previewing the 70th annual conference · march/april 2016 volume 67 · no. 2 cover 14 storm season...

WWW.TVPPA.COM | MAR/APR 2016

FIVE YEARS ONThe Valley Remembers 2011

PREVIEWING THE 70TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Let’s face it...sometimes your software systems put up more of a fight than Mike Tyson on a bad day. They’re not functionally robust enough for your needs, they can’t integrate with your other programs, they can’t scale with company growth, you can’t customize anything and you need a Ph.D. to figure out how to use them. From the opening bell of your work day, you know you’re in for a battle trying to meet the needs of your utility.

Since 1938, utilities have relied on Central Service Association to take care of many of the tasks that eat up utility resources and beat up on utility staffs. With CSA, information technology is our business, leaving you the time to concentrate on your business. With ORBITTM, utility personnel take command of their workload, rather than having the workload in control.

CSA’s ORBITTM family is our line of easy-to-use, integrated, expandable and reliable software solutions. Each piece is designed for the way utilities work today - efficiently and effectively. Products in the ORBITTM solution include: Customer Management and Billing Dynamic Financial Management Work Management Meter Data Management and Analysis Business Portal with Mobile Service Orders Customer Portal Cashier Solutions

Combined with CSA’s other products and services, like UtiliSuite - our GIS suite, Internet services, employee benefits, professional services, disaster recovery, backup services, hardware sales and more, Central Service Association is THE choice for IT needs among utilities today. It’s time to knock out the stress and strain of information management. Unlike many of the challengers in the IT business, we know the fight. We’ve been in your corner for over 75 years providing service that is second to none. At CSA, we provide what it takes to win.

Central Service AssociationP.O. Box 3480Tupelo, MS 38803-3480Toll free 877-842-5962

Tired of fighting your IT?

www.csa1.com

We’re in your corner.

March/April 2016 Volume 67 · No. 2www.tvppa.com

COVER14 Storm Season Stirs Memories Of 2011 Valley Devastation As the Tennessee Valley slides once again from winter into a spring

storm season, the memories of April 2011 endure – not only those of the carnage left in the wake of the storms, but also because utilities had to spend months, in some cases, dealing with FEMA on reimbursement.

FEATURES18 Sklar, McDonald Highlight 70th Annual Conference Distributed energy ‘founding father’ Scott Sklar and Kelly

McDonald, one of the nation’s foremost experts in marketing and advertising, headline the speaker roster for TVPPA’s 70th Annual Conference, which is set for May 16-18 in Sandestin, FL.

23 Guidebooks Address Solar Installs, Cost Of Service TVPPA’s Research & Development Committee has been a de

facto publishing house of late, having commissioned guidebooks on cost of service and best practices for dealing with customer-installed, behind-the-meter distributed generation.

26 System Or Rodeo, Reliability Key At Greeneville L&PS If you’re going to talk reliability at Greeneville, TN, L&PS, you’re

going to have to be pretty specific; GLPS teams have set a standard for reliable success in the Tennessee Valley Lineman Rodeo, and the utility also excels in the far more critical realm of system reliability.

TVPPA News is published bi-monthly by the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, Inc. Member of the Society of National Association Publications. Advertising rates and data are available by contacting Tim Daugherty, TVPPA News, PO Box 6189, Chattanooga, TN 37401-6189; phone: 423.490.7930; or e-mail: [email protected]. Listed in SRDS, Sect. 39—Electrical. ISSN: 1547-5158. Opinions expressed in single articles do not necessarily reflect those of the association. For permission to reprint articles, write or call TVPPA.

Receiving extra issues? Please call and let us know: 423.756.6511 or email to [email protected].

about the cover:About the cover: As the Tennessee Valley braces for another spring storm season, the memories of 2011’s devastation remain fresh, despite being five years old. (Cover photo courtesy Cullman EC, Cullman, AL; photo this page courtesy Cleveland, TN, Utilities.)

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18

14

Let’s face it...sometimes your software systems put up more of a fight than Mike Tyson on a bad day. They’re not functionally robust enough for your needs, they can’t integrate with your other programs, they can’t scale with company growth, you can’t customize anything and you need a Ph.D. to figure out how to use them. From the opening bell of your work day, you know you’re in for a battle trying to meet the needs of your utility.

Since 1938, utilities have relied on Central Service Association to take care of many of the tasks that eat up utility resources and beat up on utility staffs. With CSA, information technology is our business, leaving you the time to concentrate on your business. With ORBITTM, utility personnel take command of their workload, rather than having the workload in control.

CSA’s ORBITTM family is our line of easy-to-use, integrated, expandable and reliable software solutions. Each piece is designed for the way utilities work today - efficiently and effectively. Products in the ORBITTM solution include: Customer Management and Billing Dynamic Financial Management Work Management Meter Data Management and Analysis Business Portal with Mobile Service Orders Customer Portal Cashier Solutions

Combined with CSA’s other products and services, like UtiliSuite - our GIS suite, Internet services, employee benefits, professional services, disaster recovery, backup services, hardware sales and more, Central Service Association is THE choice for IT needs among utilities today. It’s time to knock out the stress and strain of information management. Unlike many of the challengers in the IT business, we know the fight. We’ve been in your corner for over 75 years providing service that is second to none. At CSA, we provide what it takes to win.

Central Service AssociationP.O. Box 3480Tupelo, MS 38803-3480Toll free 877-842-5962

Tired of fighting your IT?

www.csa1.com

We’re in your corner.

3TVPPA NEWS MARCH/APRIL 2016

QUESTION: Is TVA actually going to sell the Bellefonte nuclear site?

ANSWER: TVA asked the public in mid-Febru-ary for input regarding a potential sale of the Bellefonte site, near Scottsboro and Hollywood, AL. The site is a 1,600-acre peninsula located on Guntersville Reservoir.

There’s a lot at Bellefonte -- offices, ware-houses, parking lots and even a landing pad for a helicopter. There are also 500-kV and 161-kV switchyards, as well as two partially construct-ed light-water nuclear reactors.

Here’s the thing -- the Valley’s power de-mand is such that TVA doesn’t need to throw the switch at Bellefonte, where construction began in the early 1970s. Here’s what TVA President/CEO Bill Johnson said in mid-February:

“TVA has been investing at a minimal level to preserve the Bellefonte site for future gen-erating use, should we need it,” he said, “[but]

the 2015 Integrated Resource Plan, completed with public input, indicates it may be two de-cades before additional large baseload genera-tion is needed.

“It’s time we answer the question of whether TVA is serving the public well by retaining control of the Bellefonte site, or if others

could make more beneficial use of it. And with economic development as a cornerstone of our mission, TVA wants to know if there is

an entity interested in investing and creating jobs at this location,” Johnson said.

The public-comment period ended March 18. The next step is for TVA’s directors to review those comments and other pertinent informa-tion. Should they declare the Bellefonte site to be surplus, TVA will likely offer the property through a public auction process in accordance with Section 31 of the TVA Act.

-- BOB GARY, JR./EDITOR

“ASK TVPPA” is a regular feature in each issue of TVPPA NEWS magazine. Got a question for TVPPA’s Chattanooga, TN-based staff? Just e-mail TVPPA NEWS Editor Bob Gary Jr. at [email protected]_____________________________________________________________________

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Officers chairman

Gregory D. WilliamsAppalachian EC, New Market, TN

vice chairman

Terry N. KempStarkville, MS, ES

secretary-treasurer

Jerry Collins, Jr.Memphis, TN, LG&W

immediate past chairman

Wayne HensonEast Mississippi EPA, Meridian, MS

Directors Mike AllmandRipley, TN, P&L

Rody BlevinsVolunteer EC, Decatur, TN

R. Michael BrowderBristol Tennessee Essential Services

James CoodeCumberland EMC, Clarksville, TN

W. Dave CrossPlateau EC, Oneida, TN

Greg GrissomPennyrile RECC, Hopkinsville, KY

Mark O. IversonBowling Green, KY, MU

Marty IvyMayfield, KY, E&WS

Wes KelleyColumbia, TN, P&WS

Lynn MillsLoudon, TN, Utilities

Richard MorrisseyCity of Florence, AL, Utilities

Kevin MurphySouthwest TN EMC, Brownsville, TN

Mike SimpsonSand Mountain EC, Rainsville, AL

Jay C. StoweHuntsville, AL, Utilities

Kathryn WestNorth Georgia EMC, Dalton, GA

PublisherJack [email protected]

Communications DirectorPhillip [email protected]

Publications/Marketing ManagerTim [email protected]

EditorBob Gary [email protected]

Communications SpecialistCourtney [email protected]

Editor’s NoteWhen very smart people take an inordinate amount of time to do very hard work for the greater good, we like to do what we can to let people know about it.

Permit us, then, to honor the members of the NERC Compliance Team (NCT), who have labored long with TVA to develop a set of documents intended to assist members in their efforts to achieve compliance with the NERC Reli-ability Standards. The documents are being developed for members that have determined they possess a NERC registration obligation and have elected to meet those obligations through a formal agreement with TVA serving as their registered entity.

The team’s TVPPA-member representatives are Chair-man Jim Nanney (Alcorn Co. EPA), Bart Borden (Cleveland Utilities), Mike Counts (Huntsville Utilities), Philip Lim (Murfreesboro ED), David Middlebrooks (Jackson EA), Mike Patterson (Knoxville UB), Scott Ramsey (Warren RECC), Paul Ruud (North Georgia EMC) and Pat Williams (East Mississippi EPA). Speaking of Pat – he and TVPPA’s Doug Peters were kind enough to tackle a few questions about NERC compliance; you’ll find that Q & A elsewhere in these pages.

TVA also lent considerable expertise to the NCT in the persons of Rockey Hall, Mark Smith, Tina Broyles, Rich-ard Saas, Ernie Peterson, Robie Ansary, Jason Krupp and Dewayne Scott.

Our thanks to the entire NCT for its effort on this ini-tiative, which is so vital to all of us.

BoB Gary, Jr. | Editor

Departments4 Ask TVPPA

6 Northeast Blackout of 1965 Grid-Security Watershed

Comments&Observations

8 Down A Conservative Icon, The Court Returns To Work

Washington Report

10 Common-Sense Broadband Plan Fails In TN Legislature

Legal

12 It Pays To Be Safe With DIC Safety Incentive Awards

Risk Management

24 July 1 Bulk Electric System Deadline Looms For LPCs

Second Reference

29 1976 – Evins Stands Down TVPPA Timeline

30 David Wade Named Chattanooga, TN, EPB President

Names&News

34 Advertiser Index

#tvppanews

www.tvppa.com

e-mail/ēmāl/noun

Electronic mail, correspondence, communication, message(s), mail, memo(s), letter(s)

Did you notice the address label on the cover of this edition of TVPPA News magazine?

We imprinted your email address! That is, IF we have one. With the importance of email, it’s imperative that we have your email address.

If you didn’t see your email on the cover, scan the QR code or visit www.tvppa.com, click “Communica-tions” and follow the link from there. It’s easy and only takes a mo-ment to make sure you’re receiving all the information we are trying to send you.

In the next issue . . .

TVPPA News reports on who said what in Sandestin, FL, at the 70th Annual Conference.


On Nov. 9, 1965, about 30 million people in the northeastern United States and part of

Canada went to sleep in the dark.It wasn’t just because the sun had

gone down; the majority of the electrical grid from Pennsylvania to New Hamp-shire, and north to Ontario, Canada, was tripped out of service. New York City and Toronto were victims of an unex-pected grid collapse.

The post-war Baby Boom economy in the U.S. resulted in growing electric-ity demands. Modern appliances and air conditioning were making life easier and more comfortable. All-electric homes were a new status symbol. “Reddy Kilo-watt” and “Willie Wiredhand” competed for market share of cheap electric power.

The demand for steel, aluminum, and plastics for cars, boats, bicycles, and Barbie dollhouses was on the rise. We were mesmerized by color TV as we ate chicken pot pies and TV dinners in throwaway aluminum pans, while watching Ed Sullivan, Bonanza, and Dis-

ney’s Wonderful World of Color.Behind the scenes, engineers were

designing power plants and transmis-sion systems to deliver the almost too-cheap-to-meter electricity we had come to expect. No longer did farmers send a post card to the local co-op saying, “Please turn my lights back on the next time you are out this way.”

Electricity became a necessity, sup-porting a better way of life, with the need for quick restoration if it “went out.” After all, we couldn’t let those pot pies thaw out in the freezer.

Standards And DefinitionsAs power systems grew and intercon-nections among utilities increased, it became more important to coordinate system planning and operations. Better reliability and shared economic and emergency reserves among regional utilities emerged.

Voluntary organizations of system operators were created to coordinate these efforts. In 1963, seven intercon-nected systems in North America joined together to establish the “world’s largest machine,” under the North American Power Systems Interconnection Commit-tee (NAPSIC). They developed operating criteria and guides voluntarily followed by all U.S. and Canadian utilities. Peer pressure was the enforcement mecha-nism.

Following the 1965 blackout, the national-security aspects of the electric-power grid were getting the attention of Congress. The Federal Power Commis-sion (now the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC) recommended that greater coordination among regional entities be formalized.

The industry established NERC, the National Electric Reliability Council. NERC later changed its name to include Canadian utilities, and today is known

as the North American Electric Reliabil-ity Corporation.

In 2005, Congress gave FERC broader authority over the security of the nation’s electric grid, and in 2006 FERC certified NERC as the electric reliability orga-nization for the U.S. In 2007, compli-ance with NERC Reliability Standards became mandatory and enforceable. The original voluntary criteria and guides were refined and expanded, and current standards are enforced through formal audits with monetary fines for violations.

As standards continue to evolve, more attention is paid to physical and virtual power system components that affect the reliability of the bulk electric system (BES). But more recently, stan-dards apply to distribution systems as well. The TVPPA Operations Coordina-tion Committee has a team working with TVA to ensure that the entire grid in the Valley, both transmission and distribu-tion, is in compliance with FERC and NERC requirements.

There are many standards and definitions. Given the complex nature of power-system configuration, owner-ship, operations and maintenance, there is often room for various interpretations. Documentation, record keeping, and demonstration and reporting of com-pliance are critical components of the process.

There’s much more on this subject in these pages. TVPPA and TVA will also be providing more information to members as this work continues.

Kudos to the LPC members who are continuing to work on various com-mittees and teams developing plans to address this very complex matter. With their help, we can avoid going to sleep “in the dark” in the Tennessee Valley.

So tonight, relax and enjoy a bag of microwave popcorn as you watch Ameri-can Idol or reruns of Downton Abbey.

by Jack simmons | President & CEOCOMMENTS & OBSERVATIONS

TENNESSEE VALLEY PUBLIC POWER ASSOCIATION, INC.The Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, a nonprofit regional service organization with headquarters at 1206 Broad Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402, represents the consumer-owned utilities in the Tennessee Valley Authority service area. These 105 municipal and 50 rural electric cooperatives distribute electricity to 9 million residents in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

Northeast Blackout of 1965Grid-Security Watershed

TVPPA Ops Coordination, TVA work to secure Valley grid

TVPPA NEWS MARCH/APRIL 2016

6

WASHINGTON REPORT

The unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Feb. 13 has roiled all three

branches of the federal government—Congress, the Executive Branch and, of course, the Court itself.

In election years, particularly those that include a Presidential election, con-gressional Republicans and Democrats are generally laser-focused on retaining, or taking back, a House or Senate major-ity and/or the White House.

That was already the case this year, but Scalia’s passing has ratcheted up attention on the judicial nomination and confirmation process, and the impor-tance of this presidential election, which was already unusual in many respects.

The stakes for both political parties in the selection of the next jurist are high—

given that the Court has before it cases on abortion, exceptions to the birth-control mandates in the Affordable Care Act, and challenges to the President’s immigration policy. Not to mention chal-lenges to the Clean Power Plan and other administration rules.

Supreme Court vacancies in an elec-tion year are rare, and nominations from a President of one party and confirma-tion by a Senate controlled by the other party are even rarer. The first instance was a “recess appointment” by Dwight Eisenhower to place William Brennan on the bench.

The most recent example is the confirmation of Anthony Kennedy in 1987, Ronald Reagan’s third attempt at nominating a jurist acceptable to the Democratic-controlled Senate. Not since Clarence Thomas replaced Thurgood Marshall has a new justice replaced one with opposite political leanings.

President Obama, however, is facing challenges before his nominee is even named. This became immediately appar-ent when, less than an hour after news of Scalia’s death became public, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, declared that the vacancy on the bench should not be filled until a new Presi-dent has been elected, saying that “the American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice.”

‘Eminently Qualified’McConnell’s comments, indicating a refusal to bring an Obama nominee to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote in an election year, drew strong rebukes from the White House and Democrats and, initially, qualifying remarks from some Senate Republicans. But on Feb. 23, all GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee—the panel that would first consider a nominee—closed ranks with

McConnell and announced they would not hold a confirmation hearing for any Obama nominee.

Republicans believe their “let the people decide” message will help ener-gize their base to turn out in November. Democrats are equally convinced their

“the GOP Congress is obstructionist” message will rally their supporters.

A Democratic nominee would cer-tainly shift the political balance of the Court to the left. Scalia was, of course, conservative and known for his original-ist, textualist reading of the Constitution.

His reluctance to read individual rights into the Constitution and refusal to give weight to legislative history made him a politically controversial figure, while his eloquent and impassioned opinions made an indelible mark on jurisprudence as a whole. He was also a fierce defender of federalism, and the separation of powers between the federal government and the states.

The Supreme Court now stands with eight jurists—four who espouse a reli-ably liberal perspective, three who are generally conservative, and “swing vote” Anthony Kennedy—in a constellation likely to deadlock on many of the critical

Down A Conservative Icon, The Court Returns To Work

Scalia’s death prompts speculation on successor, cases

by elizaBeth kelsey and deBorah sliz | Washington Representative

Elizabeth Kelsey, Senior Associate at Morgan Meguire, LLC, served

as senior legislative assistant to former Representative Bart Gordon, D-TN.

Deborah Sliz, president and CEO of Morgan Meguire, LLC, in Washington, D.C., is TVPPA’s Washington representative.

Antonin Scalia1936–2016


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WASHINGTON REPORT

issues facing the Court in the near term.President Obama has vowed to

send the Senate an “eminently quali-fied” nominee, and Washington is abuzz with speculation about who it might be. A few of the names being mentioned include D.C. Circuit court judge Sri Srini-vasan (on deck to hear the challenge to the Clean Power Plan at the lower court and generally regarded as something of a moderate), Merrick Garland, who serves as chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and U.S. At-torney General Loretta Lynch, the second African-American to hold that post.

The Succession QuestionIt is also possible that Obama would name a moderate Republican in an attempt to short-circuit the political stalemate. On Feb. 24, a rumor circulated that the president would propose Nevada GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval, hoping the nomination of a Republican would disarm Senate Republicans. By the next day, however, Sandoval had taken himself out of consideration for the post.

Of interest to all in the electric sec-tor, one of Scalia’s final acts as a justice was to vote with the majority in a 5-4 decision to “stay” implementation of the Administration’s Clean Power Plan, pending resolution of legal challenges to the rule.

The Court did not state a reason for its action, which came as a shock to the White House and most interested par-ties. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which earlier had declined to stay the rule, must now address the legal issues presented issue in the consolidated case.

A ninth justice could well be the swing vote when challenges to the rule finally reach the Court. A more liberal-leaning justice may be more likely to uphold the underlying rule, in support of the President’s climate-change agenda, while a conservative might be more likely to side with challengers.

If a successor is not confirmed and the Court reaches a 4-4 tie, the lower court’s ruling (which has not yet been rendered) would stand, or the justices could rehear the case when a ninth jurist is empaneled.

Another issue that may well be headed to the Supreme Court is the controversy over the Administration’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Feb. 22 agreed to hear consolidated challenges to the rule expanding the protections of the Clean Water Act, po-tentially requiring federal approval for the development of facilities, including potentially, substations and other electric infrastructure affecting a broadened number of waters, including flood plains, ephemeral streams, additional wetlands, and some ditches. The rule was strongly opposed the electric industry, including APPA and NRECA, by farmers, and a range of other business groups.

‘Plain Reading’On Feb. 24, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Hughes v. Talen Energy Resources, another consolidated case, questioning whether the Federal Power Act (FPA) preempts a state order requiring retail utilities under its juris-diction to enter into long-term contracts for differences (Continued on page 33)


Common-Sense Broadband PlanFails In TN Legislature

Sponsors will continue to work on measure this summer

Local power companies today recognize the need for advanced broadband capabilities for their

core operations.A modern distribution network re-

quires broadband for system monitoring and operational control. Advanced me-tering, demand-side management, outage monitoring and remote connects and disconnects are but a few of the capabili-ties that a modern system must have.

At the same time, this infrastructure can support other broadband services, such as Internet access. More and more frequently, customer owners of electric cooperatives and municipal electric systems are asking that their electric sys-tems also help in providing broadband facilities to support Internet and other services.

In some cases, customers ask that local power companies directly provide these services to their communities. There are several examples of successful broadband deployments in the Valley.

Legal authorization to provide retail broadband services varies for electric cooperatives and municipal electric systems in each state. Some states have

expressly addressed these issues while other states provide broad statutory authorization to their electric systems. Other states require further authoriza-tion under state law.

When electric systems seek addition-al authorization in this arena, existing providers often raise a number of ques-tions: Are these services needed? Why should electric systems provide these services? Do electric system custom-ers bear any risks from providing these services? Is it fair for electric systems to provide these services? These issues are often topics of very spirited debates.

Electric systems often demonstrate that these services are logical expansions of their core services and, more impor-tantly, that these services are services that electric-system customers need and want. Electric systems often show strong business cases and, many times, these electric systems offer to provide a level of service that exceeds the service available in the community today and the foresee-able future.

Gigabit speed services are a good example here. Competitive providers often contend that these businesses are inherently risky, that electric systems are not qualified to provide these services, and that it is unfair to compete with the local electric system.

Common-Sense ApproachThis topic has been hotly debated in Tennessee. This year, two Tennessee legislators introduced an approach that provided some common-sense answers and a common-sense process to those questions.

In a proposed amendment to House Bill 2408 of the 2016 Tennessee General Assembly, Business & Utility Subcom-mittee Chairman Art Swann and Rep. Mike Carter, both Republicans, devel-oped a proposed amendment that sought

to balance all of these competing con-cerns.

Under current law, Tennessee munici-pal systems are authorized to provide certain broadband services throughout the state, while other services are limited to their electric-system footprints. The same holds true for electric cooperatives.

For many years, the Tennessee General Assembly has been evaluating various proposals by which municipal electric systems could provide additional broadband services. This year is the first year in which electric cooperatives in Tennessee were asked to be part of the solution.

The amendment focused primarily on additional authorization for elec-tric cooperatives. Under the proposed amendment, the sponsors proposed to establish a petition-based process by which a group of electric-cooperative members would have been able to ask a cooperative board to consider providing broadband services.

The petition would have included many businesses and homes within a single contiguous area. In other words, the petition could not have included a gerrymandered area, but follow instead a more logical boundary.

This proposed legislation would have asked the cooperative board to deter-mine the best approach based on the best interests of the cooperative’s members. Because cooperative boards are elected, are citizens of the communities that they represent and have the resources neces-sary to evaluate various proposals by the cooperative staff and other providers, the cooperative board room is a good place to address and resolve the many competing considerations that come with broadband projects.

The legislation would have also es-tablished minimum broadband Internet access requirements and would require

LEGALby mark smith | Assistant General Counsel

Mark Smith is assistant general counsel for TVPPA and a member of Miller & Martin PLLC.


that the service have a minimum speed of at least 25 megabits downstream and 3 megabits upstream, which corresponds to the Federal Communication Com-mission’s current goal for broadband Internet access speed. The legislation included mechanisms to ensure that the project provides service to unserved or underserved areas, provides a competi-tive choice, or both.

Greater FlexibilityFinally, the legislation would have also imposed an obligation to provide broadband service to most or all of the area covered by the petition. It appears that the sponsors carefully designed each of these requirements to balance the many competing interests in this arena.

The amendment also provided great-er flexibility for electric cooperatives and municipal electric systems to provide broadband service in less-populated counties. In those counties, both elec-tric cooperatives and municipal electric systems would be authorized to provide broadband services.

In providing these services, both the municipal system and the electric cooperatives would have been required to follow certain regulatory require-ments, including the requirement that the electric system cannot subsidize the provision of those broadband services with revenues from its electric system.

The proposed legislation would have also authorized two municipal electric systems to enter into joint ventures or other business relationships with electric cooperatives or another municipal elec-tric system. As is the case with electric cooperative ventures, these municipal electric ventures are subject to various requirements, including the requirement that the municipal electric system cannot subsidize its broadband operations with revenues from its electric system.

This proposal was the first in recent years to request that electric cooperatives and electric cooperative boards take a more active role in addressing broad-band deployment in Tennessee. The legislation also wisely used a consumer-focused, consumer-led process in coop-erative service areas that begins when interested members petition the electric

cooperative to provide these services. The authorization for joint ventures and other business relationships would have provided useful authorization to share investment and experience while mitigating risks associated with these ventures.

This proposed legislation did not move forward. After receiving feedback from various interested parties, the

sponsors elected to continue to work on the legislation over the summer. The key House subcommittee will study this is-sue further, and it will likely be a topic of further work in 2017.

There are two other pending stud-ies in Tennessee and some significant legislative interest in facilitating further broadband deployment. This recent amendment pro-

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LEGAL

(Continued on page 28)


It Pays To Be Safe With DICSafety Incentive Awards

In 22 years, program has paid $6.5M in incentive awards

RISK MANAGEMENT

Distributors Insurance Company (DIC) established its shared cost safety incentive award program

in 1994 in an effort to promote safety among TVPPA members and enable employees of participating utilities to realize financial benefits as a result of favorable workers’ compensation loss experience.

How have we done? Well, in the 22 intervening years, DIC’s incentive award payments were 20 percent to 25 percent of the losses the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) esti-mates successful participants should have incurred; and employees of successful participants received an aggregate of approximately $6.5 million in incentive award payments, the majority of which were reimbursed by DIC.

At the outset, we hoped that the safety incentive award program would prove to be a benefit to both DIC and its insureds. We scarcely realized how successful it would become, and how well received it would be among the TVPPA members – many of whom praise it as one of the key aspects of the TVPPA/Distributors Insur-ance program.

Among the longest tenured and most

successful participants in the program are CDE Lightband (Clarksville, TN); Cleveland, TN, Utilities, and Clinton, TN, Utilities Board. Employees of these three utilities alone have received an aggregate $1.7 million in safety incentive award payments over the past 22 years, the ma-jority of which was reimbursed by DIC.

CDE Lightband Gen-eral Manager Brian Taylor readily acknowledges that a great deal of CDE’s success-ful safety culture relates to the DIC safety incentive award program.

“A successful safety program begins with man-agement buy-in, followed by employee buy-in,” he said. “The DIC safety incentive award program provides a great way to keep employees engaged in our safety program and helps to keep safety a topic of conversation.

“Implementing a safety incentive award program has created an atmo-sphere of safety awareness that has decreased the number or workplace accidents and, in turn, allowed us to reinforce safe work practices and reward employees for their commitment to the program,” according to Mr. Taylor.

‘Education, Accountability, Incentives’Cleveland Utilities President Ken Webb believes that, given the sometimes dangerous and challenging environment in which utilities operate, adherence to sound safety practices is not an option, but a requirement and a priority.

“Anything less than total commitment to safety from the entire organization places not only employees, but also the public, at risk,” he said. “We reinforce this approach and belief through regular safety training programs and activities, many of which are provided through DIC. We value our partnership with DIC

in promoting safe work practices, and our employees appreciate the safety incen-tives offered by DIC.”

Clinton UB General Manager Greg Fay states unequivocally that safety must be part of an organization’s culture.

“A successful safety foundation rests on three legs – education, accountability,

and incentives,” he said. “First, management has the obliga-tion to teach employees the proper way to perform their jobs in a safe manner.

“Second, the employee side of the relationship is to put safety first in all their job-related actions. Finally, the organization needs to incent and reward employees for per-

forming not only at a high level but, most importantly, in a safe manner,” according to Mr. Fay.

A common theme in our discussions with these (and other) utility executives is the concept of a “culture of safety” and the need for commitment to safety from the board and management level all the way through the entire organization. As Webb points out, “the most valuable asset of any utility is not on its balance sheet, it’s the utility’s employees. We have a shared responsibility to provide a safe work environment and make sure they return home after each workday without having incurred any harm while on the job.”

All DIC workers’ compensation insureds are eligible to participate in the shared cost safety incentive award pro-gram. Please contact Ruth Zimmerman or Tony Salvatore at AJ Gallagher & Co. for program details.

Do other insurers offer such a pro-gram? No, this is one of many unique aspects of the TVPPA/Distributors Insur-ance program, and another way to dem-onstrate that owning your own insurance company does make a difference.

by anthony J. salvatore

Anthony J. Salvatore, area senior

vice president for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., is program manager for TVPPA’s Distributors Insurance Co. Visit DIC on the Web at www. distributors-insurance.com.

‘A successful safety program begins with management buy-in, followed by employee buy-in.’


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COVER STORY

DARK PASSAGE


DARK PASSAGESTORM SEASON STIRS MEMORIES OF 2011 VALLEY DEVASTATIONSession on dealing with FEMA set for E&O ConferenceJOE McCARTER FIGURES THAT MAYBE THE LAW OF AVERAGES HAS CAUGHT UP WITH HIM.

He reckoned that in his first decade or so as vice presidaent for engineering and opera-tions at Appalachian EC, New Market, TN, the cooperative never sought reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for costs related to storm damage.

“But in the last five years,” McCarter said, “we’ve put in three times.”

One of those years was 2011. Five years on, Kyle Baggett still remembers April 27— the day Mother Nature pitched a shutout at Cullman EC, Cullman, AL. >>>

BY BOB GARY, JR. | EDITORPHOTOS COURTESY CULLMAN EC, CULLMAN AL


We’ve got 42,000 meters,” said Baggett, the cooperative’s Engi-neering/Operations vice president. “After the 3 p.m. tornado—the bad one—we didn’t have one of those meters turning.”

Multiple tornadoes cut a swath of destruction through the Tennessee Valley on that dreadful day half a decade ago. More than 300,000 Val-ley ratepayers were down at one point and many, includ-ing Cullman EC’s, were dark for days.

“We’d lost our TVA feed coming in,” Baggett recalled. “It was probably into the third day before we got any-body back on.”

As the Valley slides once again from winter

into a spring storm season, the memories of April 2011 endure—not only those of the carnage left in the wake of

the storms, but also be-cause utilities had to spend months, in some cases, dealing with FEMA on reim-bursement.

‘Lot Of Requirements’A session on the ins-and-outs of working with FEMA following a severe storm is one of the scheduled highlights on the agenda for TVPPA’s 2016 Engineering & Operations Conference. The E&O Conference is set for Aug. 10–12 in Chattanooga, TN, at the Downtown Mar-

riott Convention Center.Storm restoration is

on the E&O agenda for a second straight year. That would be unusual enough by itself, but whereas it was a breakout-session topic last year, it’s getting the general-session treatment this year.

“One of the main rea-sons for that is because when you’re dealing with FEMA, there are a lot of requirements, a lot of things they want to see in order for you to be eligible for that money,” said Appala-chian EC’s McCarter, who’s serving as chairman of this year’s E&O Conference agenda-planning committee.

“We turned in some FEMA stuff last year,” Mc-

Carter said, “but we didn’t get everything we asked for because there were some things we didn’t do right. Smaller utilities, in particular, need to know the things you’ve got to do to get it right.”

Baggett was responsible for Cullman EC’s FEMA work regarding reimbursement for damage to the cooperative’s engineering and operations

infrastructure after the 2011 disaster. It was daunt-ing, he said, but he’d danced that dance before, at a previous job in South Carolina.

“We had a hurricane down there where we didn’t have a meter turn after-wards, so I didn’t panic as

COVER STORY

Mccarter

Baggett

We’ve got 42,000 meters. After the. 3 p.m. tornado—the bad one—we didn’t have. one of those meters turning..


much [in 2011],” he said, adding that dealing with FEMA begins with at least two cornerstone principles.

“If you’re dealing with contractors, everything has to be competitively bid,” he said, “and you’ve got to have mutual aid agreements if you’re dealing with other utilities.”

‘What Happens If We Get Hit?’Brian Hudson’s been the electrical engineer at Oxford, MS, ED since 2001, but his system has been blessed enough to escape a direct hit during Hudson’s tenure.

“We’ve had tornadoes all around us—to the north, south and east,” he said, “but I hadn’t had much experience with storm res-toration prior to December [2015].”

That was when a tor-nado struck in nearby Holly Springs, MS. Hudson dove in to help, but was deter-mined to use the episode as a learning experience too.

“I wanted to go in to try to learn everything I could,” he said. “The wheels started turning in my mind—what happens if we get hit? [Resi-

dents] will go to hotels. So if the hotels are full, where will my contractors sleep? And what kind of production will I get out of a lineman who’s been sleeping in his truck?

“I was trying to think of everything involved, deter-mining everything we might need and getting all the necessary contacts in one place,” Hudson said.

E&OFEATURESRECOVERY

» For the second straight year, a session on how to work effectively with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is on the agenda for TVPPA’s Engineering & Operations Conference.

» Last year’s FEMA session was a breakout; this year’s is getting the general-session treatment.

» The 2016 TVPPA E&O Conference is set for Aug. 10-12 in Chattanooga, TN, at the Downtown Marriott/Convention Center.

» Prospective attendees may register for the conference and obtain lodging information at www.tvppa.com’s Conferences page.

TVPPA, Members Test-Drive Mutual-Aid SoftwareVeteran TVPPA Emergency Response Team Chairman Steve Sax remembers the good old days of emergency response in the Valley.

“When a storm hit back in the 1980s and ’90s, we’d get the team activated and go to TVA’s ‘war room’ in Chattanooga,” said Sax, whose career in the Valley spans nearly 30 years. “We’d literally write people’s needs on sticky notes and cover a wall.

“Our people involved in emergency response have been looking for a software product that would better help manage storm-resto-ration solutions,” said Sax, general manager for the past decade at Murfreesboro, TN, ED.

Those folks may have found such a product in a software package from Can-ada-based Veracity Connect. TVPPA piloted the software package in 2015 and signed a one-year deal with Veracity Connect in January 2016.

TVPPA Vice President Danette Scudder, the staff liaison to the Emergency Response Team, made a presentation on Veracity Connect at the Feb. 3 TVPPA All-Member meeting. She conducted a pair of infor-mational webinars on the software in late February.

“Veracity Connect will provide TVPPA members with an enhanced framework to facilitate an effective, ef-ficient coordination effort and focusing on what’s important – getting the lights back on,” Scudder said.

Jeff White, electric division system manager at Bowling Green, KY, MU, signed up for one of those webinars and liked what he saw and heard.

“That was the first time I’d heard of this software,” White said, “but it held my in-terest because it looked like a good platform for creating that mutual aid assistance.

“Of course,” White added, “it all depends on participation.”

‘Call To Action’Scudder, who has long run point in TVPPA’s mutual-aid efforts, emphasized that TVPPA-member participation in Veracity Connect is volun-tary. She was quick to add, though, that the software has no chance to be a mutual-aid game-changer if nobody plays.

“This is really a call to ac-tion,” she said. “If our mem-ber systems want mutual-aid assistance through this tool, they have to provide infor-mation – things like specs, who can respond, who can provide what equipment, rates and signed mutual-aid agreements.”

Scudder said having all that information in one repos-itory allows Veracity Connect to automate the mutual-aid search process through several different tools and interactive techniques.

“Whoever’s coordinat-ing can get that information, analyze and respond,” she said. “It beats me sitting at my kitchen table with my cell phone, spending valuable time going to several different sources to figure things out.

“We’re not changing the mutual-aid process,” Scud-der said. “We’re upgrading the tools we use in that process.”

To find out more about Veracity Connect and how to participate, contact Scudder at 423.490.7922 or at [email protected].


HAD DISTRIBUTED ENERGY A MOUNT RUSHMORE-STYLE MONUMENT, Scott Sklar’s like-ness might well be among those set in that stone.

“Scott can honestly claim to be one of the few founding fathers of the distributed-energy movement,” said TVPPA Washington Representative Deborah Sliz, who knows well her fellow veteran of many energy-policy debates.

“He was promoting [distributed energy] in Washington, D.C., and around the country when nobody else was . . . [it] is his passion and profession,” Sliz said.

Sklar is scheduled to practice that profession at TVPPA’s 70th Annual Conference, where he’s set to deliver the keynote presentation. The conference is set for May 16–18 at Sandes-tin, FL’s Village at Baytowne Wharf/Convention Center. >>>

STORY BY BOB GARY, JR., EDITOR

T VPPA 70 t h ANNUAL CONFERENCE PREV IEW

ADAPTING TO CHANGE TOP TOPIC ON ANNUAL CONFERENCE SLATE SKLAR TO ADDRESS TECHNOLOGY,

McDONALD TALKS CUSTOMERS


PHOTO © SEAN PAVONE / DOLLAR PHOTO CLUB19

TVPPA NEWS MARCH/APRIL 2016

Headlining alongside Sklar is Kelly McDonald, who’s widely considered one of the nation’s foremost experts in marketing and advertising, especially multicultural marketing and consumer trends.

TVPPA Conferences Manager Tim Daugherty said having Sklar and McDonald in the Annual Conference lineup speaks to a very specific point—adapting to change, whether technological-ly or in terms of marketing and customer service.

“We want to offer our members pre-sentations that not only have a chance to enlighten them, but offer solutions as well,” Daugherty said. “If Scott and Kelly can help our members reinvent their business-es, we will have been successful.”

CAN’T STOP TECHNOLOGYIt’s been two decades since Sklar founded The Stella Group Ltd., a strategic-policy and clean-technology-optimization firm facilitat-ing clean/distributed energy utilization including energy efficiency, fuel cells, geoexchange, heat engines, microhydropower, modular biomass, photovoltaics, small wind, and solar thermal.

And Sklar walks his talk—he powers his Arlington, VA, home and Washington, D.C., office building, a stone’s throw from The White House, with combinations of solar, geothermal, photovoltaics, wind and a hydrogen fuel cell.

That Sklar has 40-plus years’ worth of renewable-energy bona fides would make him seem an odd fit for any TVPPA conference, let alone an Annual Conference. Given that he’s spoken his truth to especially brassy military audiences, though, a room full of TVPPA-member executives won’t be the toughest he’s ever faced.

“I’m not one of those who says adjusting to new technology is all sweetness and light,” he said. “When I say new technologies are

better, but a pain in the butt, [audiences] calm down and listen to what I have to say—that technology is going to evolve, and they have no say in that.

“When I was a teenager, I worked on my carburetor in the driveway. Now we have fuel injectors. All technology evolves, so isn’t it arrogant to think that energy technology will just stagnate? It can’t,” he said.

‘NOT LIKE YOU’A Wisconsin native, McDonald recently relocated to Denver, CO. She launched, owns and runs McDonald Marketing and has client experi-ence with Toyota, Nike and Harley Davidson, among others.

TVPPA’s Sliz recently saw McDonald on stage and said her TVPPA audience will likely find her presentation “eye-opening.”

“I was astounded by the demographic data and ‘changing cus-tomer’ analysis she offered,” Sliz said, “and we’ll all need to fasten our seat belts, because she moves fast and talks fast.”

McDonald has written two books—How to Market to People Not Like You and Crafting the Customer Experience for People Not Like

You. Aside from the obvious difference in context compared to Sklar’s presentation, the tone of the talks is likely to be similar.

“I want [the TVPPA audience] to understand that the world around them is changing very rapidly—demographically, socially, societally, and communications-wise,” she said.

“Some of those changes may make [TVPPA] members uncomfortable, and may even scare some of them,” she said, “but my point is that you don’t have to like or support those changes—what you can’t do is ignore them. You can’t pretend they’re not happening.”

Riffing on the “Not Like You” phrase in her book titles, McDonald offered, by way of example, the challenges faced by business-es whose executives are Baby Boomers, but whose customers are Millennials.

“Millennials don’t believe in going into an organization and ‘paying your dues’ before getting a voice,” she said. “They’ve been socialized, all their lives, to chime in on every blog post—with no repercus-sions—so they expect to have that oppor-tunity.

“You might not like that. You might find it provocative, but Millennials are also deeply committed to their communities. They want a voice in how things are run, so talk to them. Give them seats at the table,” McDonald said.

KELLY McDONALDCOURTESY THE LAMPO GROUP

Daugherty:‘We want to offer our members presentations that not only have a chance to enlighten them, but offer solutions as well.’

TIM DAUGHERTY




IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING that the Destin, FL, area is awash in things to do and places to go, but attendees at TVPPA’s 70th Annual Conference will find that they can do just fine in Sandestin’s Village at Baytowne Wharf (above)—a 28-acre, pedestrian-only coastal village on the Choctawhatchee Bay.

You can find a detailed rundown of everything the Village has to offer at www.

baytownewharf.com (you can also download a free Explore Sandestin app for an interactive map), but here’s a quick sampling:

n SHOPPING: The Village features specialty boutiques and retail shops such as Island Clothiers, Coconut Kids and Toys & Trea-sures, among others. You will also discover Barefoot Princess, the only signature Lilly Pu-litzer Store in the area. Located off-property,

approximately one mile from Sandestin, is the Silver Sands outlet mall.

n DINING: The Village features a number of dining options including Acme Oyster House, Another Broken Egg Café, Bistro Bijoux, Mar-lin Grill and Poppy’s Seafood Factory. Ham-merhead’s Bar & Grille, Rum Runners and John Wehner’s Village Door provide guests with a choice of nightlife venues.

In addition to the dining choices at the Village, Sandestin also offers guests a Gulf-front restaurant—Elephant Walk overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. Located at the scenic Baytowne Marina overlooking the Choctawhatchee Bay, Marina Bar & Grill is a treasure for all ages. Three Tiki Bars are also available seasonally.

n AMENITIES: Everyone staying at the Grand Sandestin receives these amenities (be sure to have your room key, as it’s required for these deals):

» Complimentary shuttle to many of the different locations on property.

» Fitness center on Grand Sandestin main floor.

» Two four-hour bicycle rentals per room; show your room key to the bicycle rental facility and you’ll be on your way.

» Each room comes with one hour on a boogie board, one hour in a kayak and one hour on a tennis court.

» Pool adjacent to the Grand Sandestin.

TOP RANKED LINKS GOLF CLUB SET TO HOST TVPPA ANNUAL CONFERENCE GOLF TOURNAMENT This year’s TVPPA Annual Confer-ence Golf Tourna-ment will literally be played on an original—set against the backdrop of Baytowne Marina, The Links Golf Club is the original course at Sandestin and has had the distinction of being named one of the “Top Five Golf Courses in Northwest Florida,” so named by Florida Golf News.

Links offers game-changing challenges

as well as spectacular views on the Choc-tawhatchee Bay; in fact, renowned architect Tom Jackson designed this winding layout in such a way that Choctawhatchee Bay comes into play on no fewer than five holes.

Water, in fact, comes into play on 13 holes at Links Club, so make sure your “to-wards” is working on tournament day. You’ll also need to take care to pick the right club on a given shot, as Links plays into a strong, prevailing Gulf Coast wind.

The Links Club is hardly the only golf option at Sandestin; if you’re arriving early or staying late, try Baytowne Golf Club

(phone 850.267.8155) and Raven Golf Club (850.267.8155). Burnt Pine Golf Club (850.267.6500) is a private club, but Sand-estin guests have limited access.

IT TAKES A ‘VILLAGE’ AT SANDESTIN

DESTINATIONS


PEER-TO-PEER, BREAKOUTSThough Sklar and McDonald top-line the 70th Annual Conference, the agenda hardly lacks quality depth. TVPPA Chair-man Greg Williams is set to follow Sklar’s keynote, while Sliz and TVA President/CEO Bill Johnson are set to close the conference.

In between, the agenda features a peer-to-peer segment and multiple breakout options. The former session will find Glasgow, KY, EPB Superintendent Billy Ray and Dan Rodamaker, president/CEO at Gibson EMC, Trenton, TN, return-ing to a TVPPA stage after their buzz-generating segment at last November’s Distribution Marketplace Forum.

Ray and Rodamaker will be joined by Michael Watson, president/CEO at Duck River EMC, Shelbyville, TN, for a presentation designed to encourage their peers to reinvent their utilities by thinking differently.

“One of the things our members say to us, loud and clear—every year, in every survey—is that they enjoy peer-to-peer presentations,” said TVPPA Confer-ences Coordinator Diana Bryant.

There are two sets of breakouts—the first is for all attendees and features pre-sentations by John Corum of Cleveland, TN, Utilities; Kate Miller of Chattanooga, TN, EPB and, in a tandem exercise, Seth Brown of GDS Associates and TVPPA Technical Services Director Doug Peters.

Corum’s presentation, “Communicat-ing Safety Responsibilities at All Levels,” is based on his well-received offering at TVPPA’s 2015 Utility Safety Conference. Corum has been director of safety at Cleveland Utilities since 2013 and is a 23-year utility-industry veteran, including a stretch as a Knoxville Utilities Board lineman.

As Corum scored with his presenta-tion at last year’s TVPPA Utility Safety Conference, so did Miller at TVPPA’s 2015 Accounting & Finance Conference. “Big Data Analysis” won plaudits from the A & F audience for Miller, an opera-

tions technical consultant at Chattanooga EPB. Miller has been at Chattanooga EPB for the past six years in electric pricing and is responsible for the utility’s purchased power.

The third Neck of the Woods breakout might as well be titled “The Elephant in the Room.” That’s because it has to do with NERC compliance, which stands to affect

TVPPA 70th Annual Conference AgendaMAY 16–18, 2016 n VILLAGE AT BAYTOWNE WHARF/CONVENTION

CENTER · SANDESTIN, FLMONDAY, MAY 167 a.m. Golf Tournament Player Breakfast, The Links Club8 a.m. Golf Tournament, The Links Club3 p.m. TVPPA Board of Directors, Camellia I6 p.m. Welcome Reception, Grand Lawn7:15 p.m. DIC Customer Appreciation Dinner (invitation-only)

TUESDAY, MAY 17 · VILLAGE AT BAYTOWNE WHARF/CONVENTION CENTERMaster of Ceremonies Phillip Burgess, TVPPA Communications/Conferences/Gov’t Relations Director7 a.m. Breakfast with the Sponsors, Magnolia Foyer8 a.m. FIRST GENERAL SESSION, Magnolia Ballroom –

Welcome from TVPPA President & CEO Jack Simmons8:10 a.m. Opening Keynote – Scott Sklar, President, The Stella Group LTD9 a.m. Chairman’s Address – TVPPA Chairman Greg Williams9:30 a.m. Meet the Sponsors refreshment break, Magnolia Foyer10 a.m. What’s Happening in the Global Marketplace? (presenter TBD)11 a.m. Breakouts: What’s Happening In Your Neck of the Woods? I. . . . . . . . . . . . Communicating Safety Responsibilities At All

Levels – John Corum, Cleveland, TN, Utilities II. . . . . . . . . . . Big Data Analysis – Kate Miller,

Chattanooga, TN, EPB III. . . . . . . . . . . NERC Compliance – Seth Brown, GDS

Associates, and Doug Peters, TVPPA)11:45 a.m. TVPPA Honors Luncheon – Dr . Robert Payne, keynote1:15 p.m. TED-style Talks: Reinventing Your Utility/Thinking Differently Billy Ray, Glasgow, KY, EPB Dan Rodamaker, Gibson EMC, Trenton, TN Michael Watson, Duck River EMC,

Shelbyville, TN2:30 p.m. TVPPA BUSINESS MEETING – BOARD LEVEL BREAKOUTS I. . . . . . . . . . . . Azalea I: Board Liability – Larry Cash,

Miller & Martin PLLC II. . . . . . . . . . . Azalea II: Developing Strategic and

Succession Planning – Tish Erdmann, TVPPA Business Development

III. . . . . . . . . . . Azalea III: Renewables: What Are The Issues? – Joshua Warmack, EnerVision; Todd Kiefer, East Mississippi EPA, Meridian, MS

3 p.m. Central Service Association Ice Cream Social, Grand Veranda3:30 p.m. Central Service Association Business Meeting, Azalea I 6 p.m. Chairman’s Reception, Magnolia Foyer7 p.m. Richard C . Crawford Distinguished Service

Award Dinner, Magnolia Ballroom

WEDNESDAY, MAY 187 a.m. Breakfast with the Sponsors8 a.m. SECOND GENERAL SESSION

Opening Remarks, 2016-17 TVPPA chairman8:05 a.m. Think You Know Your Customer?

Kelly McDonald, McDonald Marketing8:35 a.m. Long Range Pricing Perspective – Bill Underwood,

TVPPA Sr . Pricing Mgr . Jim Sheffield9 a.m. Physical/Cyber Security (presenter TBD)10 a.m. Meet the Sponsors refreshment break, Magnolia Foyer10:30 a.m. View From the Hill – Deborah Sliz, President & CEO,

Morgan Meguire LLC11:15 a.m. TVA Update – TVA President & CEO Bill Johnson12 Noon Adjourn

GREG WILLIAMS

BILL JOHNSON

BILLY RAY

DAN RODAMAKER



MICHAEL WATSON


FEATURE

What may turn out to be a very useful tool for TVPPA-member utilities began in a moment of

remarkable candor.

Blevins

Williams

Greg Williams, general manager at Appalachian EC, New Market, TN, recalled that one of his coopera-tive’s members came to the main office in mid-2014 and said he was readying to put solar panels on his home.

“He said he didn’t want to participate in a TVA program, nor did he want payment from us,” Williams said. “He just wanted us to know what he was doing.”

That exchange eventually gave rise to a course of action that will result by year’s end in a best-practices guidebook pertaining to customer-installed, behind-the-meter distributed generation (DG).

That guidebook is being produced by the TVPPA Research & Development Committee, which has been rather active of late in the publishing realm. R&D has just finished another guidebook, and conducted related Valleywide train-ing sessions, having to do with cost of service.

R&D Committee Chairman Rody Blevins, the president/CEO at Volunteer EC, Decatur, TN, said both projects have been on his radar for a while.

“Some of us have had concerns for years about [DG] safety,” Blevins said. “Prior to TVA getting into solar, there’d been almost no research done on solar systems and there wasn’t much from a code standpoint.

“And having R&D do a cost-of-ser-vice model has been a goal of mine for

years. When we went off end-use rates a few years ago, cost-of-service became a lot bigger priority; it’s very critical now to get your retail rates right,” Blevins said.

‘A Real Safety Issue’What happened that 2014 day at Appalachian EC moved Williams to ask his colleagues around the Valley whether they saw their members and customers rigging behind-the-meter solar as well.

When Williams found out they were, his concern mushroomed.

“What I found was that, with TVA incentives coming down, stakehold-ers were saying, ‘We’ll just do our own thing,’” Williams said. “But that leaves the utility out of the picture.

“If you’ve got what amount to small generating sites on your system, how do you inspect those? It becomes a real safety issue,” he said.

Williams, who’s now TVPPA’s chair-man, was Energy Services Committee chairman at the time. Energy Services turned to R&D, which approved $70,000 for a guidebook and hired Ohio-based Power System Engineering to write it.

TVPPA Technical Services Manager Clint Wilson, who serves as staff liai-son to R&D, said the specific goal of the guidebook is to establish best practices for DG installations that are not associ-ated with a TVA program.

“The book is meant to standardize how that should be done from the stand-points of reliability, safety, regulatory and local codes,” Wilson said. “We just don’t want folks installing solar behind the meter in an unsafe manner.”

Science Or Art?Production of the cost-of-service guidebook, written by Atlanta-based EnerVision, culminated with

early-March training sessions in Tupelo, MS; Jackson, TN; Nashville, TN and Clinton, TN.

Copies of the guidebook, for which R&D ponied up $100,000, were distrib-uted at those sessions. TVPPA’s Wilson said a companion cost-of-service model-ing tool is getting some tweaks based on feedback at the early-March sessions, but the entire package should be available for download soon at the TVPPA web-site’s Members Only section.

Bill Copeland, director of Business Intelligence at Chattanooga, TN, EPB, called the Clinton session a “really great use” of his time.

“I’m an Excel nerd in my heart of hearts,” he said. “I have a real passion for how Excel applications can be developed, and this is a fantastic example of that.

“[The guidebook is] something that’s really easy to use, straightforward and flexible enough for local power compa-nies [LPCs] to tailor to what they want to

do in communicating rate impacts to their boards and customers,” Copeland said.

TVPPA’s Wilson explained that the point of the guidebook is twofold.

“For those local power companies already doing cost-of-service, this is another tool,” he said, “and it could be a tremendous help for those [LPCs] that haven’t done cost-of-service.”

Former TVPPA Chairman Wayne Henson, on whose watch the push toward a cost-of-service aid started, noted the import of having that help available.

“Cost of

Guidebooks Address SolarInstalls, Cost Of Service

Manuals commissioned by TVPPA R&D Committee

Wilson

Henson

by BOB GARY JR. | Editor



23

SECOND REFERENCEby BOB GARY JR. | Editor

Come July 1, TVPPA-member utilities using or supporting the Bulk Electric System (BES) at

at least 100 kV must be in compliance NERC’s definition of the BES (BES) and related NERC reliability standards.

NERC lowered the BES definition from 200 kV in 2007 and has been at work since on revising the definition. From 2007 to 2015, the paramount question for TVPPA-member utilities regarding BES compliance was that of ownership.

A specially appointed subcommit-tee of TVPPA’s Operations Coordination Committee has been at work on the issue for months. Subcommittee member Pat Williams of East Mississippi EPA, Merid-ian, MS, and TVPPA Technical Services Director Doug Peters carved out time to answer some of the questions they’ve been hearing around the Valley in the course of talking NERC compliance:

Williams

QUeStION: What does being “NERC compliant” mean?Pat WILLIaMS: In a nutshell, compliance technically means a utility is meeting all of the applicable reliability standards that have

been mandated by FERC. Because these federal standards are mandatory and enforceable, a utility bears the burden of proof of compliance in the form of evidence that may be audited at any time by the reliability organizations designated by FERC.

Reliability standard requirements range from administrative processes and documents to defined maintenance prac-tices and operational protocols, as well as periodic reporting, training and planning procedures. NERC compliance has always been intended to ensure the reliability of the bulk electric system (BES).

The most easily relatable comparison is a safety program. There are standards or regulations, from which training, work practices and procedures are established. Although each utility may meet the requirements in slightly different ways, ultimately the goal is that compliance becomes natural, a part of the culture in the work environment. As with safety, things are learned, standards are changed and the process continues evolving. It is also mandated and verified because of its importance.

Q: What steps has the subcommittee taken to help ensure NERC compliance as it relates to affected LPCs (local power companies)?WILLIaMS: Beyond the formation of a representative LPC committee, practical education through sharing experience and knowledge by both TVA and committee members was a critical first step. Additionally, understand-ing that TVA is registered on behalf of the LPCs and understanding that most LPCs have a role in supporting TVA as the registered entity, establishes an important baseline.

There is undoubtedly a difficult balancing act with regard to developing a set of contracts that define processes and procedures necessary to demonstrate compliance during a reliability audit while, at the same time, providing a level of flexibility to a diverse set of more than 150 LPCs. It was important to establish that the LPCs are acting in a support role to TVA as the registered entity.

Therefore, it was determined early on that in general, the LPCs are looking for TVA to define what is needed in support of TVA’s compliance program. From that basis, the committee has worked through several iterations of a Delegation MOU which establishes the NERC registration relationship and general responsibilities

between TVA and the LPCs. Addition-ally, the committee and TVA have worked through multiple versions of appendices to the Delegation MOU that delve deeper into the technical details of specific reli-ability standards and associated require-ments.

The applicability of the various technical agreements is LPC-specific and depends largely upon the LPC system configuration and its assets related to pro-tecting the BES. In support of these more technical and standards-specific agree-ments, the committee is continuing work with TVA to develop or modify existing policies, procedures and related reports or templates that should be used by the LPCs to collect the necessary evidence required in a NERC/SERC audit of TVA.

As the adage goes, ‘the devil is in the details,’ particularly with regard to final-izing templates to be used by the LPCs. Reliability standards, like safety regula-tions, can get quiet technical, so it’s not a trivial process to develop ‘templates’ that are acceptable and applicable across the entire Valley.

Those regulations can also change over time, and occasionally need clari-fication and interpretation. As such, the TVPPA committee has been adamant about having a ‘seat at the table’ to ensure LPCs continue to be represented in the implementation of future policies and procedures related to new and changing reliability standards that impact LPCs.

Peters

Q: Tell me more about those MOUs.DOUg PeterS:

There’s the Delegation Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), on which TVA’s seeking to get 152 signatures from our

members (Editor’s Note: As Memphis,

July 1 Bulk Electric SystemDeadline Looms For LPCs

NERC compliance front-and-center for TVPPA subcommittee


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TN, LG&W and Nashville, TN, ES have major BES elements in their systems and are so registered with NERC, those utilities need not sign that document.) When you sign that document, you’re saying that you delegate your NERC-compliance registration obligations to TVA, and that TVA accepts the responsibility for defining, for those 152 utilities, what has to be done to achieve and maintain compliance.

In the Compliance Process MOU, TVPPA and TVA will define where TVPPA is in the compliance process. As the registered entity, TVA will tell you what you have to do—and that’s pretty scary for our members.

The risk mitigation captured in this MOU is that, before TVA issues an in-struction, TVA will give TVPPA a chance to look at that instruction and suggest re-visions—sort of a sanity check. TVA will tell you what to do to stay in compliance, but only after TVPPA, your representa-tive, has had a chance to look it over and say, ‘OK.’ This will ensure that TVA has considered all aspects of compliance form the LPC perspective.

Q: How seriously should LPCs be taking this issue?WILLIaMS: It is a very important, serious matter. The reliability standards are mandated by the FERC and implemented by NERC and the regions, which is SERC in our case.

By registering on behalf of the LPCs, TVA is taking responsibility for compli-ance for most LPCs, and must handle much of the administrative overhead associated with registration with SERC and NERC. You may be wondering how a small utility can affect BES reliability, but the fact is that there are relatively small utilities that don’t own BES assets who still meet the thresholds for registration both inside and outside the Valley. There are also many outside the Valley who are currently registered with NERC and fully responsible for all aspects of registration including periodic audits and associated penalties.

It is important that TVA can provide evidence of compliance for all of the utilities for which it is registered. Without cooperation on both sides, LPCs might ul-timately have to register directly and take

on the associated overhead and individu-al risk; conversely, TVA could be exposed to possible violations of the standards due to the actions of an LPC.

Q: What’s particularly important here that TVPPA-member utilities need to understand?PeterS: That this never goes away.

If you’re a distribution provider, which at least 110 of our members are, it’ll require development of new documenta-tion. Once you get through the initial cycle, the incremental burden will be in updating that documentation.

The same goes if you own BES-related equipment . . . TVA has committed to up-grading their facilities over the next six to eight years, so the burden you bear today will likely lessen with time.

The complexity of what you have to do is trumped by having to figure out where you have to go to do it. That the regulation is federal means it can be tough to interpret but, once you have sound interpretation, what you have to do in terms of technical complexity will pale by comparison.

Q: When we’re talking about documenta-tion, how deep are we drilling?PeterS: Let’s assume you’ve been testing relays that TVA has identified as being part of the BES. You’ve probably been testing those, but maybe you haven’t been collecting data in a formal way, so you may only end up with some extra documentation burden. If you’ve not been doing that testing, you’re going to have to start.

And, to be honest, some of it will seem silly. If you’re a distribution provider, you have to demonstrate annually that you can communicate with your transmission operator and balancing authority. That means you have to pick up the phone, document that you called the transmis-sion operator—TVA will have to desig-nate that contact—so you can say ‘This is my channel for communication regarding our reliability situation.’

It’s not hard, but you have to do it and document it—because if you didn’t docu-ment it, it didn’t happen.

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MEMBERSHIP PROFILE

If you’re going to talk reliability at Greeneville, TN, L&PS, you’re going to have to be pretty specific.In one arena, GLPS linemen Jason

Cook, Bobby Gregg and Bryan James have set a standard for dependability in the Tennessee Valley Lineman Rodeo. They’ve combined for two straight team titles—and the last time someone else won the Hurtman Rescue, George W. Bush was in the White House.

And GLPS is at least that good in the far more critical realm of system reli-ability.

“We’ve driven our power-line losses down to 3 percent on a three-year aver-age,” said Bill Carroll, who’s coming up on 26 years as the utility’s general manager. “We were up in the high 5s 25 years ago.

“Three percent’s not a great number for someone with 50 or 60 customers per mile, but we think it’s pretty remarkable, given that we only have 18 customers per mile,” he said.

Carroll said GLPS is in roughly the middle of a five-year building cycle, the primary focus of which is reliability. He said the utility has long had a “very robust system model,” with a particular metric always top-of-mind.

“Every 1 percent [of power-line loss reduction] is worth $900,000 per year in

wholesale power costs to our customers,” Carroll said.

Chuck Bowlin, the utility’s veteran engineering/operations superintendent, said the GLPS philosophy is to deliver as much 69kV power as possible to an array of substations.

“Multiple breakers allow us to divide in multiple direc-tions, which keeps losses down and reliability up,” Bowlin said. “Our overtime has also declined significantly, and our right-of-way program is responsible for a lot of that.”

Rodeo ‘Not About Speed’Right-of-way at GLPS doesn’t work in quite the same way it does at

most TVPPA-member utilities. That’s because GLPS has three mountains and parts of the Cherokee National Forest and the Appalachian Trail in its service territory.

“We’ve got places where you can’t do anything but walk in,” said Mike Fin-chum, the utility’s construction superin-tendent, “and it’s a challenge to cut trees on those mountains.”

Right-of-way involves poles, of course, and GLPS has nearly 60,000. A great many of those poles have long supported lines in some of those nearly inaccessible locations, but Bowlin said those poles and lines have been and are being relocated to more traditional right-of-way situations.

“We inspect every pole on a 10-year

MEMBERSHIP PROFILE: Greenevil le L&PS

System Or Rodeo, ReliabilityKey At Greeneville L&PS

Three-year average power-line losses just 3 percent

Greeneville, TN, L&PS journeyman lineman Chuck Clark works on a street light.

A View of the Valley from . . .

by BOB GARY JR. | Editor


MEMBERSHIP PROFILE: Greenevil le L&PS

MEMBERSHIP PROFILE

FOUR QUESTIONS with Bill carroll, general manager at

greeneville, tN, L&PS1. What do you like to do when you’re not at work?That would be the beach, but the golf course is fun, too . . . and so are grandchildren; we’ve got six who are local and two who aren’t.2. Got a bucket list? And if you do, what’s on it?I want to go to Australia. I want to break the sound barrier, and I want to go 200 mph on land.3. Begging your pardon . . . break the sound barrier?You can go to Europe and arrange to fly in an old Russian MiG fighter and break the sound barrier . . . you can

do that for about $6,000, but I haven’t manned up and paid that yet . . . right now, we’re redoing our kitchen.4. You’re 43 years in the business, includ-ing the last 25 here in Greeneville, and you’ve been chairman of both TVPPA and APPA. Any boxes left to check?I really don’t think so . . . it’s been a great ride, and now I’m winding down. I really never imagined I’d get

to the APPA [chairman] level. That was an honor I didn’t expect – for a little guy from a little system, that was a big deal. It made me appreciate the TVA power contract and TVA as our regulator . . . we don’t have the concerns a lot of other utilities do, like cities that buy fire trucks with electric-department money.

cycle,” Bowlin said. “We’re proactive in making those repairs, and it’s part of our five-year plan to move and make some of those inaccessible lines more accessible.”

His day job aside, Finchum shares a place in GLPS history with fellow line-men Randy Riddle and Eddie Berryhill. The trio won the first-ever Tennessee Valley Lineman Rodeo team title back in 1998, setting the stage for nearly 20 years of consistent success.

So what’s the secret?“It’s not about speed,” said Finchum,

who noted that Berryhill still competes in the Rodeo’s Senior division. “The main thing is deductions. You can’t have those. You’ve got to run clean first—then, if you’re fast, great.”

Carroll said the Rodeo has been more than just a point of pride at GLPS.

“We’re big supporters of the Rodeo,” he said. “It’s a learning experience—one year, we saw a team assemble everything on the ground for an event, then go up the pole. We adopted that; we learned a better way from another system.

“And, of course, accuracy translates to safety. You never risk safety for any reason,” Carroll said.

MDM, PrepayOn another front, GLPS is tweaking its SCADA system with an eye toward upgrading its meter data management (MDM).

“That process is probably 85-percent complete and should be finished in the middle of this year,” said Carroll, who noted GLPS veteran T.J. Sullivan’s MDM work.

“He’s come up with a routine that makes it possible for him to predict trouble,” Carroll said. “T.J.’s been looking at data so long that he can see trends.”

Sullivan said his goal is to catch meter problems before those problems manifest themselves on a customer’s bill.

“If I see an unusual reading, I’ll ad-dress it proactively and check the meter,” Sullivan said. “I’ve found bad meters, but never on a customer complaint—99 per-cent of the time, it’s a customer problem. The customer’s glad to see me, though, because we’re addressing the problem before it shows up on their bill.”

Patricia Kirk, who

handles customer service and market-ing for the utility, added that GLPS has a sturdy prepay program, and has for the past four years.

“We’ve got nearly 1,300 customers on prepay, and we haven’t advertised it the first time,” she said. “In fact, we’re add-ing more prepaid customers than we are [traditional] customers.”

FLASH POINTS » Greeneville, TN, L&PS serves nearly

38,000 customers, about 80 percent of whom are residential.

» Despite that, some 60 percent of the util-ity’s sales are commercial/industrial.

» Topography can present a challenge to GLPS line crews, as the utility’s service territory includes parts of the Cherokee National Forest and the Appalachian Trail, to say nothing of three mountains.

» Bill Carroll, a former TVPPA and APPA chairman, is in his 26th year as the util-ity’s general manager.

Greeneville, TN, L&PS General Manager Bill Carroll shows off just a few of the Tennessee Valley Lineman Rodeo trophies won by his utility’s linemen over the years.


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each TVPPA-member utility in some form or fashion.

Co-presenter Doug Peters is TVPPA’s Technical Services director and, as part of the TVPPA/TVA NERC Compliance Team,

has been at the epicenter of that body’s work meant to assist TVPPA-member utilities in their efforts to achieve compliance with the NERC Reliability Standards. Peters will be joined by Seth Brown of Atlanta-based GDS Associates.

As has been the case in recent years, a second set of Board Lev-el breakouts, designed primarily for members of local utility directors, has been scheduled opposite the TVPPA business meeting. Those presentations will be made by Miller & Martin’s Larry Cash (Board Liability), Tish Erdmann of TVPPA Business Development (Develop-ing Strategic/Succession Planning) and a tag-team of EnerVision’s Joshua Warmack and Todd Kiefer of East Mississippi EPA, Meridian, MS (Renewables: What Are The Issues?).

Registration information for TVPPA’s 70th Annual Conference is available at www.tvppa.com. Once an individual is registered for the conference, he/she will receive an e-mail with the information neces-sary to reserve a room at the Grand Sandestin.

vides a fresh look and a new approach in an ongoing discussion about the role that electric systems can play in contributing to the deployment of needed broadband services for their owners and the com-munities that they serve.

FLASH POINT » Tennessee state lawmakers Art Swann

and Mike Carter crafted a set of common-sense ideas on the issue of rural broad-band access, but their proposal was un-able to gain traction in that state’s House of Representatives.

» A proposal by the pair would have estab-lished a petition-based process by which a group of electric cooperative members would ask a cooperative board to con-sider providing broadband services.

This column is general legal commentary and does not constitute legal advice by TVPPA or the author. Specific advice should be obtained from legal counsel before deciding on a course of action that may have legal consequences.

Legal . . . (Continued from page 11)Conference . . . (Continued from page 22)

DIANA BRYANT

DOUG PETERS


1976: Evins Stands Down50 YEARS AGO–1966TVPPA Elects WheelerTom Wheeler, manager at Marshall-DeKalb EC, Boaz, AL, was elected TVPPA’s president at the 20th Annual Meeting. TVPPA-member managers/CEOs attending the meeting in Memphis, TN, also tapped Russellville, KY, EPB Superintendent Homer Owen to serve as vice president and re-elected Secretary/Treasurer M.C. Stewart of Sand Mountain EC, Fort Payne, AL.

40 YEARS AGO–1976Evins Stands DownU.S. Rep. Joe Evins, D-TN, announced that he would not seek re-election in November 1976. In making the announcement, Evins closed the book on a 30-year career in Congress, during which time he rose to 14th in seniority in the 435-member chamber. TVPPA News said Evins “has been firm and consistent in his support of public power.”

Dean Gets The NodKnoxville, TN, UB General Manager Charles Dean was elected TVPPA’s president at the 30th Annual Meeting. Louis Wise, general manager at 4-County EPA, Columbus, MS, was elected vice president at the Nashville, TN, gathering, while E.E. Cobb of Huntsville, AL, Utilities was re-elected

secretary/treasurer.

Mayhew RetiresCharles Mayhew, general manager at Tri-County EMC, Lafollette, TN, retired after 11 years at that post. Mayhew’s career at the cooperative actually began in 1940, but was interrupted by a stretch of nearly three years of U.S. Army service during World War II. Upon his return to civilian life, he was named Tri-County EMC’s assistant manager in 1947.

30 YEARS AGO–1986Graduation DayThe first four graduates of TVPPA’s Certified Power Executive (CPE) program were presented their certifi-cates in Biloxi, MS, during TVPPA’s 40th Annual Conference. The recipients were Bill Jackson, manager at Pontotoc EPA, Pontotoc, MS; Murfreesboro, TN, ED General Manager Larry Kirk; Lexington, TN, ES Manager Travis Lewis and Columbus, MS, L&W General Manager Reynolds Ridgley.

Palk PrevailsRoy Palk, manager at Upper Cumberland EMC, Carthage, TN, was elected TVPPA president at the 40th Annual Conference. Also elected during the meeting at Biloxi, MS, were Vice President Bob Lay, manager at Greeneville, TN, L&PS and

Secretary/Treasurer Tommy Lee Kirkpatrick, manager at Louisville, MS, ED.

Pickering PickedBob Pickering was named manager at Sequachee Valley EC, South Pittsburg, TN, succeeding the retiring James Deakins. Pickering went to Sequachee Valley EC from Meriwether Lewis EC, Centerville, TN, where he’d spent the previous 21 years.

20 YEARS AGO–1996Clinton Names HayesPresident Bill Clinton nominated TVA Director Johnny Hayes for a full nine-year term on the federal utility’s board of directors. Clinton had originally tapped Hayes, a Tennessee Tech alumnus and prominent Democratic Party fund-raiser, to serve the unexpired term

of former TVA Chairman Marvin Runyon.

10 YEARS AGO–2006Iverson Takes Wheel At BGMUIt was a homecoming of sorts when Mark Iverson signed on as general manager at Bowling Green, KY, MU. Iverson had served previously as the utility’s chief financial officer, but left for a job at Houchens Industries. Moreover, Iverson is a graduate of Western Kentucky University—in Bowling Green.

Skelton For Loggins At TUBBrian Skelton was named GM at Tullahoma, TN, UB, succeeding the retiring Joe Loggins. Skelton took the job having logged more than 20 years in the TVPPA footprint at Memphis, TN, LG&W; Opelika, AL, L&P and Bowling Green, KY, MU.

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President Bill Clinton upon his arrival to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, May 5, 1999.


Paris BPU’s John Etheridge Announces Retirement

Etheridge

Paris, TN, BPU General Manager John Etheridge has announced that he plans to retire at the end of September.

With his retirement, Etheridge would close the book on a career of

35 years at Paris BPU. He signed on in 1981 as the utility’s business manager and became treasurer two years later. He ascended to Paris BPU’s top job in 2007.

Etheridge earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Tennes-see with a double major in economics and public administration. He spent five years in private business before joining Paris BPU.

Wade

Wade Named Chattanooga EPB President The Chattanooga, TN, EPB Board of Directors has named David Wade to serve as the utility’s president. Harold DePriest will continue as Chattanooga EPB’s

CEO.Wade joined Chattanooga EPB in

1983 as a line helper. He served in sub-sequent years as a senior manager and electric-system vice president, and most recently as the utility’s chief operating officer. He earned an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

“It’s an honor to be a part of the EPB team as we partner with people across the community in continuously striving to enhance local job creation and quality of life,” Wade said. “EPB has established a strong track record for delivering neighbor-to-neighbor customer service and deploying new technologies with broad benefit to the areas we serve.”

DePriest said Wade has been a “driv-ing force” in EPB’s becoming “a company that combines electrical systems and communications in a way that’s become a model for the rest of the nation.”

“Having David as president positions EPB to move forward with assurance on key initiatives related to next-gener-

ation Smart Grid and fiber-optic services,” DePriest said.

TVPPA Board Approves Nominations, ResolutionsMeeting March 28 in Chattanooga, TN, the TVPPA Board of Directors approved resolutions for the 70th Annual Conference and a variety of committee appoint-ments.

TVPPA’s directors approved the follow-ing nominations:

Jarrod Brackett (Fort Loudoun EC, Vonore, TN), Scott Dahlstrom (Trenton, TN, L&W), Har-old DePriest (Chattanooga, TN, EPB), Decosta Jenkins (Nashville, TN, ES), Shannon Littleton (Lenoir City UB), Rob Neely (Oxford, MS, ED), Bob Sittason (Hartselle, AL, Utilities), David Smart (West Kentucky RECC, Mayfield, KY) and Michael Watson (Duck River EMC, Shelbyville, TN) to serve on the At-Large Director Nominating Committee;

Mike Browder (Bristol, TN, ES), Bill Carroll (Greeneville, TN, L&PS), De-Priest, Wayne Henson (East Mississippi EPA, Meridian, MS), Jim Nanney (Alcorn Co. EPA, Corinth, MS) and Ronny Row-land (Prentiss Co. EPA, Booneville, MS) to serve on the Distinguished Service Award/Honorary Member Selection Committee;

Rody Blevins (Volunteer EC, Deca-tur, TN), Dave Cross (Plateau EC, Onei-da, TN), Greg Grissom (Pennyrile RECC, Hopkinsville, KY), Henson and Richard Morrissey (Florence, AL, Utilities) to serve on the Board Officer Nominating Committee.

The TVPPA Board of Directors also approved the nominations of Matt Ber-nauer (Muscle Shoals, AL, EB) to serve on the Education & Training Committee, Jimmy Gregory (Upper Cumberland EMC, Carthage, TN) to serve on the Operations Coordination Committee and Mark Fisk (Benton, KY, ES), Steve Hargrove (Sheffield, AL, Utilities) and

Jack Suggs (Oak Ridge, TN, ED) to serve on the Resolutions Committee.

Suggs, the longtime Resolutions Committee chairman, put before TVP-PA’s directors the measures crafted by his committee and approved in a March 15 conference call. The TVPPA Board lent its approval to eight resolutions:

» Support for Funding Chickamauga Lock Construction

» Support for Collaboration for Distrib-uted Generation Development

» Support for Preserving Municipal Bonding Authority

» Appreciation of TVPPA Employees» Honoring TVA Director Joe Ritch» Honoring TVA Director Michael

McWherter» Honoring TVA Director Peter Ma-

hurin» In Memoriam (honoring public-pow-

er workers who passed away in the past 12 months).

All eight resolutions will go before TVPPA’s membership at the business meeting set to be conducted during the 70th Annual Conference, May 16–18 at Sandestin, FL.

Four TVPPA Members Notch Perfect Safety-Audit ScoresIt’s one thing for an electric utility to have an outstanding safety record; it’s something else again to be perfect,

NAMES & NEWS

Greg Grissom, left, president/CEO at Pennyrile RECC, Hopkinsville, KY, accepts a Governor’s Safety and Health Award from Mike Nemes, right, deputy secretary of the Kentucky Labor Cabinet. (Photo courtesy Pennyrile RECC)


NAMES & NEWS

and that’s where four TVPPA-member utilities find themselves.

Benton Co., TN, ES; Brownsville, TN, UD; Milan, TN, BPU and Ripley, TN, L&P each completed perfect SP2 Safety Audits conducted by Distributors Insur-ance Co.

“It’s a pretty big deal to score 100,” said DIC Safety Consultant Steve Pow-ell, who conducted each survey. “There aren’t too many of those handed out.”

Powell explained that a survey can consist of up to 264 questions, depending on a utility’s breadth of service. Browns-ville UD, for instance, has gas and water in addition to electric, so its survey would be more comprehensive than that completed by an electric-only utility.

In posting no deficiencies in its 2016 SP2 survey, Brownsville UD completed quite a journey; Powell found seven deficiencies there as recently as 2012, and six each at Ripley P&L and Milan BPU the same year.

“When I go somewhere to do an audit, I’m there to help people,” Powell said. “I make recommendations and, if there are deficiencies, the utility sees those deficiencies and recommendations in the final report.

“The utilities showing improvement have followed through on those recom-mendations,” Powell said.

‘Excellence’ Honors For Burks, BarrBecky Burks of Appalachian EC, New Market, TN, and Brad Barr of 4-County EPA, Columbus, MS, are among cooperative communicators nationwide who’ve been honored with NRECA Spotlight on Excellence awards. Those awards will be presented at NRECA’s annual CONNECT Conference, set for May 10-12 in Portland, OR.

The Spotlight on Excellence Awards recognizes a body of outstanding work produced by electric cooperative com-munications and marketing profession-als. Winners represent leading practices across all communication platforms and position them as the best in the field through their superior accomplishments that have lasting impact, demonstrate a high level of professionalism and deliver exceptional results.

In the Best Internal News Publication category, Burks won a Classification 2

Gold Award for Appalachian EC’s employee newsletter, The Hotline. In the Best Special Publication (Small) category, Barr won for 4-County EPA’s online service-bill stuffer.

Pennyrile RECC Earns KY Governor’s Safety HonorPennyrile RECC, Hopkinsville, KY, recently won its fifth Governor’s Safety and Health Award for what the commonwealth’s Labor Cabinet called its “exemplary commitment to workplace safety.”

Kentucky Labor Cabinet Deputy Secretary Mike Nemes traveled to Hopkinsville to make the presenta-tion to the cooperative’s staffers. At the time of the award, Penny-rile RECC employees had worked Pennyrile Electric employees have worked 223 injury-free days, or ap-proximately 310,000 hours without a lost time accident.

“Receiving this award is a cele-bration of a safe environment for our employees, and we strive to make it better each day,” Pennyrile RECC President/CEO Greg Grissom said.

“We could not achieve this with-out each and every employee’s hard work. The employees deserve this prominent recognition and we are very proud of all of the accomplish-ments our employees have attained in safety,” Grissom added.

Greeneville L&PS Adopts ‘Areas of Focus’They’re doing things a little differently—which is to say, better—at Greeneville, TN, L&PS these days.

GLPS employees have been work-ing since the first of the year to not just to serve their customers, but to meet 23 goals set as part of a new strategic plan. The utility’s management crafted that plan a year ago with the help of Sam Turner, a consultant from Baldridge Suc-cess Strategies.

More than a dozen GLPS staffers amended the utility’s Mission and Vision statements at an August retreat then drilled down to ‘Areas of Focus,’ includ-ing Safety, Customer Service, Steward-ship, Innovation, Reliability and Superior Work Environment.

The GLPS Board of Directors ap-proved the plan in November, at which time it took effect. Longtime GLPS General Manager Bill Carroll said some of the plan’s 23 goals have already been met, but others will take as many as three years.

“This has been very useful in terms of helping each department realize how interdependent we are, and how every-one’s work really does touch our custom-ers,” Carroll said.

“This process has vastly improved our communication and has been an enormous aid in keeping all of us pull-ing in the same direction,” he said.

SUNNY DAYS AT CHICKASAW, EMEPA, JOE WHEELER, JCPBProjects submitted by four TVPPA-member utilities have been approved in conjunction with the LPC (local power company)-directed Distributed Solar Solutions (DSS) program.

Chickasaw EC, Somerville, TN; East Mississippi EPA, Meridian, MS; Joe Wheeler EMC, Trinity, AL and Johnson City, TN, PB won a total of 16.7 megawatts of carbon-free, solar capacity.

The plan at Joe Wheeler EMC is to add four small-scale solar power farms to its distribution system. East Mississippi EPA and Seven States Power Corporation have a 6-megawatt project in the works, and Johnson City PB’s design is to build a 40-acre solar installation. Details on Chickasaw EC’s plan were not available as of press time.

TVA and TVPPA are transitioning the program formerly known as the Solar Solutions Initiative to one that is more LPC-controlled and driven. The terms of DSS require solar developers who want to site projects in the TVPPA/TVA footprint to work with and through the appropriate LPC. Individual projects can range from 50 kilowatts to 5 megawatts, must be LPC-directed and demonstrate value to the LPC and its ratepayers.

TVA set aside 10 megawatts for DSS, with a project-submission window open from Jan. 13 to Feb. 2. Applications for projects totaling approximately 25 mega-watts were submitted, though, and TVA wound up awarding 16.7 megawatts.


service isn’t an exact science,” said Hen-son, the CEO at East Mississippi EPA, Meridian, MS. “I’m really not even sure it qualifies as a science—it’s more like art. You try to put in analysis that’ll give you the right indicators, so that you’re not us-ing one group of customers to subsidize another.

“This guidebook will give LPCs that haven’t done cost-of-service for a long time . . . a really good start,” Henson said.

And Wilson took pains to emphasize another point.

“Many of our members use and are well-served by rate consultants,” Wilson said. “We want to make sure members understand that this isn’t intended to replace any cost-of-service initiatives they and/or their consultants might have under way.”

FLASH POINTS » TVPPA’s Research & Development Com-

mittee has funded two guidebooks. » One, dealing with cost-of-service stud-

ies, is out; training sessions were con-ducted across the Valley in early March.

» The second pertains to best practices for dealing with behind-the-meter customer installation of distributed generation.

» That guidebook is a work in progress and should be finished by year’s end.

[email protected] www.crc.coop800-892-1578

Taking credit card information over the phone is a touchy subject when it comes to your consumers and their security. Protectingtheir personal information while providing excellent service iseasier than you think. Contact us today to learn how you can become PCI compliant utilizing live agents.

Consumer Security SolutionsFocusing on[ ]

Guidebooks . . . (Continued from page 23)

tvppa.com


to incentive the construction of capacity that would receive the market clearing price.

Maryland had ordered such purchas-es to supplement capacity available from PJM to ensure electric reliability. Scalia’s chair was draped in black crepe that day, and his fellow justices did not seem to fully understand how the mandatory ca-pacity markets work. It is interesting to wonder how the discussion might have gone if Justice Scalia had been present.

In a January 2016 case also address-ing the federal/state jurisdictional line under the FPA, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission v. Electric Power Supply As-sociation (EPSA), a 6-2 Court overturned a lower court decision and held that the FPA does allow FERC to regulate de-mand response in RTO markets, includ-ing compensating providers of demand response at the same rate that energy producers are paid. APPA and NRECA joined EPSA in arguing that demand response is a retail function, and thus clearly within the jurisdiction of the

states, not FERC.In a sharply worded dissent, Justice

Scalia, joined by Justice Thomas, relied on a “plain reading of the statute,” which gives FERC jurisdiction over sales of energy at wholesale:

So what, exactly, is a “sale of elec-tric energy at wholesale”? We need not guess, for the Act provides a definition: “a sale of electric energy to any person for resale.” §824(d). No matter how many times the majority incants and italicizes the word “wholesale,” ante, at 19–20, nothing can change the fact that the vast majority of (and likely all) demand-response participants—

“[a]ggregators of multiple users of electricity, as well as large-scale individual users like factories or big-box stores,” ante, at 7—do not resell electric energy; they con-sume it themselves. FERC’s own definition of demand response is aimed at energy consumers, not resellers.

For all the political fervor swirling

around the leanings of the next nominee, it is the absence of Scalia’s perspective that will most define the Court’s deci-sions this year.

FLASH POINTS » U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice

Antonin Scalia died Feb. 13 at the age of 79.

» The conservative stalwart’s death creates a charged political situation, as President Obama, a Democrat, will likely nominate his successor.

» U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is on record as saying the lame-duck President should leave that nomination for his successor, and that the Senate will not consider an Obama nominee.

This issue of TVPPA News magazine was in production when President Obama announced March 16 that he would nominate U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit Chief Judge Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court

www.tvppa.com

Washington Report . . . (Continued from page 9)

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ADVERTISER DIRECTORYThe following companies support TVPPA by ad-vertising in TVPPA News. Their support enables us to provide you with the quality of publication you expect from your association. Please join us in recognizing these companies, and be sure to tell them you saw their ad in TVPPA News!

A.J. Gallagherwww.ajg.com .................................................................... 13Alexander Publicationswww.alexanderpublications.net .......................................4Central Service Associationwww.csa1.com .................................................Inside FrontCompass Auctionswww.soldoncompass.com ................................................4Cooperative Response Centerwww.crc.coop ...................................................................32Distributors Insurance Companywww.distributors-insurance.com ............................. BackElectric Power Systemswww.epsii.com .................................................................33National Insurance Solutions Cooperative (NISC)www.nisc.coop ...................................................................7PowerTech Engineeringwww.pt-eng.com ..............................................................33Stanley Consultantswww.stanleyconsultants.com ........................................ 11TVPPA Business Developmentwww.tvppa.com .................................................................9TVPPA Conferences: 70th Annualwww.tvppa.com ............................................... Inside BackTVPPA eResourcewww.tvppa.com ...............................................................25TVPPA Technical Trainingwww.tvppa.com ...............................................................28

Looking for an economical way to reach the entire electric utility industry in the Tennessee Valley? Let TVPPA deliver your message for you. For advertising rates and information, call Tim Daugherty at 423.756.6511 or send e-mail to [email protected].

THE LAST WORD

President/CEO: Jack Simmons423.490.7918 • [email protected]: Judy Hughes423.490.7912 • [email protected]: Judy Hughes423.490.7912 • [email protected]/Membership: Tim Daugherty423.490.7930 • [email protected]: Phillip Burgess423.490.7928 • [email protected]: Tim Daugherty423.490.7930 • [email protected]

Conferences: Diana Bryant423.490.7923 • [email protected] & Training: John Cooke423.490.7927 • [email protected] Relations: Phillip Burgess423.490.7928 • [email protected] Services: Kari Crouse423.490.7918 • [email protected]/Pricing: Jim Sheffield423.490.7925 • [email protected] Services: Doug Peters423.490.7924 • [email protected]

Timely Tech Tip

WHAT IS HOSTING CAPACITY AND WHY DO I CARE?

The “hosting capac-ity” of a distribution system is the amount of

distributed energy resources (DER) that can be accommodated without adversely impacting power quality or reliability.

Today, distribution planners are being faced with a new reality—the vast majority of change to the distribution system is occur-ring due to the addition of DER. The result is a new set of challenges when planning and integrating DER that will require a clearer understanding of the distribution system’s ability to host DER. An effective way forward is to leverage available data, models, and tools utilities already use today.

Hosting capacity can vary along a distri-bution feeder, across a range of feeders, and can change over time as the distribution sys-tem infrastructure changes and incorporates additional DER. With the addition of DER, utility engineers must ensure it does not adversely impact power quality or reliability.

Currently, techniques like interconnec-tion screening do not give utilities the vis-ibility they need into the potential impacts of DER and performing detailed studies requires a great deal of data, time, and cost. Even with these challenges, distribution en-gineers still need to understand how much DER can be accommodated, what potential issues may arise over time, and where can DER be more optimally located to better plan for and integrate DER.

A recent Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) publication, “Integration of

Hosting Capacity Analysis into Distribution Planning Tools” (Product ID 3002005793), provides an update on past and present research in this area. This should be of great interest to those at your utility responsible for distribution planning.

It will provide necessary knowledge to better understand and communicate the need for this functionality with your distribu-tion planning software vendor with a goal to have it incorporated this into their existing products. As the software vendors hear this message from multiple utilities customers, they will work to make it a reality.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE additional information, please contact David Smith at 423.751.4785 or via e-mail at [email protected]. Addition-ally, to sign up for an EPRI website account please go to www.epri.com and register. If you have any trouble, contact DeJim Lowe at TVA (423.751.2660 or [email protected]).

Brought to you by EPRI Distribution Pro-gram advisors John Bowers and Joey Law-son of Pickwick EC, Selmer, TN; Philip Lim of Murfreesboro, TN, ED; Dan Rodamaker of Gibson EMC, Trenton, TN; Jack Suggs of Oak Ridge, TN, ED and Clint Wilson of TVPPA.

TVPPA STAFF QUICK REFERENCE

‘Moving forward, I hope that each of you will consider taking advantage of

the relief granted by the Supreme

Court and keep in mind that many of us in Congress stand ready to help you as you fight for the best interests of your states.’ — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch

McConnell, R-KY, in a March 21 letter to the nation’s governors regarding the Supreme Court’s Feb. 9 stay of the federal EPA’s Clean Power Plan


2016

Ann

ual C

onfer

ence

70TH ANNUAL CONFERENCEMay 16-18, 2016

Fair WarningPlan to attend TVPPA’s 70th Annual Conference and prepare to be challenged.

Distributed-energy veteran Scott Sklar and mar-keting maven Kelly McDonald will attempt to drive home the point that while change in our industry – whether technological or in our cus-tomer base – might make us squirm, it must be addressed and embraced.

Annual Conference attendees will also hear from several of their peers, including TVPPA Chair-man Greg Williams, Dan Rodamaker, Billy Ray and Michael Watson, all of whom will challenge their counterparts to reinvent their utilities by thinking differently.

STEP 1: REGISTER NOW!:Visit www.tvppa.com, click

“Conferences” and then the Annual Conference link.

STEP 2: MAKE HOTEL RESERVATIONS at the

Sandestin Grand in the Village of Baytowne Wharf. In-structions will be included with your TVPPA registration confirmation email. Sponsor information is available online.

Register Online Now!

SKLAR

MCDONALD

PO Box 6189Chattanooga, TN 37401-6189

PRSRT STDU.S. Postage

PAIDPermit No. 586Chattanooga,

Tennessee

Return Service Requested

678-393-5200

Competitively Priced Insurance Coverage.Distributors Insurance Company has provided utility-specific property-casualty insurance coverages at com-petitive premiums to more TVPPA members than any other insurer or program since its 1983 inception. What does this mean? It means it costs little more to go first class and have the broadest property-casualty insurance coverages and most professional claims and loss control services available.Owning your own insurance company does make a difference.

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Utility Specific Coverage

w w w . d i s t r i b u t o r s - i n s u r a n c e . c o mDistributors Insurance Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the

Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, Inc.

previewing the 70th annual conference · march/april 2016 volume 67 · no. 2 cover 14 storm season...

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