IOUs will help State conserve energy

California's Investor-Owned Utilities are lending a helping hand to the State government as it seeks to conserve electricity.

Under the deal, programs administered by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison will pay for engineering studies of the Elihu Harris Building in Oakland, the Edmund G. Brown Building in San Francisco and the Santa Ana State Office Building. In response, the Department of General Services agrees to spend up to $20,000 per building to implement the engineers' energy-saving recommendations.

"As our buildings get older, building systems don't work as efficiently as they once did," California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Alan Lloyd, chair of the team's Green Buildings Committee, said in a statement. "Retro-commissioning is a way to get those systems running like new again.

That not only conserves energy, it helps save tax dollars."