DWP Unveils Energy Conservation Program : Arleta: The agency launches a plan to reduce the need for new power plants. Residents will be given fluorescent light bulbs and other assistance.

An energy conservation program aimed at reducing the environmental and financial costs of building new electric power plants was launched Thursday in Arleta, where 8,000 customers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will be offered free energy-saving light bulbs and other help in trimming their utility bills.

The Arleta residents will join 32,000 other customers already served by the 10-month-old “Better Idea” program, part of the DWP’s increased commitment to energy conservation. At a news conference in Arleta, utility officials said the ultimate goal is to use conservation measures to offset about 600 megawatts of electric demand, the capacity of one good-sized power plant.

In effect, the DWP hopes “to build Los Angeles’ next ‘power plant’ with energy efficiency, rather than concrete and steel,” said Eldon A. Cotton, the DWP’s assistant general manager for power.

From next Tuesday through mid-August, DWP representatives will fan out to the 8,000 Arleta households to install compact fluorescent light bulbs, clean refrigerator coils and provide refrigerator temperature gauges and energy and water conservation literature. They also will install water conservation devices such as toilet dams and faucet flow restrictors.

The visits will be made Tuesdays through Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Officials said the compact fluorescent bulbs are three to five times more efficient, and last up to 10 times longer than ordinary incandescent bulbs. Each bulb is expected to save a barrel of oil during its lifetime and cut electric bills by $57.

By cutting electricity consumption, the bulbs also reduce polluting emissions from power plants, including carbon dioxide and other gases that are thought to contribute to global warming.

A single bulb will save an estimated 142 pounds per year of carbon dioxide emissions, said Dorothy Green, a member of the Board of Water and Power Commissioners, which sets policy for the DWP.

Bulbs installed in the Arleta homes will shave annual carbon dioxide emissions by 960 tons, Green said.

Launched last August, the “Better Idea” program will be offered to all 1.2 million DWP customers within the next eight to 10 years. Priority will be given to neighborhoods with a high proportion of low-income residents and senior citizens, who would benefit the most from lower utility bills, said DWP spokeswoman Darlene Battle.

The DWP’s interest in restraining electric demand--rather than building new plants to meet it--has grown since 1990, when Green, Mike Gage and Mary Nichols were appointed to the Board of Water and Power Commissioners, creating a pro-environment majority on the five-member board.

Officials said they hoped expansion of the program to Arleta would ease any ill will remaining from an emotional dispute over a proposed distributing station.

Facing fierce neighborhood resistance, the DWP announced in February that it was shelving plans to build the new distributing station in Arleta, and would instead modify two existing stations to serve the area.

Citywide, there are about 130 distributing stations that transform high voltage current into lower voltage power for use by nearby residences and businesses. Residents feared the new station would lower property values and increase health risks from electromagnetic fields.

Battle said the program could help the utility postpone construction of new distributing stations, as well as generating stations.