klickitat pud produces natural gas from landfill...klickitat pud general manager jim smith and...

1BULLETIN/FEBRUARY 2020 | NWPPA.ORG

FEBRUARY 2020 | VOLUME 74 | NUMBER 2

KLICKITAT PUD PRODUCES NATURAL GAS FROM LANDFILL

Boost Your Utility’s Operations Through Collaboration

Central Lincoln PUD Modernizes Low-Side Substation Construction

2 NWPPA.ORG | BULLETIN/FEBRUARY 2020

18On the cover: Washington Governor Jay Inslee has praised Klickitat PUD for creating its innovative H.W. Hill Renewable Natural Gas facility, which harnesses energy that would otherwise be wasted. The plant uses 100% of the methane captured and creates an EPA-approved cellulosic biofuel that can be used for transportation, replacing diesel in heavy-duty engines.

Opinions expressed in single articles are not necessarily policies of the Association. For permission to reprint articles, write or call the associate editor.

Editor: Debbie KuraspedianiAssociate Editor: Brenda DunnGraphic Designer: Mark WoodwardAdvertising: Brenda Dunn at (360) 816-1453 or [email protected]

The Bulletin is published monthly by Northwest Public Power Association, 9817 N.E. 54th Street, Ste. 200, Vancouver, WA 98662.

© Copyright 2020 by the Northwest Public Power Association. All rights reserved. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

3 NWPPA News

12 Training Opportunities

14 Human Resources

16 Fish

18 Safety

20 Engineering and Operations

22 Member News

26 Associate Member News

28 Washington, D.C.

30 Cover Story

34 Job Opportunitieswww.facebook.com/NWPPAssocwww.twitter.com/NWPPAssoc

FEBRUARY 2020 | VOLUME 74 | NUMBER 2

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NWPPA NEWS

NWPPA WELCOMES HANNAH ASHCRAFTW ith the new year comes changes—when you call or visit our

office, you will now be greeted by our new administrative specialist, Hannah Ashcraft.

“Everyone is very kind and it is apparent that they take great pride in what they do,” she said. “I am honored to be on the team and working with and learning from a fantastic group of individuals.”

Ashcraft, a Washing-ton native and honors graduate of Tahoma High School, previously worked as a leasing consultant for Sequoia Equities in Vancouver. Her responsibilities there included leasing/sales, resident retention, and event planning. At NWPPA, she is responsi-ble for the primary front office duties as well as assisting in book-keeping, advertising, registration, member relations, class and event preparation, board meetings, and much more.

“Hannah already has proven to be a talented and hardworking new member of the team. We are truly happy to have her join the public power community,” said NWPPA Executive Director Scott Corwin.

Ashcraft lives on a 30-acre farm in Battle Ground, Wash., with her husband Ryan and their one-and-half-year-old golden retriever Luna Lovegood. In her spare time, she loves decorating, party plan-ning, and hiking in the Pacific Northwest with her family. She also hopes to brush up on her Spanish.

“I spent nine months in Honduras doing volunteer work in 2013,” she said. “I used to be fluent in Spanish, but have become a bit rusty due to lack of use. I hope to change that soon!”

Don’t forget to find the ! In each 2020 issue of the Bulletin, we will be hiding

one acorn graphic (like this one ) somewhere in the magazine to help celebrate our 80th anniversary. For

each issue, we will select a random person who has emailed the correct page and location to the associate editor at [email protected] by the end of the month. The winner will be notified and receive a $20.20 gift card from NWPPA.

January’s acorn was on page 20 on the Clark Public Utilities employee’s tool bag.

Congratulations to January’s winner: Darci Twin-ing of Centralia City Light and Public Works.

Where was the acorn in January? Page 20 on the Clark Public Utilities

employee’s tool bag.


NWPPA NEWS

WILDFIRE CONFERENCE ENGAGED A SOLD-OUT CROWD

Last month’s Wildfires: What Utilities Need to Know conference was met with plenty of excitement and

expectation. Held in SeaTac, Wash., more than 100 professionals from across the Northwest attended the event.

NWPPA Executive Director Scott Corwin opened the conference and explained that the event was introduced to provide attendees with new paths, new partnerships, and new practices on the challenges of wildfires being faced by utilities throughout the region. Innovative ideas, creative approaches, and new research were shared as those in attendance listened to a collective of excellent speakers and networked with one another.

“This conference was extremely informative. It is always good to hear how other utilities and agencies are handling these issues. The wide array of services, disciplines, and examples provided a wealth of information,” said Wasco Electric Cooperative Board President Michael Collins. “I am looking forward to more workshops and confer-ences as this issue of fires continues to grow.”

Oregon Public Utility Commissioner Letha Tawney kicked off the first day with a lunch presentation about the state perspective. She shared insights in current legislative and regulatory efforts, as well as the need for dialogue and cooperation between utilities and government entities.

Next, US Forest Service Regional Manager Glenn Casamassa, who over-sees 16 national forests, two national scenic areas, a national grassland, and two national volcanic monuments within Oregon and Washington, spoke about the Forest Service’s operations and shared stewardship that must be maintained to manage wildfire risks and sustain our nation’s infrastructure.


Reducing the fuel that fires feed upon is a key component of reducing the effects and severity of wildfires. Klickitat PUD General Manager Jim Smith and Operations Manager Mark Pritchard provided a series of interesting and thought-provoking experiences and vegetation management practices being used by their utility.

“As Jim and Mark pointed out, the landscape across the Northwest is chang-ing very rapidly. I believe this topic is so important to all utilities that it easily could and should create an annual event of its own,” said Clark Public Utilities Forest Manager Paul Wienecke.

The first day concluded with a fire experience and prevention panel discus-sion comprised of Chelan PUD’s Steve Wright, Missoula Electric Cooperative’s Mark Hayden, Consumers Power Inc.’s Billy Terry, Pend Oreille PUD’s Colin Willenbrock, and Redding Electric Utility’s Dan Beans and Ted Miller. The panel touched on a variety of subjects, including prevention, mitigation plans, right of ways, regulatory processes, mutual aid, risk, litigation, and budget-ary concerns.

“Few realize that the annual fire season in the Northwest is now 78 days longer than it was just 15 years ago,” said Terry. “The truth is, we cannot con-tinue as we have been. The longer fire season means that utilities must place a much greater emphasis on managing wildfires through partnerships with state and local organizations, customer out-reach, and the implementation, monitor-ing, review, and constant adjustments to a wildfire mitigation plan.”

Attendees asked several follow-up questions and commented that the panel was excellent.

HDR, Inc.’s Ben McKinsey opened the second day with his presentation, “Wildfire Risk Assessments on Transmis-sion Services.” His speech, coupled with information about weather-monitoring equipment provided by Forest Tech-nology System LTD’s Tyler Smith, gave attendees a deep look into the ongoing threats to our infrastructure and our communities. A number of startling photos and statistics were shown that clearly outlined the issues utilities are facing in terms of providing both power and safety to our customer base.

Homer Electric Association General Manager Brad Janorschke spoke about the action his Alaskan utility has put forth as well as the difficult decisions

all utility managers are facing. He and colleague Jim Butler provided a number of insights and lessons learned, including working with incident management teams during a fire. Other advice included:

• Always maintain reg-ular communication with key staff and the utility team

• Attend all key meetings

• Keep your orga-nization (board and membership) informed

• Be aware of all transitions between each incident man-agement team

• Educate your crews to use and share your tech tools in order to support the containment efforts

Recently, utilities in California have been bat-tling some of our nation’s largest wildfire emergen-cies. Northern California Power Agency Executive Director Randy Howard gave an eye-opening account of recent events and actions in the state of California, including the practice of proactive de-energization of powerlines. Brown & Kysar, Inc. CEO Scott Lindsay then detailed some of BKI’s work in helping utilities go through the process of creating individualized wildfire miti-gation plans.

The decreasing availability of insur-ance and the increase in rates to utilities are two more results of the growing intensity and number of fires. Federated Rural Electric Insurance Exchange CEO Phil Irwin closed the conference by out-lining the challenges being encountered and gave a sobering account of what to expect in the future.

“In 2018 alone there was over $15 billion in insured losses due to wildfires,” said Irwin. “The higher risks mean that insurance underwriters will be asking more specific questions of utili-ties, including more specific exclusions into policies, and creating newer/higher pricing models.”

He suggested that utilities document all efforts to minimize or eliminate fire in their area. This includes ongoing mitiga-tions plans, vegetation management, and all other actions.

Thank you to everyone who attended and presented at our first wildfire con-ference! Thank you also to our sponsors and their generous support of the event: Forest Technology System LTD, Bell Lumber & Pole, Laminated Wood Systems, General Pacific, Systems with Intelligence, and Stephens, McCarthy & Lancaster.

We have heard the calls and will continue to lead the effort to provide the very best in training and workshops on this and other important topics. Visit www.nwppa.org/catalog for upcoming training opportunities throughout 2020. Have ideas about a follow-up wildfire conference? Please send an email to [email protected].

Over 100 professionals attended the sold-out event.

The Fire Experience and Prevention Panel included executives from Consumers Power, Inc., Redding Electric Utility, Missoula Electric

Cooperative, Pend Oreille PUD, and Chelan PUD.


NWPPA NEWS

WE’RE 80 YEARS STRONG AND REACHING TOWARD THE FUTURE

For 80 years, NWPPA has been serving and supporting members’ education, communication, and legislative advo-cacy needs. This year, we celebrate our eight decades of

member partnerships and get a view of the future of our indus-try at NWPPA’s Annual Conference and Membership Meeting in Kennewick, Wash., May 17-20.

The Tri-Cities area (Kennewick, Richland, and Pasco) is the ideal location to learn about new developments in energy and to take note of the impressive record of achievements of public power. At the confluence of the mighty Columbia and Snake Rivers, the area economy is interwoven with the river system and all that it provides. Surrounded by service territories of several NWPPA members, it is a community rich in the history of public power, hydropower, and energy industry innovation. Just as NWPPA and many of its members arrived during the

World War II era, the Tri-Cities has played a large national role in developments in nuclear and other new energy technologies since those days.

New president and CEO of the American Public Power Association, Joy Ditto, will be on hand to help us commem-orate the occasion. Several panels and speakers will explore new energy resources, technology, and services for public power. Among the topics explored will be new developments in hydropower, including hydrogen production; progress in energy storage and solar technology; new concepts in safety; the evolu-tion of drones; and financial risk and rates in a swiftly changing utility environment.

Our Annual Conference and Membership meeting is an ideal learning and networking opportunity for a broad array of utility personnel, including utility general managers and CEOs;


assistant managers; senior utility leaders; utility board directors, commissioners, and council members; associate members; and trade association heads.

This is a great opportunity to hear from your peers and other leaders who are cognizant of the public power mission and charting the future of our industry. It is also a time to celebrate; first by honoring extraordinary colleagues at Wednes-day’s awards luncheon and then recognizing the exquisite culture of the area at that evening’s banquet.

You can reach Kennewick easily by car or by the nearby air-port in Pasco. Come early or stay late because the area abounds with adventures and opportunities, including the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, B Reactor tours, the Bechtel National Planetarium, the REACH Museum, aquatic centers, river tours, hiking, horseback riding, over 300 wineries, and so much more!

NWPPA will be providing more information on networking opportunities on Sunday and Monday ahead of Tuesday’s Member Meeting. In addition, pre-conference classes will be held in conjunction with the Annual Conference and Member-ship Meeting. This year, both Financial Decision Making and Robert’s Rules of Order will be offered onsite on Monday, May 18.

Also on Monday, members will have the opportunity to review the 2020 proposed resolutions at the Government Rela-tions Committee meeting before they are brought before the general membership for adoption at Tuesday’s Annual Business Meeting.

In the interest of your utility, members, employees, and communities, don’t miss this exciting learning and networking opportunity where outstanding speakers, panelists, experts, and your peers will share their rich knowledge and experience. Visit www.nwppa.org and register today.


NWPPA NEWS

Two New Communications Courses Available in May

Training, education, and development support learning and growing in your current job as well as when you are preparing for a new one. Our goal is supporting our

member’s education and training needs, and that is why we have added two new courses for utility communicators.

• Putting the Public in Public Relations provides hands-on, interactive instruction for effective engagement with customers and the general public. Following many of the concepts developed by the International Association for Public Participation, class attendees will learn the importance of transparent, two-way interactivity with customers when communicating utility issues. Participants will also learn effective techniques to engage the public in ways that are more effective than the standard public hearing or open house. This one-day class is scheduled for May 27 in Vancouver, Wash.

• Media Relations 101 provides concepts for working directly with the media to generate news coverage of positive-oriented utility actions, and to minimize negative news coverage during an emerging issue or crisis. Partic-ipants will gain knowledge, tips, techniques, and skills regarding creating key messages, conducting interviews, avoiding media “traps” or pitfalls, and pitching stories to the media through emails, news releases, and/or social media. This one-day class is scheduled for May 28 in Vancouver, Wash.

Both courses are being taught by Lance Robertson, a long-time journalist, public relations professional, and University of

Oregon School of Jour-nalism and Communica-tion part-time instructor. He currently owns and operates LF Robertson Communications LLC, which provides strategic communications consulting, writing, editing, and media relations services to public power utilities and other clients in the Pacific Northwest, including OPUDA, PNUCC, NWPPA, and the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission.

Robertson spent the first 25 years of his communications career as a reporter and editor for a handful of Oregon newspapers. He specialized in environmental coverage during a 17-year career at The Register-Guard, where he won numerous state and regional awards for his coverage of some of the most pressing natural resources issues of the last half-century.

In 2001, Robertson left newspaper work to serve as the communications coordinator for the Eugene Water & Electric Board, Oregon’s largest citizen-owned electric and water utility. In that role, he was the chief spokesperson for the utility; con-ducted numerous media interviews; presented to local service and civic organizations; and provided strategic communications advice to the utility’s elected board members and senior man-agement. He retired from EWEB in 2016, but has continued to teach at the UO while doing strategic communications consulting.

Register today for both classes at www.nwppa.org. For additional information on these or other communications courses, please contact [email protected].

Join us for the 2020 IT Conference, Technology Disaster Preparedness, in Hood River, Ore. This year’s conference will feature topics on vector attacks, cyber mutual assistance, CIRST lessons learned, virtual reality, PCI DSS common challenges, NERC CIP overview, 5G small cell, data center design, Microsoft updates, and more. Who Should Attend:IT professionals and others who are responsible for information technology programs as well as members of the operations and engineering functions who would like to build a stronger relationship with IT.


WHY I THINK YOU SHOULD ATTEND THE 2020 E&OBy Dale Mayuiers

A few weeks ago, I was chatting with a group of apprentice lineworkers who were attending an NWPPA

training class. One turned to me and asked, “This may be a stupid question, but we heard about the NWPPA E&O in Reno and are wondering if we should go.”

As the manager of the E&O Confer-ence, I would like to share my top three reasons as to why you and your colleagues should attend the annual E&O Conference and Trade Show.

1. To expand your knowledge of the industryWe rely on individuals from our member utilities to decide

which topics are the most important and relevant to you. This means we fill the conference with information that can help you and your utility achieve your goals and overcome challenges. This year’s E&O in Reno, Nev., hosts nearly 30 different educational sessions, each presented by an expert in the field. Some of the biggest names and brightest minds in public power will be on hand to present cutting-edge technologies, offer new information, and share insightful experiences that enable you to grow in your job and advance your career. Also included in the schedule is a panel discussion where several CEOs and general managers from throughout the Northwest will answer questions taken from the audience. We are proud to announce our keynote speaker, Dr. Jen Welter, who is the first female NFL coach. Dr. Welter will speak about how we in the public power industry can—and should—work together as a team. Lastly, you will have the opportunity to hear experts as they share their first-hand experiences with one of the hottest topics currently facing utilities: wildfires. From start to finish, the E&O confer-ence has been created specifically with your career growth in mind.

2. To networkAsk anyone who has been to an NWPPA E&O and they will

tell you that one of the biggest takeaways is the opportunity to interact with likeminded individuals and industry peers.

The annual E&O brings together over 1,000 people from across the nation, each with their own unique experiences and backgrounds. Within our four roundtable discussions (lineworker, engineering, technology, and supply chain) you can listen in as others share their experiences about topics that specifically apply to your job. This is a terrific way to meet new people in your field, learn from your colleagues, get fresh ideas, and make contacts with others who can help you with the challenges you face.

As we all know, utility workers are some of the most skilled individuals ever, and building a professional network for your-self is vital to maintaining those skills. The E&O conference is a terrific way to do so.

3. To benefit yourself and your utilityThis is one of the more obvious reasons for attending

conferences. Each of us work extremely hard to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective energy to those we serve. Past generations of utility workers could not imagine the challenges you face today. This is why it is essential to take advantage of every learning opportunity available to you. Aside from the many educational sessions, the E&O hosts a trade show with nearly 200 exhibitors and vendors. These vendors represent the best and most capable companies in the world. They will be on hand to answer questions; demonstrate the latest technologies and innovations; and help you and your utility confidently step forward to face the issues and changes occurring in our industry.

Whether you are an apprentice lineworker, much like those who initially asked me about the E&O, a seasoned utility veteran, or any other individual who works in the public power industry, the 2020 E&O is the one event you do not want to miss. It is, in fact, your best chance to learn and grow. And if that isn’t enough, this year’s event is being held in beautiful Reno, Nev.!

For more information or to register, visit www.nwppa.org/eo or contact me at [email protected]. I look forward to seeing you in Reno in April!


NWPPA NEWS

A Review of the First ETF Meeting of 2020

The Environmental Task Force began 2020 with its January meeting in Seattle, Wash. The Jan-uary meeting is when members receive updates

on PCB rules and regulations from Michelle Mullen, Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10 coordi-nator.

“The technical guidance provided by the represen-tatives from EPA’s Region 10 on oil spill response and PCB management was well received by the group,” said 2020 ETF Chair Chip Bloomer of Portland General Electric.

NWPPA PCB Management instructor Mark Pen-nell of RCS, Inc. provided PCB updates; Nicole Case, NWPPA’s legislative consultant, delivered an update on federal legislation; and Federal On-Scene Coor-dinator Richard Franklin addressed Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plans.

One of the highlights of the meeting was the presentation on the history of PCBs delivered by Bonneville Power Administration Physical Scientist Andy Chang. Chang’s presentation spanned several decades filled with BPA history.

“Andy’s presentation focused on the history of PCBs, brought together many of the topics of the day, and reminded the group of its origins and the importance of having a forum to share information,” said Bloomer.

The ETF is a highly interactive group that pulls expert presentations from its own membership and creates a forum of strong networking and collab-oration. Presenters from the group included Justin Johnson, BPA’s SPCC Program lead on catastrophic equipment failure; and Alliston Crowley, PE, an environmental remediation advisor at Seattle City Light. NWPPA Associate members also provide a vital service to the ETF by donating their time to keep the group apprised of new technologies and services available to utilities.

“It was a well-attended meeting with many takeaways for our members. The day flowed well with the combination of utility, consulting, regulatory, and vendor presentations,” said Bloomer.

The Environmental Task Force will meet again on April 6 in conjunction with the NWPPA Engineering & Operations Conference in Reno, Nev. If you haven’t yet experienced an ETF meeting, please join us in Reno. NWPPA utility members who register at www.nwppa.org before March 6 pay nothing; others pay only a nominal fee. For more information on this and future ETF meetings, contact Jenny Keesey at [email protected].

Flexible Payment Options Featured in New MPT Content

Do your consumers turn to you as energy experts? Spot-light your expertise and ways you can work together with the latest tools from More Powerful Together, the free

consumer communication toolkit from NWPPA and Pioneer Utility Resources (formerly Ruralite Services).

Utility staff are energy experts, partnering with consumers to craft flexible solutions to meet local needs. To help you spread the word, we have refreshed our EXPERT content and added the following:

• A new editorial: Why are paying for food and paying for energy so different? Use this leadership editorial to promote your average billing option and/or pre-pay program.

• A new print ad: More than reliable. Flexible. We provide four different sizes of the ad to fit your needs. Use the image we provide or customize the image to feature one of your consum-ers using a flexible payment option.

• New social materials: Messages tailored for Facebook and Twitter focus on flexible bill pay options offered by your utility.

Once you download these free resources, customize both the text and images to better engage consumers. Download all of the More Powerful Together materials today at www.nwppa.org/mpt. Using the materials already? Let us know by emailing examples to [email protected].

Stay tuned for more coming in 2020! We’re delivering a new annual meeting script in February. Then one more set of materials arrives in April, for a total of 16 powerful and timeless consumer-focused headlines to pick from in 2020.


50 YEARS AGO – 1970For those leaders in the electric power industry who predicted the day when all utility lines would be underground, Palo Alto, Calif., indicated one of the steps necessary on the road to that goal … An Associated Press story reported that the Cowlitz PUD’s Merrill Lake pumped-storage project would be built for the benefit of electro-process indus-tries, such as aluminum (Wash.) … The US govern-ment invested nearly $6 million in the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, which was planned for completion in mid-1971 … Studies made by the Department of Transportation indicated the feasi-bility of trains, propelled by electrical energy, that could roll up to 300 mph.

25 YEARS AGO – 1995Seattle City Light, the first utility in the Northwest, was one of 13 public power utilities nationwide to join with Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary in signing the Global Climate Challenge (Wash.) … Grant, Chelan, and Douglas County PUDs worked on developing a comprehensive plan for habitat conservation (Wash.) … Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative gave its members their first rebates (Ore.) … In his budget release, President Bill Clinton proposed to change the Bonneville Power Admin-istration into a government corporation … The YMCA and several local schools opted to access Tillamook PUD’s energy saving program (Ore.).

5 YEARS AGO – 2015Snohomish County PUD and 1Energy Systems welcomed Jay Inslee to dedicate the first battery storage system built on cutting-edge Modular Energy Storage Architecture (Wash.) … Energy Northwest’s Columbia Generating Station sent nearly 9.5 million megawatt-hours of electricity to the grid, beating their previous record (Wash.) … Copper Valley Electric Association named John Duhamel as the organization’s next CEO (Alaska) … Peninsula Light Co. decided to hold off a rate increase for a second consecutive year (Wash.) … General Manager Wayne Nelson named Lena Wittler the director of communications for Clark Public Utilities (Wash.).

A Look Back at Public Power

Who Wants to Communicate, Collaborate, and Conquer?

If this sounds like some-thing you would be interested in, then come

join us at the 2020 Admin-istrative Professionals Confer-ence, May 6-7, at the Courtyard Marriott Columbia Point in Rich-land, Wash.

This highly interactive and hands-on two-day workshop will feature Peggy Vasquez (author of “Mean Girls No More” and “Not ‘Just an Admin!’”) discussing the importance of powerful connections and building a strong inner circle. Other presenters include Daniel Seitz, who will provide an overview of DiSC behavioral principles in a way you’ve not seen before; Carolina Selva, who will talk about conflict management and TKI conflict styles; and Lori Rock, who will illustrate the conference and use it as an example of visual mapping.

Networking will play a larger role in this year’s event via several facilitated roundtable sessions during the conference; a non-hosted optional networking dinner on May 5; and a team-building event with baker/decorator Daisy Sanchez (owner of My Sweet Little Cookie Jar) at the reception following day one of the conference on May 6.

For those wanting to arrive a day early for extra education, Neal Otto of Jump-Start will return for a pre-conference session (topic under development) on May 5.

Register at www.nwppa.org before April 4 to take advantage of the early-bird rate. For more information, contact Jenny Keesey at [email protected].


TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

MARCH, APRIL, AND MAY 2020Please visit www.nwppa.org to view the full descriptions for these and other events.

LEADERSHIP SKILLS SERIES: CHALLENGING COMMUNICATIONSWho Should Attend: Supervisors and manag-ers, and employees who will be transitioning to a supervisory or managerial role in the future.March 3-4, 2020–Anchorage, Alaska

ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONAL SERIES: EXPANDING YOUR ABILITY TO INFLUENCE (ALL THREE DAYS)Who Should Attend: Administrative assis-tants, executive assistants, and employees in administrative or service-oriented roles.March 4-6, 2020–Anchorage, Alaska

DAY ONE: USING DIPLOMACY, TACT, AND DISCRETION TO BUILD TRUSTMarch 4, 2020

DAY TWO: GETTING SUPPORT FOR YOUR IDEASMarch 5, 2020

DAY THREE: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SMART GOALS AND SELF-APPRAISALSMarch 6, 2020

ONLINE — ENGINEERING WEBINAR SERIES: SEPARABLE CONNECTORS IN UNDERGROUND SYSTEMSWho Should Attend: Engineering personnel and others who would benefit from an understanding of current electric utility engineering principles and practices.March 10, 2020–Online

ONBOARDING FOR SUCCESSWho Should Attend: Managers, supervisors, and human resources personnel.March 10, 2020–Vancouver, Wash.

LINEWORKER SKILLS SERIES: EQUIPOTENTIAL GROUNDINGWho Should Attend: Line crew supervisors and managers, crew foremen, lineworkers, and substation workers.March 10, 2020–Spokane, Wash.

LINEWORKER SKILLS SERIES: LINEWORKER RIGGINGWho Should Attend: Lineworkers and line crew foremen.March 11, 2020–Spokane, Wash.

METERING FOR LINEWORKERSWho Should Attend: Journeyman linework-ers and other electrical workers who want a better understanding of revenue metering and the hazards while working with revenue meters for both single-phase and three-phase meters.March 12, 2020–Spokane, Wash.

ONLINE — COMMUNICATION TUNE-UP WEBINAR SERIES: HOW TO HANDLE CRITICAL CONVERSATIONSWho Should Attend: Anyone who wants to increase his or her communication skills to be more effective working with both internal and external customers.March 17, 2020–Online

ONLINE — CFO & SENIOR ACCOUNTANT WEBINAR SERIES: WORK PLAN OVERSIGHTWho Should Attend: CFOs, senior accoun-tants, accounting staff, and finance staff who want to better understand work plan oversight.March 18, 2020–Online

ELECTRIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMSWho Should Attend: Engineers, lineworkers, substation workers, apprentices, and support staff that have direct responsibility for the construction, operation, and maintenance of the utility’s distribution system. March 18-19, 2020–Portland, Ore.

EMPLOYER COLLECTIVE BARGAINING TEAM PREPARATIONSWho Should Attend: General managers, operations managers, members of the employer bargaining team, and chief nego-tiators. We recommend that you send more than one team member to this class.

March 18-19, 2020–Portland, Ore.

UTILITY WAREHOUSING FROM A TO ZWho Should Attend: Warehouse and materi-als management professionals.March 24-26, 2020–Wenatchee, Wash.

FOREMAN LEADERSHIP CERTIFICATE PROGRAM PART 2Who Should Attend: Foremen and crew leaders.March 24-26, 2020–Shelton, Wash.

ASCEND TO LEADERSHIP: BASECAMPWho Should Attend: Managers at all levels who wish to enhance their skills, build their toolkit for leadership, and connect with other leaders across the industry. Completion of the Leadership Skills Series or Foreman Leadership Certificate Program is highly recommended, but not required.March 24-26, 2020–Sacramento, Calif.

ENVIRONMENTAL TASK FORCE MEETINGWho Should Attend: Utility environmental professionals (new and experienced), government agency staff, vendors, and anyone who is tasked with or interested in environmental issues, regulatory compliance, or mitigation in the environmental arena of electric utilities.April 6, 2020–Reno, Nev.

ENGINEERING & OPERATIONS CONFERENCE AND TRADE SHOWWho Should Attend: Electric utility engi-neering and operations personnel, as well as those in information technology, safety, purchasing, environmental, accounting, communications, or any area where a more in-depth knowledge of engineering and operations would be beneficial. See page 9 for more information.April 7-9, 2020–Reno, Nev.

ONLINE — ENGINEERING WEBINAR SERIES: DESIGNING ROADWAY ILLUMINATIONWho Should Attend: Engineering personnel and others who would benefit from an understanding of current electric utility engineering principles and practices.April 14, 2020–Online

EASY TOOLS TO IMPLEMENT ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENTWho Should Attend: Utility professionals that want a simple method to identify enterprise risks at their utilities and are looking for ways to integrate enterprise risk information into planning processes.April 14, 2020–Missoula, Mont.


ANNUAL MEETING PRE-CONFERENCE CLASS: NRECA CCD 2640 - FINANCIAL DECISION MAKINGWho Should Attend: Directors, policy makers, and general managers.May 18, 2020–Kennewick, Wash.

ANNUAL MEETING PRE-CONFERENCE CLASS: ROBERT’S RULES OF ORDER - MEETING MANAGEMENT AND DEMOCRATIC ORDERWho Should Attend: Board members, pol-icymakers, general managers, clerks to the board, executive secretaries, administrative assistants, and any utility employee partici-pating in board or commission meetings.May 18, 2020–Kennewick, Wash.

ONLINE — CFO & SENIOR ACCOUNTANT WEBINAR SERIES: EXPANDING BEYOND THE DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRICITYWho Should Attend: CFOs, senior accoun-tants, accounting staff, and finance staff who want to better understand FTTH and related business planning.May 20, 2020–Online

LEADERSHIP SKILLS SERIES: SUPERVISING UNION EMPLOYEESWho Should Attend: Operations directors, managers, line superintendents, labor relations professionals, and human resource managers who supervise union employees and deal with stewards and officers of the union. May 20-21, 2020–Richland, Wash.

RAISING YOUR ENERGY IQ, 101Who Should Attend: All utility employees can benefit from this course, especially those who interact with customers or have the need to explain residential home energy consumption.May 20-21, 2020–Richland, Wash.

PUTTING THE PUBLIC IN PUBLIC RELATIONSWho Should Attend: Marketing, public relations, and communications employees, as well as any employee with an interest in public relations. See page 8 for more information.May 27, 2020–Vancouver, Wash.

MEDIA RELATIONS 101Who Should Attend: Marketing, public relations, and communications employees, as well as any employee with an interest in media relations. See page 8 for more information.May 28, 2020–Vancouver, Wash.

AUDIT COMMITTEE BASICSWho Should Attend: Utility leaders and policy makers (such as board members, commissioners, and appointed/elected offi-cials) interested in the board audit committee function and structure.April 15, 2020–Missoula, Mont.

ONLINE — CFO & SENIOR ACCOUNTANT WEBINAR SERIES: IMPORTANT CFO DUTIESWho Should Attend: CFOs, senior accoun-tants, accounting staff, and finance staff who want to better understand CFO duties.April 16, 2020–Online

IT CONFERENCE PRE-SESSION CLASS: TECHNOLOGY, LEADERSHIP, PLANNING, AND DECISION MAKING IN A CHANGING BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTWho Should Attend: IT professionals, senior managers, and anyone involved in the utility’s budgetary and decision-making processes.April 20, 2020–Hood River, Ore.

ONLINE — COMMUNICATION TUNE-UP WEBINAR SERIES: CROSS-GENERATIONAL & CULTURAL COMMUNICATIONWho Should Attend: Anyone who wants to increase his or her communication skills to be more effective working with both internal and external customers.April 21, 2020–Online

ADVANCED PROJECT PLANNING, ORGANIZATION, AND EXECUTIONWho Should Attend: Any utility employee looking for advanced instruction for organiz-ing and/or managing projects.April 21-22, 2020–Spokane, Wash.

IT CONFERENCEWho Should Attend: IT professionals and others who are responsible for information technology programs; also, members of the operations and engineering functions who would like to build a stronger relationship with IT.April 21-23, 2020–Hood River, Ore.

LEADERSHIP SKILLS SERIES: HR BASICS & BUILDING A MORE EFFECTIVE WORKPLACEWho Should Attend: Supervisors and managers, and those employees who will be transitioning to a supervisor or manager role in the near future.April 22-23, 2020–Spokane, Wash.

INFLUENCING OTHERS: HUMAN DYNAMICS WORKSHOPWho Should Attend: Anyone who engages in frequent human interactions, such as utility and community leaders, customer service representatives, human resources profession-als, and field employees.April 28-29, 2020–Tacoma, Wash.

MANAGING AND LEADING CHANGEWho Should Attend: Anyone experiencing or anticipating change within his or her utility, especially those driving change, imple-menting change, and communicating about change with customers and members.April 28-29, 2020–Tacoma, Wash.

OREGON UTILITIES RECORDS MANAGEMENT GROUPWho Should Attend: Records managers, records coordinators, administrative assistants, executive assistants, and anyone managing records for their department.April 30, 2020–Eugene, Ore.

ELECTRIC UTILITY SYSTEM OPERATIONSWho Should Attend: Any electric utility industry employee (utility or vendor) whose job performance will benefit from a basic understanding of the operations side of the utility business, including engi-neering, operations, safety, purchasing, information technology, regulatory and rates, customer service, public relations, legal, accounting, utility commissioners, and board members.May 6-7, 2020–Boise, Idaho

ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALS CONFERENCEWho Should Attend: Administrative assis-tants, executive assistants, and clerks to the board. See page 11 for more information.May 6-7, 2020–Richland, Wash.

ONLINE — ENGINEERING WEBINAR SERIES: DESIGNING POLES NEAR AIRPORTSWho Should Attend: Engineering personnel and others who would benefit from an understanding of current electric utility engineering principles and practices.May 12, 2020–Online

MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING WITH KEY RATIOSWho Should Attend: Anyone who has completed at least two modules of NWPPA’s Utility Accounting Certificate Program, or anyone with significant utility accounting/finance experience.May 13-14, 2020–Vancouver, Wash.

NWPPA ANNUAL CONFERENCE & MEMBERSHIP MEETINGWho Should Attend: Utility general man-agers and CEOs; assistant managers; senior utility leaders; utility board directors, com-missioners, and council members; associate members; and trade association heads. See pages 6-7 for more information.May 17-20, 2020–Kennewick, Wash.


HUMAN RESOURCES

BOOST YOUR UTILITY’S OPERATIONS THROUGH COLLABORATIONBy Julie Desimone

From grid modernization to shifting customer behavior and expanding regulations, the power and utilities industry is changing quickly. On top of these challenges, utilities must

factor in increasing talent turnover and retirement influxes. To keep up, they need to find ways to improve efficiency.

As key personnel leave, strong collaboration between accounting and other departments can help. This approach can provide each department with the support, insight, and resources it needs to stay on track, while helping the utility:

• Keep up with increased demands and industry changes

• Reduce errors and miscommunication

• Increase efficiency and information accuracy

Here are some important ways your utility can increase collaboration throughout the organization, improving efficien-cies and bolstering the strength of your utility—now and into the future.

BackgroundWe know that key personnel will eventually leave their

organizations and, with that change, comes loss of experience. We also know that most utilities struggle with barriers within the organization. Collaboration can help reduce these silos, easing the transition when personnel leave or retire.

For example, when I was at a Denver utility conference last year, I had an interesting conversation with an accountant from an electric cooperative. I asked him about his future and what he wanted from his career, and he told me that although he really loved working for his cooperative, he couldn’t see a long-term career in the utility’s accounting department.

His reasoning was that the position he’d most logically progress to was held by an individual who was going to retire soon, but who actually started in the engineering department and then went back to school to get their accounting degree. The accountant I was talking with didn’t think he could meet that level of expectation, experience, or familiarity with the position’s needs.

However, if the accountant had opportunities to collaborate with others across the organization with relevant experience, or directly learn from the senior professional who currently held the position for an extended period of time, he may have been able to learn the details of the position before the professional retired. This could have saved the utility the time and resources of hiring and training a professional from outside the organiza-tion and potentially saved the time and expense of addressing a new hire’s learning mistakes.

Assess department collaborationTo begin increasing department collaboration, a utility

should start with the accounting team. A utility’s accountants are responsible for telling the story of the organization by

monitoring, evaluating, and representing a utility’s cash and reporting. That means accountants should be regularly included in major department meetings and communications to make sure they’re aware of all operations, proceedings, and opportu-nities for error.

For example, the plant accountant should be part of key project meetings, such as project management status updates. Through participating in these projects, the accountant can point out potential accounting hurdles or errors rather than waiting until the end of the project to make retroactive changes.

That said, collaboration goes both ways. Just as including the plant accountant in project-management meetings will likely increase efficiency and reduce errors, inviting the operations manager to review the accounting team’s analysis of operational accounts can help improve accuracy. Deciding which key indi-viduals to monitor, review, and include in the appropriate meet-ings and communications is driven by broad input throughout the utility, with the important aspect of including accounting staff and management in areas outside of the accounting department.

Build collaboration into the workplaceAs training continues for the accountants, consider finding

ways to permanently build interdepartmental collaboration into your utility’s basic functions. This can help a utility maintain the efficiencies introduced by increasing communications with the accounting department. This process may include cross-training your professionals or expanding performance reviews.

Cross-train your professionalsAn immersive, operational cross-training program can

provide valuable insight into the interworking of the utility—helping build relationships and reveal operations intricacies. These trainings are typically set up as job shadowing programs, wherein the plant accountant, for example, shadows positions outside of their department, such as:

• Sales order or work order generation. Plant accountants can gain an understanding of who sets up work orders and which orders may have an increased risk of lack of monitoring or closing procedures.

• Staking, engineering, and design. Plant accountants can learn timing, design needs, and monitoring functions.

• Materials management or warehouse management. Plant accountants can gain a high-level understanding of which work orders require materials and how these materials are requisitioned to the work order.

• Project management and work order review. Plant accountants can learn about the monitoring function, which may be the most important of utility functions.


Expand performance reviewsAdding collaboration into performance evaluations, such as

a cross-department peer review, can provide another ongoing opportunity for personnel to connect and engage in each other’s work. This also helps motivate employees to build and sustain relationships with personnel in other departments throughout the year.

For example, if the plant accountant is included in work order monitoring meetings, key operational managers should be included in their performance review to verify the plant accountant is providing the value that comes with collaboration as well as insights that can increase efficiencies.

Adopt communication efficienciesMany common accounting errors occur from lack of timely,

accurate communication between departments. Utilities can lessen these errors by improving communication efficiencies via implementing new technology and holding cross-divisional meetings.

Implement new technologyAdopting advanced communication methods—such as

instant messaging or collaboration platforms like Skype or Mic-rosoft Teams—can help personnel reduce errors while allowing them to collaborate more efficiently across departments.

A technology-driven approach can also help sync data across the utility and align the organization with the skills

and interests of most millennials, which is the generation that will be the global-workforce majority by 2025. This can also help utilities stay current with—and appear more attractive to—changing workforce demographics.

Hold cross-divisional meetingsIt’s important for personnel across the utility to spend time

identifying where errors or miscommunications occur within the utility and strategizing how collaboration between divisions can reduce these issues. Though it may be challenging to imple-ment these meetings or communication channels, they should take place consistently, and participants should be willing to make changes to the process and the utility as growth occurs.

Next stepsTo learn more about how your utility can bolster its oper-

ations, increase efficiencies, and stay current with changing industry trends, contact an accounting or consulting profes-sional.

Julie Desimone has practiced public accounting since 2000. She’s the leader of the firm’s Power & Utilities Practice, spe-cializing in advanced utility accounting, regulatory assets, and liabilities, and more. She can be reached at (503) 478-2101 or [email protected].

https://esic.wsu.edu/academics/professional-science-masters-in-electrical-power-engineering/


FISH

Keep the Northwest Green and Affordable for All by Supporting HydroelectricityBy Kurt Miller

The region’s clean and equitable energy future hangs in the balance of a federal process that will con-

clude this year—and you can influence the outcome.

A court-ordered analysis will help determine the future of the four lower Snake River dams. It is the first time in nearly 20 years that the federal govern-ment has examined the value that these dams provide and the costs to society if they are breached.

The process is referred to as the Columbia River System Operations Environmental Impact Statement (CRSO EIS). The draft report will be released in late February, and a 45-day public comment period will follow.

Why this mattersOur region is facing a major chal-

lenge that many people aren’t aware of. In their sincere effort to help fight the effects of climate change, Northwest electric utilities have announced the retirement of thousands of megawatts of coal-fired generation over the next decade. It takes roughly 1,000 average megawatts to power a city the size of Seattle, so thousands of megawatts are a big deal.

Even with newly planned renewable generation, such as wind and solar, many Northwest energy experts are forecasting a high probability that regional black-outs could occur.

Perhaps an even greater threat is the possibility of a repeat of the 2000-2001 Western Energy Crisis where utilities had to compete for scarce energy supply. That historic event resulted in the loss of thousands of living-wage jobs in the Northwest and huge, prolonged spikes in electricity bills.

Given the region’s affordable housing shortage, an electricity price spike is something that we cannot let happen again. There are real human conse-quences. Our most vulnerable commu-nities can least afford it. They could be forced out of their homes, adding to the region’s already widespread homeless-ness crisis.

Amid this uncertain future, the fed-eral government is seeking your feedback about the future of the four lower Snake River dams.

The truth is that we need the hydro-electricity from these dams to prevent regional blackouts and to help fight the climate crisis. The four lower Snake River dams provide an average of 1,000 megawatts of carbon-free electricity and at times can produce as much as 3,000 megawatts.

The dams’ ability to store water and release it past turbines to generate electricity when needed is also critical. Wind and solar power are intermittent resources. This means that they can fluctuate greatly on a minute-to-minute basis, based on wind, cloud cover, and sunshine. However, the grid must have a perfect balance of supply and demand every second or blackouts can occur. The lower Snake River dams help provide that balance to keep the grid safe.

What about salmon?Lisa Crozier, a scientist at the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, recently said that scientists worldwide are seeing “almost synchronous declines in salmon popu-lations.” This finding tells us that the challenges that salmon face may not be related to dams after all.

People are becoming much more aware of the connection between the ocean warming and reduced salmon survival. As a matter of fact, many of the concerns that people often attribute to dams, such as poor adult salmon returns, can be easily traced to worsening ocean conditions.

Most scientists agree that our oceans are degrading at an alarming rate due to higher levels of carbon-causing acidifi-cation and warming. At the same time, increases in pollution and waste are poisoning marine life. The result is that critical prey for salmon are becoming scarce, and the marine ecosystems—where Chinook salmon spend 75% of their lives—are extremely out of balance.

There’s simply no way around it; for salmon to thrive, the state of the oceans must improve. To do that, we need to be adding carbon-free resources, not removing them.

Whether your concerns are about blackouts, energy prices, or climate change, it’s important to recognize the role that the lower Snake River dams play in our grid and our transition to carbon-free energy.

How you can helpWith so much uncertainty surround-

ing the topic, perhaps what is most clear is that opinions about the lower Snake River dams are heartfelt on both sides.

In the stakeholder report ordered by Washington Governor Jay Inslee, the consultants noted that the topic is incredibly divisive and that there is a need for more respect and understanding between both sides.

We acknowledge that there are dedicated groups that sincerely believe the dams do more harm than good,


particularly when it comes to salmon and orcas. Although the science on whether dams actually cause such harm or not is very mixed, dam-breaching proponents have been effective in rally-ing support for their cause.

Things will be no different when the public comment period on the draft EIS opens.

Now more than ever, it is critical that voices of support for the Lower Snake River dams are heard as well. Your input during the public comment period matters now more than ever, and your action—or lack thereof—could greatly influence the future of our region.

By writing to the federal agencies, you will help them understand the importance of the lower Snake River dams and ensure that we can achieve a clean and equitable future.

This is your opportunity to make a difference!

What to shareWe encourage you to share your

own views on the importance of the lower Snake River dams in your written comments, but feel free to consider these options as well:

• A recent pro-breaching report from ECONorthwest admits that there is “extreme uncertainty” around the benefits to salmon of breaching the lower Snake River dams. Due to improvements at these dams, the survival rate for juvenile fish is comparable to that of a free-flowing river. The science on the true bene-fits of breaching is highly contested.

• The Northwest is facing the threat of energy shortages, even with the dams in place. In California, recur-ring blackouts are already creating a two-class electric system, where the price of installing alternative energy systems and backup generators is still cost-prohibitive for lower income segments of the population.

• Our most vulnerable communities cannot afford a repeat of the 2000-2001 Western Energy Crisis which caused the loss of thousands of living-wage jobs and huge increases in electricity bills. A repeat could push many low-income communi-ties over the brink.

• Scientists have noted an almost synchronous declines in worldwide salmon populations, likely tied to worsening ocean conditions caused by climate change.

• To help the salmon, we need to keep our existing carbon-free resources add new renewables to the grid, like wind and solar. Hydroelectricity is essential to accomplishing that goal.

• With more wind and solar power coming online, hydroelectricity has become even more critical, because dams can store water and release it past turbines to generate electricity when needed. The storage and release of water can be matched perfectly with wind and solar to safely balance the grid.

• Breaching is bad for farmers, farm workers, and food. Much of the food produced in the Northwest comes from the eastern parts of the region. The lower Snake River dams provide important irrigation and the ability to barge food to downstream ports. Breaching the dams would harm under-served communities who work on the farms and reduce the region’s food supply.

DetailsLook for details on the CRSO EIS

at www.nwd.usace.army.mil/crso. The draft EIS should be released at the end of February. The best way to keep informed is to submit your email address to [email protected] and ask to be added to the notifications list. If you don’t have access to email, you can ask for physical notifications by sending your name and address to US Army Corps of Engineers, Attn: CRSO EIS, PO Box 2870, Port-land, OR 97208-2870.

After doing so, you should receive further information on the release of the draft CRSO EIS and how to provide input, either in public forums or in writing.

Kurt Miller is the executive director of Northwest RiverPartners and can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow Northwest RiverPartners on social media @nwriverpartners or visit www.nwriverpartners.org.

http://www.kvaelectric.com


SAFETY

Grant PUD’s Safety Days Ask If You Are Rehearsing for a FatalityBy Christine Pratt

day thinking and talking safety. Lunch will be provided by Grant PUD.

Despite the more detailed agenda in 2020, the budget for the upcoming event is unchanged from last year’s $25,000. The organization team will save money this time around by using Grant PUD’s own property to host the event, rather than the local community college.

Sims’ success last year has created good momentum for 2020. He peppered his message with stories of success and tragedy, all delivered in an ambling, neighborly style and South Carolina accent.

He said that positive reinforcement and “servant leader-ship” are key to getting coworkers company-wide to willingly change their established behaviors to be safer. A big part of his message targeted managers. He used words and video to urge them to be better examples for their employees and more effective at bringing about change.

Deputies from the Grant County Sheriff’s Office kicked off the event with a presentation and display table on defensive driving. Several vendors were on hand with their safety gear, tools, demonstrations, and more.

“What better way to celebrate National Safety Month than a Grant PUD Safety Day?” asked Craig Bressan, Grant’s senior manager of Industrial Training and Safety. “Our employees embraced the event and know that it has become a new tradi-tion. We received lots of positive feedback and suggestions. I’m proud to say I am confident this year’s event will be even better than last years.”

Christine Pratt is in the Public Affairs department at Grant PUD in Ephrata, Wash. She can be contacted at [email protected].

You often text while driving a car. You take off that personal protection gear because it occasionally gets in the way. And sometimes the task at hand is too urgent to

follow established procedures.You’re extra careful while doing all these things. Been doing

them for years. Never had a problem. Never even had any serious close calls.

Bill Sims Jr. would say you’re just “rehearsing for a fatal-ity”—routinely practicing for the time your luck runs out and your years of risk-taking culminate in your own death, the death of someone you love, or the death of the stranger who happens to be on the receiving end of your years of rehearsal.

A motivational speaker and expert on the power of positive reinforcement, Sims delivered this message to everyone at Grant County PUD in Central Washington for the first annual Safety Days last year. The same event took place on two different dates to accommodate as many work schedules as possible. Attendance was mandatory for all but essential personnel. About 500 employees attended from around the district. The event was timed in June to commemorate National Safety Month.

Safety Days is part of a safety culture that reaches every far-flung corner of this rural utility with a 4,000-mile electric system that delivers hydropower from its two Columbia River dams. The event began as the idea of a longtime employee, RJ Fronsman, who discovered his passion for safety while on the job here at Grant and is now senior safety coordinator.

“I was attending my first National Safety Conference and Expo in Houston when I first heard Sims speak and learned that Snohomish PUD organizes a big safety event every year for its employees,” Fronsman said. “Having a safety event of our own would be a great way to get Sims out in front of Grant PUD employees to continue to build our culture of safety.”

He added, “Our first event was very successful. It brought all employees together to determine ‘your why.’” Why is safety important to you? Is it your family? Kids? Coworkers? Like Sims says, safety is a value, not a priority, because priorities change.”

As the force behind Grant PUD’s first Safety Days, Frons-man quickly learned that a big event like this is best tackled by a team.

“All leaders at Grant PUD are supportive of Safety Days and building our safety culture to become one of the safest places to work,” Fronsman said. “But I can’t organize the event alone. This year, I’ve put a team together of 12 employ-ees—people willing to help others stay safe and care about each other to reach our goal of another successful event.”

Planning is already underway for the 2020 edition. It’ll happen over the summer, this time on a single day with a series of topics, each with its own, specialized workshop. Attendees will choose the topics that interest them and spend an entire

A vendor of safety harnesses and fall-protection equipment presents to Grant PUD employees at Safety Days 2019.


http://www.nisc.coop


ENGINEERING & OPERATIONS

Central Lincoln PUD Modernizes Low-Side Substation ConstructionBy Shamus Gamache, P.E. and Don Schuch

The Central Lincoln People’s Utility District in Newport, Ore., has been modernizing and standardizing its substa-tion designs for years. Overarching design goals for our

substation upgrades include optimal reliability for customers taking into account frequent and reoccurring winter storms that hammer the Oregon Coast each year; and integrating resiliency into our substation infrastructure for much less frequent cata-strophic events such as a Cascadia earthquake. Further, we are standardizing our substation designs so that personnel from any of our three operational areas will be familiar with the design of all 27 of our substations.

The low-side portion of substations consists of a steel support structure, aluminum bus, insulators, and switches that distribute the electricity to the distribution breakers below. All these parts and pieces make up the top of the steel structure ultimately located about 15 feet in the air. Traditionally, these structures are assembled high in the air with personnel in bucket trucks wearing fall-protection gear. The tight clearances between low-side substation components has always been problematic. Substation journeyman wiremen must frequently lower their buckets, reposition their trucks, and then go back up in the bucket again over and over to complete the assembly, which is time-consuming and inefficient.

Most of the 27 Central Lincoln substations consist of a high-side (115kV or 69kV) with a power transformer that steps down sub-transmission voltage levels to 12.5kV distribution system level voltages. A few other substations are sub-transmis-sion switching stations. Our most recent substation low-side rebuild at one of our substations south of Florence, Ore., had a low-side needing to be upgraded. We went from a single main bus to a main/aux transfer bus scheme as shown in Figures 1 and 2 below.

The most recent and modern 12.5kV low-sides in our substations are all designed by our own internal Electrical and Civil Engineering staff with a main and auxiliary transfer bus configuration as shown in Figure 2. The auxiliary (aux bus) are there to be used in place of the main breaker or a feeder breaker as a backup in case of routine breaker testing or maintenance of a breaker. The aux breakers relay settings are programmed in a way to digitally toggle the proper setting group based on the configuration of the system.

The best engineers rely on their wiremen, lineworkers, and meter/relaymen because they know their substations inside and out. Their input should be encouraged and brought in early in the design process so their ideas can be incorporated.

CLPUD’s IBEW journeyman substation foreman, Dave Brucha, mulled the decades-old low-side construction process over. “I thought it would be more efficient if we all could be working on the low-side at the same time and not have to work from buckets,” he said. “What if we assembled the structure close to the ground, and then when the majority of the work was finished hoist it into place?”

The completed assembly would weigh approximately 15,000 pounds. Some were skeptical and didn’t think lifting a structure that heavy would even be possible using equipment in Central Lincoln’s fleet, or would not be economical to contract a crane to perform the lift. However, calculations showed that with two trucks and a crane doing the lifting with proper equipment, the mostly completed upper assembly could be safely hoisted high and bolted to the support columns below—and it worked!

Figure 1: Main only low-side (before the 2019 rebuild). Figure 2: Main/aux bus low-side (after the 2019 rebuild).


Figure 2, vacuum break-interrupting circuit breakers are made from 304L stainless steel and all of the control cabinets are weather-tight with heaters, thermostats, and vents to prevent condensation.

After installing the breakers, the substation crew moved into the control house to complete the panel wiring. The crew had previously assembled the panels, installed protection relays, and performed some preliminary wiring so only the final panel and substation device wiring were left. Central Lincoln’s meter and relay technicians performed the final panel relay testing with the substation crew. Elements in the control house for this particular low-side rebuild included five 12.5kV panels (one main, one aux, and three feeders) all with SCADA bitronics meters, feeder protection relays, and a transformer differential protection relay. All of these intelligence electronic devices are communicating thru to a real-time automation controller along with one discrete programmable automation controller.

The final step was tying all of this into our SCADA system as shown in this screen shot:

The new construction method went so well, Central Lincoln will be using this approach for future substation builds and rebuilds. Brucha’s brainstorm means his crew’s work will be quicker and less risky because they are no longer working out of a bucket truck. Plus, it saves approximately two weeks in labor for each low-side construction.

Brucha’s innovative ideas are leading Central Lincoln into the future of the utility industry and he is already planning. “The next one will go even better,” he said.

The 50-plus employees involved in the construction of any of our low-side substations all bring their individual talents and skills together for a project that meets or exceeds expectations. Our substation projects are completed safely within a fairly tight construction schedule window and without any outages. Over time, the substation low-side rebuilds should prove to be a great value by adding better reliability to our customers, and our modernized substation design is expected to last at least 50 to 100 years.

Shamus Gamache, P.E. is the electrical engineering supervisor and Don Schuch is the civil associate 2 at Central Lincoln PUD, which serves 39,960 meters in 10 cities and parts of four counties. They can be contacted at [email protected] and [email protected] respectively.

“I love it when a plan comes together!” said General Man-ager Randy Grove. “Dave’s idea was simple, yet ingenious, and I’m very pleased it went perfectly.”

Thanks to our new low-side structure design, low-side con-struction goes much more quickly and safely than in years past. With the new design, the installation of disconnect switches, station post insulators, bus supports, and substation bus can be completed from the ground instead of from inside a bucket. Central Lincoln also uses compression bus fittings which also reduce installation time by three weeks over traditional bus welding, and we have experienced very high reliability with the compression-bus-fittings approach, which has proven effective in a coastal environment with high winds, heavy rain, and corrosive sea salt air.

After the bus construction and the subsequent lifting of the low-side steel, the installation of 12.5kV circuit breakers and external control panels located in the control house followed. Because of our coastal conditions, Central Lincoln requires that all the external metals on devices installed in its substations, including circuit breakers and switches, are made from hot-dipped galvanized steel, 304L stainless steel, or 5000-6000 marine-grade aluminum. In the case of the low-side bus in

IBEW Journeyman Substation Foreman Dave Brucha reviews plans for a substa-tion upgrade with Civil Associate 2 Don Schuch.

Central Lincoln PUD Journeymen Maintenance Wiremen Cory West, Justin Olson, and James Bond take a moment to celebrate an innovation conceived of

by their foreman, Dave Brucha.


MEMBER NEWS

Modern Electric’s Baker Receives Leadership Award

Modern Electric Water Compa-ny’s (Spokane Valley, Wash.)

Barry Baker received the Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Legacy of Leadership Award. The award was presented on November 15, 2019, at the chamber’s annual meeting. Baker is president and CEO of Baker Construction & Development, Inc., and a 16-year Modern Electric Water Company Board member. He currently holds the position of board vice president.

Nominees for the Legacy of Leadership award are outstand-ing leaders whose dedication and tireless efforts have made a significant impact on the chamber and businesses in the Greater Spokane Valley region.

CRPUD to Become Debt-Free with 2020 Budget

The Columbia River People’s

Utility District (Deer Island, Ore.) Board of Directors has adopted a budget for 2020 that calls for the util-ity to pay off the remainder of its outstanding debt. The PUD’s $42.5 million Operat-ing and Capital Budget will also keep rates stable in 2020.

“This budget reflects our continuing commitment to providing safe, reliable, and affordable energy and services to our customers. Keeping an eye on the future and being fiscally responsible will allow us to become debt-free by the end of 2020. This is a huge accomplishment,” said General Manager John Nguyen.

Historically, the only time CRPUD has taken on debt has been to purchase facilities from PGE. This occurred in 1984 when the PUD first energized, and again in 2000.

In 2015, the PUD refinanced the debt it had incurred in 2000 when it acquired the island cities of St. Helens, Scap-poose, and Columbia City from PGE. The 2020 Budget will allocate $859,000 to pay off the balance of this refinanced loan, leaving the utility completely debt-free.

Apprentice Lineman Patrick Hart and Journeyman Lineman Kevin Engstrom hang transformers on a

power pole.

Grant PUD Plans to Reduce Debt

Three of the world’s top bond-rating agencies have affirmed strong credit ratings for Grant PUD (Ephrata, Wash.) as the

utility readies to pay down debt for long-term savings that will help keep electric rates low.

The high ratings enable Grant PUD to take fuller advantage of current market conditions to refinance $200 million in exist-ing debt at a lower interest rate. The utility will also use cash savings to reduce total debt by $85 million.

The two transactions are expected to save $125 million in reduced or avoided debt-service payments over the coming decades.

“This is great news for Grant PUD and our customers,” Treasurer Bonnie Overfield said. “These transactions help lower our costs, while keeping debt equitably spread out over generations of customers. That helps us keep rates as low as possible for everyone.”

On December 31, S&P Global affirmed an AA+/Stable credit rating for Grant PUD bond transactions, pointing to “strong” or “extremely strong” finances, operational manage-ment, environmental compliance, rate-setting practices, cash reserves, and general ability to repay its debt.

Earlier last year, Moody’s and Fitch Ratings also affirmed their respective Aa3 and AA ratings.

Chelan Dives into Proposed Rate Plan

Details related to Chelan PUD’s (Wenatchee, Wash.) imple-mentation of rate changes included in the 2020-2024

strategic plan were discussed by Chelan PUD Board members on January 20.

The proposal reflects customer-owner preference heard during strategic planning for smaller, predictable electric rate changes to reduce the risk of larger increases in the future. The strategic plan recommended putting any increased revenue into reserves to help reduce this risk.

PUD staff is proposing that a $1.75/month increase be applied to the residential customer charge. The residential customer charge is a fixed amount on the monthly bill that recovers the costs of being connected to the grid, no matter the amount of power used. This reflects about a 3% annual increase in overall residential bills.

“When we consider adjusting between rate components like the customer charge and energy use, we need to better align cost recovery by rate component,” said Lindsey Mohns, Customer Utilities business manager.

Even with these changes, Chelan PUD rates will remain among the lowest in the country. Chelan PUD hasn’t changed electric rates in nine years.


Ron Skagen Appointed to APPA Council

Douglas PUD (East Wenatchee, Wash.) Commissioner Ron

Skagen was named to a three-year term on the American Public Power Association’s Policy Makers Council by its board of directors. The PMC assists APPA in promoting federal legislation that is important to public power utilities like Douglas PUD and opposing harmful legis-lation. It also provides advice on other issues of importance to the association. The PMC is made up of members who serve on either utility boards or are elected officials in public power communities. Members of the council meet a minimum of twice a year, and participate in meetings with elected representatives and congressional staff for the purposes of supporting the APPA’s national legislative agenda.

“I am pleased to represent our region in this capacity,” said Skagen. “I have been involved with the APPA, previously serving on the board of directors, and I enjoy the service.”

Skagen has served on the Douglas PUD Commission since 2007.

Flathead Achieves Significant Energy Savings

Flathead Electric Cooperative (Kalispell, Mont.) reported that it saved enough energy through efficiency efforts last year to

energize 776 average-usage homes for a year. Energy efficiency is a valuable resource because energy savings the co-op achieves is energy that doesn’t have to be purchased, which benefits us all.

Examples of energy/money-saving accomplishments for 2019 include paying its members and program partners over $1.8 million for energy efficiency efforts that saved a combined total of 9,300 megawatt-hours of electricity; residential incen-tives totaled over $859,000 (almost double incentives paid in 2018); and commercial incentives topped $911,000.

Since 2009, Flathead Electric’s efficiency programs have saved members and the cooperative over 109,000 megawatt-hours, which is enough energy to power nearly 109,000 homes for a year. The Bonneville Power Administra-tion, the co-op’s wholesale power supplier, supports Flathead Electric’s energy efficiency efforts with reimbursements for qualified energy efficiency measures for members. Additionally, Flathead Electric offers members a 3% fixed-rate loan to achieve higher efficiency in their homes.

Brian Hess Elected to Vera W&P Board

Vera Water and Power (Spokane Valley, Wash.) has announced

that Brian Hess is the newest member of its board of directors. Hess, who holds an MBA and CPA, has spent nearly 20 years of experience in the electric util-ity industry. He spent 13 years in the Portland, Ore., area, working first for PacifiCorp (Pacific Power) and then NWPPA. He currently serves as chief financial officer for Inland Power & Light. His career has focused on corporate taxation, transmission contracts, and financial reporting. A Vera Water and Power customer, he enjoys music, hiking, and working with his hands.

“Brian brings a breadth of experience, talent, and expertise to the table. We are very lucky to be able to have him with us,” said Vera Water and Power General Manager Kevin Wells.

Hess is replacing Bryan St. Clair, who proudly served the district for two years and was the 2019 Vera Water and Power Board chair.

The slate of Vera Water and Power Board members, includ-ing officers, is Diana Wilhite, 2020 chair; Steve Wulf, 2020 vice chair; David Peterson, director; Floyd Schmedding, director; and Hess.

CVEA Names Million as Next CEO

Following a review of internal candidates and focused delib-eration, the Copper Valley Electric Association (Glennallen,

Alaska) Board of Directors named Travis Million as the organi-zation’s next chief executive officer. He succeeds John Duhamel, who will step down as CEO effective March 1, 2020, after having served as CVEA’s CEO for roughly five of his 10 years with the cooperative.

Million came to CVEA in 2008 as a member of the board of directors before joining staff as the manager of power genera-tion in 2011. He currently holds the position of chief operating officer overseeing operations, production, engineering, environ-mental and regulatory compliance, and safety divisions.

A leader and engineer with over 20 years of experience in the power system and electric utility industry, he worked for Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories prior to working for CVEA. He serves as the current chairperson of the Alaska Power Association Safety Committee, the vice chairman on the Copper River Local Emergency Planning Committee, and the secretary of the Glennallen Community Chapel Board; he also serves on the ARECA Training Council Board and served one term on the Copper Valley Telecom Board. Most notably, Million is a past recipient of the Alaska Journal of Commerce’s “Top Forty Under 40” award for business and community leadership.


Mason 3 Exceeds Funding Goal by 36%

Mason PUD 3 (Shelton, Wash.) employees broke

their contribution thermome-ter for United Way of Mason County’s Workplace Cam-paign. Employee-organizers set a campaign goal of $14,000, but PUD 3 employees exceeded their target by 36%, committing to just over $19,000 in dona-tions ($19,070.34 to be exact). PUD 3 is committed to staying engaged with the needs of the community and to collaborate with community partners. In announcing the fundraising results, the PUD extended its thanks to United Way for all the good work it does in Mason County.

MEMBER NEWS

Seeking Applications for Railbelt Grid Organization

The Railbelt utilities have joined together to form a Rail-belt Reliability Council. The RRC provides a forum and

structure for the six interconnected Railbelt utilities, along with six non-utility stakeholders, to work together to address Railbelt-wide regional electric system issues in order to ensure grid resilience and reduce long term costs.

Applications are being sought from qualified organizations and individuals to be part of the 12-member Implementation Committee that will develop the RRC. Individuals and organizations interested in applying for one of the non-utility seats on the RRC Implementation Committee must submit an application by February 17 at 5 p.m. Implementation Committee members will be deemed volunteers and will not receive compensation from the RRC for their service on the Implementation Committee.

More details about the non-utility seats, including qualification requirements and criteria, can be found at www.alaskapower.org/rrc/.

Mike Gonzalez Joins Franklin PUD Public Affairs

Franklin PUD (Pasco, Wash.) welcomes Mike Gonzalez as the

new senior manager of public affairs. Gonzalez will be responsible for advocating Franklin PUD’s policy positions; developing and maintaining positive customer relationships; and identifying and promoting priorities important to the electric industry today. He will also be responsible for Franklin PUD’s communication strategy, ensuring that the needs of their diverse customer base are met.

Gonzalez was most recently the 4 p.m. news anchor at the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, Ariz. He also has strong ties in the Tri-Cities where he was the news director and evening anchor at KAPP/KVEW ABC. There he managed daily operations, branding, and marketing for the news department in their Tri-Cities and Yakima bureaus. He also spent nearly seven years at KXLY ABC in Spokane as a morning and primary evening news anchor. He also held executive producer and managing editor roles in Raleigh, N.C., where he worked at WNCN NBC.

“I’m so grateful to start the next chapter of my career here in eastern Washington and look forward to being a part of the Franklin PUD team as we serve our community,” said Gonza-lez.

SnoPUD Awards Solar Energy Grants

Two Snohomish County (Everett, Wash.) non-profit orga-nizations have been awarded PUD solar energy grants as

part of a four-year pilot program to expand solar benefits to income-qualified customers. The grants will generate energy savings that will be directed back into community programs.

As grant recipients, the Community Resource Center of Stanwood-Camano (CRC) and Everett-based HopeWorks will each receive a combination of bill credits and state incentives based on the energy generated by 417 76-watt solar units in the PUD’s Arlington Community Solar array. It is estimated each organization will receive close to $7,000 a year from the energy generated by their solar units, or nearly $28,000 over the course of the grant.

“We launched Community Solar in 2019 with the goal of making the benefits of solar energy more accessible,” said Suzy Oversvee, senior program manager. “These grants enable the CRC and HopeWorks to take their energy savings and pay it forward to those they serve in our communities.”

PCWA Appoints Fecko as Next GM

The Placer County Water Agency (Auburn, Calif.) announced on January 7 that Andrew Fecko has been appointed as the

Agency’s next general manager. The PCWA Board of Directors approved his contract at its meeting on January 6.

Fecko currently serves as PCWA’s director of strategic affairs, a position held since 2017. Hired in 2006 as a resource planning administrator, Fecko has led several high-priority projects for the Agency, including the relicensing of PCWA’s Middle Fork American River Project. In 2013 he assumed the position of director of resource development where he was responsible for operational and environmental management of the Agency’s hydroelectric assets, including state and federal regulatory compliance, and energy marketing and sales. In his current position, Fecko manages PCWA’s strategic business partnerships, and regulatory and government affairs.

Fecko will succeed current General Manager Einar Maisch, who will retire from PCWA on February 28 after a 34-year career with the Agency.


Benton PUD’s Bartram to Retire, Dunn to Be Appointed

Chad Bartram, Benton PUD’s (Kennewick, Wash.) general manager since January 2013, has announced his inten-

tion to retire effective February 29. The Benton PUD Board of Commissioners plans to appoint Rick Dunn as the next general manager effective March 1. Dunn currently serves as the senior director of engineering and power management.

Bartram has been with the District for 19 years and has held positions of director of finance and business services and general manager. Previously, he worked at Energy Northwest for 15 years and served on active duty as a U.S. Army officer for over five years.

“I am very thankful for having had the opportunity to work with such a great group of dedicated and skilled employees, and a supportive board of commissioners,” said Bartram. “It is absolutely amazing what our employees have accomplished over the last several years. Under Rick’s leadership, I see more great things ahead.”

Electrify America Invests in SMUD Program

Electrify America is investing $1.3 million in the Energy StorageShares program developed by the Sacramento Munic-

ipal Utility District (Calif.). The investment will help Electrify America reduce its overall energy-related costs and lower the company’s impact on Sacramento’s electrical grid.

“This first-of-a-kind program will help address peak energy demands, minimize impacts to the grid, and support the expansion of EV charging in our community,” said SMUD CEO and General Manager Arlen Orchard. “A program like this also continues to move us toward a carbon-free economy by enabling higher levels of renewable generation to be integrated with the grid.”

Through SMUD’s innovative Energy StorageShares program, Electrify America will purchase an interest in an energy storage program with the utility company. This will help reduce Electrify America’s demand charges and increase the overall grid benefit of its energy storage. Demand charges are presently the largest operating cost barrier to public EV infrastructure deployment, representing up to 80% of a given electricity bill.

Tribes Break Ground on New Salmon Hatchery

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reserva-tion kicked off construction of the Walla Walla River Fish

Hatchery with a groundbreaking ceremony at the hatchery site on January 10.

As part of its Fish and Wildlife Program, the Bonneville Power Administration is funding the project, located 10 miles east of Milton-Freewater, Ore. Once complete, the hatchery is expected to return thousands of adult spring chinook salmon to tributaries throughout the Walla Walla River Basin each year.

The new facility is also expected to double the amount of young fish released into the South Fork Walla Walla and Touchet rivers from the current 250,000 to about a half-million annually. The majority of the smolts will be released into the South Fork Walla Walla, with approximately 20% going to the nearby Touchet.

“This Tribal hatchery is included in the Columbia Basin Fish Accords agreement with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and illustrates the progress we can make for fish when we all work together,” said Scott Armentrout, vice president of BPA’s Environment, Fish and Wildlife Program. “The partnerships derived from the Accords also ensures BPA gets the highest value for the fish and wildlife investments it makes throughout the Northwest.”

New Offerings Announced at PSREC

Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative (Portola, Calif.) has rolled out a new outage notification system for its

members. PSREC members can now receive localized outage notifications specific to their service location and report power outages. Members will need to create a SmartHub account and choose how to receive notifications.

Also, PSREC and its telecommunications subsidiary will be offering two $1,000 scholarships in a program designed to enhance the education and resulting careers of deserving rural students. All interested students are invited and encouraged to apply. To qualify, the student or parent/guardian’s primary residence in Plumas, Lassen, Sierra, or Washoe counties must be supplied with either electric power through Plumas-Sierra REC or internet service through Plumas-Sierra Telecommunications.

We Remember: Thomas Dean Svendsen

Former Klickitat PUD general manager Thomas Dean Svendsen passed away on January 4 after losing his

battle with pulmonary fibrosis. He was 66 years old. Svendsen was born on September 24, 1953, at Fort

Lawton Hospital while his father served in Korea. He was raised in Seattle and graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in electrical engineering in 1976. He married his college sweetheart Debi Thor-lakson soon after he moved to Goldendale to take a position as an engineer at Klickitat PUD.

He enjoyed a 33-year career at the PUD and served as general manager from 2003 to his retirement in 2009. Svendsen was a champion of renewable energy and worked diligently on the building of the HW Hill Landfill gas to energy project, the Goodnoe Hills Mod II project (the first large-scale wind project in the nation), and the White Creek Wind project. He was also integral on biomass generation and the beginnings of the planned pumped-storage project.

Svendsen is survived by his wife Debi; parents, Ed and Frances Svendsen; brother, Ted (and Charlotte) Svendsen; daughter, Kristi (and Chuck) Herron; son, Kevin (and Jennifer) Svendsen; and grandchildren, Paddy Herron, Keegan Herron, Austin Svendsen, and Payten Svendsen.


ASSOCIATE MEMBER NEWS

GenPac Donates Drone to College

When Reed Pitney of General Pacific, Inc. asked Mike Davis for a suggestion on where to donate an unmanned aerial

vehicle, Davis answered without hesitation: “Columbia Gorge Community College.”

Davis is an experienced pilot with over five years’ expe-rience operating drones and is an instructor in CGCC’s new Unmanned Aerial Systems program. CGCC’s UAS program is designed to guide students through UAS operations and help them prepare to become licensed. The GenPac-donated drone will be used in classes for the UAS program and for mainte-nance training.

“This drone ties nicely into the UAS-103 class (Public Safety), where we discuss the utilization of drones within the fields of utilities, law enforcement, fire departments, solar farms, wind energy, and county and state governments,” said Davis.

According to Pitney, GenPac was “excited to donate to an institution that will be using this technology to teach the next generation of drone pilots how to fly safer and more efficiently.”

General Pacific is one of the leading wholesale stocking distributors in the Northwest region of the United States. For more information, visit www.genpacdrones.com.

NuScale Submits Review to CNSC

On January 7, NuScale Power announced its first submittal to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for pre-

licensing vendor design review (VDR) of NuScale’s innovative small modular reactor design. This submission reflects the substantive work that NuScale continues to accomplish in the regulatory field as the company is simultaneously bringing the U.S.’s first NuScale power plant into production and operation by 2026.

“Interest in building NuScale plants in Canada continues to grow. This pre-licensing process allows our design to be reviewed by another highly respected regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, and we look forward to their thorough evaluation of our innovative safety features,” said NuScale Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Hopkins.

Building on the extensive body of information NuScale developed as part of the NRC’s DCA process, the VDR submis-sion to the CNSC will allow a NuScale customer to maximize increased efficiencies for technical reviews when later seeking to submit a construction license application. NuScale’s technology is the world’s first and only SMR to undergo design certification review by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

NuScale Power has developed a new modular light water reactor nuclear power plant to supply energy for electrical generation, district heating, desalination, and other process heat applications. For more information, visit www.nuscalepower.com.

True North Gear Launches New Retail Website

True North Gear® launched its new retail website on January 6. Both the True North and DragonWear brand sites will be

merged under one parent website to create an enhanced online shopping experience.

The new retail website will allow customers to order prod-ucts online directly from True North and DragonWear. Users can create a personal account to save payment information for faster checkout and can track the shipping and delivery status of any order placed. In addition to the ability to purchase directly, the retail website also offers a variety of new and enhanced features that help to provide an overall optimized shopping experience. These features include both True North and DragonWear inventory available under a single domain with their own unique categories, improved design, and user experience components for easier browsing and faster page load times, and a larger library of in-depth technical and industry- related content. In conjunction with the retail site, all True North and DragonWear products will continue to be stocked and available for purchase through True North Gear’s valued network of dealers.

True North® is a trusted source for quality packs, bags, and FR clothing. For more information, please visit truenorthgear.com, call (800) 873-5725, or send an email to [email protected].

(L-R) Reed Pitney, Dr. Marta Yera-Cronin, and Mike Davis. Photo by Jessica Griffin Conner

Are you looking for a great way to reach more customers?Reach over 5,000 utility and associate members every month by advertising here. Email [email protected] for more information on how you can get more visibility for your prod-ucts and services today!

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Paoli Retires from Energy Northwest

Mike Paoli has retired from Energy Northwest (Richland, Wash.) after more than 10 years. Paoli began his Energy

Northwest career as the assistant manager of public affairs and spent the last six years as chief communication officer and manager of public affairs. His prior experience includes a variety of communications and public relations positions over a 20-year career in the U.S. Air Force, where he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Stepping into his post will be Carla Martinez.

ORECA’s Case Wins J.C. Brown Award

Ted Case, executive director of the Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association and the author of two books on

co-op history, has won NRECA’s annual J.C. Brown CEO Communication Leadership Award.

Case has been a national voice for co-ops, serving on NRECA’s 21st Century Cooperative Committee, which exam-ined the purpose of modern electric co-ops. Last year, he was a vocal champion for the successful passage in Congress of the RURAL Act, which protects the tax-exempt status of co-ops when they accept government grants.

The leader of the Oregon statewide association has written two books chronicling key moments in co-op history. One of those books, “Power Plays: The U.S. Presidency, Electric Cooperatives and the Transformation of Rural America,” has become required reading for co-op communicators. He also launched a statewide magazine in 2012.

Case said it’s “vitally important” that co-ops communicate the electric cooperative story.

“If we don’t, someone else will tell our story for us,” he said. “I write books about electric co-op history because there are countless stories that deserve to be told. And I’m not done yet.”

Two More Utilities Select OSI

Open Systems International, Inc. has been awarded a contract by UNS Energy, the parent company of Tucson

Electric Power, to supply a state-of-the-art energy management system built on OSI’s monarch™ operational technology (OT) platform to manage TEP’s generation and transmission opera-tions. This will replace TEP’s legacy EMS system in mid-2021. TEP has previously contracted with OSI to implement OSI’s Advanced Distribution Management System with outage man-agement capabilities for control of their distribution networks. Following the addition of this EMS, they will have successfully transitioned to a single OT vendor and technology, streamlining their operations, maintenance, and updates for the entirety of their generation, transmission, and distribution operations.

OSI has also been awarded a contract by Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation to supply a state-of-the-art Distribution Management System (DMS) built on OSI’s monarch™ OT platform. This solution will replace MTEMC’s legacy SCADA system, updating and fortifying the utility’s distribution operations. Implementation of OSI’s DMS solution provides MTEMC with a flexible and scalable OT platform capable of integration with current and emerging advanced technologies such as distributed energy resources and auto-mated devices.

Open Systems International (www.osii.com) provides open, state-of-the-art, and high-performance enterprise automation solutions to utilities worldwide.

Ted Case accepts the J.C. Brown Award from NRECA CEO Jim Matheson. (Photo by Stephen Reasonover, NRECA)

GDS Announces Acquisition of EES

GDS Associates, Inc., an engineering and consulting firm in the electric

utility industry, has announced their acquisition of EES Consulting, Inc., an engineering and consulting firm based in Kirkland, Wash., who has been providing services to electric utilities on the West Coast for the past 30 years. Both companies provide engineering and consulting services predominately to public power electric utilities and this acquisition creates a combined nationwide presence.

“GDS has been fortunate to know Gary Saleba for many years and EES is a wonderful addition to the GDS family, as both companies have similar skill sets, cultures, and visions for serving public power utilities,” said GDS President David Brian. “With our combined expertise and service offerings, we look forward to creating a nationwide presence in the electric utility industry and expanding GDS services to existing and potential public power clients on the West Coast.”

Going forward, EES will operate as EES Consulting, a GDS Associates Company and current president Saleba will continue to manage EES offices in Washington and Oregon. All existing EES employees are remaining in their current roles, with the additional benefit of offering clients extended capabilities, expertise, and resources from GDS skilled professionals nationwide.

For more information, visit www.gdsassociates.com or www.eesconsulting.com.

https://www.osii.com


WASHINGTON, D.C.

U.S. Congress Approves Appropriations Packages and Tax Extender BillBy Nicole Case

A week before Christmas, the U.S. Congress reached agreement on the remaining appropriations

bills for Fiscal Year 2020. Passage of these bills marked the end of intense negotiations impacted by the run up to this year’s presidential election and impeachment proceedings. In a move that indicated that the U.S. Congress sought to conclude business and move on to other pressing issues such as the president’s impeachment proceedings, the package of appropriations bills also included a bundle of tax provisions. President Trump signed these bills into law on December 20, 2020. Both the appropriation bills and the tax extend-ers bill include priority funding and tax provisions supported by NWPPA and its consumer-owned utility members.

Funding for wildfire prevention and suppression

As wildfires in our forests and grass-lands have increased, so has the priority placed upon preventing and suppressing it in the U.S. Congress. NWPPA has supported forest management policy reforms and increased funding to combat wildfires for several years. In that time, wildfires have increased, drawing increased attention at home and in Washington, D.C. The Interior Appropriations bill includes $5.53 billion for Wildfire Management and

Suppression, which is $1.607 billion above the FY2019 enacted level. The bill provides the combined $1.394 billion in base wildland fire suppression funding, plus $2.25 billion in additional wildfire suppression funding from the wildfire cap adjustment. Of the funds made available from the wildfire cap adjustment, $1.95 billion is for the U.S. Forest Service and $300 million is for the Department of the Interior. The USFS budget under the Department of Agriculture also includes a $10.3 million increase for hazardous fuels reduction to prevent catastrophic wildfires with an emphasis on the wildland-urban interface. Congress also directed some of these funds to be used for increased state and volunteer firefighting.

Energy & Water Appropriations: SMRs and PMAs

Congress continues to find value in the development of small modular reactors (SMRs), providing funding in the Energy & Water Appropriations bill dedicating $100 million to the SMR program. Power marketing adminis-trations are also valued with language in the bill to address the Bonneville Power Administration’s competitiveness through a review of the cost allocation of the Federal Columbia River Power System and the authorization for BPA to pay carbon fees associated with its sales.

The cost allocations per FCRPS hydro projects are decades old and do not reflect current operational priorities. Power production has been diminished while other project uses, such as spills for fish and flood control, have increased. This review of hydro project cost allocations seeks to align current project benefits with costs.

The authority for BPA to pay carbon fees associated with its sales activities is important to avoid the costs of “sleeving” transactions through third parties and will become increasingly important if BPA participates in the CAISO Energy Imbalance Market or if any of the Northwest states adopt carbon fee policies.

It is important to note that while the final Energy & Water Appropriations bill did not include language expressly rejecting the president’s support for selling PMA transmission assets or changing the way federal power is sold, the bill also did not adopt the proposals that threaten PMAs.

Rural broadband fundingCongress continues to support

expansion of broadband services to rural areas. The Agriculture Appropriations bill included close to $11.179 million funds for this purpose. While this amount is less than the $29.851 million appropriated this year, it is more than


Tri-Cities:

A CLEANENERGYCOMMUN I T Y

HYDRO • NUCLEAR • WIND • SOLAR

the president’s budget proposal of zero funds. Access to high-speed internet can improve education and health care, and lead to economic development opportunities in rural areas, a priority for NWPPA.

Tax provisions: RURAL Act and energy tax credits

The last-minute push for a deal on funding for FY 2020 also included a package of tax provisions, some aimed at fixing unintended consequences of the 2017 Tax Reform bill and others seeking to extend tax credits relied upon by business and the American public.

In a huge win for rural electric cooperatives, the tax bill includes the RURAL Act, a bill that corrects the unintended consequence of considering, for tax purposes, governmental grants at non-member income. Rural electric cooperative tax-exempt status depends on a division between income of 15% non-member income and 85% member income—called the 85/15 rule. This means that only 15% of a cooperative’s

income can come from non-member sources. The 2017 Tax Reform bill included language that allowed the Internal Revenue Service to view govern-mental grants as non-member income and placed many rural electric coopera-tives’ tax-exempt status in jeopardy.

NWPPA supported its rural coop-erative members, working with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and individual cooperative members to urge the congressional dele-gation to support the RURAL Act. Final inclusion of the bill was not secured until the final few days of debate and is a clear win for rural electric cooperatives nationwide.

The bill also extends the wind pro-duction tax credit (PTC) and investment tax credit (ITC) through the 2020 Fiscal Year. The U.S. Congress has been phas-ing out both tax credits since 2016. Per an agreement reached by both parties, the PTC will be adjusted to be 60% of the 2015 tax credit and the ITC will be 60% of its value.

Other energy tax credits extended in this bill include a one-year extension of PTCs for biomass, geothermal, municipal solid waste, and small hydropower; all these tax credits had expired in 2017. Consumer tax credits for energy efficient homes were extended for the year as well as a business tax credit for energy efficient buildings.

Not included in the tax extenders bill is a PTC for solar power. (The ITC for solar is scheduled to phase out in 2022.) The electric vehicle 30D tax credit was also not extended.

The president highlighted priorities for federal spending in his State of the Union on February 4 and his budget was expected to go public on February 10. NWPPA will continue to monitor and advocate on appropriations and tax issues important to its membership.

Nicole Case is NWPPA’s legislative consultant and can be contacted at [email protected].

https://www.energy-northwest.com/Pages/default.aspx


COVER STORY

September 18, 2019, proved to be a memorable day for Klickitat County and Klickitat PUD for several reasons. Most notably, Klickitat PUD dedicated its H.W. Hill

Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) facility to a crowd of more than 100 people at Republic Services’ Roosevelt Regional Land-fill in Roosevelt, Wash. The PUD staff had worked on this proj-ect for over five years and it was time to unveil it to the masses.

Klickitat PUD General Manager Jim Smith and his PUD commissioners, managers, and staff were on hand at the ceremony, as were Republic Services management, Fourteenth District State Senator Curtis King, and Johannes Escudero, the CEO from California-based Renewable Natural Gas Coalition. Even Washington’s governor, Jay Inslee, attended, which was another memorable detail. (A sitting governor had not visited Klickitat County since 1986!)

“That month was a whirlwind,” said Klickitat PUD’s Kevin Ricks. “Gov. Inslee coming to the dedication required extra security and clearances, plus we had over 200 visitors to the site in three weeks. Inslee was the first governor in this area in more than 30 years, so that alone was a big deal. We are not used to that much fanfare, but it was great.”

This memorable day happened because of Klickitat’s RNG project. Natural gas and renewable natural gas serve a similar purpose, but they are inherently different. Natural gas is com-monly extracted from fossil fuels deep in the earth. Renewable natural gas, while also being primarily methane, is not a fossil fuel and does not involve practices such as fracking. Instead it takes the landfill gas (composed of methane, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen), cleans it, and produces a product that is up to 98% methane and ready for the natural gas pipeline.

“The idea is that you’re not digging up something from the deep earth and adding it to the environment,” said Smith, who Inslee recognized as the Washingtonian of the Day at the celebration. “You’re using organic material that’s already in a carbon dioxide life cycle, and you’re harnessing energy that would otherwise be wasted.”

Inslee attending a ribbon-cutting at the country’s fourth-largest landfill raised a few eyebrows because less than a month earlier he had been in the national eye as a contender for the Democratic presidential nominee campaigning on an environmental ticket. However, Inslee fully supports the project for the clean energy it produces. At the ceremony, he referred to the RNG process as a “virtuous cycle.”

KLICKITAT PUD PRODUCES NATURAL GAS FROM LANDFILL Washington’s governor praises PUD for creating innovative RNG plant

By Brenda Dunn


“We’re bringing up oranges from California, and we’re enjoying and eating those oranges. Then we’re taking the rotting orange peels and turning them into a transportation fuel and shipping it back to California,” Inslee said in his keynote speech at the dedication. “That is a virtuous circle if I’ve ever seen one.”

Roosevelt Regional LandfillThe first part of this virtuous cycle

involves the massive landfill that sits on 2,500 acres. Klickitat County, with its low precipitation, makes it an ideal location for the landfill. Roosevelt is the largest landfill in Washington and employs nearly 200 people. The site accepts over two million tons of waste per year, though it is permitted to receive five million tons per year and has a total capacity of 245 million tons. (In comparison, Hanford only has a 20-million-ton capac-ity.) Two trains with 300 containers weighing 30 tons each drop garbage off at the landfill every day. Each train equals one mile of garbage. The garbage comes from five western states and Canada. If you drive up the windy, steep road to the site in the winter months, you will share the pass with semi-trucks going back and forth from the trainyard below to the landfill at the top. From a distance, the trucks look like ants steadily marching up and down an anthill.

The landfill was designed with generation in mind and in 1998 Klickitat PUD began harvesting landfill gas for electricity via five internal combustion engines. In 2008, Klickitat PUD used landfill gas to power turbines generating electricity. Ten years later, the PUD does not currently use methane to generate electricity; now it cleans the gas and transports the RNG to California via the Williams Northwest Interstate Pipeline, which is a 4,000-mile bi-directional transmission pipeline that

is the primary artery for the transmission of natural gas to customers throughout the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain Region. Roosevelt Regional Landfill, with a lifespan of about 80 years, will generate enough renewable energy to avoid the consumption of 20.4 million tons of coal. This means the system will offset a total of 35.4 million tons of carbon-dioxide emissions. Republic Services owns and operates the landfill, and Klickitat PUD owns the project and the gas. The project has been lauded as a terrific example of a public-private partnership.

“With 20 years of experience harvesting gas from a living, breathing biological entity, the landfill gas plant technicians are the skilled link that make the various chemical and thermody-namic processes all work seamlessly together,” said Ricks.

A five-year projectThe PUD started discussing the RNG project in 2014. “It was going to cost $6-7 million to overhaul the gas tur-

bines and power prices were too low to justify the expense, so we needed to look for alternatives,” said Ricks.

Utilities and landfills have been collecting the methane, the primary component of natural gas, from decomposing garbage for decades now. Ricks explained that oftentimes methane and the other gases are flared off at landfills. Though less harmful than releasing the gases directly into the atmo-sphere, flaring does not take advantage of methane’s power-producing potential.

“Methane is 30 times more harmful as a green-house gas than carbon dioxide, so harnessing that gas in a good way just made sense,” said Ricks. “Why not make something good out of something bad. The gas produced here and piped down to California could run our home furnaces. It’s just as effective as natural gas.”

The Klickitat Board gave the RNG project the green light.

Klickitat PUD’s Kevin Ricks explains to NWPPA Executive Director Scott Corwin how they monitor levels, temperatures, and pressure in the control room, which is staffed 24/7.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (with scissors) was the first sitting governor to visit Klickitat County since 1986.


COVER STORY

“A project that is this far out in front of where the industry currently was doesn’t happen without board support,” said Smith. “They set our strategic direction, then supported our staff as we figured out how to deliver. When we ran into challenges, they did not waiver and they pushed us as a team. It made us and the project better.”

Next up was putting the team together. Having worked in the nuclear power program in the Navy, Ricks was a perfect fit to be named as the renewable energy assets manager to research, design, and implement the H.W. Hill project with a small PUD team. He and Smith are quick to acknowledge that the project was indeed a team effort.

“The project would not have been possible without the engineering genius of the designers, Dan Waineo and Aaron Parker of Montrose Engineering,” said Ricks.

“KPUD’s director of finance and accounting, Mike DeMott, and his staff successfully navigated the complex financing, risk management, and off-taker contracts of the project as well,” said Smith. “It’s not every day a small PUD in Eastern Washington is negotiating with some of the biggest names in the petroleum industry.”

Ricks explained how challenging a project like this can be. “For 3.5 years it was near-constant struggle with construction issues, financial dealings, safety specs. For example, the regulators didn’t understand us because it involves unique safety standards,” he said. “Not until after it was running and viable were we able to take a deep breath and relax. Do I regret it? Not at all. I am very, very proud of what my team and I accomplished. Definitely! Do I want to do it again? Ask me in a few years.”

Ricks noted that the challenges ranged from companies dropping out along the process to having to wade through an onslaught of over 80 interested vendors to logistical details such as how to get the massive equipment to Roosevelt.

“The equipment comes from Midland, Texas, and that was a challenge at times because much of it is built and then transported. The skid for example; I told them it was too big to get over the bridge at Biggs but they assured me it would fit,” said Ricks. “And then on the delivery date I got a call saying

indeed the skid was too big to get over the bridge at Biggs. We obviously managed to get it here, but with some added steps along the way.”

Smith is thankful for Rick’s perseverance, as well as the Klickitat Board’s support and his small but mighty staff at the utility.

“This project was conceived and designed in a small town, remote from a lot of resources and remote from labor pools. Klickitat PUD is a small utility and we all wear many hats as a result of that. But when the PUD commissioners wanted to find a way to improve our net revenues and reduce our debt, they didn’t hire more people to figure it out. We had to do it ourselves,” he said. “We are both lucky and blessed with dedicated and skilled employees and are very, very proud of their efforts in accomplishing something that larger utilities would struggle to do.”

Uniqueness of the H.W. Hill ProjectThe way Klickitat PUD harvests and produces the RNG

is quite ground-breaking—they do it through a process called cryogenic nitrogen removal. H.W. Hill was the first landfill to use the process and now two other sites use it as well. The process extracts contaminants and nitrogen, essentially purify-ing the methane. The methane is recycled and used as its own refrigerant. Identifying where this occurs at the plant is quite easy—look for the heavily frost-covered sections next to the bright yellow pipes. This process even reduces the facility’s elec-trical load for cooling, saving up to 16 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year!

Visitors to the site would probably never guess that the landfill plant has something in common with Paris, France, but it does. Solar, a CAT com-pany, manufactures the 10-megawatt turbines being used for the RNG proj-ect—only 1,200 of these turbines exist in the world, and only four of those are being used at landfill gas projects. Klickitat uses two of them in Roosevelt; a landfill in Paris uses the other two. Keeping with the international theme, Ricks explained that businesses as far as Denmark can use the gas produced by Klickitat PUD.

Klickitat PUD built two 2.9-mile pipes for delivery and receiving to the Northwest Pipeline.

This Eastern Washington enterprise created jobs in a small town using the best of innovative Washington

thinking. That’s from one small PUD.— Washington Governor Jay Inslee


The plant began producing RNG in November 2018.

Annually the plant produces renewable fuel equivalent to 15 million gallons of gasoline.

It produces 5,700 decatherms per day, which is equivalent to 40,714 gallons of diesel fuel or 50,892 gallons of gasoline per day.

The RNG is an EPA-approved cellulosic biofuel that can be used for transportation, replac-ing diesel in heavy-duty engines and thereby reducing the green-house gas emissions of those vehicles by 60-100% percent.

What is pulled from the landfill is 60% methane, 40% carbon dioxide.

One pound of methane = 25 pounds of carbon dioxide.

The plant uses 100% of the methane captured.

In order for the gas to be pipeline-suitable, it needs to be 97.35% methane; the PUD runs it closer to 98% for a buffer.

Along the 4,000-mile pipeline, there is a compression station every 50 miles.

The PUD built two 2.9-mile pipes for delivery and receiving to the Northwest Pipeline.

11 of Klickitat PUD’s 75 employ-ees work full-time at the plant.

While having these connections to Europe is fun, back in Washington’s Klickitat County, Ricks points out that the RNG project has also helped bridge an all-too-familiar divide between interest groups—at least as far as the RNG plant is concerned. The more environmentally conscious enjoy that the gas results in a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over traditional fuels, whereas those more financially minded appreciate that it provides an alternate revenue source, allowing Klickitat PUD to diversify and provide stable utility rates.

“Another great thing about this project is that all sides of the political divide love it,” said Ricks. “They may come with questions, but once I explain the benefits of it—both the envi-ronmental and financial benefits—they are hooked no matter which side they were originally coming from.”

Nearly five months after the ribbon-cutting, Inslee still sends his accolades to Klickitat PUD and the clean energy they are producing at the RNG plant. In his State of the State address on January 14, he praised the PUD when talking about the state’s need for establishing a clean fuel standard.

“Klickitat County PUD implemented an advanced cryogenic nitrogen removal system that allows it to scrub methane from the landfill in Roosevelt. Methane that otherwise pollutes the planet is then put into a pipeline and shipped to California where it replaces dirty and dangerous diesel in trucks,” he said. “This Eastern Washington enterprise created jobs in a small town using the best of innovative Washington thinking. That’s from one small PUD. Think about what the impact could be across our entire state.”

Next stepsSmith, Ricks, and the Klickitat PUD team are proud of what

they have built, but they know there is still more to be done.“Being in the black in the first year is an accomplishment,

but we can still do better with reliability,” said Ricks. Because the PUD has a 15-year contract with an obligated

party (defined as a petroleum producer or importer who is required by law under the Federal Renewable Fuel Standard to produce or purchase certain volumes of renewable fuels based on their sales), the PUD will continue to pump the RNG down to Southern California for now.

“It would have been really nice to keep the fuel in state,” Ricks said. “But California is a little further down the road with their renewable fuel standards and infrastructure. So, for right now, that’s where the fuel ends up going.”

Over 2,000 landfills exist across the country—not including 8,000 large dairies and 17,000 wastewater treatment plants—and most of them burn the methane instead of harvesting it. If the H.W. Hill RNG Plant can serve as an example to others, it was all worth it to Ricks, who says he is constantly getting calls and questions from other utilities about what they have been able to do in Klickitat.

“It’s a $40 million project and the debt will be repaid in five years. It helps the environment while also lowering our custom-ers rates. In my opinion, everyone who can do this should do it,” said Ricks.

Brenda Dunn is NWPPA’s editor. She toured H.W. Hill with NWPPA Executive Scott Corwin and Klickitat’s Kevin Ricks on December 6. She can be contacted at [email protected].

15 Mil.

2.9miles

H.W. HILL RNG PLANT FACTS

5,700

1 : 25 lbs.

2018

60%

100%

per day

CH4

11


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For more detailed information, visit www.nwppa.org/jobs.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

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To advertise in future issues of the Bulletin, contact Brenda Dunn at (360) 816-1453 or [email protected].

ADVERTISERS IN THIS ISSUE

Energy Northwest ............................................................................ 29

KVA Electric Inc................................................................................................ 17

National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC) ...............................19

Northwest Line Contrstructors Chapter (NECA). ..........Back cover

Washington State University ................................................................................15

ADVERTISE WITH NWPPA!

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Advanced Underground UtilitiesP.O. Box 309Sumner, WA 98390(253) 988-2449

Aztech Electric, Inc.P.O. Box 11795(Zip 99211-1795)5204 E. BroadwaySpokane Valley, WA 99212(509) 536-6200

Brent Woodward, Inc.307 S.W. 2nd St.Redmond, OR 97756(541) 504-5538

Burke Electric LLC13563 S.E. 27th Place, Ste. ABellevue, WA 98005(425) 644-0351*

Cache Valley Electric1338 South Gustin RoadSalt Lake City, UT 84104(801) 978-1983

Cannon Constructors, Inc.406 Porter WayMilton, WA 98354(253) 922-2787

Christenson Electric Inc.17201 N.E. Sacramento St.Portland, OR 97230(503) 419-3300*

Cougar Construction3015 Salem Ave. S.E.Albany, OR 97321(541) 791-3410

DJ’s Electrical, Inc.2319 S.E. Grace Ave.Battle Ground, WA 98604(360) 666-8070(360) 518-0904*

EC Company981 Powell Ave SW, Ste. 200Renton, WA 98057(206) 242-3010

Electrical Utility Services LLC201 Morgan St.Davenport, WA 99122(509) 795-0975

Holmes Electric600 Washington Ave. S.Kent, WA 98032(253) 479-4000

International Line Builders, Inc.SO. California Offi ce2520 Rubidoux Blvd.Riverside, CA 92509-2147(951) 682-2982

Sacramento Offi ce1550 S. River Rd.West Sacramento, CA 95691(503) 692-0193

Tualatin Offi ce19020 A S.W. Cipole Rd.Tualatin, OR 97062(503) 692-0193

Newman Lake Offi ce5516 N. Starr Rd.Newman Lake, WA 99025(503) 692-0193(503) 523-7985 cell

Southern Idaho Offi ce2015 Delta DriveNampa, ID 83687(503) 692-0193(208) 781-8151 cell

Jaco Construction, Inc.P.O. Box 1167Ephrata, WA 98823-1167(509) 787-1518

Key Line Construction, Inc.725 Ash St.Myrtle Point, OR 97458(541) 559-1085

Magnum Power, LLCP.O. Box 355Castle Rock, WA 98611(360) 967-2180 (360) 901-4642*(360) 901-0233*

Michels PowerP.O. Box 15059Tumwater, WA 98511-50599433 Dowcor Lane S.W.Tumwater, WA 98512(360) 236-0472

Mountain Power Construction5299 N. Pleasant View Rd.Post Falls, ID 83854(208) 667-6011(208) 659-0832*

NW Utility Services, LLC228 Frontage Rd S Suite APacifi c, WA 98047(253) 891-7802

O’Neill Electric Inc.4444 S.E. 27th Ave.Portland, OR 97202(503) 493-6045

Palouse Power4745 Hwy 281 NQuincy, WA 98848(509) 237-8817

Par Electrical Contractors2340 Industrial Ave.P.O. Box 521Hubbard, OR 97032(503) 982-4651

Potelco, Inc.3884 Highway 99 E.Hubbard, OR 97032(503) 902-0255

Potelco, Inc.14103 Stewart Rd.Sumner, WA 98390-9622(253) 863-0484*

Power City Electric, Inc.3327 E. OliveP.O. Box 2507Spokane, WA 99202(509) 535-8500

Power Technology1602 Guild Rd.Woodland, WA 98674(360) 841-8331

Robinson Brothers Construction, Inc.6150 N.E. 137th Ave.Vancouver, WA 98682(360) 576-5359

Salish Construction10111 S. Tacoma Way Ste. D1Lakewood, WA 98499(253) 922-5325(253) 218-8233*

Service Electric Co.1615 First StreetP.O. Box 1489Snohomish, WA 98291(360) 568-6966

Sturgeon Electric Company, Inc.1500 N.E. Graham Rd.Troutdale, OR 97060(503) 661-1568

Summit Line Construction875 South Industrial ParkwayHeber City, UT 84032(435) 657-0721(435) 503-5393 cell

Tice Electric Company5405 N. Lagoon Ave.Portland, OR 97217(503) 233-8801

Titan Electric Inc.7920 Center St. SW #A101Tumwater, WA 98501(307) 267-9746

Wilson Construction Company1190 N.W. 3rd Ave.P.O. Box 1190Canby, OR 97013(503) 263-6882(503) 720-0016*

Yates Line Construction Company7358 Hillsboro Silverton Hwy.Silverton, OR 97381(503) 812-9827*

Why a NECA firm?Well, for one thing, they’re all qualified electrical contractors—they know how to work with utilities. For another, NECA members can be right there when you need them, and cost you absolutely nothing when you don’t. Keep this list of member firms. It can save you a lot of time, money, and headaches whenever you want it to.Northwest Line Constructors ChapterNational Electrical Contractors AssociationTracy Harness, Chapter Manager

6162 N.E. 80th Ave., Portland, OR 97218(503) 255-4824 • Fax (503) [email protected] • www.nwlineca.com

www.nwlineca.com

*Emergency (night) numbers for firms having stand-by crews and equipment immediately available for disaster or storm repair.

http://www.nwlineca.com

klickitat pud produces natural gas from landfill...klickitat pud general manager jim smith and...

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