Monday Morning – July 28, 2014 News •Temporary chiller delivered near Seaholm – A temporary chilling unit to provide air conditioning service to the Seaholm Development was installed July 23 just behind the Gables Park Tower development. Staff with On-Site Energy Resources, Key Accounts and Regulatory Affairs and Corporate Communications worked closely with residents in the surrounding area to gather input and address concerns. Through this outreach, AE staff decided to go with a smaller chilling unit than previously considered to help lower sound levels that could impact those living nearby. In the next couple weeks, staff will be taking sound level measurements of the chiller, and officials expect sound attenuation devices to be delivered and installed in August. The Seaholm Development could begin receiving chilled water service to help finish construction as early as August. The installation of the temporary chiller is a critical step in expanding the downtown district cooling system. The system allows residents to live and work in the core of the city by helping to create an efficient and environmentally friendly way to cool buildings. See photos. · AE recognized by industry peers at annual meeting of Texas Public Power Association – Corporate Communications’ Carlos Cordova accepted an ‘honor roll’ award for a regional Spanish-speaking ad campaign to raise awareness about utility bill scams, and Regulatory Affairs’ Barksdale English provided a ‘government relations/legal’ update on resource adequacy at the annual meeting of the Texas Public Power Association (TPPA) last week. Hundreds of public utility industry professionals and consultants alike were at the Four Seasons in Downtown Austin for the annual event; Sue Kelly, President and CEO of the American Public Power Association, provided an industry update, as well as and the Public Utility Commission’s Executive Director Brian Lloyd and ERCOT’s CEO Trip Doggett. Our own General Manager Larry Weis is a TPPA board member and now President-elect for next year, meaning he will serve in 2016. The TPPA is Texas’ foremost public power interest group and represents 72 municipally-owned electric utilities throughout the state, including Austin Energy. See photos. · Plug-In network surpasses 55,000th Charge – AE’s Plug-In EVerywhere network has surpassed its 55,000th electric vehicle charge. As of this month, the network has had 55,437 charging sessions feeding 335,600 kWh of electricity into plug-in vehicles. This translates into 929,612 electric miles traveled or the equivalent of driving 161 round trips between California and New York without using a single gallon of gas. Use of the public charging infrastructure has vastly increased over the last few years. Last month, the total number of charging sessions increased by roughly 1,000 from the previous June from 2,389 to 3,382. A comprehensive radio, billboard, print, digital marketing and community outreach campaign by Marketing Communications and the EV staff has helped to promote the network’s more than 200 public charging stations. In the past year, subscription cards for unlimited charging at the stations increased from 267 to 548. Electric vehicle drivers also increased from 389 to 1,132 to rank Austin near the top in the U.S. for electric vehicle use. Visit pluginpartners for more information. · Garfield substation gets new transformer – The far southeast Austin Garfield substation had a major transformer delivered a couple weeks ago. Last year a major transformer at the Garfield substation blew and couldn’t be repaired. The second transformer at Garfield picked up the load loss for more than a year (with the help of redirecting some distribution, also). Contractors are currently installing the 480-MVA replacement, which weighed 560,000 pounds during transport (only 30,000 pounds less than the transformer installed last year at the Dunlap substation). Once filled with oil and installed, it will weigh close to a million pounds. The new transformer will come on-line mid to late August. See photos. •LCRA hires new Fayette plant manager – Our partners in the Fayette Power Project (FPP) hired Jeff Kickert as their new plant manager. The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and Austin Energy are co-owners of two units at the coal-fired FPP, an essential piece in AE’s generation portfolio as one of lowest cost and most productive power generators, saving our customers money on their energy bills. As plant manager, Kickert will continue the safe and reliable operation of FPP while advancing emission-controlling technology for the generation facility. Elaina Ball, vice president of Power Production, said Kickert is a well-qualified manager and a great addition to the FPP team. Kickert comes from the position of plant manager of the Powerton Station in Pekin, Illinois for NRG. He has more than 20 years of power plant experience, including operations, electrical and engineering; Kickert assumed the role last Monday. LCRA also owns the third unit at FPP in its entirety. For more information about FPP, visit the LCRA webpage. · Contact center kicking into high gear for college rush – The Utility Contact Center is proactively preparing for additional phone coverage in anticipation of early-arriving students readying for the fall semester at local colleges. On a typical summer day the call center receives approximately 4,500 calls per day. That figure is expected to dramatically increase to about 6,000 calls per day, which translates to roughly 70 calls per agent per day. The spike in calls is mostly due to new service requests, but many calls are also related to billing, plus international students must come to an AE facility in person with proof of their matricula (if from Mexico) or passport if from other countries. Great job to all customer service representatives and contact center staff! Photo Gallery · ERCOT visits Sand Hill Energy Center – A team of a dozen operations engineers with the Taylor, TX-based Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) visited our Sand Hill Energy Center last week and some saw for the first time what a jet engine bolted to the ground and repurposed for power production looks like. ERCOT staff was impressed with a close look at our new GE LM 6000s, installed back in 2010, and also enjoyed Plant Manager Lee Lewis’ presentation beforehand. Lee and Operations Supervisor John Lalande split the group in two for the tour. See photos. •Summer interns tour City Hall, DCP2 – All our Austin Energy summer interns toured Austin City Hall and the Downtown Chiller Plant 2 last Wednesday as part of the Human Resources’ sponsored 12-week program. Interns have visited a half-dozen AE facilities now – Decker Creek Power Station, Revenue Measurement and the 3-1-1 Call Center off Rutherford Lane, and the Sand Hill Energy Center. Summer internships are almost complete – their last day is scheduled to be Aug. 15. See photos. •AE backs high school Solar Car Challenge – Austin Energy hosted this year’s Solar Car Challenge that concluded in Austin with workshops and public displays of solar cars at the JJ Pickle Research Center West (part of the University of Texas at Austin). The Solar Car Challenge was established in 1993 to motivate high school students to pursue science and engineering, and to increase awareness of alternative energy sources by building roadworthy solar cars. This year’s event was a hybrid closed circuit/cross country race starting at the Texas Motor Speedway in the Fort Worth area and ending in Austin. See photos. Housekeeping · Report organizational chart changes – Supervisors and managers, this is a reminder to update your division’s organizational charts so that Year-End Reviews can be completed in the Talent Management System. If you have questions about this ticketing system contact the Workforce Planning & Development team at 512-322-6125. The deadline for submitting org chart changes is next Monday, August 4th. Please submit your organizational chart updates here: For instructions on how to submit a ticket click here. · Donate now to the City of Austin Build-A-Backpack Drive – Can you believe we have only one more month of summer?! The annual Build-A-Backpack Drive is in full swing and provides thousands of school supplies to less-fortunate Austin-area students, most of whom are starting school Aug. 25. Austin Energy is accepting donations in a drop-off box in the assembly room foyer at Town Lake Center, as well as at the Kramer Lane Service Center in North Austin, until Wednesday, July 30. After Weds., donations should be taken directly to Austin City Hall on drop-off day, this Friday, August 1, from 8 to 5. Please remember this is an employee donation event and no city funds or contracts can be used to purchase supplies. You may view the 2014 school supply list and calendar of events at austintexas.gov/buildabackpack. If you have questions or to volunteer on drop-off day, contact COAVolunteers@austinenergy. · Farm to Work provides fresh, local fruits and veggies – Each week City of Austin employees can purchase a $20 basket filled with fresh, local fruits and veggies, and you can even automate your weekly basket purchase! Mexia, TX-based Lightsey Farms supplies the fresh food, and is a sustainable farm (meaning they do not use synthetic chemicals). Food is seasonal: currently baskets contain peas, yellow summer squash, okra, onion, red potatoes, cherry and regular tomatoes, and peaches (if you don’t care for certain items, you can trade). Pick-up locations are available at One Texas Center, Waller Creek Center, and Rutherford Lane – pick-up days are Tuesdays (deadline to order is every Friday by 5). The Sustainable Food Center coordinates the city’s Farm to Work partnership. Visit Cityspace here to place your order. · KUDOS – “We have received several emails from 3M staff expressing their thanks and gratitude to the following AE employees for their response during the overnight hours on July 22 and July 23. Special thanks to Terry Turner, Jason Bunik troubleshooters with Transmission & Substation and Troy Eckhardt and his team from SCC. Your rapid response and the professionalism you displayed in working to identify the problem is truly appreciated! This helped 3M avoid a catastrophic failure as they are in the final stages of installing catalytic scrubbers to comply with new EPA clean air regulations. Thanks for all of your hard work out in the field and stay safe!”– Bill Sparks, Key Accounts Industry & Professional · ABIA Sustainability Report – The Austin-Bergstrom International Airport issued its 2014 Annual Sustainability Report, which highlights several energy-saving initiatives with Austin Energy. The initiatives include ABIA receiving a rebate from AE to replace 210 fixtures at the terminal’s passenger pickup area with light emitting diode (LED) technology. The energy savings are 235,000 kWh annually, enough to power about 16 homes per year. ABIA is also transitioning to electric power for its ground service equipment, and worked with AE’s electric vehicle staff to install 20 electric fast chargers to charge baggage cart vehicles. See the report. · Director gives apocalyptic speech to summer camp-goers – St. Elmo Service Center’s Director of Distribution Allen Small recently spoke to a group young teens at a writing camp for the Austin Bat Cave (ABC), an organization that provides in-school, after-school, and summer writing instruction to students ages 6–18. They requested a speaker for their camp entitled “The End of the World as We Know It: Post-Apocalyptic Fiction,” so that campers could explore “the effect it would have on our lives if different systems—electric grid, water, telecommunications, etc. broke down.” Said Sarah Morrison about Allen’s talk, “Im Austin Bat Caves program director, and I wanted to let you know that Allen was a terrific guest speaker on Wednesday (I was in the back). Allen was very informative, engaging, and enthusiastic. He even performed a poem he wrote about electricity, which may have been the kids favorite part -- they were very impressed -- and it encouraged them to keep writing. Thank you so much!” Job Postings Job Type Open & Close Date Power Plant Technician Senior-Maintenance Full-Time 7/25 8/3 Power Control System Technician II or III Full-Time 7/25 8/8 Power Systems Consulting Engineer Full-Time 7/23 8/7 Substation Electrician Crew Leader Full-Time 7/24 8/13 Conservation Program Coordinator Full-Time 7/24 8/8 MuniProg, Professional (Conservation Program Specialist) Full-Time 7/25 8/3 IT Division Manager - Project Management Office Full-Time 6/26 8/7 Utility Process Consultant Full-Time 7/22 7/29 Power System Engineer Senior Full-Time 7/23 8/7 MuniProg, Professional (Conservation Program Associate) Full-Time 7/23 7/30 Marketing Communications Consultant Full-Time 7/23 8/3 IT Project Manager (Two Positions) (Customer Relationship Manager) Full-Time 7/17 7/31 MuniProg, Paraprofessional (Temporary Client Relationship Analyst) - 4 Positions Full-Time 3/17 7/29 IT Data Architect (Solutions Architect) Full-Time 7/21 8/11 Customer Service Supervisor (Two Positions) Full-Time 7/17 7/31 Administrative Supervisor (St. Elmo) Full-Time 7/14 7/28 Consulting Engineer (Project Management) Full-Time 7/16 8/15 MuniProg, Administrative Sppt (Temporary) Full-Time 7/17 7/31 Power System Engineer Senior/System Engineer/System Graduate Engineer Full-Time 7/15 8/24 Power Plant Maintenance Superintendent Full-Time 7/15 7/29 Human Resources Advisor Full-Time 7/15 8/1 Power System Engineer Sr. Full-Time 7/14 7/28 Utility Account Specialist Full-Time 7/13 7/27 Regulatory Planner Utility Full-Time 7/9 8/5 Real Time Energy Market Operator Senior/ Real Time Energy Market Operator Full-Time 7/8 8/15 Utility Services Specialist Full-Time 7/7 7/30 Risk Control Analyst Full-Time 7/2 8/17 SCADA/EMS Analyst Senior Full-Time 7/7 7/31 Lan Wan Integrator Full-Time 7/1 8/15 Database Administrator Full-Time 4/16 7/31 Lan Wan Integrator Full-Time 5/20 7/31
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 04:36:31 +0000
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