Japan eased safety standards ahead of Boeing 787 rollout

Japan's government stepped in to give Boeing Co.'s now-grounded 787 Dreamliner and its made-in-Japan technology a boost in 2008 by easing safety regulations, fast-tracking the rollout of the groundbreaking jet for Japan's biggest airlines, according to records and participants in the process.

The concessions by an advisory panel to Japan's transport ministry reflected pressure from All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) and a push to support Japanese firms that supply 35 percent of the 787 from the carbon-fiber in its wings to sophisticated electrical systems and batteries used to save fuel, people involved in the deliberations told Reuters.

"I believe the request for the changes came initially from the airlines. Ultimately, it was a discussion of measures to lower operating costs for the airlines," said Masatoshi Harigae, head of aviation at Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency, one of the outside advisers who urged the eased regulatory standards.

There is no suggestion that easing regulatory standards contributed to the problems facing the Dreamliner, idled around the world after a string of malfunctions ranging from fuel leaks to battery meltdowns. There is also no evidence to suggest that continuing the mandate for more frequent manual inspections for new aircraft, including the Boeing 787, before 2008 would have helped catch signs of trouble earlier.

The looser regulations did not specifically address the risk of the Dreamliner's powerful batteries catching fire, the risk that safety investigators have zeroed in on in recent weeks.

But the steps taken by Japan's Civil Aviation Bureau in 2008 underscore how the deep commercial ties between Boeing and its Japanese suppliers and the backing of ANA and JAL helped build support for an easing of certification standards, based on a review of meeting records by the advisory panel released by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and comments from three of the seven experts who participated.

ANA and JAL declined to comment, deferring questions on regulatory standards to aviation officials and the ministry. Boeing in Tokyo said it couldn't immediately comment on the rule changes.

"We have not brought down our standards in comparison to other countries. This was a pragmatic revision," Tatsuyuki Shimazu, Chief Air Worthiness Engineer at the Civil Aviation Bureau, said.

ONGOING PROBE

Earlier this month, ANA was forced to make an emergency landing on a 787 domestic flight after a battery overheated and partially melted, triggering smoke alarms in the cockpit. The probe into that incident may take weeks or months as investigators still lack basic data to understand what went wrong, people involved have said.

In the meantime, the indefinite grounding of the Dreamliner has raised costs for both ANA and JAL and threatened to push back plans both carriers had for growth and new routes based on the new aircraft, analysts have said.

Boeing has yet to say whether it will compensate carriers for flight cancellations and higher operating costs. "We have been talking with our customers since (the 787 was grounded), but the details are confidential," said Rob Henderson, a Boeing spokesman in Tokyo.

After three meetings by a panel of industry and policy experts that concluded in March 2008, Japan's transport ministry said it would adopt 40 proposals to streamline regulations surrounding new aircraft. At the time, the ministry said the easier regulatory standards were designed in part to "quickly realize the benefits from the introduction of the 787."

ANA, the Dreamliner's biggest customer, and JAL committed to buy the first 787 in 2004, helping Boeing kick-start orders for the futuristic plane. Both subsequently increased their orders, with ANA planning to eventually fly 66 Dreamliners.

"At the time there was a lot of confidence in the aircraft. It was a discussion of measures to lower operating costs for the airlines," said Harigae.

Japan's government agencies often convene blue-ribbon panels of outside experts to review regulatory policy changes, as the transport ministry did for aircraft safety rules in 2007.

QUICKER TURNAROUNDS

Changes endorsed by the aviation group, including 40 revised safety guidelines, were presented as an effort to bring Japan into line with the framework of regulations in other markets, including the United States. At least five recommendations in the advisory report benefited the 787. Four mentioned support for the Dreamliner directly.

Three of the rule changes dealt with abbreviated testing and approval of pilots who had been cleared to fly the Boeing 777 and were preparing to switch to the 787. "It (787) is highly innovative and its safety is also advanced, but it's also very similar in design to the 777," said Kinya Fujiishi, an aviation journalist who sat on the panel. "This is why we thought it would be fine to revise the rule."

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Freezing rain bringing 'very slippery, tricky driving conditions'

Weather on the 1s

Staff report

12:01 p.m. CST, January 27, 2013

The National Weather Service has issued a freezing rain advisory for northeast Illinois that warns of an ice storm that is expected to last until 9 p.m. this evening.

According to the agency, the region will be hit with freezing rain, possibly mixed with sleet, that will turn to rain as the temperatures rise above freezing in later afternoon or early evening. The agency warns of ice accumulation, up to a tenth-of-an-inch or two, making travel hazardous and possibly leading to downed tree limbs and power lines.

Because the ground is below freezing, the precipitation will freeze on contact, the agency said, leaving sidewalks as well as streets with that potentially dangerous coating of ice.

The state’s transportation agency has 360 trucks in the northeastern part of Illinois ready to salt roads as soon as precipitation hits the area, said Mike Claffey, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation.

IDOT will be monitoring weather conditions, but roads will likely be slick this afternoon when the ice storm arrives, Claffey said. He also cautioned drivers to stay off the roads.

"It’s going to be very slippery, tricky driving conditions," Claffey said. "If you don't have to be out, you should not be."

Jennifer Delgado contributed.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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Apple’s slowed growth has blown the future of the mobile industry wide open… and that’s very exciting

What a difference just a few months makes. If you don’t recall, it was only last September when Apple’s (AAPL) share prices were blasting past $ 700 and bullish analysts were proclaiming that the company was well be on its way to having a $ 1 trillion valuation and dominating the tech industry for years to come. All that’s changed now as Apple has lost its spot as the world’s most valuable company and investors are panicking that the company’s growth rate may have peaked. This isn’t to say that Apple is doomed (and sorry, Apple haters, but it isn’t) or that it can’t return to the lofty heights it achieved last summer, but for the time being it no longer seems destined to mop the floor with its competitors for years to come.

[More from BGR: Unlocking your smartphone will be illegal starting next week]

This development is exciting in a sense because it’s been part of a fairly chaotic period for the mobile tech industry that has seen companies such as Samsung (005930) rise to become market leaders while longtime stalwarts such as RIM (RIMM) and Nokia (NOK) have seen their market shares plummet. Throughout the past several years, it seemed that the only constant in the mobile world was that Apple would continue to out-innovate its competitors by being the first to market with revolutionary smartphones and tablets that would turn the industry on its ear. Now that Apple’s incredible innovation machine shown signs of slowing, the question becomes, “What comes next?”

[More from BGR: Sony’s PS Vita: Dead again]

Those who look at the success of Samsung, Google (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN) will naturally say that it’s Android’s time to pick up the slack. But even if you believe this, you have to ask yourself, “Whose version of Android?” While the open-source nature of Google’s mobile operating system has helped it spread quickly throughout the world, it’s also left Google with relatively little control over how manufacturers use its creation. Samsung, for instance, may have become enough of a powerhouse where it doesn’t need to rely on Android to sell smartphones and tablets anymore. If the company either ditches Android or creates its own heavily modified version of Android that doesn’t rely on Google apps such as Gmail, Maps and YouTube, where would that leave Google?

Google seems to know the danger that Samsung poses, which is why it’s reportedly working with its own Motorola division to create a so-called “X Phone” that it hopes will lessen Samsung’s dominance of the Android market, just as its own Nexus 7 tablet loosened the Amazon Kindle Fire’s grip of the low-cost Android tablet market. Google knows that Android is a massive money loser if people aren’t using it to get access to its web apps, and the company will do everything in its power to assure that Android remains Google-centric.

In the non-Android realm, we’ve seen some initial signs of life from Nokia after the company recently swung its first quarterly profit in a year and a half. While the company’s flagship Lumia 920 hasn’t exactly lit up the charts in the United States, it has produced some strong results in Europe and has at least bought the company some more time to improve on its recent gains. Similarly, there’s been a lot of positive buzz over the past couple of weeks for RIM (RIMM) and its upcoming BlackBerry 10 handsets. While RIM still faces a long, long road back from its 2012 near-death experience, the company is at least generating some hope among its diehard fans for the first time in many months.

Now, all of this exciting competition could be just a mirage if Apple blows the world away with the iPhone 5S, if Windows Phone 8 devices all bomb as Microsoft’s (MSFT) ill-fated Surface has, and if Samsung’s dominance forces rival Android vendors to quit the market. But for the first time in a while, I feel as though I don’t really know where the mobile industry is headed. And that is very exciting.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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Well: Ask Well: Squats for Aging Knees

You are already doing many things right, in terms of taking care of your aging knees. In particular, it sounds as if you are keeping your weight under control. Carrying extra pounds undoubtedly strains knees and contributes to pain and eventually arthritis.

You mention weight training, too, which is also valuable. Sturdy leg muscles, particularly those at the front and back of the thighs, stabilize the knee, says Joseph Hart, an assistant professor of kinesiology and certified athletic trainer at the University of Virginia, who often works with patients with knee pain.

An easy exercise to target those muscles is the squat. Although many of us have heard that squats harm knees, the exercise is actually “quite good for the knees, if you do the squats correctly,” Dr. Hart says. Simply stand with your legs shoulder-width apart and bend your legs until your thighs are almost, but not completely, parallel to the ground. Keep your upper body straight. Don’t bend forward, he says, since that movement can strain the knees. Try to complete 20 squats, using no weight at first. When that becomes easy, Dr. Hart suggests, hold a barbell with weights attached. Or simply clutch a full milk carton, which is my cheapskate’s squats routine.

Straight leg lifts are also useful for knee health. Sit on the floor with your back straight and one leg extended and the other bent toward your chest. In this position, lift the straight leg slightly off the ground and hold for 10 seconds. Repeat 10 to 20 times and then switch legs.

You can also find other exercises that target the knees in this video, “Increasing Knee Stability.”

Of course, before starting any exercise program, consult a physician, especially, Dr. Hart says, if your knees often ache, feel stiff or emit a strange, clicking noise, which could be symptoms of arthritis.

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Pitching Chicago to China

World Business Chicago Vice Chairman Michael Sacks and former Commerce Secretary William Daley leave Sunday on a six-day business mission to China, Sacks' first official foreign trip as a top adviser to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Sacks said that he and Daley will pay their own way to China while World Business Chicago, a nonprofit that acts as the city's economic development agency, will cover the travel costs for two staff members, including one from the mayor's office.

Sacks and Daley will visit Hong Kong and Beijing before joining up with Choose Chicago CEO Don Welsh and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Shanghai.

There, they'll take in a CSO concert and co-host a reception for about 75 people, including tour operators, and China-based alumni of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.

Sacks said he asked for Daley's help in selling Chicago to foreign officials, specifically the Chinese, after the former chief of staff to President Barack Obama returned home from Washington last year. Sacks said that was months before Daley said he was considering a run for governor in 2014.

"His gravitas, his stature as former commerce secretary and former chief of staff have made the quality of this trip better than anything I could have done myself," Sacks said. "I would not have been able to secure these meetings without him."

Daley and Sacks are expected to meet with 30-plus corporate executives, including the CEO of Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific and billionaire Chinese entrepreneur Lu Guanqiu, whose son-in-law, Pin Ni, runs Elgin-based auto parts maker Wanxiang America Corp.; six Chinese officials, including the acting mayor of Beijing and China's commerce minister, Chen Deming; and U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke.

Sacks' role with World Business Chicago is a volunteer position. His day job is CEO of Grosvenor Capital Management. The investment firm is known as a hedge fund of funds because its primary business is to invest in multiple hedge funds on behalf of large investors, such as pension funds, corporations and sovereign wealth funds.

Sacks frequently travels abroad for his work, often adding city-related sales pitches to his itineraries. This, however, is his first foreign trip focused on his work at World Business Chicago.

Spertus changes name

The Spertus Institute this week will tweak its name — and with it, its identity — as part of an ongoing effort to recover from an unfortunately timed decision to open a new building on the eve of the financial crisis.

The institute, which has been a pillar of Jewish culture in Chicago since 1924, will now be called the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. The institute also announced that its programming for children and families will be cut for the foreseeable future in favor of new academic offerings for people working at nonprofits.

"During the past 31/2 years, we eliminated a $3.8 million operating deficit, largely by dramatically reducing our programmatic footprint," said Hal Lewis, the institute's president, who took over in July 2009. "So I didn't have the money to go and get branding assistance. But I was convinced we had a branding challenge — because when I first became president I spent a good solid four months on a listening tour, in which people told me, 'Oh, yeah, I know something about Spertus,' but there was uncertainty about the work we did."

A grant from the Harvey L. Miller Foundation paid for most of the rebranding effort, which an outside consulting firm led.

"I should say I'm generally skeptical of consultants," Lewis said. "But they taught me something elegantly simple: Spend more time talking about the why and less time on the how. We know the enormous array of programs we offer ... but we never said why that's important. ... (The answer is) we believe that a learning Jewish community is a vibrant Jewish community. It is the historic experience of the Jewish people that learning doesn't stop at adolescence."

The institute has about 400 students in degree and certificate programs, from a one-day certificate in grant writing to a doctorate in Jewish studies, which can take up to 10 years to complete. The institute also offers public lectures on politics, arts and culture as well as museum-style exhibits.

Spertus plans to offer new leadership concentrations within its master's degree programs aimed at youth workers, camp counselors and early childhood teachers. It also plans to create programs in social entrepreneurship and lay-leader training. Lewis said also he may eliminate one of Spertus' existing education degrees, but these changes are not final and will not be announced until the spring.

"We were never best at early childhood education," Lewis said. "The synagogues are far better at that ... So this is not a retreat from one of our historic strong suits."

The seeds of the long-running overhaul of Spertus can be traced to the November 2007 opening of its building, an iconic glass sculpture at 610 S. Michigan Ave.

Lewis said so many assumptions about the building failed to materialize, such as revenue from room rentals. Nonprofits also heavily cut professional development funds during the recession, which, in turn, lowered enrollment because students were no longer able to get help paying for their master's degrees.

However, rentals and other economic indicators are beginning to reverse. The falling stock market hurt Spertus' program endowment, slicing it to about $6 million, and its building endowment to about $12 million. Those funds are now at about $7 million and about $17 million, respectively, Lewis said.

Steven Nasatir, president of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, said his organization is assisting Spertus with fundraising. He said without the branding and other program changes Lewis is making, Spertus would be "treading water."

"The name change is a manifestation of resetting goals and is a positive thing," he said. "People have to better understand what you're attempting to do."

Melissa Harris can be reached at mmharris@tribune.com or 312-222-4582.

Twitter @chiconfidential

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Fire 'rekindles' at Bridgeport warehouse

A vacant warehouse in Bridgeport continues to burn.

Staff report

10:50 a.m. CST, January 26, 2013

A nearly 100-year-old Bridgeport warehouse is on fire again this morning after it was gutted during a 5-alarm fire on Tuesday, according to the Chicago Fire Department.

About 10 a.m., a tower ladder truck was sent to the scene to handle the rekindle at the ruins, according to the fire department.

Last night, as crews began demolishing the warehouse at 3757 S. Ashland Ave., the fire department officially released its conclusion as to how it began.

"In layman's terms, that means something that was burning such as a flame or match got near something that would burn," Langford said.

Langford said the building had no gas or electric service and no one was known to be living there. But the night of the blaze, Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago told reporters that in the past, firefighters had been called to the warehouse for small fires caused when squatters lit fires to stay warm.

The matter has been forwarded to the Chicago Police Bomb and Arson unit to determine if the fire involved foul play, Langford and police said.

Friday morning, a private wrecking company hired by the owners of the building began its demolition, Chicago Fire Department spokeswoman Meg Ahlheim said.

Tuesday night, a fire department battalion chief spotted smoke from the blaze as he drove past around 9 p.m. A third of the department's on-duty personnel were called to fight a fire fed by century-old support timbers. Crews have remained there since, dousing flames from the smouldering debris.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

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New purported Galaxy Note 8.0 images confirm S-Pen support

Earlier this week, images that were purportedly of Samsung’s (005930) upcoming Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet leaked onto the Web. The slate looked like an oversized Galaxy S III smartphone and included the company’s physical home button, which had perviously been omitted from earlier Galaxy tablets. French blog Frandroid posted additional images of the tablet on Friday that confirmed it will include an S-Pen stylus, similar to the Galaxy Note II and Galaxy Note 10.1.

[More from BGR: Sony’s PS Vita: Dead again]

[More from BGR: The Boy Genius Report: Apple’s iMac takes desktop crown]

The Galaxy Note 8.0 is rumored to be equipped with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution display, 1.6GHz quad-core processor and a 5-megapixel rear camera. The slate is also believed to include 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a microSD slot and Android 4.2.

Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet next month at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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Lorne Michaels comedy pilot lands at NBC

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Saturday Night Live” boss Lorne Michaels is broadening his relationship with NBC via a new comedy pilot.

The untitled project will star stand-up comic (and “SNL” writer) John Mulaney, and is loosely based on his life.

Mulaney will also write and executive-produce the project, with Michaels, Andrew Singer, Dave Becky and David Miner also executive-producing.

The project will be produced by Universal Television, Broadway Video and 3 Arts Entertainment.

Last month, Michaels – along with “Up in the Air” director Jason Reitman and “Girls” co-executive producer Bruce Eric Kaplan – sold a comedy pilot, “People in New Jersey,” to HBO. That project centers around an adult brother and sister who puzzle over the big and small mysteries of life while living in New Jersey.

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Religious Groups and Employers Battle Contraception Mandate

Shawn Thew/European Pressphoto Agency

President Obama, with his health secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, offering a compromise on the contraception mandate last year.

In a flood of lawsuits, Roman Catholics, evangelicals and Mennonites are challenging a provision in the new health care law that requires employers to cover birth control in employee health plans — a high-stakes clash between religious freedom and health care access that appears headed to the Supreme Court.

In recent months, federal courts have seen dozens of lawsuits brought not only by religious institutions like Catholic dioceses but also by private employers ranging from a pizza mogul to produce transporters who say the government is forcing them to violate core tenets of their faith. Some have been turned away by judges convinced that access to contraception is a vital health need and a compelling state interest. Others have been told that their beliefs appear to outweigh any state interest and that they may hold off complying with the law until their cases have been judged. New suits are filed nearly weekly.

“This is highly likely to end up at the Supreme Court,” said Douglas Laycock, a law professor at the University of Virginia and one of the country’s top scholars on church-state conflicts. “There are so many cases, and we are already getting strong disagreements among the circuit courts.”

President Obama’s health care law, known as the Affordable Care Act, was the most fought-over piece of legislation in his first term and was the focus of a highly contentious Supreme Court decision last year that found it to be constitutional.

But a provision requiring the full coverage of contraception remains a matter of fierce controversy. The law says that companies must fully cover all “contraceptive methods and sterilization procedures” approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including “morning-after pills” and intrauterine devices whose effects some contend are akin to abortion.

As applied by the Health and Human Services Department, the law offers an exemption for “religious employers,” meaning those who meet a four-part test: that their purpose is to inculcate religious values, that they primarily employ and serve people who share their religious tenets, and that they are nonprofit groups under federal tax law.

But many institutions, including religious schools and colleges, do not meet those criteria because they employ and teach members of other religions and have a broader purpose than inculcating religious values.

“We represent a Catholic college founded by Benedictine monks,” said Kyle Duncan, general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has brought a number of the cases to court. “They don’t qualify as a house of worship and don’t turn away people in hiring or as students because they are not Catholic.”

In that case, involving Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, a federal appeals court panel in Washington told the college last month that it could hold off on complying with the law while the federal government works on a promised exemption for religiously-affiliated institutions. The court told the government that it wanted an update by mid-February.

Defenders of the provision say employers may not be permitted to impose their views on employees, especially when something so central as health care is concerned.

“Ninety-nine percent of women use contraceptives at some time in their lives,” said Judy Waxman, a vice president of the National Women’s Law Center, which filed a brief supporting the government in one of the cases. “There is a strong and legitimate government interest because it affects the health of women and babies.”

She added, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Contraception was declared by the C.D.C. to be one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.”

Officials at the Justice Department and the Health and Human Services Department declined to comment, saying the cases were pending.

A compromise for religious institutions may be worked out. The government hopes that by placing the burden on insurance companies rather than on the organizations, the objections will be overcome. Even more challenging cases involve private companies run by people who reject all or many forms of contraception.

The Alliance Defending Freedom — like Becket, a conservative group — has brought a case on behalf of Hercules Industries, a company based in Denver that makes sheet metal products. It was granted an injunction by a judge in Colorado who said the religious values of the family owners were infringed by the law.

“Two-thirds of the cases have had injunctions against Obamacare, and most are headed to courts of appeals,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for the alliance. “It is clear that a substantial number of these cases will vindicate religious freedom over Obamacare. But it seems likely that the Supreme Court will ultimately resolve the dispute.”

The timing of these cases remains in flux. Half a dozen will probably be argued by this summer, perhaps in time for inclusion on the Supreme Court’s docket next term. So far, two- and three-judge panels on four federal appeals courts have weighed in, granting some injunctions while denying others.

One of the biggest cases involves Hobby Lobby, which started as a picture framing shop in an Oklahoma City garage with $600 and is now one of the country’s largest arts and crafts retailers, with more than 500 stores in 41 states.

David Green, the company’s founder, is an evangelical Christian who says he runs his company on biblical principles, including closing on Sunday so employees can be with their families, paying nearly double the minimum wage and providing employees with comprehensive health insurance.

Mr. Green does not object to covering contraception but considers morning-after pills to be abortion-inducing and therefore wrong.

“Our family is now being forced to choose between following the laws of the land that we love or maintaining the religious beliefs that have made our business successful and have supported our family and thousands of our employees and their families,” Mr. Green said in a statement. “We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate.”

The United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit last month turned down his family’s request for a preliminary injunction, but the company has found a legal way to delay compliance for some months.

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Shedd Aquarium looks to slice energy bill

Bob Wengel's job at Shedd Aquarium makes your typical thermostat war seem laughable.

For him, keeping everybody comfortable means manufacturing a 2 p.m. sunset for penguins attuned to the daylight rhythms of South America. It means maintaining 3 million gallons at a cool 58 degrees for blubber-laden whales while also satisfying tiny neon fish that won't tolerate less than 78 degrees.

"The first thing you've got to make sure is that your animals are happy," said Wengel, Shedd's vice president of facilities. "Then, your guests come next and, after that, the people who work here."

Until now it has also meant forking over $1.4 million for electricity and $154,000 for natural gas each year.

The Chicago cultural institution is in the early stages of a massive energy overhaul aimed at cutting energy consumption by half at the 83-year-old building. Under a plan developed pro bono by a public-private consortium, Shedd plans to swap out light bulbs, buy solar panels and sell "negawatts" (getting paid to power down) to the electrical grid to achieve its goal by 2020.

The idea: To create a road map other cultural institutions can follow.

"What we're talking about is bigger than the Shedd," said Mark Harris, president and CEO of the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, which led the consortium that developed Shedd's energy saving plan.

The task won't be easy. Keeping 32,500 animals healthy, happy and well-lit takes a lot of, well, energy. Part zoo, part art space, the building is a life-support system for 1,500 species operating under the parameters of just about every time zone on the planet. Lighting clings to nearly every floor, ceiling and exhibit, mimicking sunlight, guiding visitors and attractively framing columns.

Most days a small ocean of water is chilled or run through heat exchangers, with excess heat released through cooling towers on the aquarium roof.

Staff members bike to work, diligently compost and exchange unwanted items instead of trashing them, and for years the aquarium has tracked its energy use and made changes where appropriate. Still, the energy consumed at Shedd has it claiming the carbon footprint of an endless 2,200-car traffic jam.

"If you ask me — 'What is sustainability?' — to someone like me who runs a facility, it's energy, waste, water," Wengel said.

In 2011, Shedd used so much energy that, if harnessed, it could power nearly 1,500 homes for a year.

If done right, Shedd's energy-shaving work will be mostly invisible.

Discerning visitors may notice a lighting change in Shedd's main entrance, where 600 light bulbs in the aquarium's octopuslike chandeliers were fitted this week with highly efficient LED bulbs, a change that will cut $7,000 a year off its electricity bills.

The sunlight that appears to grace the colorful, bustling exhibit of 450 reef dwellers just inside the main entrance is actually six LED lights that were first tested for their ability to mimic natural light.

"The solar on the rooftop will be visible," said Tom Hulsebosch, managing director for energy and utilities for West Monroe Partners in Chicago, the consulting firm that helped create Shedd's energy road map. "They might notice the subtlety of the LED lighting, but a lot of it is really behind the scenes."

Shedd's goal is to create an intelligent aquarium that is constantly communicating its energy needs to Wengel and his staff. That means letting them know in real time if a system is using more power than usual and where inefficiencies lie in everything from HVAC systems to life-support pumps.

According to the road map the coalition developed, the aquarium plans to participate in a program that pays big energy users to power down on days when the electric grid is strained by demand from air conditioners. But first that means finding out what in the aquarium can be safely powered down.

To start with, Shedd is installing individual meters on everything from lighting systems to chillers so it can track and analyze how and when energy is being used. From there it can determine which systems could safely be powered down without harming the animals or causing a disruption to patrons, and which could be used or timed differently to save money.

"They cannot compromise experience both on the visitor's side and on the animal side, and they cannot compromise performance because they have a life-support system they have to maintain. So just the fact that they can do this, with those huge barriers, is an incredible example," said Karen Weigert, chief sustainability officer for the city of Chicago, which worked with a coalition that developed the energy plan. Also part of the coalition were the Institute for Sustainable Energy Development and Citizens Utility Board.

The aquarium would simultaneously switch to a pricing scheme that rewards it for using the most energy at the times of day when demand is lowest and electricity prices are cheaper.

Also on the docket: solar panels with batteries for storing excess energy that could be sold back to the electric grid in the same way that power plants sell their power.

The plans are in line with that of Illinois, which in October 2011 approved a 10-year, $2.6 billion upgrade to the electrical grid that serves Shedd and the rest of the Chicago area. Half of that is being spent to create a smart grid that, according to ComEd, will bring 100-year-old electrical grid technology into the digital age, automatically reporting problems, rerouting power and eliminating the need for meter readers.

With a smart grid, Shedd could power up some systems while powering down others, and sell or buy electricity from the grid in real time according to the demands of the electrical grid.

To pay for these changes, Shedd plans to seek government grants and private donations. In time, say coalition members, those investments will reap dividends, financially, educationally and environmentally.

"The Shedd's in a unique position. It's been there for 100 years and it's going to be there for another 100 more; so, when you look at a 15-year return on investment, that's not too bad," Hulsebosch said.

jwernau@tribune.com

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