Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has negotiated a fantastic rate of $185.00 (normally $429.00) for rooms in downtown San Francisco at the InterContinental Hotel located at 888 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-3011. The InterContinental is very close to the Pacific Energy Center where our meeting will be held. More information on the hotel is available at the InterContinental Hotels and Resorts webpage.
Since the InterContinental will only reserve twenty rooms at a time, attendees are encouraged to book as soon as possible. Contact the InterContinental’s Reservations Department at +1-866-781-2364 and identify themselves as participants of the "PG&E Room Block" in order to receive the negotiated rates.
The cut-off date for accepting reservations for rooms at the InterContinental for the ALCA meeting will be March 17, 2010. After March 17, 2010, all unreserved rooms within the contracted group block will be immediately released without notice back to the hotel for general sale. PG&E, ALCA, and the InterContinental cannot guarantee room availability after March 17, 2010. PLEASE BOOK YOUR ROOM EARLY!
The InterContinental is easily accessible from either Oakland (OAK) or San Francisco International Airports (SFO) via public transportation (BART). BART fare from SFO to downtown San Francisco is $8.10 while the fare from Oakland is $3.80. For those that prefer a shuttle or taxi; from the Oakland AP shuttle price is $17.00 one-way and taxi is $45.00; from SFO, the shuttle is $35.00 one-way and a taxi $60.00.
A rental car is NOT recommended as parking is VERY expensive and besides, San Francisco is a beautiful place to walk and it is only two blocks from the InterContinental to the Pacific Energy Center. This is a real savings for those that normally rent a car making the room rate certainly more palatable.
Agenda Item Update
Proposed agenda items for the upcoming meeting include: Country Energy from Australia presenting their project to assess DR potential from home automation; a panel from Ontario Energy Board, PJM and the Cal ISO discussing their perspectives on "When is Enough DR Really Enough"; a presentation by BPA on their efforts to bring DR programs to their utility member companies and Idaho National Lab will present their work on Security Issues surrounding DR programs. We are open and eager to entertain your suggestions on other subjects or topics.