August 7, 2007

Technology center opens its doors to regulatory and industry leaders

IRWINDALE, Calif., Aug. 7, 2007 — Southern California Edison (SCE) will host an open house and tour of the Southern California Lighting Technology Center on Wednesday, Aug. 8, to showcase the latest in lighting technologies and systems.

Among those scheduled to attend are Jon Wellinghoff, commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; John Fielder, president, SCE; Gregg D. Ander, director, SCE Design and Engineering Services, Martha Krebs, deputy director, Public Interest Energy Research; and Michael Siminovitch, director, California Lighting Technology Center. The event will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. is at SCE’s Irwindale location, 6060 N. Irwindale Ave., Suites M&N, Irwindale, Calif., 91702.

Originally conceived as the Southern California partner to the California Lighting Technology Center at the University of California, Davis, the Southern California Lighting Technology Center’s mission is to identify emerging lighting technologies that could be included in SCE’s energy efficiency and demand response programs. Additionally, the Southern California center has been charged with the task of identifying those existing lighting technologies that have been in incentive programs and are now ready for consideration for inclusion in regulated performance standards.

“Consumers are really paying attention to lighting and trying to find that balance between efficiency and aesthetics,” Ander said. “The open house is an excellent opportunity to sort out myths from truths and to learn about the latest technologies for homes or business.”

The day’s agenda includes a tour of the many projects under way and examples of efficient lighting technologies for residential and commercial applications.

Featured Projects on the tour include:

  • The Integrating Sphere: The sphere is a device that can measure lighting properties from any light source.  
  • The Heliodon: The Heliodon is a robotic device equipped with a “virtual sun” and a sophisticated computer program that can simulate any specific location and time of the day.
  • Model Kitchen: The kitchen tests and demonstrates efficient options for kitchen lighting in Southern California’s rapidly expanding new-home market. The kitchen features numerous lighting technologies, including incandescent, compact fluorescent lighting (CFL) and light-emitting diode (LED) options, and a master watt-meter is installed that reports real-time energy use.
  • Test Office Space: This space was created to test a variety of overhead lighting systems that might typically be found in a variety of office environments. The current low-ambient LED task lighting study, for example, shows what lighting levels people will select if they can control the overhead lighting and illustrates the importance of task lighting.
  • CFL and LED fixture display: This display showcases a variety of mid to high-end CFL and LED fixtures that are available (or soon to be available) in the retail market. All of the lamps displayed are tested to compare manufacturer’s claims again tested lamp performance.

Southern California Edison is the nation’s leading utility for energy efficiency. During the past five years, SCE's energy-efficiency programs have saved more than four billion kilowatt-hours — enough energy to power 500,000 homes for an entire year. The programs have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 2 million tons — the equivalent of removing 250,000 cars from the road. During the next two years, SCE will help customers save an additional 2 billion kilowatt hours, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by another 1 million tons.

For further information about SCE’s Design and Engineering services, visit http://www.sce.com/RebatesandSavings/DesignandEngineering/

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An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a population of more than 13 million via 4.8 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within central, coastal and Southern California.