In 2000 and 2001, an electricity crisis in California caused rolling blackouts and brownouts affecting hundreds of thousands of customers. The state Public Utilities Commission had already provided for options to implement time-of-use conservation measures to help protect the state’s power grid.Those restrictions caused the Water Department in Fairfield, Calif., to begin an aggressive power reduction initiative that has cut energy bills by 20 percent, reduced reliance on the grid and enhanced operating efficiency.Even before the power crisis, in 1999, the department installed a power monitoring system at the North Bay Regional Water Treatment Plant (jointly owned with neighboring Vacaville)
