Bulletin (Northwest Public Power Association) articles from January 2008

Bulletin (Northwest Public Power Association) archives from January 2008

2008 E&O: public power--mining the mother lode of technology.(Association News)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Get a grubstake and do some prospecting at the 2008 NWPPA Engineering & Operations Conference in Reno, Nevada, during April 7 to 11. This year's conference is panning out to be a great event and already is showing...

Last call for NWPPA award nominations.(Association News)
January 1, 2008... NWPPA is currently soliciting nominations for the following 2008 NWPPA awards: * Life Membership Award * Paul J. Raver Community Service Award * John M. George Public Service Award * William "Bill" McCrorie Distinguished...

Mark your calendars for the next GRC meeting!(Association News)
January 1, 2008... The next NWPPA Government Relations Committee (GRC) meeting will be held at The Grove Hotel in Boise, Idaho, on March 5, and an impressive agenda is already in the works. The meeting will include: * An update on the recently passed energy...

Northwest public power milestones (1832-1882).(Association News)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * 1832-Benjamin Bonneville (1796-1878) on hiatus from the Army, leads a 110-man expedition through the American West, including two trips to the Columbia River in the Oregon territory. A partially romanticized...

New SMUD solar array to support advanced vehicles: solar-powered station uses the sun to produce clean energy for the grid and the road.(Conservation & Renewables)
January 1, 2008... Striving for cleaner air is just one of the promises the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in California makes to its customers. That's why SMUD is supporting advanced transportation with clean solar electricity. A new solar array on...

Empowering your organization with enterprise project management.(Information Technology)
January 1, 2008... As a public power organization, you have all the needs of a large investor-owned utility, but a fraction of the resources. You build substations, collect payments, read meters, manage your finances, and contend with outages. And, just like...

Winter driving tips for fleet drivers.(Safety)
January 1, 2008... Now that we are a month into winter with the Pacific Northwest's infamous snow, ice, and heavy rain, this seems as good a time as any to cover some basic winter driving tips. Though the tips below focus on drivers of large trucks, most of these...

Scheel retires from Pend Oreille PUD.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... Pend Oreille PUD (Newport, Wash.) announced that Jim Scheel will be retiring this month. For the last seven years, Scheel worked as the director of hydro operations and power supply; however, during his 30-year career with Pend Oreille he also...

Benton's awards and elections.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... The end of 2007 has been a busy and successful time for Benton County PUD (Kennewick, Wash.) and its employees! Washington PUD Association (WPUDA) recently honored Gary Long, assistant general manager and director of operations for the PUD,...

TID announces two energy--efficiency programs.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... The Turlock Irrigation District (TID) in Turlock, Calif., plans to launch a new residential rebate program as well as an energy conservation program targeted at elementary students. The new residential program provides rebates of 40 cents...

Chugach Board terminates CEO contract.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... The Chugach Electric Association (Anchorage, Alaska) Board of Directors voted to immediately terminate the contract of CEO Bill Stewart at a special meeting on December 5. In September 2005, the Board had named Stewart interim CEO, and in...

SMUD's Schori announces retirement.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... California's Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) General Manager Jan Schori is retiring in early 2008 after 14 years of running the utility. Her tenure is the longest of any general manager in SMUD's 61-year history and includes many...

Searing awarded state PUD honor.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... Former Cowlitz PUD (Longview, Wash.) Commissioner John Searing was honored for his many years of public service at the Washington PUD Association's (WPUDA) Annual Meeting. Searing served as a Cowlitz PUD Commissioner for 24 years, from 1977-82...

ORECA selects cooperators of the year.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... The Salem-based Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association (ORECA) has selected Reps. Chuck Burley (R-Bend) and Greg Smith (R-Heppner) to each receive a 2007 Cooperator of the Year award. Both representatives served on the House Energy...

IID Energy reaches project milestone.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... On December 6, IID Energy (Imperial, Calif.) reached a significant milestone as it received delivery and placed one of two gas turbine generators at the utility's new Niland Gas Turbine Plant. IID broke ground on the project in June 2007 and...

Douglas weathers storm and boulders.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... The early-December storm in the Pacific Northwest created some tremendous landslides around the area, but odds are good that Douglas Electric Cooperative (Roseburg, Ore.) saw the largest boulder slides. [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Highway...

News from Grant PUD.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... Recently, two Grant County PUD (Ephrata, Wash.) employees received a good samaritan award, PUD commissioners appointed a permanent treasurer/controller, and an employee made the move from Chelan to Grant. Grant County PUD employees Josh...

Blue Ribbon Panel Report now available.(Member News)(Report)
January 1, 2008... Chugach Electric Association (Anchorage, Alaska) Board Chair Elizabeth Vazquez released the utility's Blue Ribbon Panel Report on December 19. Earlier this year, the Board had appointed five leading, long-time Alaskan business executives...

Commissioner Gordon appointed to APPA Council.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... Franklin PUD (Pasco, Wash.) Commissioner Bill Gordon was appointed to the American Public Power Association (APPA) Policy Makers Council for the second consecutive year; his nomination was endorsed by both Benton and Douglas PUDs. In this role,...

TenPas elected 2008 WPUDA president.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... At the recent Washington PUD Association (WPUDA) Annual Meeting, Charles R. "Chuck" TenPas, a second-term commissioner from Lewis County PUD, was elected president of the association. TenPas, who served as vice president this year, will...

Stratman and Zwick receive honors.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... From time to time at its annual meetings, the Public Power Council (PPC), in Portland, Ore., has presented an award to recognize the contributions made to public power by associated staff members who are new to the industry. This year the...

PUD helps Scappoose Schools reduce costs.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... Scappoose School District recently completed a three-year project to upgrade the lighting at Otto Peterson Elementary, Scappoose Middle School, and the high school gymnasium. The school district worked with a number of partners, including...

HCE's Houtzel promoted.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... Hill County Electric Cooperative (HCE), located in Havre, Mont., congratulates Ryan Houtzel for his promotion to journeyman lineman. Houtzel successfully completed a rigorous four-year apprenticeship program, including course work, safety...

Leslie leaving Nelson Hydro.(Member News)
January 1, 2008... After nearly 10 years with Nelson Hydro (Nelson, B.C.), Russ Leslie will be leaving the utility at the end of the month. He will begin his new career with ATCO Electric in Edmonton, Alberta, on February 4 as the lead engineer in the electrical...

GE proud of its new UPS.(Associate Member News)
January 1, 2008... The new high-performance Digital Energy[TM] LP-33U Series 10-60kVA Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) from GE Consumer & Industrial's Power Quality business delivers reliable power protection, an industry-leading 97 percent system efficiency,...

Cybectec SMP product line completed.(Associate Member News)
January 1, 2008... Cooper Power Systems has introduced the new Cybectec SMP I/O. The SMP I/O, which effectively completes the Cybectec SMP product line of substation solutions, is a distributed, substation-hardened, contact input/output processing unit. The SMP...

Climate change, public power, and the Northwest.(Washington D.C. Report)
January 1, 2008... Climate change is moving to center stage as the most important public policy challenge facing the electric industry. It's a topic on which Northwest public utilities will need a voice. Sometime this spring, the United States Senate will vote on...

PPC remarks on interim approach to residential exchange.
January 1, 2008... On December 17, the Public Power Council (PPC), located in Portland, Ore., remarked on an approach outlined by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to return funding to consumer-owned utilities of amounts overcharged in their current rates...

A PUD and its community come together in a time of crisis.(Cover story)
January 1, 2008... It was a windy Sunday. A few power outages were reported in the early afternoon but it was nothing the Grays Harbor PUD hadn't seen many times before on the coast of Washington. Nobody knew that 26 hours later the county would be facing...