PG & E – ENERGY STAR
As I’ve been doing more and more research for my blog I’ve realized myself going back and forth to the ENERGY STAR site a lot. I’ve noticed there are some great resources and materials there, but they’re all kind of buried and sometimes hard to find (maybe it’s just those late nights, but maybe not.) Anyway, I thought it might benefit my readers a bit, to dedicate a place that would be easy to find and bring all the good stuff together, with an area to do some locally related updates.
I decided to include PG & E not only because I found their story pretty entertaining – but because they really have been a huge part of San Francisco and Bay Area history. Moreover, PG & E’s local involvement with energy efficiency, together with their commitment to the community and ability to see the global picture, seems to be all good in my eyes. Actually, PG & E’s two decade history and partnership with ENERGY STAR has just been recognized with the 2009 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award for their national leadership role in energy efficiency programs. Since the inception of these programs in 1976, PG & E customers have achieved cost savings of more than $24 billion, avoiding the release of more than 155 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
PG & E – The History
1852 – The San Francisco Gas Company is founded by Peter and James Donahue. Over the next half-century, the company merges with rival energy pioneers and competitors to form new companies, ultimately concluding in the merger of the San Francisco Gas and Electric Company and the California Gas and Electric Corporation to form Pacific Gas and Electric Company in 1905.
1854 – Gas flows for the first time in San Francisco.
1879 – George Roe creates the California Electric Light Company and begins operation of the first central generating station in the U.S. (and probably the world) to serve electric customers.
1895 – A ‘Grand Electric Carnival’ celebrates the launch of operation at the Folsom Powerhouse, the first ancestor of PG & E’s current hydro system and the first to conquer the challenge of long-distance transmission. PG & E today operates the largest utility hydro system in the U.S. with 68 powerhouses and 174 dams stretching from Redding in the north to Bakersfield in the south.
1898 – PG & E predecessors first pump water for irrigation in California. Electricity provided by PG & E and its predecessors would help make the emergence of California’s agricultural industry possible.
1899 – The Colgate power project sends power 61 miles from the Yuba River to Sacramento, where it drives the city’s electric railway system. The length and high voltage of its transmission lines mark a major advance toward bringing power from the remote Sierras to people in the Bay Area and Central Valley. Engineers visit from all over the world to see how it’s done.
1901 – California Gas and Electric Corporation is formed, consolidating many smaller, scattered gas and electric operations.
1905 – Pacific Gas and Electric Company is formed by the merger of the San Francisco Gas and Electric Company and the California Gas and Electric Corporation.
1906 – Earthquake and fire devastate San Francisco and much of Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s infrastructure, creating enormous engineering and financial challenges.
1912 – PG & E completes the changeover from an outmoded flat-rate billing system to the installation of 116,000 meters to measure the electricity used by customers. Today PG & E reads an average of 425,000 meters every day.
1920 – In San Francisco, PG & E opens the first all-electric model home, equipped with dozens of newfangled appliances. Hundreds attend the opening and hundreds line up around the block day after day to see it.
1930 – In the Bay Area, PG & E begins delivering natural gas instead of gas manufactured from fuel oil. In preparation for the switch, PG & E crews complete a massive effort to adjust 1.75 million customer appliances. The project is finished with hardly any disruption of service. Today, PG & E makes an average of about 10,000 customer service visits per day.
1930s – PG & E’s final major consolidation creates an integrated system across Northern California. Service continues to expand to rural areas, and by 1950, 98 percent of farms in the service territory have electricity.
1946-1951 – To match the needs created by the post-war boom, PG & E launches the greatest construction program ever undertaken by a U.S. utility. Population in the company’s service territory rises 40 percent between 1940 and 1946. In 1946 alone, 1200 industries announce plans for new or expanded facilities in the utility’s service territory. The utility goes on to build 14 new hydro plants and five new steam plants, and add thousands of miles of power lines and new gas pipelines.
1948 – PG & E constructs the 502 mile super-inch pipeline (the largest ever built at the time) to connect the gas fields of Texas and New Mexico with California. The line has to cross the Mojave Desert, the Tehachapi Mountains, the San Joaquin Valley and the Coastal Range Mountains.
1961 – PG & E completes the 612 mile PGT Northwest pipeline, which brings gas from Canada to Northern California.
1970s – PG & E begins energy conservation programs, actively working to help its customers reduce the use of the company’s product. PG & E would become one of the leading utilities in energy conservation, and remains so today.
1985 – Diablo Canyon goes online. Today it’s among the nation’s top-rated nuclear facilities in operational and safety performance.
1989 – Loma Prieta earthquake strikes San Francisco Bay Area, causing heavy damage to the utility’s infrastructure. PG & E draws upon all its resources and restores service safely and rapidly.
1997 – With California moving toward restructuring of its electric market, PG & E Corporation becomes the parent company for both Pacific Gas and Electric Company and a non-utility national energy business newly created to participate in the country’s emerging competitive energy markets.
2000-2002 – The California energy crisis, and energy conservation. PG & E helps customers achieve record levels of conservation, amid serious financial challenges that force the company to file for Chapter 11 reorganization.
ENERGY STAR – The History
ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.
In 1992 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) introduced ENERGY STAR as a voluntary labeling program designed to identify and promote energy-efficient products to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Computers and monitors were the first labeled products. Through 1995, EPA expanded the label to additional office equipment products and residential heating and cooling equipment. In 1996, EPA partnered with the US Department of Energy for particular product categories. The ENERGY STAR label is now on major appliances, office equipment, lighting, home electronics, and more. EPA has also extended the label to cover new homes and commercial and industrial buildings.
Through its partnerships with more than 17,000 private and public sector organizations, ENERGY STAR delivers the technical information and tools that organizations and consumers need to choose energy-efficient solutions and best management practices. ENERGY STAR has successfully delivered energy and cost savings across the country, saving businesses, organizations, and consumers about $17 billion in 2009 alone. Over the past decade, ENERGY STAR has been a driving force behind the more widespread use of such technological innovations as efficient fluorescent lighting, power management systems for office equipment, and low standby energy use.
Energy prices have become a hot news topic and a major concern for consumers. ENERGY STAR provides solutions. ENERGY STAR provides a trustworthy label on over 60 product categories (and thousands of models) for the home and office. These products deliver the same or better performance as comparable models while using less energy and saving money. ENERGY STAR also provides easy-to-use home and building assessment tools so that homeowners and building managers can start down the path to greater efficiency and cost savings.
Von Löwen Designs – The History
Although you may come across a Von Löwen Designs kitchen or bathroom dispersed about New England, the Tri-State Area, and Southern California, the bulk of my remodeling over the past 15 years has been focused here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Anyone who’s lived here or even visited, will agree that the Bay Area is a pretty awesome place and I feel truly blessed to be able to call this ‘home.’ I’ve also been very very fortunate to work in many extremely beautiful neighborhoods and stunning homes and residences in just about every county here.
Von Löwen Designs can be found as far north as Lake Tahoe (one of my most favorite places in the world), Napa into Mill Valley and Marin County – along with remodels in the City of San Francisco proper, including countless kitchen, bath and other living space designs in: Bernal Heights, The Castro, Cole Valley, The Haight, Hayes Valley, Inner and Outer Richmond and Sunset, The Marina District, some multi-units in The Mission, Nob Hill, Noe Valley, North Beach, Pacific Heights, Potrero Hill and Russian Hill, and a few lofts in SoMa.
You’ll find Von Löwen Designs all over the East Bay as well: in Berkeley and Rockridge, Oakland, Oakland Hills, Piedmont, and Alameda, Kensington and El Cerrito as well as some green remodeling and designs through the tunnel into Lafayette, Moraga, Danville, San Ramon, Pleasanton, Livermore, and Pleasant Hill.
I’ve completed remodeling assignments in Burlingame, Hillsborough, Millbrae, Foster City, and San Mateo, with a large volume of design projects scattered throughout the entire San Francisco Peninsula and Silicon Valley including: Belmont, San Carlos, Emerald Hills and Redwood City, kitchen and bath designs in Atherton and Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Stanford, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, Woodside and Portola Valley, Mountain View into Los Gatos to San Jose.
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, so before you leave be sure to visit Von Löwen Designs to view an assortment of refreshing examples in kitchen and bath design concepts, refined palette and interior finishes, and sustainable yet chic, green remodeling ideas that may encourage and inspire your next remodel or home improvement project.
