SMUD

News Release: SMUD to host Sacramento Regional Inclusion and Diversity Conference

2012-01-20T00:43:33Z

Join your peers at the Sacramento Regional Inclusion and Diversity Conference "Building Bridges" scheduled for Thursday, January 26, 2012. The event is sponsored by VSP Global, Anthem Blue Cross, CalPERS, America at Work, Kaiser Permanente, My Sister's House, Wells Fargo, Delta Dental, Microsoft and the City of Elk Grove.

The conference provides businesses the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn from Northern California inclusion leaders and innovators. Keynote speaker, Dr. Steve L. Robbins, is a powerful communicator, insightful facilitator and inspiring motivator who can simultaneously challenge and encourage people with a dynamic use of story-telling, humor and extensive knowledge of pertinent issues and concepts. His life experiences as a Vietnamese immigrant growing up in poverty to a passionate advocate of justice and inclusion create a rich foundation of insight and inspiration.

"Building Bridges" will be held at Arden Hills Resort Club and Spa in Sacramento from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.. Admission for the daylong event is $150 per person and includes a continental breakfast and lunch. Group discounts are available.

For additional information or to register, visit sactoid.com.

Disclosure: Disclosure: Becky Repka is employed by SMUD in Corporate Communications.

News Release: SMUD's Labor Day holiday hours

2011-09-01T21:37:05Z

Sacramento Municipal Utility District offices will be closed on Monday, September 5, 2011 in observance of the Labor Day holiday.

The following regular business hours will resume on Tuesday, September 6:

Residential customer phone service
7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
1-888-742-SMUD (7683)

Commercial customer phone service
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
1-877-622-SMUD (7683)

Customer lobby service
8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Customer Service Center, 6301 S St., Sacramento

Business offices
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

SMUD's 24-hour electric outage number, 1-888-456-SMUD (7683) will continue operating throughout the holiday. If power goes out, customers should notify SMUD immediately. In the event of an electrical problem, customers should be prepared to give their address, phone number, nearest cross street and a brief description of the problem.

Disclosure: Becky Repka is employed by SMUD in Corporate Communications.

Hybrid Rams join SMUD’s stable of electric vehicles

2011-08-05T17:47:30Z

SMUD received an electrifying down payment of sorts with the delivery this week of 11 plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) pickup trucks. Three more will be arriving later as part of a $97 million Chrysler demonstration project in select markets.

“We were a logical partner for Chrysler because we’ve been testing alternative fuel vehicles for more than 20 years in an effort to improve the Sacramento region’s air quality,” said SMUD General Manager John DiStasio. “Environmental leadership is one of the SMUD’s core values.”

Chrysler manufactured 140 of the Ram hybrid trucks under a U.S. Department of Energy stimulus grant that was awarded in the fall of 2009.

“These vehicles were still in the concept stage just two years ago, and now we’ll be helping Chrysler test their performance in the real world,” said Dave Hatfield, program manager. “We’ll be evaluating how they do in typical city driving conditions over the next two years, looking at things like battery-charging performance, fuel economy and driving experience. Ultimately we’ll be able to apply what we learn to help our customers who are interested in moving to plug-in electric vehicles.”

The Ram 1500 PHEV has a charge-depleting driving cycle of up to 20 miles in the all-electric mode at speeds up to about 35 miles per hour before the gasoline engine goes to work. It has a lithium-ion battery pack under the second-row seat. It accommodates electrical power tools with an AC power panel supplying 240-volt and 140-volt power in the bed of the truck. The power train includes a 5.7 liter V-8 engine, two-mode hybrid transmission and full regenerative braking, which recovers braking energy and returns it to the battery. A displacement system improves fuel efficiency by cutting fuel delivery to as many as four cylinders.

Strictly a demonstration program, there are no plans for a production version of the PHEV Ram 1500 truck at this time. SMUD plans to test four of the trucks and will parcel out the others to local partners.

SMUD is working closely with suppliers of electric vehicle charging equipment to support residential, workplace and public charging stations throughout the Sacramento region and offers a discounted electric rate to customers who charge their vehicles during off-peak hours.

Disclosure: Becky Repka is employed by SMUD in Corporate Communications.

That old refrigerator in the garage is an energy hog, recycle it

2011-07-27T17:24:50Z

Anne Dunlap-Kahren’s old refrigerator was in her kitchen for 13 years. She bought a new one and relegated the old one to a place where a lot of old refrigerators go, the garage.

The problem is these older refrigerators use more household energy than anything else in the home. They use as much as three times the energy of newer models, and can cost up to an additional $125 per year to run.

When Anne heard about SMUD’s Refrigerator Recycling program, she called to make an appointment. Within a few days, JACO Environmental, a SMUD recycling contractor, was at her door to pick up the old one and give her a $35 check for it.

By recycling, Anne is saving money, energy and the environment. “For me, this made total sense,” said Anne. “It was time for a new refrigerator. SMUD gave me $35 and we hear so much about reusing and recycling these days, I don’t have to worry about throwing the old one away in a landfill.”

JACO does the heavy lifting. It deconstructs the old fridge by cutting its power cord and rubber gasket seal, disabling the thermostat and marks the unit with an “X” so it can’t be resold, and hauls it away. JACO then removes all potentially hazardous materials and recycles 95 percent of the remaining unit for other post-recycling products.

“The metal parts can be recycled into rebar for road construction, the plastic can be used in new computers and cell phones, the tempered glass can be used as an aggregate in other materials,” said JACO’s Michael Dunlap. “It’s a win-win for everyone.”

The older refrigerator picked up at Anne Dunlap-Kahren’s home pushed SMUD’s refrigerator and freezer recycling program past the 40,000 mark since the program’s inception 10 years ago. Recycling these refrigerators saves the amount of energy used to power 6,000 homes for a year.

It's easy to recycle your old fridge if you are a residential SMUD customer. Simply contact JACO Environmental at (800) 299-7573 to schedule an appointment. You get a check for $35, save some money on your electric bill, and get to feel good for doing the environment a favor.

For more information on SMUD’s Refrigerator Recycling Program, click here.

Disclosure: Becky Repka is employed by SMUD in Corporate Communications.

Great getaway close to home

2011-07-20T00:03:47Z

Discounts available at SMUD’s Rancho Seco Recreational Area

Getting away from it all doesn’t have to mean going far. Enjoy the last lazy days of summer at SMUD’s Rancho Seco Recreational Area – a complete vacation destination that’s just 25 miles from downtown Sacramento. And for a limited time, the longer you stay, the bigger the discount. Now through October 31, 2011, tent and RV campers staying three nights will get the fourth night free.

The park includes a 160-acre stocked lake (including Florida-strain largemouth bass), a variety of day-use and camping sites, a 7-mile nature trail and a general store. Windsurfing, fishing, horseshoes and bird watching are favorite activities at the park. Additionally, the park can accommodate group events and camp-overs. New this season are additions, upgrades and improvements to the recreational area including a fenced-in dog park, expansion of the tent camping sites, hot and cold water showers and refurbished portions of the rest rooms.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) owns and operates the nearly 600-acre park. To see more of what the park has to offer, visit smud.org. For more information, call (209) 748-2318. Reservations are required at least two weeks in advance for RV, tent and group camping and picnicking.

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Disclosure: Disclosure: Becky Repka is employed by SMUD in Corporate Communications.

Cooling and Energy Saving-Tips from SMUD

2011-07-05T18:27:10Z

Summer’s hot temperatures are here! With a little planning, you can keep your home cool and save money on summer energy bills. The easiest way to keep your home cool is not to let it heat up in the first place.

Hot Weather Tips

Good insulation, caulking and weather stripping help keep the heat outside. Shade trees, overhangs, awnings and shades and limiting the use of household appliances that emit heat also help keep it cool.
Keep windows closed during the heat of the day, and draw blinds and draperies during the day to keep the heat out.
Set the thermostat at 78 degrees or higher in the summer. There is about a 5 to 10 percent savings on the operating cost of an air conditioner for every two degrees of cooling you’re willing to give up.
Change the filter regularly. An air conditioning unit with dirty filters can use 5 to 10 percent more energy than necessary.
Use small fans, box fans or ceiling fans instead of the central air conditioning unit when planning to stay in one room for an extended period. Individual fans cost about 90 percent less to operate than a central AC unit.
Adjust ceiling fans to turn counter-clockwise in the summer, usually this means that the switch on the fan should be in the “down” position.
Turn off unnecessary lights.
Give appliances a break during hot afternoons and evenings. Many appliances create heat and moisture making the air conditioner work harder. Limit use of ranges and stoves, dishwashers, dryers, washing machines, and other heat-producing equipment during midday and early evening. Use them in the early morning or late evening when temperatures are cooler.
Prepare cool meals such as salads and sandwiches. If you must cook a hot meal, wait until later in the evening when it’s cooler.
If there is a refrigerator or freezer in the garage that is not full, consider getting rid of it. These appliances tend to be older and therefore less energy efficient causing them to run continuously in very hot environments.
Set timers on pool and spa pumps to run before 1:00 p.m. or after 9:00 p.m.
SMUD’s Shade Tree program offers free shade trees for customers whose homes have an eastern, western or southern exposure that heats up during the summer.

Vacation Tips

Set your air conditioner thermostat at 85 degrees or higher.
Put lights on a timer to save energy and give the house a “lived in” look.
Draw the drapes on windows facing the south and west.
Shift the water heater to the lowest setting.
Check to make sure no faucets are dripping.

For additional ways SMUD can help you save energy and money, logon to smud.org for information about energy-saving programs and financing.

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Disclosure: Becky Repka is employed by SMUD in Corporate Communications.

News Release: SMUD Neighborhood Performance program offers customers substantial energy efficiency rebates

2011-05-25T22:14:06Z

Hundreds of Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) residential and commercial customers will soon be able to take advantage of generous rebates to help pay for comprehensive energy efficiency retrofits thanks to a federal grant. Using stimulus funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), the Neighborhood Performance program provides rebates to single-family and multifamily residential customers and small and large commercial customers in the downtown and midtown areas of Sacramento and the Rosemont area in Sacramento County. Those areas were chosen based on customer profile and peak energy usage. SMUD received about $2.8 million in the grant, which was awarded to Los Angeles County last year. The program will run through June 2013.

For residential customers, the Neighborhood Performance program is designed to take into account the home as a system and uses an innovative whole-house approach. Based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Home Performance with ENERGY STAR, it makes a house or apartment building more energy stingy. The program aims to retrofit about 130 single-family homes and 50 multifamily units with energy-saving upgrades that may include duct sealing, new insulation and new heating and air conditioning systems. Efficiency improvements averaging 20 percent are well within reach for participating customers. More than 80 qualifying low-income households are also eligible in the neighborhoods for free weatherization and retrofit services up to $3,500.

A new commercial program called Complete Energy Solutions will be made available to small to mid-sized stores, restaurants, offices and other businesses that draw no more than 300 kilowatts of electricity. These businesses will be eligible for comprehensive retrofits to boost the energy efficiency of lighting, refrigeration and heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. Rebates are expected to cover well over half of retrofit costs. A separate program will target large commercial operations for whole-building energy efficiency retrofits.

SMUD will offer its established energy efficiency loans to customers that require financing in the range of $3,000 to $10,000. To help customers who require less financing, SMUD is working to develop a financing option that will allow customers to spread out the project cost over one to two years, with monthly payments appearing on their SMUD bill. It’s important to note that most customers who go this route would be cash-flow positive from the outset, with monthly energy savings more than covering their installment payments.
For more information, visit smud.org or call 1-888-742-SMUD.

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Disclosure: Becky Repka is employed by SMUD in Corporate Communications.

Touring a home that's on its way to energy efficiency

2011-04-29T23:15:45Z

A 1950s ranch home on Marconi Avenue had some distinguished visitors Friday morning, thanks to SMUD’s Home Performance Program (HPP).

Congresswoman Doris Matsui joined representatives from SMUD and the news media to tour the home, now being retrofitted to be energy-stingy as part of SMUD’s HPP.

With Matsui’s help, SMUD received a $20 million federal grant last year for HPP to help customers reduce their energy bills and improve the energy efficiency of their homes. The funds were made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant. Matsui said the grant will create more than 750 local jobs.

HPP uses an innovative whole-house approach (based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Home Performance with ENERGY STAR®) to cut back on the energy a house or apartment building uses. Improvements include measures like duct sealing, new insulation and new heating and air conditioning systems.

After her $99 home energy audit, Mary Jane Lee, owner of the Marconi Avenue home, learned she can save more than 30 percent on her utility bills by making upgrades to her attic and sealing duct leakage. Additionally, Lee will be receiving a rebate of $3,750 for making these improvements. The contractor is Brower Mechanical.

HPP cuts the cost of home energy audits from $500 to $99 and offers homeowners rebates of up to $9,000 per home and contractors up to $2,800 per apartment for energy improvements. The goal is to retrofit about 2,000 single-family and 2,500 multifamily homes with energy-saving upgrades.

For more on the Home Performance Program: http://hpp.smud.org/

Disclosure: Becky Repka is employed by SMUD in Corporate Communications.

Flying a kite this spring? Be sure you’re playing it safe.

2011-03-14T22:47:02Z

SMUD offers kite flying safety tips:

When flying a kite, the sky’s the limit but remember to fly with caution. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) offers these simple safety tips to help make kite flying a safe experience.

Build or buy kites made of wood or plastic. Only use cloth for the tail.
Fly kites in wide, open areas, away from power lines.
Only use cotton, linen or nylon string. Never use metallic thread, wire or wire reinforced string as they can cause a fire, serious injury or death if they come in contact with energized electrical equipment.
Only fly kites in dry weather. When kite string gets wet it becomes a stronger conductor of electricity.
If a kite gets caught in electrical lines or falls into a substation, leave it there.Do not touch any part of the kite or string and keep everyone away.To have a SMUD employee come out to safely retrieve a kite caught in power lines or equipment, call 1-888-742-SMUD (7683). For additional electrical safety tips, visit smud.org.

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Disclosure: Becky Repka is employed by SMUD in Corporate Communications.

News Release: SMUD’s Presidents’ Day holiday hours

2011-02-18T01:02:45Z

Sacramento Municipal Utility District offices will be closed on Monday, February 21, 2011 in observance of the Presidents’ Day holiday.

The following regular business hours will resume on Tuesday, February 22:

Residential customer phone service 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 1-888-742-SMUD (7683)
Commercial customer phone service 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1-877-622-SMUD (7683)
Customer lobby service 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Customer Service Centerm 6301 S St., Sacramento
Business offices 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

SMUD’s 24-hour electric outage number, 1-888-456-SMUD (7683) will continue operating throughout the holiday. If power goes out, customers should notify SMUD immediately. In the event of an electrical problem, customers should be prepared to give their address, phone number, nearest cross street and a brief description of the problem.

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Disclosure: Becky Repka is employed by SMUD in Corporate Communications.

News Release: Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday hours

2011-01-14T01:42:29Z

Sacramento Municipal Utility District offices will be closed on Monday, January 17, 2011 in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. The following regular business hours will resume on Tuesday, January 18:

Residential customer phone service 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 1 -888-742-SMUD (7683)
Commercial customer phone service 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1-877-622-SMUD (7683)
Customer lobby service 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Customer Service Center 6301 S St., Sacramento
Business offices 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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Contact SMUD News Media Services at: 916.732.5111or media@smud.org

Disclosure: Becky Repka is employed by SMUD in Corporate Communications.

News Release: Holiday Wrap-up: Recycle your tree

2010-12-27T18:49:12Z

Give your Christmas tree the proper holiday send-off. Rather than toss it in the trash, recycle it. You’ll be doing our local landfills a big favor. Bring your Christmas tree to the SMUD Corporation Yard at 6100 Folsom Boulevard on Jan. 8 from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. SMUD staff will mulch it for free.

Please remove all tinsel, lights, tree stands and nails. Flocked trees will be accepted at all locations. There is a limit of five trees per vehicle.

Christmas trees may also be recycled for free at the following sites and dates:

In Sacramento

Elder Creek Recovery and Transfer
8642 Elder Creek Road (Jackson Highway, south on Florin Perkins Road, left on Elder Creek Road)
8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 8
Also accepting trees
8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Saturday, Dec. 27 – Jan. 31

Kiefer Landfill
12701 Kiefer Boulevard (Jackson Highway, north on Grant Line Road, right on Kiefer Boulevard)
8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 8 and Jan. 9

North Area Recovery Station
4450 Roseville Road (I-80, north Watt Avenue, left on Roseville Road)
8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 8 and Jan. 9

Sacramento Recycling and Transfer Station
8491 Fruitridge Road (Jackson Highway, south on Florin Perkins Road, left on Fruitridge Road)
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 8 and Jan. 9
Also accepting trees
Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 27 – Jan. 31

In Folsom

Dan Russell Rodeo Arena
(Folsom City Park, end of Stafford Street)
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 8 and Jan. 9

Please note: Loads in excess of five trees will be accepted only at Elder Creek Recovery and Transfer, Kiefer Landfill and the North Area Recovery Station.

For more about recycling Christmas trees, contact the Sacramento County Consolidated Utilities Billing Services at 916-875-5555 or visit www.sacgreenteam.com.

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Contact SMUD News Media Services at: 916.732.5111or media@smud.org

Disclosure: Becky Repka is employed by SMUD in Corporate Communications.

News Release: SMUD's Holiday Hours

2010-12-22T00:14:51Z

Sacramento Municipal Utility District offices will close at 2 p.m. on Thursday, December 23, 2010 and be closed all day on Friday, December 24, 2010 in observance of Christmas.

The following regular business hours will resume on Monday, December 27:

Residential customer phone service 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 1-888-742-SMUD (7683)
Commercial customer phone service 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1-877-622-SMUD (7683)
Customer lobby service 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Customer Service Center 6301 S St., Sacramento
Business offices 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

SMUD will also be closed on Friday, December 31, 2010 in observance of the New Year’s holiday.

SMUD’s 24-hour electric outage number, 1-888-456-SMUD (7683) will continue operating throughout both holidays. If power goes out, customers should notify SMUD immediately. In the event of an electrical problem, customers should be prepared to give their address, phone number, nearest cross street and a brief description of the problem.

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Contact SMUD News Media Services at: 916.732.5111or media@smud.org

Disclosure: Becky Repka is employed by SMUD in Corporate Communications.