Los Angeles Department Of Water And Power

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reported Monday that water demand reached a 32-year low for the month of June, dropping 11% compared with the same period in 2008. Jim McDaniel, the senior assistant general manager of DWP's water system, said hard work by ratepayers is paying off. Though experts said June was on average 4 degrees cooler than normal, McDaniel attributed the low demand to the new water restrictions.

One month after the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power barred residents from watering on days other than Mondays and Thursdays, city officials are looking at loosening the law for the city's parks department and other large landowners.

Even with the recent batch of rainstorms, the ongoing drought has grown so severe that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday called for increased citywide water restrictions and the adoption of a tiered water rate that would punish Department of Water and Power customers who fail to conserve. Sprinkler use would be restricted to two days a week under the proposal and, by summer, could be cut to one day a week if the drought continues, Villaraigosa said.

The Los Angeles Department of the Water and Power's decision to embrace renewable energy will have a "significant impact" on the electricity bills of customers, according to a five-year review of the nation's largest municipal utility.

A consulting firm that warned Los Angeles officials last fall that a solar energy measure on the March 3 ballot was "extremely risky" sent an apology to the city's Department of Water and Power weeks later, voicing alarm that its comments may cause it to lose out on a city contract. P.A. Consulting Group privately warned the City Council's top policy advisor that the DWP might have to impose major rate hikes to implement the solar proposal, which later became Measure B.

Three months ago, Los Angeles' plan for a $3-billion solar energy installation seemed like it had come out of nowhere, with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and seven City Council members saying they needed to act quickly to get it on the March 3 ballot. With events moving so rapidly, Department of Water and Power General Manager H.

When members of the Los Angeles City Council agreed last month to put an ambitious solar energy plan on the March 3 ballot, they talked effusively about their desire for cleaner air and "green" technology jobs -- the kind that could boost the economy during a recession. What they didn't discuss was an analysis by a city-hired consulting firm that called the solar plan "extremely risky" and considerably more expensive than was being portrayed by the Department of Water and Power.

A plan for adding 400 megawatts of solar power throughout Los Angeles could lead to electricity rate hikes for Department of Water and Power customers ranging from 2% to 8% over the next four years, according to figures provided by the utility. The L.A. City Council plans to vote today to put a measure on the March 3 ballot ordering the DWP to place solar panels on the roofs and parking lots of government, commercial and industrial buildings by 2014.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will refund $160 million that it overcharged other government agencies for more than a decade, the state attorney general's office announced Monday.

A no-show actor, singer or soloist at a performance can throw things into disarray. Ditto a missing parking lot. Since last month, the lot at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power building has been off the grid as far as Music Center patrons are concerned, resulting in some hassles and hasty dashes to make opening curtains.