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August 2, 2000 The board of the California Independent System Operator has reduced the wholesale price cap for electricity in the state from $500 a megawatt to $250 a megawatt.
Had the board acted earlier, SDG&E says the move would have lowered electricity costs for its customers by about 30 percent in June.
In a related action, SDG&E says it will file today with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the imposition of caps on the bids of electricity sellers into wholesale electricity markets of the Cal- ISO and California Power Exchange.
"California's newly deregulated electric marketplace is not workably competitive yet and, as a result, our customers have unfairly borne the brunt of runaway wholesale prices," says Edwin A. Guiles, president of SDG&E. "Today's vote at the Cal-ISO is a significant positive step toward providing economic relief for our 1.2 million customers, while allowing the immature competitive marketplace in the state to develop."
SDG&E customers now pay two primary charges on their bill: one for the regulated delivery service SDG&E provides and the other for the wholesale market price of electricity from the Cal-PX. The regulated delivery charge for SDG&E's services actually is 6 percent lower today than it was prior to deregulation, but the wholesale electricity price — the pass-through charge to customers from the Cal-PX — has spiked nearly five-fold this summer. Summertime typically is the peak demand period for electricity. Warmer weather often sparks increased usage of air conditioners and other major appliances, driving up the wholesale price of electricity to as much as 20 times the off-peak price.
In its filing to the FERC, SDG&E will ask the federal agency to impose a $250- per-megawatt-hour (MWh) cap on bids power generators make into the wholesale electricity markets of the Cal-PX and Cal-ISO. Currently, the Cal-PX has a price cap of $2,500 per MWh for power sellers into the California market and the Cal-ISO today lowered its buy-side price cap to $250 per MWh from $500 per MWh. SDG&E also will ask the FERC to review the design and structure of the Cal-ISO, which SDG&E says is "fundamentally flawed."
"California has a chronic shortage of power generating and transmission capacity to meet the growing energy demand in the state," says Guiles. "It may be two to three years before enough new power plants come on line to ease some of the supply shortfall. In the meantime, we need to protect consumers from the undisciplined pricing behavior and structural problems in the California market."
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Nanogen Inc. was awarded a two-year, $1.6 million contract by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego.
The contract award was made by SSC San Diego under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency sponsored BioFluidic Chips and Simulation Tools for Chemical/Biological Microsystems Program.
The objective of the DARPA contract is to develop and refine electronically driven sample preparation protocols on specifically designed microelectronic chips. The intended samples will simulate a panel of biowarfare related agents found in blood.
Pursuant to the contract, extracted DNA from the microelectronic chips will be processed for detection using Nanogen's electronic hybridization technique.
“We are very pleased to have been accepted as a recipient of this contract award," says Howard Birndorf, chairman, CEO and president of Nanogen. "The electronically-driven sample preparation chip will enable Nanogen to expand upon our electronic hybridization technology and move closer towards an automated sample-to-answer system for DNA diagnostics. We believe Nanogen's technology may lead to important advances in biological warfare defense, in addition to our core focus in the medical research, medical diagnostics and forensic areas."
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San Diego-based Titan Corp. has won two information technology valued at $52.5 million the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management.
Building a 13-year partnership, the bureau awarded Titan a contract to continue developing the Geographic Information Systems for natural resource management and other BLM initiatives.
The award is valued at up to $50.5 million over the next five years, depending on BLM requirements. The contract supports BLM's Oregon/Washington State Office, its 10th District Office, and other additional BLM sites, as well as the U.S. Forest Service's northwest offices. A similar five-year contract of $2.5 million was also awarded for BLM's Nevada State Office.
Titan Systems Corp., Titan's wholly owned subsidiary, will perform the work out of its AverStar Division headquartered in Burlington, Mass.
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Speaking of Titan, Hawaii Pride LLC has begun shipping to major mainland markets the nation's first Hawaiian fruit processed using Titan's SureBeam electronic pasteurization technology.
The markets include Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland, Dallas, San Francisco, and Detroit.
For more than 50 years, Hawaiian farmers were denied ready access to the U.S. mainland fruit markets because of a federal fruit fly quarantine — the only one of its kind in the nation. Before the advent of Titan's SureBeam technology, various other quarantine treatments — including the use of toxic chemicals, heat, or nuclear irradiation — were considered or tried. None proved to be fully acceptable since they adversely impacted the appearance and nutritional value of fruit or the environment.
Titan bills its SureBeam technology as the environmentally-friendly solution to Hawaii's farming problem and says it is opening the door for nutritious, tree-ripened papaya and other exotic Hawaiian fruits to begin appearing in major mainland cities.
"We expect to process up to 50 million pounds of papaya and other tropical fruits per year," says John Clark, Hawaii Pride's president and CEO. "We’re starting with 2100 boxes per day and ramping up to 150,000 pounds per day by December. We could double or triple this production quantity if we so desired."
Hawaii Pride of Keaau, Hawaii — who is partnered with SureBeam Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Titan — is the nation's first company to use SureBeam technology on fruit. Titan will receive a royalty payment of 19.9 percent on profits generated by the new facility.
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Ericsson launched yesterday its CDMA Solutions Center in San Diego. The state-of-the-art facility showcases the power of CDMA and its ability to deliver content-rich applications that are driving wireless communications into the mobile Internet era.
The advanced CDMA Solutions Center is expected to attract a wide array of visitors from around the world to San Diego, including leading operators and companies developing both applications and end user equipment.
"We are facing an exciting future with tremendous possibilities,” says Ake Persson, head of Ericsson's CDMA Systems business unit. “The CDMA Solutions Center in San Diego is a great tool for us to showcase Ericsson's state-of-the-art solutions and to demonstrate our commitment to CDMA and its continued evolution. Through relationships with local software and content development companies, Ericsson is leveraging the high-tech resources in San Diego’s telecom valley. Incorporating the applications the companies provide highlights how operators can rapidly deliver a range of proven services to their customers on an Ericsson CDMA network."
Visitors to the venter will see Ericsson's new cdmaOne handset, the Radio Base Station locally manufactured in San Diego and applications such as:
• WebOnAir.
• Streaming video.
• WAP (Wireless Application Protocol.
• Wireless LAN.
• Ericsson's cdma2000 Packet Core Network.
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Konka USA Ltd., the first high-tech Chinese manufacturer to enter the United States, has relocated its headquarters from San Jose to San Diego.
"Konka is building factories in Mexico to support and strengthen the North American market.” says Wendy Wu, executive v.p.. “Konka's headquarters in San Diego will not only further promote the brand name and further link them to the US consumer gateway, but will also bring them within close proximity to Mexico's manufacturing facilities. Konka's factories are slated to operate in early 2001.
Established in 1998, Konka USA Ltd. is a subsidiary of the Konka Group Co., Ltd., a global consumer electronics company based in China.
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IdeaEDGE Ventures, a San Diego-based Internet venture management firm and accelerator, says it will establish its permanent headquarters and office space for its new ventures in a two-story, 44,000 square foot building in La Jolla's Eastgate Technology Park (8920 Towne Centre Dr.).
The move from ideaEDGE's temporary facility, also in La Jolla, is expected to be completed in November.
Planning and conceptual design for the new facility is being developed by Austin, Veum, Robbins, Parhsalle, while documentation is being provided by Pacific Cornerstone Architects, both San Diego-based firms. The goal is to offer ideaEDGE and its new generation of Internet ventures a unique, flexible and dynamic environment that fosters innovation and collaboration while also protecting the confidentiality of each venture's technology.
The second floor, custom designed for new ventures, will include a large game room, in-house fitness facilities/locker room, state-of-the-art data/technology center, full kitchen and administration center.
Each developing venture will have private offices as well as a "war room," lined with floor-to-ceiling white boards for confidential brainstorming sessions and meetings/conferences. Adjacent to each war room will be a lounge/living room space that can be individually configured to offer a more casual, comfortable and open workspace. Each venture is expected to reside in the new building for no more than six months before expanding into its own facility. ideaEDGE management and functional teams will occupy the first floor, offering full business and operational support.
"This new building will offer our ventures the facilities they need to develop quickly and efficiently in a working environment that will facilitate creativity and be the envy of most start-ups," says Dan Pittard, ideaEDGE managing partner. "We’re also pleased to have found a facility conveniently located near many of our strategic partners, close to the airport and downtown, and in a hub of emerging and established technology businesses."
The building is being leased from The Irvine Co., the owner and developer of Eastgate Technology Park.
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U.S. Wireless Corp., a leading provider of wireless location information, will deploy its RadioCamera wireless location network in San Diego.
The network will be part of the San Diego Regional Advanced Traveler Information System and Corridor-wide Commercial Vehicle Operations Project, planned by the San Diego Association of Governments.
U.S. Wireless is building a nation-wide wireless location information network to power location-aware commercial applications, public safety enhancements, and traffic information services. By using existing cell phones as data probes, the RadioCamera network will gather statistics on traffic speed and congestion, to provide motorists with traffic avoidance alerts and 'best route' suggestions. The U.S. Wireless network will provide traffic flow information for the San Diego County area as part of the team led by Iteris, Inc. Iteris and U.S. Wireless are also working together on a separate project in Hampton Roads, Va.
The RadioCamera system employs Location Pattern Matching technology to overcome challenges associated with locating wireless callers in urban environments, where line of sight between the subscriber and multiple cell sites or satellites may be obstructed, and in rural environments, where a sufficient number of cell sites may not be optimally located to perform triangulation. From a single point of reference or cell site, the RadioCamera system is able to form a direct correlation between radio frequency patterns and a caller's location, accurately locating wireless subscribers in challenging urban and rural environments where other location technologies fail.
In 100 markets across the United States, U.S. Wireless plans to build and operate a nationwide wireless location information service bureau, based on its RadioCamera network.
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