LAS VEGAS— While last week’s rolling blackouts here were short-lived and are not anticipated to become a recurring problem, hotels and casinos are nevertheless introducing various energy-saving initiatives to reduce energy consumption and spending in the area. On the whole, hotels on the Strip are beginning to realize that tacking on an energy surcharge is only a temporary fix to the mounting crisis— action needs to be taken to alleviate the problem long-term. Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel Casino Resort postponed the debut of its new $10 million marquee last Tuesday due to the city’s rolling black outs, according to Andy Maiden, public relations manager for Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas, which are both owned by Park Place Entertainment. Maiden noted that Bally’s original signage, which had been there since 1973, needed an upgrade to improve its energy efficiency. “The old marquee transformer used 750 kilowatts. The new marquee transformer uses 560 kilowatts,” he said. Because Nevada’s power systems were in “emergency mode” on July 5, the hotel decided to delay the launch of the new marquee until Saturday, July 7— when the city’s power situation was back to normal, Maiden said. Since last week’s rolling black outs, both Bally’s and Paris have instructed employees to turn off all lights and computers upon leaving the office. In addition, for the past two months, the two hotels have been turning off their exterior decorator lights, including Paris’ well-known Eiffel Tower, at 1 a.m. The exterior lights are switched on at dusk, around 8:30 p.m., and then run for only 4.5 hours, instead of until sunrise. “A lot of other hotels on the strip are turning their lights off too,” said Maiden. “It creates loads of savings.” The two hotels have also installed “smart thermostats” in their guestrooms to better regulate the temperature, said Maiden. “The pool temperature has also been adjusted a few degrees,” he said. Caesars Palace, meanwhile, said it was not affected by the rolling blackouts last week. The hotel has its own on-site generator, and when it is requested by Nevada Power to shut off power at the property in order “to relieve pressure from the system,” Caesars Palace can function on the power supplied by its generator, said Michael Coldwell, public relations director for Caesars Palace. Approximately two-thirds of the property can be serviced via the generator, but “it will be noticeable,” said Coldwell, due to the reduced lighting it causes. However, he was quick to note that during such a request, power is diverted to the main artery, and away from its auxiliary and tertiary areas. Coldwell added that, “The hotel is already very energy efficient.” He noted that all of the hotel windows are tinted and all of the curtains in the guestrooms are blackout curtains. Just under one-half of all rooms have Smart Thermometers and the majority of all interior and exterior lighting is energy-efficient, he said. Furthermore, Caesars sometimes shuts down one-half of its escalators or some elevator shafts that are not being used between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., the peak hours of energy usage. In addition, Coldwell noted that Caesars’ parent company, Park Place Entertainment “has been forced to implement a $3.00 surcharge” at the property, which is “pretty much the norm for the Strip.” Meanwhile, the major lodging chains are continuing to implement operational efficiencies that will be sustained for the long term. For example, Cendant’s travel division recently signed an agreement in first quarter with Connecticut-based INNCOM International to offer energy-management services, particularly temperature control of unoccupied rooms, to the more than 6,000 franchise properties within its Howard John
