Los Angeles has got the power -- the solar power. The L.A. Department of Water and Power (LADWP) scored the greenlight today from the L.A. City Council to start signing contracts to bring solar power to the city. more ›

Bandits stormed Fremont Elementary School in Riverside early Saturday morning to steal - not money, children or school lunches - but high-voltage electrical breakers. They escaped with an estimated $50,000 worth of electrical equipment, leaving behind a rather chilly Monday for students and school staffers. more ›

When an electrical outage hit San Diego Thursday night, the rides at Sea World froze, everyone lost refrigerated food, sewage flowed into the ocean — and one utility worker in Arizona bore the brunt of the blame. That's not fair, say ratepayers advocates. more ›

Power is back up and running in San Diego after yesterday's massive blackout which is being called the worst in our state's history. Not only were San Diego Gas & Electric's 1.4 million customers left in the dark, but millions of people in Arizona, California's Orange and Imperial Counties, and even Mexico, were affected. What caused the power to go out? more ›

The online survey of seven questions takes just five minutes, claims LADWP, and contains information on the department's current challenges, basic needs and options for strategic investments they could make over the next three years. more ›

A brave LAist operative sent in a photo of a fire in Burbank on N. Buena Vista Street and Victory. Early reports suggest a metal balloon hit the power lines around 3:30 p.m. blowing a transformer and igniting trees. Power is reportedly out in the area and there is some concern about the fire spreading to local businesses and properties. More as the story develops. Or (hopefully) doesn't. more ›

It can't be "one of the most widespread and strongest wind episodes in recent years" without some fallout--or, more appropriately, some fallen trees and power outages. There is, of course, already the requisite Foursquare Windpocalypse 2010 venue for your check-in entertainment (a moving target, if ever there was one). more ›

Sorry shoppers, there are several stores on the Third Street Promenade who've lost power, reports CBS2, and "they could remain without electricity until as late as 2 a.m. Tuesday." An initial outage in Santa Monica due to "underground equipment failure" cut power to about 2,000 customers. Now about 50 customers in the vicinity of the "mall area in the vicinity of Fourth and Second streets, Santa Monica Boulevard and California Avenue" has remained affected by the outage. more ›

The Daily News has launched a set of columns devoted to explaining something that most of us encounter, deal with, but might not necessarily understand: Our LA DWP bill. more ›

A Gardena municipal bus struck "a fire hydrant, a few cars and power lines in Harbor Gateway" at around 5:45 this morning, according to abc7. The driver was killed. Crews are working to turn off the water that shot into the air when the hydrant was sheared, and the DWP is working to restore the power lost to about 3,300 area customers who were thrown in the dark when the accident downed power lines. "TV reports say the driver may have suffered a heart attack and lost control of the bus, although [LAPD spokeswoman Norma] Eisenman says she cannot confirm that," notes CBS2. more ›

Northridge: 1, 476There have been multiple reports of damage to buildings and due to fallen trees all over the city. At about 7 last night a tree fell onto the Pilgrim Community Church in South Los Angeles and as a result the "building has been red-tagged," reports abc7, noting that a tree fell onto a parked car at Burbank Boulevard and Topanga Canyon as well, and another in Long Beach. "In Pacoima, a camper broke the fall of a tree, and a Jack in the Box sign flew off at Sherman Way and Coldwater Canyon in North Hollywood."
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The wind yesterday afternoon came in strong, running amok through Southland streets, making a mess of palm fronds and zapping the power our for tens of thousands. more ›

Thousands across Los Angeles are without power today, according to the L.A. Department of Water and Power. Some 20,000 customers in the greater South Los Angeles area are affected. In portions of Studio City and North Hollywood, about 1,100 customers are without power. Outages have always been reported in East Los Angeles, Mid City, and Woodland Hills. The department has increased the amount of crews working on power restoration. more ›

The Station Fire is not only threatening homes across the region and broadcast towers on Mount Wilson, but also the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's two 500 KV transmission lines northeast of the Acton. "These high-voltage power lines are critical to maintaining a steady supply of power to the city, especially as demand for energy rises throughout the day," the department made in a statement noting that all in-basin power plants have been activated to generate energy. more ›

Mayor Antonio Villaraigasa may want Los Angeles to be the greenest city in the country and San Francisco may be popularly referred to as one of the greenest, but when it comes to solar power, San Diego is king when it comes to California big cities, according to a report released by Environment California. The city leads with 2,267 solar roofs. By contrast, San Francisco has 1,493 with Los Angeles trailing behind at 1,432. "But when it comes to per capita installations, little Nevada City, Calif., topped the list, with nearly 1 in 5 households hosting a solar system," noted the LA Times. "City of Industry, outside Los Angeles, had the most capacity per capita, with 1.5 kilowatts installed per person. The bad news: Solar power still accounts for less than 1% of energy nationwide." more ›

90 miles east of Los Angeles sits this billboard telling Mayor Villaraigosa to cut it out. But why do people far away from LA care? It's the controversial Green Path Power Project, a plan that would bring geothermal, solar, wind and other renewable energy from the Salton Sea area of Imperial Valley to Los Angeles via a new yet-to-built electrical transmission line. more ›

A minor car crash caused a fairly good sized power outage this morning, leaving 2,200 cusotmers without power in Westchester and Del Rey. The car hit and pulled a guide wire--the suspension wire usually seen at a 45-degree angle from the power pole to the sidewalk--causing the power to go out. Crews are on scene addressing the problem, but the LA Department of Water & Power has no estimate of when power will be restored. No one was reported to be injured in the crash. more ›

It's not the nicest way to wake up on what is a holiday for many: A large tree fell over during the rainstorm this morning in Laurel Canyon, "knocking down three power poles, blocking Wonderland Avenue and interrupting electricity to about 1,700 customers," according to the Daily News. more ›

In a press conference held at 8:00 this morning, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa addressed the continuing concerns for the City of Los Angeles created by the Sayre Fire, which is being battled by a "unified command" of the LA Fire Department, the LA County Fire Department, the US Forestry Service, and the LAPD. more ›

After yesterday's announcement of an $160 million settlement in the case where the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power "knowingly overcharged State and local governmental agencies for electricity (as the State Attorney's Office put it)," the city agency released a statement online only (mysteriously, it wasn't e-mailed). Basically, they say everything is fine and dandy and not to worry about your bills: more ›

Don't worry (yet), the DWP's overcharging scandal only involves governmental customers such as Metro, LA County and LA Unified School District. “The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power had been imposing illegal and unjustified overcharges on their governmental customers for several years,” said Attorney General Brown in a statement. “The L.A. school district and the other governmental agencies desperately need every available dollar in these hard economic times.” A total of $160 million will be refunded to the agencies. more ›

15 California State University campuses, including five from the LA region, will receive solar power generated energy in a private-public partnership with SunEdison who will install panels on rooftops, parking canopies and other ground-mounted displays at campuses. This initiative will increase the university system's use of alternative energy from 20% to 25% (small steps, small steps), the LA Times says. Locally, the Los Angeles, Fullerton, Pomona, Channel Islands and San Bernardino campuses wil be included in the program. more ›

This morning at 9:15 a.m., power at 12 Metro Red and Purple Line train stations between Wilshire/Western and North Hollywood went out for 55 minutes, according to a Metro Spokesperson. No one was hurt or injured, and operations slowed down but never fully stopped. However, patrons riding in elevators at two stations, Wilshire/Normandie and Vermont/Sunset, were stuck for at least fifteen minutes before fire department crews could rescue them. While the Dept. of Water & Power reported no outages at street level, Metro later discovered the problem was within their own system dealing with alternating current. Power never halted on the rails and trains still ran, albeit at a slower speed delaying trains 13 minutes behind schedule and stations were still lit for commuters by emergency flood lights. The incident was cleared by 10:10 a.m. more ›

Today, our computer is not about to explode like it was for the past two days in the sweltering heat. "The National Weather Service forecast highs for Thursday of between 69 and 79 near the Los Angeles County coast, 86 to 94 inland, 84 to 94 in the San Fernando Valley, 87 to 92 in the San Gabriel Valley, 88 and 93 in the Santa Clarita Valley and 82 and 91 in the Antelope Valley," reported the Long Beach Press-Telegram. more ›

Since their 2005 contract takes inflation into account when are up for their annual raise, this year's expected 3.25% pay hike for LA Department of Water and Power employees shot up to 5.9% because food and fuel costs have gone up this past year. One problem, that equals out to $16.4 million not written into the budget. Even without the raise, DWP workers are some of the higest paid employees in the city. more ›

Southern California Edison has announced that they're adding some new renewable energy to their profile. They'll be installing 303 wind turbines up in Gilliam and Morrow Counties in Oregon that will produce 909 megawatts of wind power and 2 billion kilowatt-hours per year. more ›

Green initiatives and measures are going to dot ballots across the state this November and while "it's the thing to do" these days, they may not be the best choices. At the very least, as LAist commenter jrb said, "this election season some the initiatives are not exactly a quick study. more ›

Southern California Edison (SCE) announced that they've now recycled 700,000 refrigerators in the last 15 years since the beginning of their Refrigerator and Freezer Recycling Program. The program has two parts: (1) you get $50 to recycle the fridge, and (2), you get another $50 if you buy a new Energy Star qualified fridge. According to SCE's director of energy efficiency per the Power Plug blog, people spend about an extra $300 a year with older refrigerators. more ›

Following the lead of many other utilities, the Pasadena City Council on Friday took an official stance against Proposition 7, aka "Big Solar," which will appear on November's ballot asking voters to make utilities supply 20% of their power with renewable sources by 2010, 40% by 2020 and 50% by 2025. Pasadena Water and Power is a municipal owned utility and officials say that if passed, rates could jump 30 to 45%. While most people are not aware of the proposition, 63% would support it with 24% opposed, according to a Field Poll survey (.pdf). Opposition, which includes environmental groups and both the Democratic and Republican parties, basically say the prop has good intentions, but was written by people who didn't know what they were talking about and has many unintended consequences. more ›