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PUBLIC
POWER
Electricity:The Greatest Innovation of AllTime
©2015 Thomas & Betts Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
New environmental regulations that require reduced carbon dioxide emissions will result in coal plant
retirements and thus a greater need for energy efficiency. Volt-VAR optimization to reduce system losses
starts with Joslyn Hi-Voltage® capacitor switches from Thomas & Betts. Maximize asset utilization through
optimized power flows, voltage regulation, and power factor correction.
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• The solid-dielectric capacitor switch brand leader for nearly 60 years
• Oil and SF6 free technology that effectively eliminates maintenance
• Outstanding compatibility with various control platforms
• Substation and distribution class capacitor switches
• Zero Voltage Closing for improved power quality
• VacStat®
vacuum monitoring for greater safety
Best of all, you get the outstanding support of Thomas & Betts. To learn more, contact your
T&B representative or visit tnb.com/capswitches.
Optimize power flows and environmental safety with
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IT’S NOT JUST A SWITCH.
IT’S AN ENERGY-EFFICIENCY
UPGRADE.
Visit selinc.com/dna-ppm11 to learn more
about SEL’s DNA®
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Complete Distribution Automation
Flexible, Scalable Solutions for Every Utility
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KANSAS CITY CHICAGOAUSTIN
A Company
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Solving tough
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transmission
PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 3
EDITORIAL TEAM
Joe Nipper
Senior Vice President
Regulatory Affairs & Communications
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Vice President
Integrated Media & Communications
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News Director
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Integrated Media & Communications
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Director, Media Relations &
Communications
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Integrated Media & Communications
Coordinator
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Public Power (ISSN 0033-3654)
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4 Public Power Lines by Sue Kelly
34Washington Report
35 Engineering
36 Security
37 100Years of Pride in Public Power
38 Innovation
8 NewWays and Means
APPA’s DEED program brings new
ideas to scale.
18 The Instant Gratification Grid
Today’s electricity customers want
more and they want it now. Utilities
in all sectors are prioritizing new,
smart technologies.
24 Smart Utilities,
Smart Cities
Cutting edge cities work with
their utilities to improve services
and reduce consumption while
anticipating their customers’ needs.
26 Igniting the Spark
Public power nurtures the future
workforce through internships and
scholarships.
40 Captain Public Power and
Career Day
Being part of the public power
workforce can be really cool!
FEATURES
CONT ENT S
The Innovation Issue
#PublicPower @PublicPowerOrg
Search for American Public Power and Connect with us
COLUMNS
Cover illustration by J.D. King
Bill Gates has been talking a lot about energy
innovation lately. In a recent interview with The
Atlantic, he calls for an energy miracle. Gates says
the incentive to invest in energy isn’t there —
compared to glitzy new digital products, most en-
ergy technology is developed more than 20 years
before it is scaled up for widespread use. While
energy innovation creates measurable benefits to
society in the long run, Gates says there’s little
immediate benefit to the innovators themselves.
“R&D amount in energy is surprisingly low com-
pared with medicine or digital stuff, where both
the government spending and the private-sector
spending is huge,” Gates says.
Public power has been able to make a differ-
ence because we can innovate for the public good,
with no further incentive necessary. Whether it be
through an iPhone app for customers, a wind tur-
bine in a suitcase, or modular residential and com-
mercial battery storage — community-owned util-
ities have often been able to meet customers’ needs
with new technologies requiring only modest in-
vestments, before they seek services elsewhere.
Public power has been on the frontlines of in-
novation for a long time.
The American Public Power Association
launched the Demonstration of Energy & Effi-
ciency Developments program in 1980. Today, more than 900 public
power utilities take advantage of the program to pool their resources
and fund innovative projects that help move public power — and the
entire industry — forward. While we cannot match the $2 billion Bill
Gates wants to spend on energy R&D, DEED has done some great work
of which we should all be proud.
As DEED celebrates its 35th birthday, we want to share its impres-
sive track record of more than 400 projects. As you’ll read in this issue
of Public Power magazine, the program is helping public power utilities
get on the cutting edge.
DEED works because of the efforts of its volunteer board members,
who review many grant applications and put together ideas. I met with
the DEED board while they were visiting the APPA office in September.
StrengthThrough Innovation
PUBLIC POWER LINES
I was most impressed with their dedication and
the work they do. They are as motivated and deter-
mined as our staff who keep the program running
like a well-oiled machine: Mike Hyland, senior vice
president of engineering services, Michele Suddle-
son, DEED program director, and Richelle Dodds,
DEED program assistant.
The program also owes its success to the
members who participate, proposing and per-
forming research projects that lead us to the next
frontier. Their work makes a lasting impression.
On page 15, you’ll read about DEED projects that
made a big splash and have gained widespread
use throughout the energy industry.
Innovation is important in any industry, but it
is essential in the electric utility industry — pow-
er is the backbone, not only of our communities
but of many other technologies we use every day.
This is why APPA included Continuing Research
and Development as one of the six priorities in
its strategic plan. DEED’s firm commitment to
research enables us to increase efficiencies, in-
vestigate new technologies, develop new service
offerings, and improve processes and practices to
better serve customers. The long-term strength
of public power demands this commitment to
research, development and demonstration.
But building a better tomorrow is just as much about people as it is
about new technologies and services. You’ll read on page 26 about four
DEED scholarship and internship recipients who have stayed in the en-
ergy industry, some in public power. And two of the four interviewees
are women, though women make up only 14 percent of the engineering
workforce. Public power is helping get women into STEM — the sci-
ence, technology, engineering and math fields. Check out the women
from public power who were featured on Twitter during the “#ILook-
LikeAnEngineer” campaign.
Clearly, joining DEED is an investment in the future. The energy
industry is changing — of that we are certain. But public power’s com-
mitment to research and education remains steadfast through DEED.
To join other public power innovators at the frontlines of the electricity
future, visit PublicPower.org/DEED.
4 Public Power / November-December 2015
PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 5
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T O P - N O T C H L E A R N I N G A N D N E T W O
Executive leadership Legal Accounting & finance HR and training Engineering & operations
6 Public Power / November-December 2015
The ONLY Source that Meets
All Your Training & Workforce
Development Needs
POLICY & REGULATION
Joint Action Workshop, Jan 10 – 12, San Diego, California
Come and talk to your peers from joint action agencies across the
country about hot topics. Discuss the impact of the Clean Power Plan
in your state, review distributed generation case studies and consumer
education issues, and explore the implications of a recent FERC ruling on
power supply contracts.
TRAINING: TECHNICAL, ACCOUNTING,
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Winter Education Institute, Feb 8 – 12, Orlando, Florida
Send staff at every level to earn CEUs, PDHs and CPEs, while receiving
hands-on training from experts in accounting, cost of service and retail
rate design, customer service management, distributed generation rate
design, overhead distribution systems, and pole line design.
LEADERSHIP NETWORKING
CEO Roundtable, Feb 21 – 24, Phoenix, Arizona
Join CEOs, general managers, and senior executives from other public
power utilities for peer networking in an exclusive small group setting
— registration is limited to 75 executives. Learn to think outside the
box, gain insight into key challenges facing the industry, and gear up for
success.
6 Public Power / November-December 2015
PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 7
POLICY AND ADVOCACY
Legislative Rally, Mar 7 – 9, Washington, D.C.
Come and meet with your members of Congress and brief them
on issues that impact you. Hear from experts on energy legislation,
environmental policy, threats to tax-exempt financing, grid security,
distributed generation, the Power Marketing Administrations,
telecommunications, and more.
LINEWORKER SKILLS
Public Power Lineworkers Rodeo, April 1-2,
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Earn national and local attention by sending your lineworkers to
demonstrate their skill, compete for professional honors, and network
with peers. The Rodeo receives significant social media attention,
motivates participants, and celebrates their hard work. Safety training is
at the top of the agenda.
OPERATIONS
Engineering & Operations Technical Conference,
April 3 – 6, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Learn from the experts and network with your engineering peers to
recharge and refresh your skills. Discover the latest and greatest in
communications and control, environmental, generation and fuels,
safety, supply management, system planning, and transmission and
distribution.
W O R K I N G F O R U T I L I T Y P E R S O N N E L
Customer service Key accounts Energy services PR & communications Economic development
LEADERSHIP, ECONOMY, TECHNOLOGY
National Conference & Public Power Expo,
June 10 – 15, Phoenix, Arizona
Don’t miss public power’s event of the year — the place to see and be
seen. Tune into the political, economic, and technological trends shaping
electric utilities. Connect changes in the global and national energy
landscape to your public power utility and prepare for the challenges and
opportunities ahead.
WEBINARS
Learn without leaving your desk
APPA Can Bring Courses to YOU
Let the best of the APPA Academy come to you. Our in-house training
program can bring any of our popular courses to your facility or
customize training for staff from any of your departments. We cover utility
governance, engineering and operations, safety, accounting, customer
service, and more.
Contact Heidi Lambert at 202-467-2921 or HLambert@PublicPower.org
to plan and book your session today!
Register for all events and webinars at PublicPower.org/Events
Email: EducationInfo@PublicPower.org
Phone: 202-467-2900
NEW WAYS
AND MEANS
8 Public Power / November-December 2015
PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 9
Utilities operate in an increasingly competitive and nuanced industry — customers
and private companies are directly involved in the energy business,and customers are
presented with more choices and control over their energy use.
“Customers interested in reducing their carbon footprint now have the choice
to either install solar panels on their rooftop themselves,lease a solar system
maintained by a third-party company,or participate in a community solar
program offered through their local utility,”said Michele Suddleson,director
of the Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments Program at the
American Public Power Association.“Utilities must provide our customers with
the ways and means to realize their energy-related desires or those desires will be
fulfilled by others,and we will lose relevance with our customers in this new era.”
New technologies that can keep utilities relevant and in the energy-service game are
ones that not only help customers meet their energy-related needs,but also harness
and store clean,reliable energy and integrate systems for cost-effectiveness and
efficiency.Storage and integration,in particular,impact all aspects of delivering
energy,including energy efficiency,demand-side management,renewable energy,and
intelligent use of microgrids,making them the wave of future energy business.
Several new technologies that are a part of that future wave and may be game-changers
for the utility industry have received support from grants by APPA’s DEED Program.
By Laurel Lundstrom,Contributing Writer
Share your #innovation
stories with
@PublicPowerOrg
10 Public Power / November-December 2015
THE GREEN ENERGY TRIFORCE:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES, ENERGY
STORAGE AND SOLAR POWER
The first thing people see when they park their cars at North Carolina State University’s FREEDM
center is a touchscreen monitor. That monitor uses infographics to educate the public about the
benefits of the university’s Vehicle Energy Storage & Solar Demonstration project, which couples a
solar-powered electric vehicle charging station with an energy storage system. “I think it’s almost like
a holy trinity of green energy,” said Allan Oduor, a student who worked on the project. “Owning an
electric vehicle or plug in-hybrid is great. What’s even better is having an electric vehicle that you
don’t have to charge using electricity generated from a coal plant.”
Participants: North Carolina State University
DEED project timeline: June 2013 – May 2014
Total cost: $128,811
Amount covered by DEED: $47,811
Technology: Integrated storage, solar, electric vehicles
Project specs: The integrated system generates up to 43 kilowatt hours of solar
photovoltaics, charges two electric vehicles, stores up to 20 kilowatt hours of power in a
battery, connects to a local microgrid, and educates the public about intelligent energy
management through a visual energy display.
Results: The VESSD achieves operational efficiency by using direct current from a
microgrid and avoiding losses that occur when a grid-supplied alternating current
is converted into direct current. The project helps to demonstrate how small-scale
distributed generation systems, energy storage, and electric vehicles can be intelligently
integrated and controlled to avoid deleterious grid impacts.
Replicability: The VESSD is a simple design. It can be built in any type of parking lot to
improve demand-side response by leveraging solar-powered charging stations.
Lessons: Electric vehicles that charge at unpredictable times and the growth of
photovoltaic generation create challenges to maintaining stability and power quality on the
grid. Having solar-powered charging stations located in parking decks offers a clean, cost-
effective alternative to charging a vehicle at home.
Innovation impact: The proliferation of these integrated systems in the very near future
could provide important efficiency and operational benefits to the grid if they are well
understood and effectively managed.
NEWTECHNOLOGIESCHANGINGTHEENERGYGAME
PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 11
TURNING THE KEY TO THE
FUTURE OF RELIABLE WIND
WITH EFFICIENT STORAGE
Wind is unpredictable. Adding wind generation to the energy supply comes with risk, and there is
no guaranteed back-up power supply for when the wind slows down. Lincoln Electric System has
worked on rectifying this problem by designing an efficient system that uses excess wind energy to
store compressed air that can be tapped for power when winds die down or when peak energy use
is highest.
Utility: Lincoln Electric System
DEED project timeline: May 2014 – May 2015
Total cost: $18,105
Amount covered by DEED: $4,288
Technology: Wind, storage
Project specs: The system is designed as a dual function air compressor and motor
directly connected to the wind turbine shaft. This configuration uses excess wind energy
to store compressed air.
Results: When the wind speed is low, the compressed air supplements the wind
energy and allows the wind turbine to produce energy at its maximum potential.
Replicability: Along with an increase in self-sufficiency, this technology could enable
utilities to downsize transmission lines or maintain the size when power demand in
the community increases. It works well in rural areas where abundant wind energy
resources exist and small communities are located far from the generation center.
Lessons: There are multiple control loops associated with optimal operation of the
compressed air system, and the utility discovered the best one: a rotary vane machine
and a variable displacement machine coupled with a continuously variable transmission.
Innovation impact: “Energy storage is the key to the future viability of wind generation
and we are not aware of any other research that utilizes the direct coupled air compressor
and motor configuration,” said Tom Davlin, manager of engineering projects with Lincoln
Electric System. If this technology can be commercialized, it will allow for storage of
off-peak wind energy for delivery during peak periods, solving one of the biggest issues
associated with wind energy: the time-of-day mismatch between wind energy production
and customer peak loads. It could also potentially provide an emergency energy source
during grid outages and “black start” capabilities to a micro-grid system.
NEWTECHNOLOGIESCHANGINGTHEENERGYGAME
12 Public Power / November-December 2015
RENEWABLE POWER IN A
SUITCASE: THE A-PEGASUS
PROJECT
Soon, 5,000 people in Jikawa Province, Papua New Guinea — a country where 90 percent of
people still do not have electricity — will receive power from one of the first portable, airborne
electric-generating systems. The Airborne-Portable Electric Generation and Storage Universal
System, known as A-Pegasus, will harness wind and solar power to establish a micro-utility that
powers the local medical clinic, schools, and community in the rural province of Jikawa.
“I feel very grateful to APPA for helping me to develop a low-cost, high-efficiency, modular
system that could potentially open a new market for utilities to own and operate instantly
deployable renewable energy sources,” said Alexander Anderson, the graduate student
who was supported by Tacoma Power through DEED to work on the project. “Thanks to
the DEED program, I now see my dream taking form as a real-world solution.”
Utility/participants: Tacoma Power
DEED project timeline: December 2013 – May 2014
Total cost: $4,100
Amount covered by DEED: $4,000
Technology: Wind, renewable generation
Project specs: A–Pegasus integrates a wind augmenter and photovoltaic rays into a
tethered airborne platform. Researchers evaluated the feasibility, practicality, and cost-
effectiveness of the system.
Results: Augmented wind turbines operate at higher efficiencies, have lower starting
speeds, and are better for the environment because of reduced noise and fewer bird/
bat strikes — and A-Pegasus is no exception. In addition, the low deployment cost and
portability of A-Pegasus allows it to go from “in-the-box” to fully operational in a few
hours.
Replicability: The system can be scaled to produce a desired power output, making
the technology transferable to a utility of nearly any size as a supplementary generation
system for peak electric consumption periods or as a reliable source of emergency
backup power.
Lessons: Discovering the operating constraints (such as temperature, wind speed
requirements, rotational velocity restriction) and material limitations rendered valuable
lessons for the next prototype design, A-Pegasus II, which will fit in a suitcase and can
be carried and assembled anywhere.
Innovation impact: The system presents a reliable, sustainable alternative to current
off-grid generation techniques and distribution-generation technologies and is cost
competitive with similarly sized commercial wind turbines in regions with low-to-
moderate wind speeds. Designed to be a viable source of renewable energy for any
geographic region, utilities can use these rapidly deployable assets to provide service in
remote areas, where the costs of diesel generation or grid extension are prohibitive.
NEWTECHNOLOGIESCHANGINGTHEENERGYGAME
PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 13
COOL, COOL SUMMERS WITH
ICE CUB
Azusa Light & Water has been serving residents of the Los Angeles Basin for 115 years, since
before the first modern electrical air conditioning unit was invented and well before the utility
worried about air conditioners straining the grid on the hottest days. Times have changed, of
course, and with them, the utility has been supporting the innovation of new technologies to
help improve efficiencies and lower the cost of energy — even on sweltering days. The utility
worked with the company Ice Energy to develop a small-scale, refrigerant-based thermal en-
ergy storage system that can be used in the residential sector, called Ice Cub.
Utility: Azusa Light & Water
DEED project timeline: April – December 2014
Total cost: $500,000
Amount covered by DEED: $60,000
Technology: Residential thermal energy storage
Project specs: The project tested two Ice Cub prototypes to determine how they
could be used to realize significant peak demand reduction of up to 50 percent and/or
efficiency improvements in the residential sector. The technology needed to store enough
ice to cool without using a compressor during peak periods using a traditional home
HVAC unit.
Results: Both prototypes met the project’s criteria: they could provide up to 12 to 14
ton-hours of cooling a day and be used as a peak-shifting device for demand reduction.
The Ice Cub can also be used as an air conditioning unit to cool the whole home while
making ice and then used as a storage device by taking the compressor offline for three
to four hours during peak periods.
Replicability: The Ice Cub can be used in all climate zones, nationwide, wherever
refrigerant-based air conditioners are used. When this product is commercialized, it will
be available to essentially all public power systems in the United States and to utilities
worldwide that experience summer peak load constraints due to air conditioning
demand.
Lessons: Field tests allowed the utility to define how long of a period that Ice Cub
needs to reduce air conditioning peak demand, which is typically four hours per day.
Innovation impact: At full capacity, the technology can shift an air conditioning
compressor from on-peak to off-peak, reducing demand by approximately 95 percent.
Ice Cub completely replaces the residential outdoor air conditioner compressor unit,
and can be used to cool the home outside the four-hour peak reduction period. Since
the project’s conclusion, Ice Energy has created five different Ice Cub prototypes. When
commercialized, this technology could have a major impact on curbing demand for
power during peak heat.
“Following successful field testing in Azusa, Ice Energy contracted with University of
California Davis’s Western Cooling Energy Center to test and confirm performance of the
Ice Cub product, which was completed in August of 2015,” said Greg Miller, executive
vice president of market development for Ice Energy. “The first units will be ready for sale
in January 2016.”
NEWTECHNOLOGIESCHANGINGTHEENERGYGAME
14 Public Power / November-December 2015
EVOLVING STUDENTS,
EVOLVING BEHAVIORS
When students leave for study at a university, how they use and save energy is not usually the
first thing on their minds. The Burlington Electric Department, which delivers power to University
of Vermont students, has struggled to curb energy use at student rental properties. By teaching
students more about their energy use, the Burlington Electric Department is trying to understand
if it is possible to encourage energy-saving behaviors among the student population. The innova-
tion being tested requires in-home devices to be paired with smart meters.
Utility/participants: Burlington Electric Department, University of Vermont
DEED project timeline: July 2014 – June 2016
Total cost: $141,450
Amount covered by DEED: $30,000
Technology: Demand-side management, behavior change, smart metering
Project specs: This project involves creating additional educational opportunities for
students living off campus to better understand, as residential customers in Burlington,
how to take advantage of the smart grid. This will take the shape of educational seminars
and outreach on energy efficiency, and include a competition among participants, some
of whom will be using an in-home device to track energy usage.
Results: The study will continue through the spring semester and results should be
available soon after.
Replicability: The utility’s findings about pairing in-home devices with smart meters
and how and if customers use smart meter data to change energy use should be
applicable to other utilities.
Lessons: Pairing in-home devices, or other Zigbee devices, to smart meters is not always
straightforward. Burlington Electric Department meters, for example, have the radios off
so the utility had to develop a process that turns the radio on and a process for pairing
each in-home device to the correct meter.
Innovation impact: Real behavior change with energy usage is an evolving subject.
The Burlington Electric Department, through this project, is seeking to know what
programs might effectively encourage energy-saving behaviors in the future. “This can
be a great learning opportunity,” said Chris Burns, director of energy services at the
Burlington Electric Department. “One of [the utility’s] biggest energy-efficiency challenges
is addressing Burlington’s large portion of rental properties, and student rentals in
particular. In-home devices, coupled with Burlington’s smart metering systems, provide
tremendous potential.”
NEWTECHNOLOGIESCHANGINGTHEENERGYGAME
PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 15
35 Years of Innovation: DEED’s Greatest Hits
By Michael Hyland, senior vice president of engineering services, APPA
35 years of DEED resulted in what can be described as extreme innovation in public power. It’s hard to pick the
greatest outcomes that have resulted from DEED projects, but here’s a snapshot of five projects with lasting impact.
Soybean oil for safer transformers
Waverly Light and Power in Iowa, now Waverly Utilities,
had to clean up a costly contaminated transformer oil spill
in 1994. The utility wanted a non-toxic transformer oil and
teamed up with the University of Northern Iowa’s Ag-Based
Industrial Lubricants research program. Initial pilot testing
of the oil began in 1997. In 1999, the oil was patented and
trademarked as BioTrans. A DEED grant supported further
research, which identified BioTrans as an environmentally
friendly alternative to standard transformer oil. In 2002
Cargill bought the patents and trademark rights and began
manufacturing BioTrans. In 2004, Cargill joined forces
with Cooper Power Systems, which had developed its own
vegetable-based transformer oil, to cost-efficiently produce
and distribute Envirotemp FR3 fluid, a revolutionary
insulating product that is safe for the environment and the
public.
Stimulating power flow simulations
PowerWorld Simulator is a graphics-based power system
analysis tool that took the drudgery and mystery out of power
system analysis. It can be used to show power flows on the
transmission system or a utility’s distribution system. It all
started with Thomas Overbye, a professor at the University of
Illinois, who wanted a tool to help students better understand
large-scale power systems. In 1995, DEED joined Power
Systems Engineering Research Center — a consortium of
universities, industries, and government groups conducting
electric industry research — to support the development
of the software. Continued development was supported
by more DEED grants and scholarships. DEED sponsors
included Danville Department of Utilities in Virginia, WPPI
Energy in Wisconsin, Richmond Power & Light in Indiana,
and City Water Light & Power in Illinois. PowerWorld Corp.
was founded in 1996 to make the software commercially
available. Today, PowerWorld’s products are used by more
than 700 customers in 68 countries.
Smarter safety through videos
Educating workers about safety is challenging for many small,
resource-constrained utilities. That’s why DEED awarded a
grant to Peru Utilities in Indiana to develop the SafetySmart
Video Series in 2003. The series consists of eight training
videos that reinforce information from the APPA Safety
Manual and Occupational Safety and Health Administration
standards. The videos were shot at public power utilities and
feature utility personnel and equipment. They discuss safety
at power generation plants, excavation sites, in relation to
electric metering, in confined spaces, with pole climbing and
bucket truck safety and rescue operations, and during lockout/
tagout procedures for electric plants and substations. The
accompanying SafetySmart Instructor’s Manual provides
additional classroom content. The SafetySmart Video Series
filled a marketplace gap for affordable, professional-quality
training materials with a public power focus. It has helped
many public power utilities enhance safety training programs.
The series is being updated under a current DEED grant.
Benchmarking through e-Tracking
In 2001, DEED awarded the Municipal Electric System of
Oklahoma a $3,000 grant to improve an Excel spreadsheet
that a member created to track and log outages and graph
data using reliability indices. A decade later, Reliability
Tracker, a simple tool that DEED distributed to members
via CD-ROM, morphed into the eReliability Tracker™, a
sophisticated, web-based tool that public power utilities
can subscribe to affordably. Today, eReliability Tracker is a
national, web-based application used by more than 200 utilities
to catalog, track, and report outage data. The subscription
rate demonstrates that public power utilities are highly
engaged in capturing and benchmarking reliability data to
perform essential distribution system analyses. A second grant
was awarded in 2013 to improve and enhance eReliability
Tracker’s features and performance. The application gives
large and small utilities an easy-to-use, and cost-effective tool
to track and benchmark distribution system reliability.
ExExpeperiencee matters. Especially when it comes to electric power transmission. At AmericanTransmission Co., electric
transmission is what we do — all day, every day. We’re one of the nation’s foremost experts in managing complex
transmission assets. And we also have public power experience. In fact, public power is represented on our board of
directors, and 22 of our 28 owners are from municipal and cooperative utilities. If you’re looking to make a move on the
transmission front, whether you need to develop transmission, maintain aging assets, navigate complex compliance
requirements, or want to set up a transco of your own, ATC is the experienced guide you can count on.
An experienced guide can make all the difference.
Helping to keep the lights on,
businesses running
and communities strong®
atcllc.com
18 Public Power / November-December 2015
The Instant
Gratification Grid
Change the thermostat by tapping the screen of a smart phone. Ask
a utility about an outage through social media. Store power for a
household in a sleek home battery in the garage.Today’s customers
want more, faster, and tomorrow’s customers will have even higher
expectations. Evolving technologies and customer needs are driving
utilities in all sectors to prioritize providing new, integrated smart
technologies.
By Ethan Howland
PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 19
Photo courtesy of Portland General Electric.
20 Public Power / November-December 2015
Maturing technologies, evolv-
ing customer expectations and the constant
demand for reliable and affordable power
aredriving electric utilities and their partners
to develop new and innovative services and
approaches.
The last 10 years or so has been a period
of major change as the grid system has grown
more dynamic. Solar capacity in the United
States stood at about 500 megawatts in 2005.
Today it’s about 22,700 MW, with photovol-
taic panels covering rooftops from New Jersey
to California.
The number of so-called smart meters,
which make possible two-way communica-
tion between a utility and its customers, has
jumped from about 7 million in 2007 to about
65 million today.
About 72,300 plug-in electric vehicles
have been sold so far this year, up from about
17,800 in all of 2011. Electric vehicles have
the potential to provide power to the grid
when needed while charging their batteries
at the best times for the overall system.
In part, the evolution toward a more com-
plex grid network parallels changing custom-
er expectations, according to Ed White, vice
president of new energy solutions at National
Grid, a transmission and distribution utility
in the Northeastern U.S. and the U.K. “Our
customers have advanced exponentially in the
last 10 years. Customers are more reliant and
dependent on technology, and there’s more
pressure on utilities to invest in the future.”
The evolving expectations for how con-
sumers interact with and use electricity is
spurring innovation, according to Michael
Howard, the Electric Power Research Insti-
tute’s president and chief executive officer.
At the same time, the costs are falling for
some technologies, such as rooftop solar,
providing more options for customers and
utilities, he said.
“The technical innovation is occurring
in all facets of the power system,” Howard
said. “With more two-way power flow, it’s
even more important to know what’s hap-
pening and also to be able to predict what
may happen.”
Howard sees some key technological
changes that are helping utilities and oth-
ers manage a power system that is growing
more dynamic. Utilities have a real-time
view of what’s happening on the electric
system, enabled by improvements in sen-
sor equipment. Communication technology
can deliver data from the sensors. And the
final piece is improved data analytics, which
helps utilities understand what’s happening
on the grid and potentially getting a jump on
what may be coming in the future, he said.
The integrated grid
In an effort to get the most out of the growth
in distributed resources alongside central
generation, EPRI started its Integrated Grid
initiative last year. “We came to the conclu-
sion that it’s critically important to integrate
it all together,” Howard said, noting that that
may not have been an obvious finding 10
years ago.
As a first step, EPRI developed a cost-ben-
efit framework for assessing various options
that are now available to utilities. The frame-
work, released early this year, can be used
to understand the net benefits distributed
resources like solar PV or energy storage can
provide.
“As we increase the deployment of dis-
tributed energy resources, the questions of
optimal configurations will be happening
every day,” Howard said.
Now EPRI, in cooperation with about a
dozen investor-owned and cooperative utili-
ties, is setting up pilot projects focused on six
key areas: utility-scale solar, with and with-
out storage, distributed energy storage, mi-
crogrids, electric vehicle charging infrastruc-
ture and customer-sided technologies such as
distributed generation, smart thermostats and
energy management systems.
Through the pilot projects, EPRI aims to
better understand the cost and benefits of
various configurations of different resources,
according to Howard.
New York grid reform
Meanwhile, utilities throughout the U.S. have
been pressing ahead with innovative projects
of their own. Echoing some of the issues being
tackled by EPRI, New York’s investor-owned
utilities this summer proposed demonstra-
tion projects through the state’s Reforming
the Energy Vision initiative, which aims to re-
vamp the state’s utility sector, partly by spur-
ring increased distributed resources.
Among the proposals, National Grid
plans to test distributed resources at the
Buffalo-Niagara medical campus while of-
fering community solar in a low- to moder-
ate-income neighborhood near the hospital.
One of the key principles around the REV
initiative is looking at distributed energy re-
sources as a network instead of individual
connections, National Grid’s White said.
READ MORE: Lisa Wood, vice president of
the Edison Foundation and executive direc-
tor of the Institute for Electric Innovation,
talks about the evolving electric grid, cus-
tomers and utility on PublicPower.org under
News>Public Power magazine>Archives
(Sept.-Oct. 2015).
“The technical
innovation is
occurring in all
facets of the
power system.”
PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 21
Through a “distributed service platform” the
utility hopes to put together the right mix of
technologies to service seven main institu-
tions plus other organizations on the medical
campus, White said.
The distributed service platform will man-
age the distributed resources on campus us-
ing load and generation forecasts to create a
forward-looking dispatch schedule, the utility
said. National Grid hopes to learn how it can
best connect customer-to-grid assets to mar-
ket mechanisms such as ancillary services, ca-
pacity, and demand response, the utility told
the New York Public Service Commission in
its project application.
National Grid also plans to explore setting
up a microgrid in Potsdam, New York, to re-
duce power outages in an area that has been
hit with multi-day outages. Partly, the util-
ity wants to see to what extent customers are
willing to pay for grid reliability, White said.
“What is the value of knowing the lights will
come on?” he asked.
National Grid is also proposing to give
about 15,000 residential and small commer-
cial customers equipment so they can better
monitor and manage their energy. The proj-
ect will include levelized billing so customers
have predictable electric utility expenses.
New York regulators have approved the
community solar project and White expects
final decisions on the other projects in the
next couple months.
Smart power
Utilities have also been looking at ways to
link energy storage with renewable genera-
tion. Portland General Electric and its part-
ners, for example, launched the Salem Smart
Power project in 2013. The project, seen on
pages 18-19, includes a 5-MW lithium-ion
battery-inverter system, which is used to
provide seamless power delivery to a major
customer with solar panels and also incorpo-
rates demand response.
For us, safety is a way of life and we wouldn’t have
it any other way. We work proactively to maintain a
well-trained staff, instilling safe work practices every
step of the way. At Asplundh, is
the only way to get the job done.
764470_Asplundh.indd 1 28/08/15 10:18 PM
READ MORE: Find energy storage case studies and news coverage on PublicPower.org
under Topics>Energy Storage.
22 Public Power / November-December 2015742011_IFD.indd 1 03/04/15 12:57 AM
Further, the Salem project is at the core of
a microgrid that includes about 500 residen-
tial, commercial and governmental custom-
ers, according to Stan Sittser, a PGE spokes-
man. As part of a microgrid, the project can
tap three standby diesel generators when
needed, with the battery providing about 20
minutes of electricity while the generators
get started.
The roughly $25-million project is still in
use and could be called on to bolster resil-
iency and reliability, according to Sittser.
Hawaiian cooperative unveils plans
for solar plus storage project
While several large IOUs are moving on ener-
gy storage projects, so is a cooperative in Ha-
waii. Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative, with
about 33,000 customers, announced plans in
September for a utility-scale solar plant that
will deliver power in the evening, when elec-
tric demand is at its peak.
SolarCity, which will build the 13-MW
solar array and 52-MWh battery project, will
sell power to the cooperative under a 20-year
power purchase agreement for a fixed price
of $145/MWh, which is less expensive than
the utility’s conventional power supplies.
The cooperative said that the proposed
SolarCity project next to the Kapaia power
plant is believed to be the first utility-scale
system in the U.S. to provide dispatchable
solar energy, meaning that the utility can
count on electricity being available when it is
needed, even hours after the sun goes down.
The cooperative expects to save up to
$52.6 million in reduced fuel use over the life
of the power purchase contract while cutting
its greenhouse gas emissions. n
717604_Sterling.indd 1 22/10/14 2:07 PM
PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 23
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PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 27
IgnitingtheSparkThrough association-funded grants and
scholarships, public power is building its own
workforce of the future.
With about a quarter of the existing public power workforce ready to retire
within the next five years, there is no time like the present to recruit the
next generation of public power employees.
Working at a public power utility provides a breadth of experience that
isn’t found in many other jobs. For Girish Balachandran, now the general
manager of California’s Riverside Public Utilities, his scholarships in 1989
and 1990 allowed him to continue his education while learning everything
from power purchasing to regulatory issues.
Through scholarships and internships in public power, the industry is
piquing the interest of its future generation of leaders like Balachandran.
Working with a public power utility also allows for a close relationship with
a community, one that many public power utility employees grew up in and
want to continue to serve.
But their advice to those who follow in their footsteps isn’t all that different
from what generations have been passing down for ages: communicate
effectively, be flexible and be curious.
Share your
#workforce stories with
@PublicPowerOrg
By Laura D’Alessandro,integrated media editor,APPA
28 Public Power / November-December 2015
“I will continue my
career in the power
industry because it
touches everything
and everyone. Our
customers depend
on electricity,
and they expect
affordable rates.
Public Power
offers that. I want
to continue to be
a part of such an
important industry.”
Laura Strode, 26, Omaha
Public Power District
Growth in Your Community
As a young girl growing up in Nebraska, Laura Strode recalls the Omaha Public Power District as her family’s electric company. Now, she works there.
Two years into her career in the electricity business, Strode said the power industry is where she sees herself for the foreseeable future.
It was an American Public Power Association grant awarded through the Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Development program that gave Strode
her start. She was an intern at OPPD in the summer of 2013. She applied after she saw a post on OPPD’s website.
“I felt it was a great opportunity as I was pursuing my bachelor’s degree in marketing,” Strode said. “I was attracted to OPPD because they are a great
company and a pillar in my community.”
As it turned out, the project was quite relevant to Strode’s area of study and she was able to get college credit for her work as she planned, implemented
and developed marketing materials for demand side management programs. But the experience also opened a door.
“During the last few months of my internship I was offered a full-time position at OPPD,” Strode said. “The experiences I had gained during my DEED
internship qualified me for this position. I have been in my current position for two years now and I still work closely with the same program and indi-
viduals as I did as an intern.”
APPA’s DEED program targets $120,000 annually for its scholarships, including $5,000 student research grants and internships, $8,000 technical de-
sign projects, and $2,000 educational scholarships. While the funding is bringing community members to work at their utilities, like Strode, the money
also contributes to work on innovative projects, as is DEED’s core mission.
PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 29
An Education in Energy
When Marie LaRiviere started her DEED internship in 2004, she didn’t know about geothermal power. But her job was to educate utilities and the public
about the technology.
“I found it particularly interesting because I had never heard of ground source heat pumps and didn’t know much at all about creating electricity from
geothermal energy,” she said.
In hindsight, LaRiviere said, renewable technologies still had a long way to go at that time, but the first step was education.
“Even if my project didn’t create any incremental demand for geothermal technologies, it would still accomplish its goal by educating people,” she said. “A
lot of changes have taken place in the renewable energy industry since 2004, and much of that change has been driven by educating people and companies
about their options and the existence, viability and benefits of these technologies.”
A lot has changed for LaRiviere, too. The experience created what became many more years of researching and educating in the energy industry. From
there, LaRiviere began working at the Energy Information Administration forecasting biofuels consumption and demand. She moved into renewables and
then forecasting fossil fuel demand and consumption.
“I liked the way that forecasting was extremely difficult because of market interactions that were more pronounced than those in the power space,” she
said.
Her interest prompted her to go back to school and get a masters in business administration at Georgetown University, where she also got her under-
graduate degree. Now she reports the financial results of global transactions, but it all started with an internship with DEED.
“I enjoy working for a
company that is respected
by the customers and that
keeps the customers’ interest
first. I have found it is
more satisfying to work for
a company that makes the
customers their number one
advocate, than working for a
company that is only looking
after the shareholders’
interests.”
Travis Kinney, 31,
Lewis County PUD
30 Public Power / November-December 2015
Seven Hats Right Off the Bat
It is often said that small public power utility managers wear seven hats. In fact, in 1966 the American Public Power Association initiated an award to
recognize utility managers who serve small public power communities and whose responsibilities extend well beyond administration into planning and
design, public relations, field supervision, human resources and community leadership.
For Travis Kinney, it was this ability to do many different things that sparked his interest in staying in public power after an exciting internship at Lewis
County PUD in Chehalis, Washington.
Kinney was an intern during the summer of 2012 and was attracted initially by the location and its proximity to where he lived, 30 minutes away. For
Kinney, the internship would be a test drive, he said.
“I would be able to work for a utility and see if I liked it or not,” he said. “From some of the classes I took, I thought I wanted to work at a utility. The
internship gave me the experience to know if it was a place that I truly wanted to work.”
It goes without saying that it certainly was. As an intern, Kinney got the lay of the land. He learned the PUD’s system so he was better prepared for a
full-time position — one that wasn’t even available but Chief Engineer Dan Kay created for him.
“If I didn’t hire him I knew someone else would,” Kay said. So he went to the utility’s board and made the case. Now Kinney works as an electrical
engineer on system performance and other tasks that arise.
It’s that ability to take on other responsibilities that Kinney enjoyed most as an intern.
“At most public power utilities, engineers are able to work on a wide range of tasks that would cover multiple sub departments at other utilities,” he
said. “At most investor owned utilities, engineers are placed in a sub-department of engineering, like system protection, or substation. Then that engineer
works in that sub department until an opening in a different sub department is available. But I feel that I get to learn and apply my knowledge to a wider
range of tasks.”
And while Kinney was training to be an engineer in school, the experience is unlike anything he could have learned in a classroom, he said. “I was
able to learn things and gain experience that is not, or cannot, be taught in college.”
“Working at DEED was
an important stepping
stone for me because
it piqued my interest in
the energy sector and
energy technologies,
which I then explored
by working across
a broad range of
technologies and
functions while at EIA
and now Chevron.”
Marie LaRiviere, 32, Chevron
“Public power is a very
meaningful occupation. We
provide an essential public
good. Our product is changing
to meet society’s expectations
for clean power, renewable
power, more information, more
control.”
Girish Balachandran, 49,
Riverside Public Utilities
Forming Future Leaders
When Girish Balachandran was studying at the University of California Los Angeles in 1989, he didn’t have the money for his next semester’s tuition.
Then he saw a flyer posted in the engineering department for a DEED scholarship. The project was load control and energy efficiency concepts.
“This couldn’t have been more perfect in terms of timing,” he said.
About 25 years later, Balachandran is the general manager of Riverside Public Utilities in Riverside, California. While the scholarship was convenient,
economically, he received a job he was actually interested in, he said. He went back for a second round the following year. Balachandran said in hindsight
the experiences were a tremendous opportunity that led to even more learning.
“In a five- to six-year period I was given an opportunity to be an analyst and work on contract negotiations with many utilities and then be involved in
regulatory proceedings that were happening statewide,” he said. “Many of my friends who finished graduate school and went on to do MBAs — the stuff
I was doing at work was what they were learning about in business school. Contract negotiation, regulatory proceedings, as a muni, you get to deal with
all these things. So it was very satisfying to work in public power.”
The concepts Balachandran worked with during his DEED projects remain relevant, he said. Energy efficiency is being drawn farther into the forefront
as environmental regulations continue to build upon one another, and load control is now called demand response.
Like Kinney, Balachandran applied a wide range of skills to his initial experience with public power. As a result, he said, the future workforce needs
to be prepared to do just the same.
ROADMAto a better workforce
Attract and retain
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Build a diverse
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Retain knowledge
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Promote new
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Foster continuing
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34 Public Power / November-December 2015
APPA LeadsTheWay with Public Power Forward
By Joe Nipper,senior vice president of regulatory affairs and communications,APPA
WASHINGTON REPORT
For public power, innovation is not just a catchphrase — it is a funda-
mental aspect of how our member utilities have been doing business every
day for more than a century.
The wide range of projects detailed in this issue that have received
grants through the American Public Power Association’s Demonstration
of Energy & Efficiency Developments program shows that public power
walks the walk when it comes to pursuing the development of new
technologies.
Whether it is developing an energy storage project, offering customers
the opportunity to participate in a community solar project or deploy-
ing electric vehicle charging infrastructure, municipal utilities across the
country are actively engaged in a number of innovations that illustrate
our commitment to being at the forefront of change.
Recognizing that the power sector is in the midst of a significant tran-
sition as distributed energy resources and technological change pose both
challenges and opportunities for utilities, APPA has committed to help its
members prepare for this evolution by tailoring its core services as part of
the association’s strategic plan for 2016-2018.
APPA’s strategic plan refers to the opportunities and challenges of
the future as Public Power Forward. As the strategic plan notes, new
technologies, evolving markets, increasing amounts of customer-owned
generation, new industry entrants, increasing focus on reliability, and
growing energy efficiency and demand response are coming together to
re-shape relationships between distribution electric utilities and their
retail customers.
“Some policy proposals spawned by these new developments could
pose fundamental challenges to the public power business model and
established relationships with our retail customers and communities,”
the strategic plan states.
As part of Public Power Forward, APPA will focus on helping its mem-
bers to communicate the value of community-owned electric utilities and
explain the implications of technology to public power customers. At the
national level, APPA will work to ensure that proposed changes to the in-
dustry’s structure, regulation, and business models support our members
and allow them to adapt to changing community expectations.
In late October, we convened APPA’s first-ever Public Power Forward
summit where attendees heard from a number of players at the front lines
of the dramatic change underway in the power sector. Sessions included
a discussion of financial and rate implications of new business models,
public power’s reaction to reform proposals and customer engagement
and public communications issues.
The summit provided a lot of useful material that attendees will be
able to use as they work to address new technologies, evolving markets,
increasing amounts of customer-owned generation and new industry
entrants, among other things.
With its history and core values, public power is well positioned to
take on the future and thrive in an ever-changing power industry land-
scape. But the key to achieving success will be for public power utilities
to strategize and prepare now.
With Public Power Forward, APPA’s members can rest assured that
the association will be by their side every step of the way as the pace of
change in the power industry continues to accelerate.
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PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 35
ENGINEERING
Skippy or Jif,Time-of-use or Fixed-bill Electricity Rates?
By Bernard Neenan,senior technical executive,and Jennifer Robinson,technical leader,energy utilization,
Electric Power Research Institute
We’ve all been there, standing in the peanut butter aisle, faced with a
myriadchoices—crunchyorsmooth,organicornatural,SkippyorJIF.What
you choose may have little to do with any other factors than emotion, leav-
ing Skippy at a loss for marketing their product over JIF. Instead, researchers
often use experimentation to observe how consumers are making choices.
For electricity customers, the choice may be time-of-use or fixed-bill
electricity service plans. Customers are looking for new ways to use power,
thanks to solar panels, smart thermostats and in-home battery storage.
Before utilities release service plans for these new technologies, they can
assess customer choices through experimentation, too.
New insights about consumer preferences come from an ongoing EPRI
behavioral research initiative. A recently completed study employed discrete
choice experimentation, a popular market and preference research tool that
is just now finding its way into electricity service plan design research.
Evaluating choices
Discreet choice experimentation, or DCE, is a set of experimental protocols
for eliciting directly from consumers their preferences for good and services.
DCE is particularly well-suited for evaluating alternative electricity service
plans because it was designed specifically to measure preferences for ser-
vices that consumers are not familiar with, which is the case for time-of-use
and fixed bill pricing.
A DCE survey asked respondents to consider a series of choice situations
and, in each, indicate which of the alternative service plans they prefer. For
this research, time-of-use and fixed-bill plans were offered as alternatives to
how customers buy electricity — most commonly through a uniform rate of
dollars per kilowatt-hour for all energy consumed. The alternatives in each
set included different levels of features for time-of-use and fixed-bill rates,
always compared to the status quo, a fixed rate. As part of the survey, each
respondent completed several choice situations each with the service plan
attributes configured differently.
Studying preferences
EPRI conducted the study in two stages. First, a DCE survey instrument
was developed and tested, and then administered to customers of the three
sponsoring utilities —Kansas City Power and Light, the Tennessee Valley
Authority and Salt River Project. TVA’s sponsorship was partially paid
for with an APPA DEED grant. A commercial survey panel was used to
administer the surveys.
The second stage applied the same survey instrument to include small-
er, more rural utilities and municipal utilities — local power companies
served by TVA. EPRI used direct mail for the entire DEED study.
EPRI tested alternative ways of delivering, packaging, and messaging
the survey. A variety of delivery alternatives were employed to identify
which works best. In the best, a response rate of over 75 percent was
achieved. More than 600 survey responses were collected through the
DEED survey implementation.
Modeling preferences
The survey responses were used to construct a preference model that
relates service plan attributes and consumer demographics to the likeli-
hood of choosing time-of-use or fixed-bill over a conventional residential
electricity rate.
The linkage between preferences and customer demographics makes
DCE a comprehensive method; it establishes what factors should be used
to segment customers and constructs those segments based on observable
characteristics.
The role of demographics in explaining stated preferences has two im-
portant consequences. Models of service plan preferences must collect suf-
ficient demographic data so that those distinctions are explicit in estimating
preferences. Demographics also provides a means for associating preferences
to customer segments and geographic locations that will facilitate effective
education on and marketing of service plans.
Closing the deal, bulking up the data
As new service plans de-
velop and customers se-
lect them, actual choice
data can be collected,
revealing real preferenc-
es data — who bought
and who did not — that
can be combined with
the stated preferences
data from the survey to
improve the predictions
of which types of cus-
tomers are most likely to
choose which types of
service plans.
Combined with
customer load data,
the results inform how
customer electricity us-
age is likely to change as
respondents choose and
adapt to new service
plans. Combined with
utility supply cost fore-
casts, the results of such
studies contribute to a
utility’s goal of minimiz-
ing the cost of meeting
diverse customer needs.
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36 Public Power / November-December 2015
Reducing Cyber Risk:Where to Start
By Nathan Mitchell,senior director of electric reliability standards and security,APPA
SECURITY
Innovation opens doors for opportunity. But
it also opens new doors to risk. As those who
would like to harm the electric grid find new
and better ways to infiltrate the system, the in-
dustry must step up to the plate to make sure
bad actors don’t get in. APPA recently held a
webinar on cybersecurity challenges — part
of a seven-part series on cybersecurity topics.
Brad Luna senior vice president of sales for n-
Dimension Solutions in Dallas, Texas, laid out
these basic steps to reduce cyber risk.
1. Monitor network for threats It’s essen-
tial to identify a person or a team to be
responsible for monitoring beyond a fire-
wall. Common things to look for include
malicious behavior and misconfigured
systems.
2. Perform vulnerability assessments This
goes beyond monitoring. Your utility has
to systematically seek out “open windows”
through which bad-actors can get to your se-
cure information. This includes threats fac-
ing desktops, servers, and other IT systems.
3. Watch for network configuration errors
This often time comes down to your IT
staff keeping on top of best practices and
system updates (while handling other
company issues).
4. Ensure IT has the necessary knowledge
Your IT professionals either need to be
cybersecurity experts themselves or have
access to experts. This often requires
outside help.
5. Establish policies and procedures In
most cases, this is your first step toward
success. Before you can successfully de-
fend your utility from intrusion, you need
to lay down the cybersecurity ground
rules.
6. Conduct awareness training Once you
have in place policies and procedures
regarding information security, you need
to engage staff and get buy-in by deliver-
ing training
For more information on cyber-
readiness, check out APPA’s series
of seven webinars on cybersecurity
for electric utilities. Learn how to
protect your utility, customers, com-
munity, and the electric grid from
potentially damaging interruptions.
Register online at PublicPower.org.
PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 37
100 YEARS OF PRIDE IN PUBLIC POWER
Chambersburg,Pennsylvania
#PublicPower
READ MORE: Read an extended feature about Chambersburg on
PublicPower.org under News>Public Power magazine (Nov.-Dec. 2015).
The 6.5-square-mile Borough of Chambersburg, with a population
of just over 20,000, in Pennsylvania is a typical small-town America
public power community. While it is best known as a significant Civil
War site — home to the “Memorial Square” where General Robert E.
Lee made the fateful decision to move east, resulting in the historic
Battle of Gettysburg — Chambersburg hosts another lesser known
memorial.
This memorial, in front of the borough’s electric operations office,
expresses the appreciation of Chambersburg’s citizens for those who “in
1904, by their unselfish and courageous actions in the face of powerful
opposition and public criticism, prevented the sale of the borough’s
municipal electric light plant and preserved for the community that
which has proven to be its most valuable financial asset.”
Today, the Chambersburg continues the fight — now against rising
costs and market complexities — to provide safe, reliable, competitively
priced, environmentally responsible electricity.
Established in 1893, Chambersburg is the largest municipal electric
utility in Pennsylvania and serves 11,300 meters. It is the state’s only
municipal electric utility to own and operate electric generating units.
Residential, commercial, and industrial sectors each account for
about one-third of the borough’s electricity demand. The borough also
powers streetlights —its first generating station was set up mainly for
streetlighting.
The utility has a “buy all, sell all” arrangement with the PJM
Interconnection to leverage the best market prices and ultimately, the
lowest rates for its customers. According to Electric Superintendent Ron
Pezon, Chambersburg is the only public power system in Pennsylvania
to own and operate its own power plants while also “shopping for the
best wholesale electricity prices for customers.”
Pezon attributes the utility’s accomplishments over the years to the
progressive thinking of the mayor and 10-member city council. “They
encouraged us to shop and diversify our power supply sources,” he says.
The council also supported the utility in building its own generation to
hedge against price volatility in the markets.
In 2013, the utility contracted with a third party to develop and
install a 6.4-MW landfill gas to energy system. The project, designed to
prevent the equivalent of 40,000 tons of emissions each year, won the
2013 project of the year award from the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program.
Pezon has been talking with community farmers to explore the
feasibility of a brown power methane project to generate electricity from
manure.
Chambersburg is also looking for a site to locate up to 8 MW of
community solar.
PhotocourtesyofM.L.“Mike”MarotteIII.
38 Public Power / November-December 2015
Sharing Bright Ideas:DEED’sTop 5 Resources
By Michele Suddleson,DEED program director,American Public Power Association
INNOVATION
The American Public Power Association’s Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments is
the only research and demonstration program funded by and for public power utilities. Established
in 1980, DEED supports and demonstrates research, funding, and education to improve the opera-
tions and services of public power utilities.
One of the best things about DEED is its repository of bright ideas. DEED not only encourages
innovation through project grants and scholarships but also shares the results for replication by
all public power utilities. Detailed reports are available exclusively to DEED members.
The online DEED project database chronicles nearly 500 research and demonstration projects
conducted over 35 years on energy efficiency, community education, demand response, reli-
ability, lighting, renewable resources, smart grid, solar, environment, and other topics. DEED
members can access full reports on any of these projects and contact the project team leads to
learn more and plan their own applications.
DEED grantees frequently share project accomplishments and lessons learned with all public
power utilities through publications, toolkits, webinars, and conference presentations. See my
picks for the DEED-generated resources that every utility should invest in.
Smart Grid Investment Grant Projects:
Public Power Case Studies
The U.S. Department of Energy Smart Grid In-
vestment Grant program, funded by the American
Reinvestment and Recovery Act, is designed to
accelerate the modernization of electric trans-
mission and distribution systems and promote
investments in smart grid technologies, tools, and
techniques. SGIG projects were funded in five
categories — advanced metering infrastructure,
customer systems, electric distribution systems,
electric transmission systems, and equipment
manufacturing.This book profiles the 32 public
power SGIG projects, reviews specific smart grid
technologies, and discusses how public power utili-
ties can benefit.
Smart Grid Customer Engagement Essentials
From health to privacy, electricity customers
have many concerns and unfounded suspicions
about smart meters.This guidebook helps utilities
provide accurate information about smart meters
and other technologies to dispel myths and fears
and engage customers. Case studies describe how
public power utilities use social media and other
technologies for engagement.The guidebook pro-
vides engagement plan checklists, communication
templates, and metrics.
An Introduction to Community Solar
This guidebook explains the process for develop-
ing utility-driven solar projects with multiple par-
ticipants who share ownership, costs, and benefits.
With case studies from different types of utilities,
the publication explains how utilities that take
or share leadership of solar projects can realize
benefits, with limited risk.
Solar Engagement Options for Public Power
Customers want solar — and no matter how they
access it, they will turn to their utility for help.
The Solar Electric Power Association describes
the four ways that public power utilities can offer
solar to customers — purchased power, ownership,
customer engagement, and community solar —
and discusses the benefits and challenges of each.
The book includes public power solar case studies
and discusses costs and financing, utility planning,
solar forecasting, smart inverters, and energy
storage.
Top 5 Innovation Reads
R
Solar Engagement Options
FOR PUBLIC POWER
Smart Grid Customer
Engagement Essentials
A P U B L I C P O W E R P R I M E R
SM
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Smart Grid Investment Grant Projects:
PUBLIC POWER CASE STUDIES
An Introduction to Community
Shared Solar Programs for
Public Power Utilities
PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 39
Energy Efficiency Benchmarking Made Easy
Public power utilities often lack adequate tools
to measure the effectiveness of energy efficiency
programs and decide how to allocate future
resources. DEED funded a project to help public
power utilities produce quality energy efficiency
data and better access and use information from
the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Infor-
mation Administration-861 survey.The project
produced an interactive online benchmarking
tool, the DSM Benchmarker, to help public power
utilities compare energy efficiency spending and
savings.The tool generates comparison charts
by geography, ownership type, size, year, etc. with
energy savings, potential demand reduction, and
spending indicators. Available to APPA members
at www.PublicPower.org/EERC
this guide on how to build energy efficient homes
without skyrocketing costs.
All resources can be ordered through the online
APPA Product Store at www.PublicPower.org/Store
APPA’s DSM Benchmarker™ helps you evaluate
and benchmark your utility’s demand-side
management/energy efficiency programs and
respond to the U.S. Department of Energy’s EIA
form 861-Schedule 6.
With the DSM Benchmarker™ you can
access reliable data to make apples-to-apples
comparisons and generate customizable charts
on energy savings, potential demand reduction,
spending relative to utility size, and more.
Competing DSM tools use voluntary, unaudited
state reporting, but APPA’s DSM Benchmarker™
uses data collected and vetted by the U.S.
Department of Energy on EIA form 861-Schedule
6 — the mandatory annual reporting vehicle to
capture national utility energy efficiency data.
Best of all, it’s free to you and your staff as
an APPA member.
Get started today at www.PublicPower.org/EERC
or contact DEED@PublicPower.org for more
information.
DSM Benchmarker
™
Evaluate. Compare. Improve.
R
DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT & ENERGY EFFICIENCY
PSE is driven to be your trusted advisor for all of your consulting and
engineering needs.
Our services include:
Communications, IT, and Smart Grid Automation
Economics, Rates, and Business Planning
Electrical Engineering
Planning and Design
Procurement, Contracts, and Deployment
CONSULTANTS
FULL-SERVICE
Visit our website for information on all of our services:
www.powersystem.org or call 866-825-8895
Serving the industry since 1974.
759878_Power.indd 1 26/08/15 6:47 PM
American Transmission Company............................www.atcllc.com................................................17
Asplundh Tree Expert Co........................................www.asplundh.com.............................................21
Black & Veatch Management Consulting Division.......www.bv.com.....................Outside Back Cover
Burndy Electrical.......................................................www.burndy.com....................Inside Back Cover
CRC..............................................................................www.crc.coop.................................................36
Finley Engineering Co. Inc. (FEC) .............................www.fecinc.com.................................................5
GridLiance...............................................................www.gridliance.com..............................................2
Hendrix Wire & Cable, Inc.....................................www.hendrix-wc.com...........................................23
IFD Corporation...................................................www.ifdcorporation.com.........................................22
Laminated Wood Systems........................................www.lwsinc.com...............................................32
Leidos Corporation.....................................................www.leidos.com...............................................34
PhoneTree®
........................................................phonetree.com/APPA2015.........................................5
Power System Engineering, Inc...........................www.powersystem.org..........................................39
SEL........................................................................selinc.com/dna-ppm11............................................1
Sterling Security Systems.................................www.sterlingpadlocks.com.......................................22
Tana Wire Markers............................................www.tanawiremarker.com.......................................35
TEA - The Energy Authority.......................................www.teainc.org................................................23
Thomas & Betts......................................................tnb.com/capswitches .................Inside Front Cover
Ad Index
40 Public Power / November-December 2015
Email News@PublicPower.org for a PDF version of this comic to share with your customers.
Captain Public Power and Career Day
www.burndy.com
© BURNDY LLC, 2015
On The Mark.
We’re Standing Behind It.
Doing a job right the first time saves money. There is no second-guessing with the BURNDY
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Our coordinating dies, connectors and tools are designed to work together and meet stringent, accepted quality
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color-coding for reliable electrical performance. Corresponding BURNDY
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dies provide a permanent
die index number embossment on each completed crimp for proper inspection.
For a job well done, leave the BURNDY mark of quality conformance every time.
Tools
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Public Power Magazine - November/December 2015

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Public Power Magazine - November/December 2015

  • 2. ©2015 Thomas & Betts Corporation. All Rights Reserved. New environmental regulations that require reduced carbon dioxide emissions will result in coal plant retirements and thus a greater need for energy efficiency. Volt-VAR optimization to reduce system losses starts with Joslyn Hi-Voltage® capacitor switches from Thomas & Betts. Maximize asset utilization through optimized power flows, voltage regulation, and power factor correction. With Joslyn Hi-Voltage® capacitor switches, you also get: • The solid-dielectric capacitor switch brand leader for nearly 60 years • Oil and SF6 free technology that effectively eliminates maintenance • Outstanding compatibility with various control platforms • Substation and distribution class capacitor switches • Zero Voltage Closing for improved power quality • VacStat® vacuum monitoring for greater safety Best of all, you get the outstanding support of Thomas & Betts. To learn more, contact your T&B representative or visit tnb.com/capswitches. Optimize power flows and environmental safety with Joslyn Hi-Voltage® capacitor switches from Thomas & Betts. IT’S NOT JUST A SWITCH. IT’S AN ENERGY-EFFICIENCY UPGRADE.
  • 3. Visit selinc.com/dna-ppm11 to learn more about SEL’s DNA® solutions. Complete Distribution Automation Flexible, Scalable Solutions for Every Utility Pinpoint Faults Find faults faster using information from protective relays, reclosers, and fault indicators. Reduce System Losses Maximize feeder efficiency with advanced voltage regulator and capacitor controls. Detect More Faults Improve detection of downed conductors with high-impedance fault detection. Improve Reliability Indices Keep the lights on with automatic sectionalizing and feeder reconfiguration.
  • 4. Led by industry veterans with a combined 100+ years of experience, GridLiance’s innovative partnership approach enables cooperatives, municipals, and joint action agencies to invest in transmission projects that were previously inaccessible. Learn more atgridliance.com KANSAS CITY CHICAGOAUSTIN A Company ©2015GridLiance.Allrightsreserved. Solving tough problems transmission
  • 5. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 3 EDITORIAL TEAM Joe Nipper Senior Vice President Regulatory Affairs & Communications Meena Dayak Vice President Integrated Media & Communications Paul Ciampoli News Director Jeannine Anderson News Editor Laura D’Alessandro Integrated Media & Communications Editor Robert Thomas Creative Director Sharon Winfield Lead Designer, Digital & Print Samuel Gonzales Director, Digital & Social Media David Blaylock Manager, Integrated Media Mary Rufe Director, Information Services Tobias Sellier Director, Media Relations & Communications Maria Valatkaite Integrated Media & Communications Coordinator INQUIRIES EDITORIAL News@PublicPower.org 202-467-2900 SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscriptions@PublicPower.org 202-467-2900 ADVERTISING EHenson@Naylor.com 352-333-3443 Advertising for APPA publications is managed by Naylor, LLC. Public Power (ISSN 0033-3654) is published six times a year by the American Public Power Association, 2451 Crystal Drive, Suite 1000, Arlington,VA 22202-4804. © Copyright, 2015, American Public Power Association. Opinions expressed in articles are not policies of the association. Periodical postage paid in Arlington,Va., and additional mailing offices. For permission to reprint articles, contact News@PublicPower.org. 4 Public Power Lines by Sue Kelly 34Washington Report 35 Engineering 36 Security 37 100Years of Pride in Public Power 38 Innovation 8 NewWays and Means APPA’s DEED program brings new ideas to scale. 18 The Instant Gratification Grid Today’s electricity customers want more and they want it now. Utilities in all sectors are prioritizing new, smart technologies. 24 Smart Utilities, Smart Cities Cutting edge cities work with their utilities to improve services and reduce consumption while anticipating their customers’ needs. 26 Igniting the Spark Public power nurtures the future workforce through internships and scholarships. 40 Captain Public Power and Career Day Being part of the public power workforce can be really cool! FEATURES CONT ENT S The Innovation Issue #PublicPower @PublicPowerOrg Search for American Public Power and Connect with us COLUMNS Cover illustration by J.D. King
  • 6. Bill Gates has been talking a lot about energy innovation lately. In a recent interview with The Atlantic, he calls for an energy miracle. Gates says the incentive to invest in energy isn’t there — compared to glitzy new digital products, most en- ergy technology is developed more than 20 years before it is scaled up for widespread use. While energy innovation creates measurable benefits to society in the long run, Gates says there’s little immediate benefit to the innovators themselves. “R&D amount in energy is surprisingly low com- pared with medicine or digital stuff, where both the government spending and the private-sector spending is huge,” Gates says. Public power has been able to make a differ- ence because we can innovate for the public good, with no further incentive necessary. Whether it be through an iPhone app for customers, a wind tur- bine in a suitcase, or modular residential and com- mercial battery storage — community-owned util- ities have often been able to meet customers’ needs with new technologies requiring only modest in- vestments, before they seek services elsewhere. Public power has been on the frontlines of in- novation for a long time. The American Public Power Association launched the Demonstration of Energy & Effi- ciency Developments program in 1980. Today, more than 900 public power utilities take advantage of the program to pool their resources and fund innovative projects that help move public power — and the entire industry — forward. While we cannot match the $2 billion Bill Gates wants to spend on energy R&D, DEED has done some great work of which we should all be proud. As DEED celebrates its 35th birthday, we want to share its impres- sive track record of more than 400 projects. As you’ll read in this issue of Public Power magazine, the program is helping public power utilities get on the cutting edge. DEED works because of the efforts of its volunteer board members, who review many grant applications and put together ideas. I met with the DEED board while they were visiting the APPA office in September. StrengthThrough Innovation PUBLIC POWER LINES I was most impressed with their dedication and the work they do. They are as motivated and deter- mined as our staff who keep the program running like a well-oiled machine: Mike Hyland, senior vice president of engineering services, Michele Suddle- son, DEED program director, and Richelle Dodds, DEED program assistant. The program also owes its success to the members who participate, proposing and per- forming research projects that lead us to the next frontier. Their work makes a lasting impression. On page 15, you’ll read about DEED projects that made a big splash and have gained widespread use throughout the energy industry. Innovation is important in any industry, but it is essential in the electric utility industry — pow- er is the backbone, not only of our communities but of many other technologies we use every day. This is why APPA included Continuing Research and Development as one of the six priorities in its strategic plan. DEED’s firm commitment to research enables us to increase efficiencies, in- vestigate new technologies, develop new service offerings, and improve processes and practices to better serve customers. The long-term strength of public power demands this commitment to research, development and demonstration. But building a better tomorrow is just as much about people as it is about new technologies and services. You’ll read on page 26 about four DEED scholarship and internship recipients who have stayed in the en- ergy industry, some in public power. And two of the four interviewees are women, though women make up only 14 percent of the engineering workforce. Public power is helping get women into STEM — the sci- ence, technology, engineering and math fields. Check out the women from public power who were featured on Twitter during the “#ILook- LikeAnEngineer” campaign. Clearly, joining DEED is an investment in the future. The energy industry is changing — of that we are certain. But public power’s com- mitment to research and education remains steadfast through DEED. To join other public power innovators at the frontlines of the electricity future, visit PublicPower.org/DEED. 4 Public Power / November-December 2015
  • 7. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 5 756707_Finley.indd 1 7/15/15 12:59 PM 766 2 _P ne.indd 1 2 /09/15 : 5
  • 8. T O P - N O T C H L E A R N I N G A N D N E T W O Executive leadership Legal Accounting & finance HR and training Engineering & operations 6 Public Power / November-December 2015 The ONLY Source that Meets All Your Training & Workforce Development Needs POLICY & REGULATION Joint Action Workshop, Jan 10 – 12, San Diego, California Come and talk to your peers from joint action agencies across the country about hot topics. Discuss the impact of the Clean Power Plan in your state, review distributed generation case studies and consumer education issues, and explore the implications of a recent FERC ruling on power supply contracts. TRAINING: TECHNICAL, ACCOUNTING, CUSTOMER SERVICE Winter Education Institute, Feb 8 – 12, Orlando, Florida Send staff at every level to earn CEUs, PDHs and CPEs, while receiving hands-on training from experts in accounting, cost of service and retail rate design, customer service management, distributed generation rate design, overhead distribution systems, and pole line design. LEADERSHIP NETWORKING CEO Roundtable, Feb 21 – 24, Phoenix, Arizona Join CEOs, general managers, and senior executives from other public power utilities for peer networking in an exclusive small group setting — registration is limited to 75 executives. Learn to think outside the box, gain insight into key challenges facing the industry, and gear up for success. 6 Public Power / November-December 2015
  • 9. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 7 POLICY AND ADVOCACY Legislative Rally, Mar 7 – 9, Washington, D.C. Come and meet with your members of Congress and brief them on issues that impact you. Hear from experts on energy legislation, environmental policy, threats to tax-exempt financing, grid security, distributed generation, the Power Marketing Administrations, telecommunications, and more. LINEWORKER SKILLS Public Power Lineworkers Rodeo, April 1-2, Minneapolis, Minnesota Earn national and local attention by sending your lineworkers to demonstrate their skill, compete for professional honors, and network with peers. The Rodeo receives significant social media attention, motivates participants, and celebrates their hard work. Safety training is at the top of the agenda. OPERATIONS Engineering & Operations Technical Conference, April 3 – 6, Minneapolis, Minnesota Learn from the experts and network with your engineering peers to recharge and refresh your skills. Discover the latest and greatest in communications and control, environmental, generation and fuels, safety, supply management, system planning, and transmission and distribution. W O R K I N G F O R U T I L I T Y P E R S O N N E L Customer service Key accounts Energy services PR & communications Economic development LEADERSHIP, ECONOMY, TECHNOLOGY National Conference & Public Power Expo, June 10 – 15, Phoenix, Arizona Don’t miss public power’s event of the year — the place to see and be seen. Tune into the political, economic, and technological trends shaping electric utilities. Connect changes in the global and national energy landscape to your public power utility and prepare for the challenges and opportunities ahead. WEBINARS Learn without leaving your desk APPA Can Bring Courses to YOU Let the best of the APPA Academy come to you. Our in-house training program can bring any of our popular courses to your facility or customize training for staff from any of your departments. We cover utility governance, engineering and operations, safety, accounting, customer service, and more. Contact Heidi Lambert at 202-467-2921 or HLambert@PublicPower.org to plan and book your session today! Register for all events and webinars at PublicPower.org/Events Email: EducationInfo@PublicPower.org Phone: 202-467-2900
  • 10. NEW WAYS AND MEANS 8 Public Power / November-December 2015
  • 11. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 9 Utilities operate in an increasingly competitive and nuanced industry — customers and private companies are directly involved in the energy business,and customers are presented with more choices and control over their energy use. “Customers interested in reducing their carbon footprint now have the choice to either install solar panels on their rooftop themselves,lease a solar system maintained by a third-party company,or participate in a community solar program offered through their local utility,”said Michele Suddleson,director of the Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments Program at the American Public Power Association.“Utilities must provide our customers with the ways and means to realize their energy-related desires or those desires will be fulfilled by others,and we will lose relevance with our customers in this new era.” New technologies that can keep utilities relevant and in the energy-service game are ones that not only help customers meet their energy-related needs,but also harness and store clean,reliable energy and integrate systems for cost-effectiveness and efficiency.Storage and integration,in particular,impact all aspects of delivering energy,including energy efficiency,demand-side management,renewable energy,and intelligent use of microgrids,making them the wave of future energy business. Several new technologies that are a part of that future wave and may be game-changers for the utility industry have received support from grants by APPA’s DEED Program. By Laurel Lundstrom,Contributing Writer Share your #innovation stories with @PublicPowerOrg
  • 12. 10 Public Power / November-December 2015 THE GREEN ENERGY TRIFORCE: ELECTRIC VEHICLES, ENERGY STORAGE AND SOLAR POWER The first thing people see when they park their cars at North Carolina State University’s FREEDM center is a touchscreen monitor. That monitor uses infographics to educate the public about the benefits of the university’s Vehicle Energy Storage & Solar Demonstration project, which couples a solar-powered electric vehicle charging station with an energy storage system. “I think it’s almost like a holy trinity of green energy,” said Allan Oduor, a student who worked on the project. “Owning an electric vehicle or plug in-hybrid is great. What’s even better is having an electric vehicle that you don’t have to charge using electricity generated from a coal plant.” Participants: North Carolina State University DEED project timeline: June 2013 – May 2014 Total cost: $128,811 Amount covered by DEED: $47,811 Technology: Integrated storage, solar, electric vehicles Project specs: The integrated system generates up to 43 kilowatt hours of solar photovoltaics, charges two electric vehicles, stores up to 20 kilowatt hours of power in a battery, connects to a local microgrid, and educates the public about intelligent energy management through a visual energy display. Results: The VESSD achieves operational efficiency by using direct current from a microgrid and avoiding losses that occur when a grid-supplied alternating current is converted into direct current. The project helps to demonstrate how small-scale distributed generation systems, energy storage, and electric vehicles can be intelligently integrated and controlled to avoid deleterious grid impacts. Replicability: The VESSD is a simple design. It can be built in any type of parking lot to improve demand-side response by leveraging solar-powered charging stations. Lessons: Electric vehicles that charge at unpredictable times and the growth of photovoltaic generation create challenges to maintaining stability and power quality on the grid. Having solar-powered charging stations located in parking decks offers a clean, cost- effective alternative to charging a vehicle at home. Innovation impact: The proliferation of these integrated systems in the very near future could provide important efficiency and operational benefits to the grid if they are well understood and effectively managed. NEWTECHNOLOGIESCHANGINGTHEENERGYGAME
  • 13. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 11 TURNING THE KEY TO THE FUTURE OF RELIABLE WIND WITH EFFICIENT STORAGE Wind is unpredictable. Adding wind generation to the energy supply comes with risk, and there is no guaranteed back-up power supply for when the wind slows down. Lincoln Electric System has worked on rectifying this problem by designing an efficient system that uses excess wind energy to store compressed air that can be tapped for power when winds die down or when peak energy use is highest. Utility: Lincoln Electric System DEED project timeline: May 2014 – May 2015 Total cost: $18,105 Amount covered by DEED: $4,288 Technology: Wind, storage Project specs: The system is designed as a dual function air compressor and motor directly connected to the wind turbine shaft. This configuration uses excess wind energy to store compressed air. Results: When the wind speed is low, the compressed air supplements the wind energy and allows the wind turbine to produce energy at its maximum potential. Replicability: Along with an increase in self-sufficiency, this technology could enable utilities to downsize transmission lines or maintain the size when power demand in the community increases. It works well in rural areas where abundant wind energy resources exist and small communities are located far from the generation center. Lessons: There are multiple control loops associated with optimal operation of the compressed air system, and the utility discovered the best one: a rotary vane machine and a variable displacement machine coupled with a continuously variable transmission. Innovation impact: “Energy storage is the key to the future viability of wind generation and we are not aware of any other research that utilizes the direct coupled air compressor and motor configuration,” said Tom Davlin, manager of engineering projects with Lincoln Electric System. If this technology can be commercialized, it will allow for storage of off-peak wind energy for delivery during peak periods, solving one of the biggest issues associated with wind energy: the time-of-day mismatch between wind energy production and customer peak loads. It could also potentially provide an emergency energy source during grid outages and “black start” capabilities to a micro-grid system. NEWTECHNOLOGIESCHANGINGTHEENERGYGAME
  • 14. 12 Public Power / November-December 2015 RENEWABLE POWER IN A SUITCASE: THE A-PEGASUS PROJECT Soon, 5,000 people in Jikawa Province, Papua New Guinea — a country where 90 percent of people still do not have electricity — will receive power from one of the first portable, airborne electric-generating systems. The Airborne-Portable Electric Generation and Storage Universal System, known as A-Pegasus, will harness wind and solar power to establish a micro-utility that powers the local medical clinic, schools, and community in the rural province of Jikawa. “I feel very grateful to APPA for helping me to develop a low-cost, high-efficiency, modular system that could potentially open a new market for utilities to own and operate instantly deployable renewable energy sources,” said Alexander Anderson, the graduate student who was supported by Tacoma Power through DEED to work on the project. “Thanks to the DEED program, I now see my dream taking form as a real-world solution.” Utility/participants: Tacoma Power DEED project timeline: December 2013 – May 2014 Total cost: $4,100 Amount covered by DEED: $4,000 Technology: Wind, renewable generation Project specs: A–Pegasus integrates a wind augmenter and photovoltaic rays into a tethered airborne platform. Researchers evaluated the feasibility, practicality, and cost- effectiveness of the system. Results: Augmented wind turbines operate at higher efficiencies, have lower starting speeds, and are better for the environment because of reduced noise and fewer bird/ bat strikes — and A-Pegasus is no exception. In addition, the low deployment cost and portability of A-Pegasus allows it to go from “in-the-box” to fully operational in a few hours. Replicability: The system can be scaled to produce a desired power output, making the technology transferable to a utility of nearly any size as a supplementary generation system for peak electric consumption periods or as a reliable source of emergency backup power. Lessons: Discovering the operating constraints (such as temperature, wind speed requirements, rotational velocity restriction) and material limitations rendered valuable lessons for the next prototype design, A-Pegasus II, which will fit in a suitcase and can be carried and assembled anywhere. Innovation impact: The system presents a reliable, sustainable alternative to current off-grid generation techniques and distribution-generation technologies and is cost competitive with similarly sized commercial wind turbines in regions with low-to- moderate wind speeds. Designed to be a viable source of renewable energy for any geographic region, utilities can use these rapidly deployable assets to provide service in remote areas, where the costs of diesel generation or grid extension are prohibitive. NEWTECHNOLOGIESCHANGINGTHEENERGYGAME
  • 15. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 13 COOL, COOL SUMMERS WITH ICE CUB Azusa Light & Water has been serving residents of the Los Angeles Basin for 115 years, since before the first modern electrical air conditioning unit was invented and well before the utility worried about air conditioners straining the grid on the hottest days. Times have changed, of course, and with them, the utility has been supporting the innovation of new technologies to help improve efficiencies and lower the cost of energy — even on sweltering days. The utility worked with the company Ice Energy to develop a small-scale, refrigerant-based thermal en- ergy storage system that can be used in the residential sector, called Ice Cub. Utility: Azusa Light & Water DEED project timeline: April – December 2014 Total cost: $500,000 Amount covered by DEED: $60,000 Technology: Residential thermal energy storage Project specs: The project tested two Ice Cub prototypes to determine how they could be used to realize significant peak demand reduction of up to 50 percent and/or efficiency improvements in the residential sector. The technology needed to store enough ice to cool without using a compressor during peak periods using a traditional home HVAC unit. Results: Both prototypes met the project’s criteria: they could provide up to 12 to 14 ton-hours of cooling a day and be used as a peak-shifting device for demand reduction. The Ice Cub can also be used as an air conditioning unit to cool the whole home while making ice and then used as a storage device by taking the compressor offline for three to four hours during peak periods. Replicability: The Ice Cub can be used in all climate zones, nationwide, wherever refrigerant-based air conditioners are used. When this product is commercialized, it will be available to essentially all public power systems in the United States and to utilities worldwide that experience summer peak load constraints due to air conditioning demand. Lessons: Field tests allowed the utility to define how long of a period that Ice Cub needs to reduce air conditioning peak demand, which is typically four hours per day. Innovation impact: At full capacity, the technology can shift an air conditioning compressor from on-peak to off-peak, reducing demand by approximately 95 percent. Ice Cub completely replaces the residential outdoor air conditioner compressor unit, and can be used to cool the home outside the four-hour peak reduction period. Since the project’s conclusion, Ice Energy has created five different Ice Cub prototypes. When commercialized, this technology could have a major impact on curbing demand for power during peak heat. “Following successful field testing in Azusa, Ice Energy contracted with University of California Davis’s Western Cooling Energy Center to test and confirm performance of the Ice Cub product, which was completed in August of 2015,” said Greg Miller, executive vice president of market development for Ice Energy. “The first units will be ready for sale in January 2016.” NEWTECHNOLOGIESCHANGINGTHEENERGYGAME
  • 16. 14 Public Power / November-December 2015 EVOLVING STUDENTS, EVOLVING BEHAVIORS When students leave for study at a university, how they use and save energy is not usually the first thing on their minds. The Burlington Electric Department, which delivers power to University of Vermont students, has struggled to curb energy use at student rental properties. By teaching students more about their energy use, the Burlington Electric Department is trying to understand if it is possible to encourage energy-saving behaviors among the student population. The innova- tion being tested requires in-home devices to be paired with smart meters. Utility/participants: Burlington Electric Department, University of Vermont DEED project timeline: July 2014 – June 2016 Total cost: $141,450 Amount covered by DEED: $30,000 Technology: Demand-side management, behavior change, smart metering Project specs: This project involves creating additional educational opportunities for students living off campus to better understand, as residential customers in Burlington, how to take advantage of the smart grid. This will take the shape of educational seminars and outreach on energy efficiency, and include a competition among participants, some of whom will be using an in-home device to track energy usage. Results: The study will continue through the spring semester and results should be available soon after. Replicability: The utility’s findings about pairing in-home devices with smart meters and how and if customers use smart meter data to change energy use should be applicable to other utilities. Lessons: Pairing in-home devices, or other Zigbee devices, to smart meters is not always straightforward. Burlington Electric Department meters, for example, have the radios off so the utility had to develop a process that turns the radio on and a process for pairing each in-home device to the correct meter. Innovation impact: Real behavior change with energy usage is an evolving subject. The Burlington Electric Department, through this project, is seeking to know what programs might effectively encourage energy-saving behaviors in the future. “This can be a great learning opportunity,” said Chris Burns, director of energy services at the Burlington Electric Department. “One of [the utility’s] biggest energy-efficiency challenges is addressing Burlington’s large portion of rental properties, and student rentals in particular. In-home devices, coupled with Burlington’s smart metering systems, provide tremendous potential.” NEWTECHNOLOGIESCHANGINGTHEENERGYGAME
  • 17. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 15 35 Years of Innovation: DEED’s Greatest Hits By Michael Hyland, senior vice president of engineering services, APPA 35 years of DEED resulted in what can be described as extreme innovation in public power. It’s hard to pick the greatest outcomes that have resulted from DEED projects, but here’s a snapshot of five projects with lasting impact. Soybean oil for safer transformers Waverly Light and Power in Iowa, now Waverly Utilities, had to clean up a costly contaminated transformer oil spill in 1994. The utility wanted a non-toxic transformer oil and teamed up with the University of Northern Iowa’s Ag-Based Industrial Lubricants research program. Initial pilot testing of the oil began in 1997. In 1999, the oil was patented and trademarked as BioTrans. A DEED grant supported further research, which identified BioTrans as an environmentally friendly alternative to standard transformer oil. In 2002 Cargill bought the patents and trademark rights and began manufacturing BioTrans. In 2004, Cargill joined forces with Cooper Power Systems, which had developed its own vegetable-based transformer oil, to cost-efficiently produce and distribute Envirotemp FR3 fluid, a revolutionary insulating product that is safe for the environment and the public. Stimulating power flow simulations PowerWorld Simulator is a graphics-based power system analysis tool that took the drudgery and mystery out of power system analysis. It can be used to show power flows on the transmission system or a utility’s distribution system. It all started with Thomas Overbye, a professor at the University of Illinois, who wanted a tool to help students better understand large-scale power systems. In 1995, DEED joined Power Systems Engineering Research Center — a consortium of universities, industries, and government groups conducting electric industry research — to support the development of the software. Continued development was supported by more DEED grants and scholarships. DEED sponsors included Danville Department of Utilities in Virginia, WPPI Energy in Wisconsin, Richmond Power & Light in Indiana, and City Water Light & Power in Illinois. PowerWorld Corp. was founded in 1996 to make the software commercially available. Today, PowerWorld’s products are used by more than 700 customers in 68 countries. Smarter safety through videos Educating workers about safety is challenging for many small, resource-constrained utilities. That’s why DEED awarded a grant to Peru Utilities in Indiana to develop the SafetySmart Video Series in 2003. The series consists of eight training videos that reinforce information from the APPA Safety Manual and Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards. The videos were shot at public power utilities and feature utility personnel and equipment. They discuss safety at power generation plants, excavation sites, in relation to electric metering, in confined spaces, with pole climbing and bucket truck safety and rescue operations, and during lockout/ tagout procedures for electric plants and substations. The accompanying SafetySmart Instructor’s Manual provides additional classroom content. The SafetySmart Video Series filled a marketplace gap for affordable, professional-quality training materials with a public power focus. It has helped many public power utilities enhance safety training programs. The series is being updated under a current DEED grant. Benchmarking through e-Tracking In 2001, DEED awarded the Municipal Electric System of Oklahoma a $3,000 grant to improve an Excel spreadsheet that a member created to track and log outages and graph data using reliability indices. A decade later, Reliability Tracker, a simple tool that DEED distributed to members via CD-ROM, morphed into the eReliability Tracker™, a sophisticated, web-based tool that public power utilities can subscribe to affordably. Today, eReliability Tracker is a national, web-based application used by more than 200 utilities to catalog, track, and report outage data. The subscription rate demonstrates that public power utilities are highly engaged in capturing and benchmarking reliability data to perform essential distribution system analyses. A second grant was awarded in 2013 to improve and enhance eReliability Tracker’s features and performance. The application gives large and small utilities an easy-to-use, and cost-effective tool to track and benchmark distribution system reliability.
  • 18.
  • 19. ExExpeperiencee matters. Especially when it comes to electric power transmission. At AmericanTransmission Co., electric transmission is what we do — all day, every day. We’re one of the nation’s foremost experts in managing complex transmission assets. And we also have public power experience. In fact, public power is represented on our board of directors, and 22 of our 28 owners are from municipal and cooperative utilities. If you’re looking to make a move on the transmission front, whether you need to develop transmission, maintain aging assets, navigate complex compliance requirements, or want to set up a transco of your own, ATC is the experienced guide you can count on. An experienced guide can make all the difference. Helping to keep the lights on, businesses running and communities strong® atcllc.com
  • 20. 18 Public Power / November-December 2015 The Instant Gratification Grid Change the thermostat by tapping the screen of a smart phone. Ask a utility about an outage through social media. Store power for a household in a sleek home battery in the garage.Today’s customers want more, faster, and tomorrow’s customers will have even higher expectations. Evolving technologies and customer needs are driving utilities in all sectors to prioritize providing new, integrated smart technologies. By Ethan Howland
  • 21. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 19 Photo courtesy of Portland General Electric.
  • 22. 20 Public Power / November-December 2015 Maturing technologies, evolv- ing customer expectations and the constant demand for reliable and affordable power aredriving electric utilities and their partners to develop new and innovative services and approaches. The last 10 years or so has been a period of major change as the grid system has grown more dynamic. Solar capacity in the United States stood at about 500 megawatts in 2005. Today it’s about 22,700 MW, with photovol- taic panels covering rooftops from New Jersey to California. The number of so-called smart meters, which make possible two-way communica- tion between a utility and its customers, has jumped from about 7 million in 2007 to about 65 million today. About 72,300 plug-in electric vehicles have been sold so far this year, up from about 17,800 in all of 2011. Electric vehicles have the potential to provide power to the grid when needed while charging their batteries at the best times for the overall system. In part, the evolution toward a more com- plex grid network parallels changing custom- er expectations, according to Ed White, vice president of new energy solutions at National Grid, a transmission and distribution utility in the Northeastern U.S. and the U.K. “Our customers have advanced exponentially in the last 10 years. Customers are more reliant and dependent on technology, and there’s more pressure on utilities to invest in the future.” The evolving expectations for how con- sumers interact with and use electricity is spurring innovation, according to Michael Howard, the Electric Power Research Insti- tute’s president and chief executive officer. At the same time, the costs are falling for some technologies, such as rooftop solar, providing more options for customers and utilities, he said. “The technical innovation is occurring in all facets of the power system,” Howard said. “With more two-way power flow, it’s even more important to know what’s hap- pening and also to be able to predict what may happen.” Howard sees some key technological changes that are helping utilities and oth- ers manage a power system that is growing more dynamic. Utilities have a real-time view of what’s happening on the electric system, enabled by improvements in sen- sor equipment. Communication technology can deliver data from the sensors. And the final piece is improved data analytics, which helps utilities understand what’s happening on the grid and potentially getting a jump on what may be coming in the future, he said. The integrated grid In an effort to get the most out of the growth in distributed resources alongside central generation, EPRI started its Integrated Grid initiative last year. “We came to the conclu- sion that it’s critically important to integrate it all together,” Howard said, noting that that may not have been an obvious finding 10 years ago. As a first step, EPRI developed a cost-ben- efit framework for assessing various options that are now available to utilities. The frame- work, released early this year, can be used to understand the net benefits distributed resources like solar PV or energy storage can provide. “As we increase the deployment of dis- tributed energy resources, the questions of optimal configurations will be happening every day,” Howard said. Now EPRI, in cooperation with about a dozen investor-owned and cooperative utili- ties, is setting up pilot projects focused on six key areas: utility-scale solar, with and with- out storage, distributed energy storage, mi- crogrids, electric vehicle charging infrastruc- ture and customer-sided technologies such as distributed generation, smart thermostats and energy management systems. Through the pilot projects, EPRI aims to better understand the cost and benefits of various configurations of different resources, according to Howard. New York grid reform Meanwhile, utilities throughout the U.S. have been pressing ahead with innovative projects of their own. Echoing some of the issues being tackled by EPRI, New York’s investor-owned utilities this summer proposed demonstra- tion projects through the state’s Reforming the Energy Vision initiative, which aims to re- vamp the state’s utility sector, partly by spur- ring increased distributed resources. Among the proposals, National Grid plans to test distributed resources at the Buffalo-Niagara medical campus while of- fering community solar in a low- to moder- ate-income neighborhood near the hospital. One of the key principles around the REV initiative is looking at distributed energy re- sources as a network instead of individual connections, National Grid’s White said. READ MORE: Lisa Wood, vice president of the Edison Foundation and executive direc- tor of the Institute for Electric Innovation, talks about the evolving electric grid, cus- tomers and utility on PublicPower.org under News>Public Power magazine>Archives (Sept.-Oct. 2015). “The technical innovation is occurring in all facets of the power system.”
  • 23. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 21 Through a “distributed service platform” the utility hopes to put together the right mix of technologies to service seven main institu- tions plus other organizations on the medical campus, White said. The distributed service platform will man- age the distributed resources on campus us- ing load and generation forecasts to create a forward-looking dispatch schedule, the utility said. National Grid hopes to learn how it can best connect customer-to-grid assets to mar- ket mechanisms such as ancillary services, ca- pacity, and demand response, the utility told the New York Public Service Commission in its project application. National Grid also plans to explore setting up a microgrid in Potsdam, New York, to re- duce power outages in an area that has been hit with multi-day outages. Partly, the util- ity wants to see to what extent customers are willing to pay for grid reliability, White said. “What is the value of knowing the lights will come on?” he asked. National Grid is also proposing to give about 15,000 residential and small commer- cial customers equipment so they can better monitor and manage their energy. The proj- ect will include levelized billing so customers have predictable electric utility expenses. New York regulators have approved the community solar project and White expects final decisions on the other projects in the next couple months. Smart power Utilities have also been looking at ways to link energy storage with renewable genera- tion. Portland General Electric and its part- ners, for example, launched the Salem Smart Power project in 2013. The project, seen on pages 18-19, includes a 5-MW lithium-ion battery-inverter system, which is used to provide seamless power delivery to a major customer with solar panels and also incorpo- rates demand response. For us, safety is a way of life and we wouldn’t have it any other way. We work proactively to maintain a well-trained staff, instilling safe work practices every step of the way. At Asplundh, is the only way to get the job done. 764470_Asplundh.indd 1 28/08/15 10:18 PM READ MORE: Find energy storage case studies and news coverage on PublicPower.org under Topics>Energy Storage.
  • 24. 22 Public Power / November-December 2015742011_IFD.indd 1 03/04/15 12:57 AM Further, the Salem project is at the core of a microgrid that includes about 500 residen- tial, commercial and governmental custom- ers, according to Stan Sittser, a PGE spokes- man. As part of a microgrid, the project can tap three standby diesel generators when needed, with the battery providing about 20 minutes of electricity while the generators get started. The roughly $25-million project is still in use and could be called on to bolster resil- iency and reliability, according to Sittser. Hawaiian cooperative unveils plans for solar plus storage project While several large IOUs are moving on ener- gy storage projects, so is a cooperative in Ha- waii. Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative, with about 33,000 customers, announced plans in September for a utility-scale solar plant that will deliver power in the evening, when elec- tric demand is at its peak. SolarCity, which will build the 13-MW solar array and 52-MWh battery project, will sell power to the cooperative under a 20-year power purchase agreement for a fixed price of $145/MWh, which is less expensive than the utility’s conventional power supplies. The cooperative said that the proposed SolarCity project next to the Kapaia power plant is believed to be the first utility-scale system in the U.S. to provide dispatchable solar energy, meaning that the utility can count on electricity being available when it is needed, even hours after the sun goes down. The cooperative expects to save up to $52.6 million in reduced fuel use over the life of the power purchase contract while cutting its greenhouse gas emissions. n 717604_Sterling.indd 1 22/10/14 2:07 PM
  • 25. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 23 53 Old Wilton Road, Milford, NH 03055-3119 603-673-2040 • hendrix-wc.com Aerial Cable Systems solve multiple problems. Hendrix Aerial Cable Systems do more than reduce tree trimming and protect wildlife. They offer an end-to-end solution for many challenges, including: • Substation exits • Coastal areas • 69kV Circuit • Underbuilds/overbuilds • System hardening • Providing near- underground reliability in overhead solutions When it comes to Aerial Cable Systems, Let Hendrix Handle It. A Marmon Wire & Cable/Berkshire Hathaway Company Benefits beyond branches 751383_Hendrix.indd 1 6/26/15 10:41 PM
  • 27. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 25 Share this graphic. Request a digital version from News@PublicPower.org
  • 28. 26 Public Power / November-December 2015
  • 29. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 27 IgnitingtheSparkThrough association-funded grants and scholarships, public power is building its own workforce of the future. With about a quarter of the existing public power workforce ready to retire within the next five years, there is no time like the present to recruit the next generation of public power employees. Working at a public power utility provides a breadth of experience that isn’t found in many other jobs. For Girish Balachandran, now the general manager of California’s Riverside Public Utilities, his scholarships in 1989 and 1990 allowed him to continue his education while learning everything from power purchasing to regulatory issues. Through scholarships and internships in public power, the industry is piquing the interest of its future generation of leaders like Balachandran. Working with a public power utility also allows for a close relationship with a community, one that many public power utility employees grew up in and want to continue to serve. But their advice to those who follow in their footsteps isn’t all that different from what generations have been passing down for ages: communicate effectively, be flexible and be curious. Share your #workforce stories with @PublicPowerOrg By Laura D’Alessandro,integrated media editor,APPA
  • 30. 28 Public Power / November-December 2015 “I will continue my career in the power industry because it touches everything and everyone. Our customers depend on electricity, and they expect affordable rates. Public Power offers that. I want to continue to be a part of such an important industry.” Laura Strode, 26, Omaha Public Power District Growth in Your Community As a young girl growing up in Nebraska, Laura Strode recalls the Omaha Public Power District as her family’s electric company. Now, she works there. Two years into her career in the electricity business, Strode said the power industry is where she sees herself for the foreseeable future. It was an American Public Power Association grant awarded through the Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Development program that gave Strode her start. She was an intern at OPPD in the summer of 2013. She applied after she saw a post on OPPD’s website. “I felt it was a great opportunity as I was pursuing my bachelor’s degree in marketing,” Strode said. “I was attracted to OPPD because they are a great company and a pillar in my community.” As it turned out, the project was quite relevant to Strode’s area of study and she was able to get college credit for her work as she planned, implemented and developed marketing materials for demand side management programs. But the experience also opened a door. “During the last few months of my internship I was offered a full-time position at OPPD,” Strode said. “The experiences I had gained during my DEED internship qualified me for this position. I have been in my current position for two years now and I still work closely with the same program and indi- viduals as I did as an intern.” APPA’s DEED program targets $120,000 annually for its scholarships, including $5,000 student research grants and internships, $8,000 technical de- sign projects, and $2,000 educational scholarships. While the funding is bringing community members to work at their utilities, like Strode, the money also contributes to work on innovative projects, as is DEED’s core mission.
  • 31. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 29 An Education in Energy When Marie LaRiviere started her DEED internship in 2004, she didn’t know about geothermal power. But her job was to educate utilities and the public about the technology. “I found it particularly interesting because I had never heard of ground source heat pumps and didn’t know much at all about creating electricity from geothermal energy,” she said. In hindsight, LaRiviere said, renewable technologies still had a long way to go at that time, but the first step was education. “Even if my project didn’t create any incremental demand for geothermal technologies, it would still accomplish its goal by educating people,” she said. “A lot of changes have taken place in the renewable energy industry since 2004, and much of that change has been driven by educating people and companies about their options and the existence, viability and benefits of these technologies.” A lot has changed for LaRiviere, too. The experience created what became many more years of researching and educating in the energy industry. From there, LaRiviere began working at the Energy Information Administration forecasting biofuels consumption and demand. She moved into renewables and then forecasting fossil fuel demand and consumption. “I liked the way that forecasting was extremely difficult because of market interactions that were more pronounced than those in the power space,” she said. Her interest prompted her to go back to school and get a masters in business administration at Georgetown University, where she also got her under- graduate degree. Now she reports the financial results of global transactions, but it all started with an internship with DEED. “I enjoy working for a company that is respected by the customers and that keeps the customers’ interest first. I have found it is more satisfying to work for a company that makes the customers their number one advocate, than working for a company that is only looking after the shareholders’ interests.” Travis Kinney, 31, Lewis County PUD
  • 32. 30 Public Power / November-December 2015 Seven Hats Right Off the Bat It is often said that small public power utility managers wear seven hats. In fact, in 1966 the American Public Power Association initiated an award to recognize utility managers who serve small public power communities and whose responsibilities extend well beyond administration into planning and design, public relations, field supervision, human resources and community leadership. For Travis Kinney, it was this ability to do many different things that sparked his interest in staying in public power after an exciting internship at Lewis County PUD in Chehalis, Washington. Kinney was an intern during the summer of 2012 and was attracted initially by the location and its proximity to where he lived, 30 minutes away. For Kinney, the internship would be a test drive, he said. “I would be able to work for a utility and see if I liked it or not,” he said. “From some of the classes I took, I thought I wanted to work at a utility. The internship gave me the experience to know if it was a place that I truly wanted to work.” It goes without saying that it certainly was. As an intern, Kinney got the lay of the land. He learned the PUD’s system so he was better prepared for a full-time position — one that wasn’t even available but Chief Engineer Dan Kay created for him. “If I didn’t hire him I knew someone else would,” Kay said. So he went to the utility’s board and made the case. Now Kinney works as an electrical engineer on system performance and other tasks that arise. It’s that ability to take on other responsibilities that Kinney enjoyed most as an intern. “At most public power utilities, engineers are able to work on a wide range of tasks that would cover multiple sub departments at other utilities,” he said. “At most investor owned utilities, engineers are placed in a sub-department of engineering, like system protection, or substation. Then that engineer works in that sub department until an opening in a different sub department is available. But I feel that I get to learn and apply my knowledge to a wider range of tasks.” And while Kinney was training to be an engineer in school, the experience is unlike anything he could have learned in a classroom, he said. “I was able to learn things and gain experience that is not, or cannot, be taught in college.” “Working at DEED was an important stepping stone for me because it piqued my interest in the energy sector and energy technologies, which I then explored by working across a broad range of technologies and functions while at EIA and now Chevron.” Marie LaRiviere, 32, Chevron
  • 33. “Public power is a very meaningful occupation. We provide an essential public good. Our product is changing to meet society’s expectations for clean power, renewable power, more information, more control.” Girish Balachandran, 49, Riverside Public Utilities Forming Future Leaders When Girish Balachandran was studying at the University of California Los Angeles in 1989, he didn’t have the money for his next semester’s tuition. Then he saw a flyer posted in the engineering department for a DEED scholarship. The project was load control and energy efficiency concepts. “This couldn’t have been more perfect in terms of timing,” he said. About 25 years later, Balachandran is the general manager of Riverside Public Utilities in Riverside, California. While the scholarship was convenient, economically, he received a job he was actually interested in, he said. He went back for a second round the following year. Balachandran said in hindsight the experiences were a tremendous opportunity that led to even more learning. “In a five- to six-year period I was given an opportunity to be an analyst and work on contract negotiations with many utilities and then be involved in regulatory proceedings that were happening statewide,” he said. “Many of my friends who finished graduate school and went on to do MBAs — the stuff I was doing at work was what they were learning about in business school. Contract negotiation, regulatory proceedings, as a muni, you get to deal with all these things. So it was very satisfying to work in public power.” The concepts Balachandran worked with during his DEED projects remain relevant, he said. Energy efficiency is being drawn farther into the forefront as environmental regulations continue to build upon one another, and load control is now called demand response. Like Kinney, Balachandran applied a wide range of skills to his initial experience with public power. As a result, he said, the future workforce needs to be prepared to do just the same.
  • 34. ROADMAto a better workforce Attract and retain new people Build a diverse demographic
  • 35. Retain knowledge from departing employees Promote new technologies Foster continuing education ®
  • 36. 34 Public Power / November-December 2015 APPA LeadsTheWay with Public Power Forward By Joe Nipper,senior vice president of regulatory affairs and communications,APPA WASHINGTON REPORT For public power, innovation is not just a catchphrase — it is a funda- mental aspect of how our member utilities have been doing business every day for more than a century. The wide range of projects detailed in this issue that have received grants through the American Public Power Association’s Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments program shows that public power walks the walk when it comes to pursuing the development of new technologies. Whether it is developing an energy storage project, offering customers the opportunity to participate in a community solar project or deploy- ing electric vehicle charging infrastructure, municipal utilities across the country are actively engaged in a number of innovations that illustrate our commitment to being at the forefront of change. Recognizing that the power sector is in the midst of a significant tran- sition as distributed energy resources and technological change pose both challenges and opportunities for utilities, APPA has committed to help its members prepare for this evolution by tailoring its core services as part of the association’s strategic plan for 2016-2018. APPA’s strategic plan refers to the opportunities and challenges of the future as Public Power Forward. As the strategic plan notes, new technologies, evolving markets, increasing amounts of customer-owned generation, new industry entrants, increasing focus on reliability, and growing energy efficiency and demand response are coming together to re-shape relationships between distribution electric utilities and their retail customers. “Some policy proposals spawned by these new developments could pose fundamental challenges to the public power business model and established relationships with our retail customers and communities,” the strategic plan states. As part of Public Power Forward, APPA will focus on helping its mem- bers to communicate the value of community-owned electric utilities and explain the implications of technology to public power customers. At the national level, APPA will work to ensure that proposed changes to the in- dustry’s structure, regulation, and business models support our members and allow them to adapt to changing community expectations. In late October, we convened APPA’s first-ever Public Power Forward summit where attendees heard from a number of players at the front lines of the dramatic change underway in the power sector. Sessions included a discussion of financial and rate implications of new business models, public power’s reaction to reform proposals and customer engagement and public communications issues. The summit provided a lot of useful material that attendees will be able to use as they work to address new technologies, evolving markets, increasing amounts of customer-owned generation and new industry entrants, among other things. With its history and core values, public power is well positioned to take on the future and thrive in an ever-changing power industry land- scape. But the key to achieving success will be for public power utilities to strategize and prepare now. With Public Power Forward, APPA’s members can rest assured that the association will be by their side every step of the way as the pace of change in the power industry continues to accelerate. Access forward thinking. Transcend commodity engineering. For decades, the experts at Leidos have helped utilities optimize operations and prepare for what’s next. Our solutions in system planning, grid engineering, and Smart Grid as a Service transform your utility, with the future always in mind. leidos.com/activate Activate Tomorrow, Today. Lance Anderson Project Engineer 749427_Leidos.indd 1 27/05/15 12:35 PM
  • 37. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 35 ENGINEERING Skippy or Jif,Time-of-use or Fixed-bill Electricity Rates? By Bernard Neenan,senior technical executive,and Jennifer Robinson,technical leader,energy utilization, Electric Power Research Institute We’ve all been there, standing in the peanut butter aisle, faced with a myriadchoices—crunchyorsmooth,organicornatural,SkippyorJIF.What you choose may have little to do with any other factors than emotion, leav- ing Skippy at a loss for marketing their product over JIF. Instead, researchers often use experimentation to observe how consumers are making choices. For electricity customers, the choice may be time-of-use or fixed-bill electricity service plans. Customers are looking for new ways to use power, thanks to solar panels, smart thermostats and in-home battery storage. Before utilities release service plans for these new technologies, they can assess customer choices through experimentation, too. New insights about consumer preferences come from an ongoing EPRI behavioral research initiative. A recently completed study employed discrete choice experimentation, a popular market and preference research tool that is just now finding its way into electricity service plan design research. Evaluating choices Discreet choice experimentation, or DCE, is a set of experimental protocols for eliciting directly from consumers their preferences for good and services. DCE is particularly well-suited for evaluating alternative electricity service plans because it was designed specifically to measure preferences for ser- vices that consumers are not familiar with, which is the case for time-of-use and fixed bill pricing. A DCE survey asked respondents to consider a series of choice situations and, in each, indicate which of the alternative service plans they prefer. For this research, time-of-use and fixed-bill plans were offered as alternatives to how customers buy electricity — most commonly through a uniform rate of dollars per kilowatt-hour for all energy consumed. The alternatives in each set included different levels of features for time-of-use and fixed-bill rates, always compared to the status quo, a fixed rate. As part of the survey, each respondent completed several choice situations each with the service plan attributes configured differently. Studying preferences EPRI conducted the study in two stages. First, a DCE survey instrument was developed and tested, and then administered to customers of the three sponsoring utilities —Kansas City Power and Light, the Tennessee Valley Authority and Salt River Project. TVA’s sponsorship was partially paid for with an APPA DEED grant. A commercial survey panel was used to administer the surveys. The second stage applied the same survey instrument to include small- er, more rural utilities and municipal utilities — local power companies served by TVA. EPRI used direct mail for the entire DEED study. EPRI tested alternative ways of delivering, packaging, and messaging the survey. A variety of delivery alternatives were employed to identify which works best. In the best, a response rate of over 75 percent was achieved. More than 600 survey responses were collected through the DEED survey implementation. Modeling preferences The survey responses were used to construct a preference model that relates service plan attributes and consumer demographics to the likeli- hood of choosing time-of-use or fixed-bill over a conventional residential electricity rate. The linkage between preferences and customer demographics makes DCE a comprehensive method; it establishes what factors should be used to segment customers and constructs those segments based on observable characteristics. The role of demographics in explaining stated preferences has two im- portant consequences. Models of service plan preferences must collect suf- ficient demographic data so that those distinctions are explicit in estimating preferences. Demographics also provides a means for associating preferences to customer segments and geographic locations that will facilitate effective education on and marketing of service plans. Closing the deal, bulking up the data As new service plans de- velop and customers se- lect them, actual choice data can be collected, revealing real preferenc- es data — who bought and who did not — that can be combined with the stated preferences data from the survey to improve the predictions of which types of cus- tomers are most likely to choose which types of service plans. Combined with customer load data, the results inform how customer electricity us- age is likely to change as respondents choose and adapt to new service plans. Combined with utility supply cost fore- casts, the results of such studies contribute to a utility’s goal of minimiz- ing the cost of meeting diverse customer needs. Meets FAA Specifications! Color – Size – Shape! – International Orange Tested and approved by major power companies! Thousands still in service after 40 years Universal attaching! Fits any wire .1" to 1"! Installs in 5 minutes! Withstands hail! No maintenance! Does not slip, oscillate, chafe, cause electrolysis or harmonic vibration. Ships in halves nested. 9, 12, 20, 24, 30, and 36" balls Call now 573-796-3812 Fax 573-796-3770 www.tanawiremarker.com TANA WIRE MARKERS P.O. Box 370, California, MO 65018 746308_Tana.indd 1 22/06/15 8:17 pm
  • 38. 36 Public Power / November-December 2015 Reducing Cyber Risk:Where to Start By Nathan Mitchell,senior director of electric reliability standards and security,APPA SECURITY Innovation opens doors for opportunity. But it also opens new doors to risk. As those who would like to harm the electric grid find new and better ways to infiltrate the system, the in- dustry must step up to the plate to make sure bad actors don’t get in. APPA recently held a webinar on cybersecurity challenges — part of a seven-part series on cybersecurity topics. Brad Luna senior vice president of sales for n- Dimension Solutions in Dallas, Texas, laid out these basic steps to reduce cyber risk. 1. Monitor network for threats It’s essen- tial to identify a person or a team to be responsible for monitoring beyond a fire- wall. Common things to look for include malicious behavior and misconfigured systems. 2. Perform vulnerability assessments This goes beyond monitoring. Your utility has to systematically seek out “open windows” through which bad-actors can get to your se- cure information. This includes threats fac- ing desktops, servers, and other IT systems. 3. Watch for network configuration errors This often time comes down to your IT staff keeping on top of best practices and system updates (while handling other company issues). 4. Ensure IT has the necessary knowledge Your IT professionals either need to be cybersecurity experts themselves or have access to experts. This often requires outside help. 5. Establish policies and procedures In most cases, this is your first step toward success. Before you can successfully de- fend your utility from intrusion, you need to lay down the cybersecurity ground rules. 6. Conduct awareness training Once you have in place policies and procedures regarding information security, you need to engage staff and get buy-in by deliver- ing training For more information on cyber- readiness, check out APPA’s series of seven webinars on cybersecurity for electric utilities. Learn how to protect your utility, customers, com- munity, and the electric grid from potentially damaging interruptions. Register online at PublicPower.org.
  • 39. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 37 100 YEARS OF PRIDE IN PUBLIC POWER Chambersburg,Pennsylvania #PublicPower READ MORE: Read an extended feature about Chambersburg on PublicPower.org under News>Public Power magazine (Nov.-Dec. 2015). The 6.5-square-mile Borough of Chambersburg, with a population of just over 20,000, in Pennsylvania is a typical small-town America public power community. While it is best known as a significant Civil War site — home to the “Memorial Square” where General Robert E. Lee made the fateful decision to move east, resulting in the historic Battle of Gettysburg — Chambersburg hosts another lesser known memorial. This memorial, in front of the borough’s electric operations office, expresses the appreciation of Chambersburg’s citizens for those who “in 1904, by their unselfish and courageous actions in the face of powerful opposition and public criticism, prevented the sale of the borough’s municipal electric light plant and preserved for the community that which has proven to be its most valuable financial asset.” Today, the Chambersburg continues the fight — now against rising costs and market complexities — to provide safe, reliable, competitively priced, environmentally responsible electricity. Established in 1893, Chambersburg is the largest municipal electric utility in Pennsylvania and serves 11,300 meters. It is the state’s only municipal electric utility to own and operate electric generating units. Residential, commercial, and industrial sectors each account for about one-third of the borough’s electricity demand. The borough also powers streetlights —its first generating station was set up mainly for streetlighting. The utility has a “buy all, sell all” arrangement with the PJM Interconnection to leverage the best market prices and ultimately, the lowest rates for its customers. According to Electric Superintendent Ron Pezon, Chambersburg is the only public power system in Pennsylvania to own and operate its own power plants while also “shopping for the best wholesale electricity prices for customers.” Pezon attributes the utility’s accomplishments over the years to the progressive thinking of the mayor and 10-member city council. “They encouraged us to shop and diversify our power supply sources,” he says. The council also supported the utility in building its own generation to hedge against price volatility in the markets. In 2013, the utility contracted with a third party to develop and install a 6.4-MW landfill gas to energy system. The project, designed to prevent the equivalent of 40,000 tons of emissions each year, won the 2013 project of the year award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program. Pezon has been talking with community farmers to explore the feasibility of a brown power methane project to generate electricity from manure. Chambersburg is also looking for a site to locate up to 8 MW of community solar. PhotocourtesyofM.L.“Mike”MarotteIII.
  • 40. 38 Public Power / November-December 2015 Sharing Bright Ideas:DEED’sTop 5 Resources By Michele Suddleson,DEED program director,American Public Power Association INNOVATION The American Public Power Association’s Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments is the only research and demonstration program funded by and for public power utilities. Established in 1980, DEED supports and demonstrates research, funding, and education to improve the opera- tions and services of public power utilities. One of the best things about DEED is its repository of bright ideas. DEED not only encourages innovation through project grants and scholarships but also shares the results for replication by all public power utilities. Detailed reports are available exclusively to DEED members. The online DEED project database chronicles nearly 500 research and demonstration projects conducted over 35 years on energy efficiency, community education, demand response, reli- ability, lighting, renewable resources, smart grid, solar, environment, and other topics. DEED members can access full reports on any of these projects and contact the project team leads to learn more and plan their own applications. DEED grantees frequently share project accomplishments and lessons learned with all public power utilities through publications, toolkits, webinars, and conference presentations. See my picks for the DEED-generated resources that every utility should invest in. Smart Grid Investment Grant Projects: Public Power Case Studies The U.S. Department of Energy Smart Grid In- vestment Grant program, funded by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, is designed to accelerate the modernization of electric trans- mission and distribution systems and promote investments in smart grid technologies, tools, and techniques. SGIG projects were funded in five categories — advanced metering infrastructure, customer systems, electric distribution systems, electric transmission systems, and equipment manufacturing.This book profiles the 32 public power SGIG projects, reviews specific smart grid technologies, and discusses how public power utili- ties can benefit. Smart Grid Customer Engagement Essentials From health to privacy, electricity customers have many concerns and unfounded suspicions about smart meters.This guidebook helps utilities provide accurate information about smart meters and other technologies to dispel myths and fears and engage customers. Case studies describe how public power utilities use social media and other technologies for engagement.The guidebook pro- vides engagement plan checklists, communication templates, and metrics. An Introduction to Community Solar This guidebook explains the process for develop- ing utility-driven solar projects with multiple par- ticipants who share ownership, costs, and benefits. With case studies from different types of utilities, the publication explains how utilities that take or share leadership of solar projects can realize benefits, with limited risk. Solar Engagement Options for Public Power Customers want solar — and no matter how they access it, they will turn to their utility for help. The Solar Electric Power Association describes the four ways that public power utilities can offer solar to customers — purchased power, ownership, customer engagement, and community solar — and discusses the benefits and challenges of each. The book includes public power solar case studies and discusses costs and financing, utility planning, solar forecasting, smart inverters, and energy storage. Top 5 Innovation Reads R Solar Engagement Options FOR PUBLIC POWER Smart Grid Customer Engagement Essentials A P U B L I C P O W E R P R I M E R SM R Smart Grid Investment Grant Projects: PUBLIC POWER CASE STUDIES An Introduction to Community Shared Solar Programs for Public Power Utilities
  • 41. PublicPower.org / #PublicPower 39 Energy Efficiency Benchmarking Made Easy Public power utilities often lack adequate tools to measure the effectiveness of energy efficiency programs and decide how to allocate future resources. DEED funded a project to help public power utilities produce quality energy efficiency data and better access and use information from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Infor- mation Administration-861 survey.The project produced an interactive online benchmarking tool, the DSM Benchmarker, to help public power utilities compare energy efficiency spending and savings.The tool generates comparison charts by geography, ownership type, size, year, etc. with energy savings, potential demand reduction, and spending indicators. Available to APPA members at www.PublicPower.org/EERC this guide on how to build energy efficient homes without skyrocketing costs. All resources can be ordered through the online APPA Product Store at www.PublicPower.org/Store APPA’s DSM Benchmarker™ helps you evaluate and benchmark your utility’s demand-side management/energy efficiency programs and respond to the U.S. Department of Energy’s EIA form 861-Schedule 6. With the DSM Benchmarker™ you can access reliable data to make apples-to-apples comparisons and generate customizable charts on energy savings, potential demand reduction, spending relative to utility size, and more. Competing DSM tools use voluntary, unaudited state reporting, but APPA’s DSM Benchmarker™ uses data collected and vetted by the U.S. Department of Energy on EIA form 861-Schedule 6 — the mandatory annual reporting vehicle to capture national utility energy efficiency data. Best of all, it’s free to you and your staff as an APPA member. Get started today at www.PublicPower.org/EERC or contact DEED@PublicPower.org for more information. DSM Benchmarker ™ Evaluate. Compare. Improve. R DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT & ENERGY EFFICIENCY PSE is driven to be your trusted advisor for all of your consulting and engineering needs. Our services include: Communications, IT, and Smart Grid Automation Economics, Rates, and Business Planning Electrical Engineering Planning and Design Procurement, Contracts, and Deployment CONSULTANTS FULL-SERVICE Visit our website for information on all of our services: www.powersystem.org or call 866-825-8895 Serving the industry since 1974. 759878_Power.indd 1 26/08/15 6:47 PM American Transmission Company............................www.atcllc.com................................................17 Asplundh Tree Expert Co........................................www.asplundh.com.............................................21 Black & Veatch Management Consulting Division.......www.bv.com.....................Outside Back Cover Burndy Electrical.......................................................www.burndy.com....................Inside Back Cover CRC..............................................................................www.crc.coop.................................................36 Finley Engineering Co. Inc. (FEC) .............................www.fecinc.com.................................................5 GridLiance...............................................................www.gridliance.com..............................................2 Hendrix Wire & Cable, Inc.....................................www.hendrix-wc.com...........................................23 IFD Corporation...................................................www.ifdcorporation.com.........................................22 Laminated Wood Systems........................................www.lwsinc.com...............................................32 Leidos Corporation.....................................................www.leidos.com...............................................34 PhoneTree® ........................................................phonetree.com/APPA2015.........................................5 Power System Engineering, Inc...........................www.powersystem.org..........................................39 SEL........................................................................selinc.com/dna-ppm11............................................1 Sterling Security Systems.................................www.sterlingpadlocks.com.......................................22 Tana Wire Markers............................................www.tanawiremarker.com.......................................35 TEA - The Energy Authority.......................................www.teainc.org................................................23 Thomas & Betts......................................................tnb.com/capswitches .................Inside Front Cover Ad Index
  • 42. 40 Public Power / November-December 2015 Email News@PublicPower.org for a PDF version of this comic to share with your customers. Captain Public Power and Career Day
  • 43. www.burndy.com © BURNDY LLC, 2015 On The Mark. We’re Standing Behind It. Doing a job right the first time saves money. There is no second-guessing with the BURNDY ® Engineered System. Our coordinating dies, connectors and tools are designed to work together and meet stringent, accepted quality standards. Every BURNDY ® HYDENT TM connector is clearly marked with the wire size, type, die index and color-coding for reliable electrical performance. Corresponding BURNDY ® dies provide a permanent die index number embossment on each completed crimp for proper inspection. For a job well done, leave the BURNDY mark of quality conformance every time. Tools Dies Connectors