JURY GRANTS $1.95 MILLION JUDGMENT IN TELECOM SUIT
Updated 3:12 p.m. Wednesday, March 10
A jury has granted a $1.95 million judgment to a company that sued the city over money it said it was owed from Alameda’s former telecommunications business. The judgment came after a three-week trial in federal court.
Alameda Municipal Power General Manager Girish Balachandran said city officials are considering appealing the [...]
Council to consider opposing PG&E initiative
Alameda’s Public Utilities Board is set to ask the City Council to formally oppose a statewide ballot initiative that they fear could impact their efforts to provide our local electric service.
The board voted unanimously on Monday to ask the council to oppose Proposition 16, which would require two-thirds of the voters in any locality to [...]
Utilities board, tree pruners meet, confer
The city’s Public Utilities Board will conduct its annual planning workshop starting at 4 p.m. today at Alameda Municipal Power HQ, 2000 Grand Street. The public is invited – nay, encouraged – to attend, the press release on this one says.
Not much more on that, but if you’re a glutton for punishment, the board holds [...]
AMP: Over the river, but not out of the woods
When Alameda Power executed a successful, $15 million divorce with its troubled Telecom last November, the collective sighs of relief at 2000 Grand Street and City Hall were audible Island-wide. But newly released financial statements show the utility faced fresh difficulties this year, in the guise of higher costs, sharply reduced investment returns and lower [...]
AMP’s (solar) performance plan
The Public Utilities Board okayed changes Monday night that would shift its solar rebate program to a multi-year, performance-based program, putting it in line with other municipal utilities in the Bay Area and sparking the construction of more solar projects around town.
The board voted unanimously to change the two-year-old program from its current configuration, which [...]
Island snapshot: The bright lights of Harbor Bay Isle
The folks at Alameda Municipal Power and the Community of Harbor Bay Isle are celebrating the installation of seven energy-efficient LED lights in a portion of the parking area serving the community’s offices.
The Harbor Bay folks decided to replace the metal halide bulbs they had been using after the folks at AMP offered them a [...]
Bay Farm has brief power outage
Power has been restored to about 5,000 customers on Bay Farm Island after a brief outage this afternoon.
Power for customers along Harbor Bay Parkway and on Mecartney Road went out at about 3 p.m. and was out for about a half hour, a press release from Alameda Municipal Power said. The utility’s crews performed a [...]
AMP pulls out of Geysers project
Alameda Municipal Power is pulling out of the Geysers geothermal energy project to avoid a planned price increase for the power the project would produce.
Western GeoPower increased the price from $98 per kilowatt hour to $117 in order to come up with more funds to help pay for the project. But the folks at AMP, [...]
AMP working toward loan program for energy efficiency projects
The folks out at Alameda Municipal Power are gearing up to offer a low-interest loan program to help home and business owners pay for what can be fairly costly energy efficiency projects. The program could be up and running sometime next year.
Sherri Hong, AMP’s assistant general manager for customer resources, said the utility is waiting [...]
A landfill runs through it
One of Alameda Municipal Power’s continuing efforts to go green with its power came online this week: The Ox Mountain landfill in Half Moon Bay.
Working with Framingham, Mass.-based energy company Ameresco and the City of Palo Alto, they’ve built an energy plant to capture gases at the landfill and turn them into electricity. Now that [...]
AMP budget up for Monday vote
Alameda Municipal Power may have unloaded its troublesome telecom, but that unfortunately doesn’t mean the utility is out of the woods yet, financially speaking. Looks like they will be staring at a $4.5 million budget deficit this year. In fact, they’re anticipating deficits for each of the next five years.
The Public Utilities Commission is set [...]
