we get from the mayor and the City Council.''

Chick's audit found that the Green Power program has become self- sustaining through premiums paid by power users in the program. The DWP has slashed the marketing budget for Green Power from nearly $2.4 million in 2000 to $165,000 in the first five months of last year, according to the audit. In that period, marketing and administration of the Green Power program accounted for 33 percent of the program's revenues, down from 231 percent in 2000.

Staff Writer Kerry Cavanaugh contributed to this report.

James Nash, [phone]

james.nash(at)dailynews.com

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Fred and Jennifer Herrera have covered the roof of their Sun Valley home with solar panels, one of the renewable energy sources to be discussed today at City Hall at a summit sponsored by Councilman Tony Cardenas.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer