Kansas Municipal Energy Agency buys engineering firm to offer more services
August 11, 2020
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
August 11, 2020
The Kansas Municipal Energy Agency (KMEA) has acquired Mid-States Energy Works, a small engineering company based in Salina, Kansas.
Mid-States provides engineering, testing, troubleshooting, fabrication and installation of electrical equipment and controls.
KMEA, a joint action agency serving public power utilities in Kansas, has 81 members. Mid-States currently works for about half of those members, as well as other public power utilities in Kansas.
“Members had been asking us to get into the service arena,” Paul Mahlberg, KMEA’s general manager, said. The Mid-States acquisition allows for us to provides these types of services now rather than trying to build them up from scratch.”
“The fact that we both have the same vision of helping out the Kansas municipal utilities to be the best they can be… it became a win/win/win situation for Mid-States, KMEA and most importantly for the cities,” Mike Schmaderer, president of Mid-States, said in a statement.
The acquisition grew out of requests that KMEA’s members had been making for years. A couple years ago, KMEA did a strategic plan. As part of that plan, KMEA surveyed its members in 2019. The top response, according to Mahlberg, was for KMEA to expand the services it offers members. At the top of that list was line maintenance, followed by engineering, project management, substation maintenance and construction and power plant troubleshooting.
Around the same time, KMEA had embarked on a separate venture with one of its members, the City of Dighton. For 20 years, the city had contracted for line maintenance with the local rural electric cooperative, but it was now ready for a change.
KMEA hired a couple of linemen and signed a two-year agreement with the city to provide the labor for the operation and maintenance of the city’s distribution system, including preventative maintenance, repair, equipment testing and repair, connection and disconnection services, tree trimming, and streetlight maintenance. The “partnership with KMEA will provide us more control and involvement in maintenance and health of our electric system,” Dighton Mayor Doyle Capra said in a statement.
The Dighton partnership turned out to be a “parallel path” for KMEA, a path that “blended together” with the Mid-States acquisition, Mahlberg said. Dighton was its first member to receive KMEA’s new services, and now with a journeyman lineman and apprentice on board, the crew, along with the Mid-States staff, will be available to assist other KMEA members, Mahlberg said.
The relatively small size of many of KMEA’s members – the agency’s average member has 1,500 meters and some have as few as 100 – means that it is difficult for many of those utilities to be able to afford a full-time electrical maintenance staff.
In addition to having a dedicated maintenance staff it can share with its members, Mahlberg says KMEA will be able to offer services to its members at close to cost. In the near term, KMEA plans to amortize the purchase price into its rates, but over the longer term the agency plans to lower its fees and expand its services, Mahlberg said.
“We are doing more strategic thinking about how to grow the business.”
Among the services KMEA is looking at are preventive plans for substation maintenance, and it is also starting to look at a mobile substation that could be used anywhere throughout the state, Mahlberg said.
SRP Substation Troubleman Helps Save The Life Of A Car Crash Victim
August 3, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 3, 2020
Salt River Project Substation Troubleman John Boyle recently helped to save the life of a car crash victim in Mesa, Ariz.
Forrest Smith, Deputy Chief for the Mesa Fire and Medical Department, noted during a virtual presentation for a certificate of appreciation given to Boyle that the victim of the car crash was rescued “thanks to the quick actions” of Boyle.
Boyle was performing a line patrol inspection on July 6 when he came upon a car that had crashed into a ravine. When he saw movement in the vehicle he called 911.
“To help identify where the scene is, I am in a marked SRP single cab vehicle on top of the canal,” Boyle told a 911 operator.
Boyle approached the vehicle and administered first aid. He told the car crash victim that help was on the way.
Mary Cameli, Fire Chief for the Mesa Fire and Medical Department, told Boyle that “it’s folks like you that make the difference in terms of taking action when you see something and take the time needed to get us there to the call. You truly, truly made a difference in saving a life.”
“At SRP, we exist to serve our customers, and are stewards of the community,” said Nate Tate, SRP’s Director of Substation Design, Construction and Maintenance. “We take the health and safety of our community very seriously and the actions that you took that day exhibit our values,” Tate told Boyle. “We’re extremely proud of you.”
Boyle also received plaudits for his efforts from Craig Perez, SRP Section Supervisor, and Barry Kropp, SRP Manager of Field Maintenance.
“I’m just really proud of the training that I’ve had to provide situational awareness, public safety, the stewardship of some of the job roles that I have, both as a person, an employee, a community member,” Boyle said.
Boyle received the certificate of appreciation from the City of Mesa, the Mesa Fire and Medical Department and the Mesa Police Department.
Line Workers In The City of Purcell, Okla., Go Above And Beyond As Firefighters
July 2, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
Posted July 29, 2020
One of the many things that makes public power utilities unique are the strong bonds that they have forged with their communities.
People who work at public power utilities are always ready to pitch in and help in any way they can when their community needs them. Job descriptions don’t matter. It’s all about going above and beyond to help out.
An example of this can be found in the City of Purcell, Okla., where three of the Purcell Public Works Authority’s linemen also serve as volunteers for the Purcell Fire Department.
On July 22, Brian Morris, a Purcell Journeyman Lineman, changed into his firefighting gear to help put out a fire.
Trey Phillips, Electric Supervisor for the City of Purcell, noted that a tractor bailer burned up a bearing and caused hay in a field to catch fire.
When asked to detail what kinds of fires Purcell typically sees during this time of year, Phillips said that most of the time its grassfires and wildland fires and maybe fires that are controlled but get out of hand.
“We also respond to wrecks if they need us for traffic control or whatever the captain and chief decide. We are trained to respond in the same way as we do our lineman duties,” Phillips noted.
The Purcell Fire Department “also helps our department out by responding to electric lines down and also being ground hands during storms,” he said.
Purcell Fire Department Chief Greg Cypert “is always out when we are during the storm season assisting us as well as the Emergency Manager Kevin Rhodes.”
In Purcell, Phillips said that “it takes all departments working together to keep our city great.”
Salt River Project Puts Together A Custom-Fitted Mask Solution
July 9, 2020
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
Posted July 9, 2020
Arizona public power utility Salt River Project (SRP) has engaged in a collaborative effort to come up with a well- fitting mask to protect employees and customers against COVID-19.
In April, faced with pending shortages of personal protective equipment, the Arizona public power utility reached out to local businesses to fill its need for more face masks and hand sanitizer. But for employees in the field who cannot avoid contact with customers SRP was concerned that it could run out of N95 masks that provide a higher level of protection.
N95 masks are most frequently used in hospitals and health care settings to avoid the transmission of highly contagious diseases, and health care workers often have priority for available supplies of those masks.
SRP has an employee mask policy that allows for face covers as well as masks. “We still use all those other measures,” Chad Barrett, strategic operations manager for transportation services at SRP, said.
But for employees working on power lines, in distribution operations centers, interacting with customers, and ensuring water delivery the utility needed masks with a near-perfect seal around each the nose and mouth.
“Our health services team has been conducting COVID-19 tests and health screens for employees, and we were nervous when we noticed our supply of N95 masks was getting low,” Jodie Broderick, SRP’s manager of health services, said in a statement.
With knowledge gained from previous 3D-printed solutions to internal challenges, SRP’s transportation department prototyped different 3D-printed mask options. Barrett did a lot of the development work in his house.
SRP partnered with 3D modelers and 3D print fulfillment companies locally and nationally to come up with a mask design as effective as an N95 that was also practical for wear at work. The utility tested 3D designs publicly available on the National Institute of Health 3D print exchange website and made hybrid solutions.
The SRP development team worked with local Phoenix area company Athena 3D Manufacturing, which helped print mask concepts and recommended they contact Bellus3-D, a California technology company.
One of Bellus3D’s main products is facial scans for dental applications. Responding to the coronavirus pandemic, the company also developed a product it calls Mask Fitters, personalized 3D printed frames that improve the seal of face masks.
In June, SRP began scanning employees’ faces using the Bellus3D app on iPad kiosks in its facilities. The resulting Mask Fitter files are sent to a 3D print fulfillment company in Chicago, Custom Color 3D Printing.
SRP’s transportation services team also worked with Athena 3D Manufacturing to develop a design for a 3D-printed adjustable strap solution that keeps the Mask Fitter comfortably in place.
For the actual filter material for the masks, the SRP team turned to their surplus of KN95 masks. The KN95 mask filters out the same amount of particulate matter as an N95, but it does not seal as well around the nose and mouth, Barrett said. It is more readily available, he said.
SRP set up a process that includes scanning employees’ faces, sending the data off to create a digital facial profile, sending that file to the printer, and then testing the masks for fit using a smoke test.
“We’ve tested a lot of mask solutions the Transportation Services team came up with, and the 3D-printed solution with the Mask Fitter attachment is clearly the best,” Broderick said.
“The beauty of these Mask Fitters is their simplicity, and they can be worn an unlimited number of times if well cared for,” Barrett said.
So far, SRP has deployed about 130 custom-fitted masks and is looking to reach a total of 200, but “we are leaving our options open,” Barrett says. “We don’t have a final number. We are making sure all of the groups in SRP know about it.”
Barret says his transportation services team participated in finding out what is available in 3D realm. The utility’s purchasing and warehousing groups “get kudos for getting the filtration parts of our masks,” he said.
The IT department provided the needed tracking for the personalized fitting technology, the safety team had a “huge” role, and the utility’s nursing station worked on the testing and fitting of the masks, Barrett said. “It was a neat, collaborative effort.”
NYPA, OUC
New York Power Authority employees are using 3D printers to make face shields for local health care workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
The effort grew out of a suggestion by Joseph Kessler, NYPA executive vice president and chief operating officer, that the statewide public power utility take advantage of its recent use of the 3D printer technology to help protect medical workers.
And Justin Kramer, the supervisor of emerging technologies at Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) in Florida, has made and delivered more than 150 3D masks to Orlando Health Orlando Regional Medical Center, a longtime OUC community partner.