Collaboration with City of Palo Alto Utilities Helps Reduce Rolling Blackouts in Palo Alto

Palo Alto, Calif., January 31, 2001 – In an effort to prevent rolling blackouts during the last 16 days of stage 3 power alerts, employees at the Roche Pharmaceuticals R&D campus in Palo Alto have consistently reduced electricity use by 20 percent during peak periods. Those savings, totaling approximately 1.5 megawatts (MW) per day, are sufficient to provide power to 1,500 homes in Palo Alto.

According to John Ulrich, Director of the City of Palo Alto Utilities, corporate energy management efforts, such as those on the part of Roche, have been a significant factor in reducing the number of blackouts required by the California Independent System Operator (ISO). "We definitely count on our corporate customers to help out during these unprecedented times. Roche Pharmaceuticals has cooperated fully with our voluntary load reduction requests and has achieved major energy savings at their facilities," stated Ulrich. "And for each megawatt of power that Roche and other Palo Alto businesses can reduce, they can save enough electricity to power about 1,000 homes in the community."

Based on the success of the collaboration with the city, Roche Site Services Manager Jerry Meek was invited to today’s Palo Alto Special City Council Meeting on the electricity crisis to field questions directed toward industry.

The savings at Roche are the result of three key actions, according to Meek.

• Management of centrally controlled systems, including heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) which places the single largest demand on electricity use at Roche.
• Individual employee initiatives to turn off lights and computer monitors and other equipment when not in use.
• Collaboration between Meek and key managers to determine the daily or even hourly need for power in targeted areas.

"During the peak usage times of 4 to 6 p.m., we shut down the heating and air ventilation control (HVAC) systems in as many of our 15 buildings as possible," Meek said. "This provides us with our greatest opportunity for saving electricity at Roche." Meek said that while offices and research laboratories can get a bit chilly, he receives few complaints from employees. "Interestingly, people talk about how quiet their work areas are when the air system is shut down," he said.

Individual efforts by employees result in another 5 to 10 percent reduction in electricity use. Meek said that while employees have not been asked to turn off their office lights while they are working, some have chosen to do so.

Another important contributor to reduced use is the collaboration between Meek and managers of various areas. This works two ways: Meek contacts a target list of managers, and he receives offers of assistance as well. "After we send a Stage III alert to employees, I often receive calls from managers asking how they can help. We then discuss their work plans for the day to determine whether we can reduce power to their areas."

"We realize businesses such as ours are among the largest users of electricity in Palo Alto during peak periods," said James Woody, M.D., Ph.D, general manager of Roche in Palo Alto. "Given the current supply issues, we believe it is incumbent upon us to be as aggressive as possible in reducing our use. At the same time, we want to be able to continue our work in discovering new medicines without interruption, so we are obviously eager to have a reliable supply of energy available," Dr. Woody said.

Roche has implemented a variety of energy conservation measures during the past five years, resulting in a 10 percent reduction in annual electricity consumption. This includes efficiency programs that have taken equipment requiring a small electricity load off of large systems. For example, spot coolers are now used to cool some equipment rather than a large water cooling system. To reduce natural gas use we have taken measures such as replacing equipment with newer models that are more efficient.

About Roche
The Roche pharmaceutical operations in Palo Alto include Roche Bioscience and Roche Global Development. Roche Bioscience is focused on the discovery and early clinical development of innovative new medicines to treat diseases including arthritis, asthma and other respiratory diseases; anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric diseases; genitourinary diseases and osteoporosis. The Roche Global Development organization in Palo Alto manages human clinical studies and works to achieve worldwide regulatory approvals for compounds from the Roche research pipeline.

Located in the Stanford Research Park, Roche employs approximately 1,200 men and women in Palo Alto as part of the Roche Group. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's leading research-oriented healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals, diagnostics and vitamins. Roche's innovative services address the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, thus enhancing people's well-being and quality of life.

More information about the Roche campus in Palo Alto is available at http://www.roche.com/bioscience.

Background on Jerry Meek
Jerry Meek is responsible for site service operations for all mechanical and electrical systems on the Roche Pharmaceuticals site in Palo Alto, including heat, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems as well as power and process systems. Meek has worked for Roche since 1991. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Engineering from Cal Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

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