79-10-B5
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Energy-Saving Computer[edit]
Transcript[edit]When the 1973 Arab oil embargo triggered a nationwide energy crisis, the city of Los Angeles was forced to curtail power use among private commercial customers. Downtown businesses did their part and reduced their consumption by about 30 percent. If there was one thing these businesses did not expect after these reductions, it was higher utility bills. But that's exactly what they got. Many businesses experienced increases in their power bills of up to 15 percent, even though they had just cut consumption by a third. What was going on? A number of flabbergasted businessmen got together and decided that they couldn't solve their energy problems separately. They had just learned that simply ordering across-the-board energy cut-backs in their own facilities didn't translate into dollars-and-cents savings. Their individual cut-backs did nothing to reduce the demands on the power utility during costly peak-load periods. The businessmen didn't run to Sacramento or to Washington to demand help from government. They decided to cooperate with each other and experiment with a plan devised by a maverick energy consultant named John Phillips. In July, 1975, four private corporations and the city-owned electric utility in Los Angeles agreed to link their 11 buildings in a voluntary energy network. Fifty miles away in Newport Beach, computers Phillips Engineering monitor, analyze and control energy use in all the buildings. The computers not only trim the total consumption of the buildings' heating, air conditioning and lighting facilities, but reduce the network's use of the most expensive energy -- the electricity used during peak demand periods. So far, the results of this unique energy cooperative have been impressive. By coordinating their energy usage, the companies have cut demand during peak hours by 10 percent and have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. This was accomplished not by cutting back on convenience or comfort, but by simply plugging energy leaks, so to speak, and by rearranging the way the energy is used. The news of this success has spread fast. Energy use in Chicago's 31-story Civic center is now controlled by John Phillips' computer 2,200 miles away. The building is already saving $90,000 a year. Illinois Bell Telephone has tied its 13 buildings together in Chicago in an energy network monitored by Phillips' Newport Beach computer. Thanks to that computer, two boilers were completely shut down, even in sub-zero weather. These results have produced benefits for Phillips' Engineering Supervision company. In 14 years, Phillips -- who dropped out of his Columbia University humanities program in 1955 -- has seen the annual revenues of his company grow from $24,000 to $2 million. The private energy network proves that a voluntary cooperative program in which the participating businessmen rely on private enterprise and technology can realize fast results without the inefficiencies of government allocation programs. Unlike government controls, it is hard to politicize the findings and energy adjustments made by the computer. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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