LOS ANGELES, Oct. 9. 2008 – It’s not exactly a “get-out-of-prison-free” card, but a new innovative, statewide public-private partnership will help pay for energy-saving building retrofits at more than a dozen prisons in California.  Representatives of the state’s investor-owned utilities – Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas Co. – gathered today at Wasco State Prison in Wasco, Calif., to jump-start the program with a $6.5 million incentive check to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Secretary Matt Cate. 

        Each of the utilities contributed to the energy-efficiency incentive as part of the public-private partnership formed in response to Governor Schwarzenegger’s Green Building Initiative.  The initiative requires state agencies to reduce energy use in their
buildings by 20 percent by 2015.   The collaboration between the CDCR and the four investor-owned utilities will put into action energy-efficiency projects for immediate and long-term energy savings, as well as peak-demand reduction.
 
        “Our agency launched 16 retrofit projects at a dozen sites across the state to meet the governor’s ambitious energy-efficiency mandate,” said Cate.  “We expect these improvements to reduce our energy costs by $3.2 million a year.”

        The projects also are expected to save more than 25 million kilowatt-hours of electricity; 650,000 therms of natural gas; and 22.5 million pounds of carbon-dioxide gases – the equivalent of taking about 4,000 vehicles off the road annually.  
 
        “We applaud Secretary Cate and the state department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for their leadership and commitment to energy efficiency,” said Anne Shen Smith, senior vice president of customer services for San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas Co. “Their efforts serve as a model for all other state agencies in saving energy and protecting our environment.”

        CDCR has also joined The California Climate Registry, which tracks energy usage and greenhouse-gas emissions.  They are helping to develop state energy-efficiency best practices and implementation of energy-saving measures.

        An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is the largest electric utility in California, 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.

        PG&E, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation, is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to 15 million people in northern and central California.

        San Diego Gas & Electric is a regulated public utility that provides safe and reliable energy service to 3.4 million consumers through 1.4 million electric meters and
more than 840,000 natural gas meters in San Diego and southern Orange counties. 
 
        Southern California Gas Co. has been delivering clean, safe and reliable natural gas to its customers for more than 140 years.  It is the nation’s largest natural gas distribution utility, providing safe and reliable energy to 20.3 million consumers through 5.7 million meters in more than 500 communities. San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas Co. are regulated subsidiaries of San Diego-based Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), a Fortune 500 energy services holding company.

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