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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-08-21 Min - Board (3) Truckee Donner Public i Bowel of Directors Joseph R.Aguera J.Ronald Hen;a 94 Business Office Planning Services Robert A.,:ones (916) 587-3896 (916) 587-3944 FAX(916)587-5056 James A. l laass Patricia S.Sutton REGULAR WORKSHOP MEETING General Manager 7:00 PM, Wednesday, August 21, 1996 Peter!. yclzovooter TOPUD Board Room AGENDA 1. Call to order 2. Roll call 3. Public Input - 7:00 PM(or as soon thereafter as possible)Any member of the audience desiring to address the Board regarding a matter on the agenda is welcome to do so. Matters not specifically listed on the agenda may be brought up under public input. ACTION ITEM • 4. Discussion and possible action regarding the Town of Truckee draft Sphere of Influence Report WORKSHOP ITEMS 5. Report on the financial status of the District 6. Review of the draft policy regarding U. S. Department of Transportation mandated drug testing 7. Monthly staff reports ADJOURNMENT NOTE. The complete packet of material relating to the agenda is available for review at the PUD office and at the Truckee Library Posted an iled on Augustf6'.1996 Susan M. Craig, Deputy District Clerk Post Office Box 309 11570 Donner Pass Road Truckee, California 96160 STAFF REPORT ,August19 1996 tFROM., Board of Directors Peter L. Hoizmeister, Generat Manager CT: July Staff Report AGENDA 1. Truckee River Operating Agreement: Pat Sutton and I continue to participate in TROA negotiations. There have been meetings with the Nevada parties and some progress has been made in resolving outstanding issues. The issue that I am most involved with is the regulation of the location and construction of new wells under TROA. That issue is not yet resolved. I have shared information from out groundwater management plan with the Piute Tribe and SPPCo in an effort to educate them about our practice of constructing wells. I will know in a week or so if I am making any progress. 2. IBE : I am still meeting with the union to try to reach agreement on a new MOU for 1996. We have resolved several issues. We are left only with the most substantive issues, and we are certainly having difficulty reaching agreement on them. We are now discussing whether we may be at impasse, and what process follows impasse. 3. Sphere of influence reports: We have been working on a series of reports for Nevada and Placer County LAFCos. We and other districts have submitted reports to Placer County LAFCo regarding our proposed spheres of influence in Martis Valley. Placer County LAFCo has prepared a report entitled Martis Basin Study, 1996, and they have scheduled a public hearing for August 22, 1996 in Auburn to discuss that study. I will attend that hearing. I also spent time during the last month reviewing and analyzing the Town Sphere of Influence report, which contained many references to Truckee's special districts. The Board hosted a meeting of special district and Town representatives at which the town's report was discussed. As a result of that meeting the Town staff modified their report to remove references to the special districts. We now have a draft Sphere of Influence report for our district prepared by Sauers Engineering which will be sent to the Board for full review. 4. Electric power outage in western US: There have been a couple of large wide- spread power outages effecting customers in several Western states. Fortunately Truckee has not lost power during these outages. Attached is a newspaper article and an NCPA staff memo which describes aspects of the outages, for your information 5. NCPA annual meeting in Monterey: NCPA is holding its annual meeting in Monterey on september 25, 26, and 27, 1996. The meeting is sure to focus on restructuring of the electric utility industry, an issue of extreme importance to us. I plan to attend the meeting and would encourage Directors to attend if you are able. 6. Water quality report: During August we conducted our normal weekly regimen of water samples. During one of the weeks we received notice from the laboratory that seven samples were showing the presence of coliform bacteria. This is highly unusual. It is so unusual that we believe it must be caused by contamination of the test equipment, not by the water. We have gone months with no positive tests; how could we suddenly have seven positive samples from widely divergent sampling points? As we are required, we resampled immediately and one of the resamples was positive. Pete Markovich has had discussions with Jess Morehouse, who is our contact at the • California Department of Health Services. Jess has given us a temporary waiver from the requirement that we provide notice to our customers of the positive samples. He wants to see what develops during the next few sample periods. However, Jess tells us that we will be required to publish a notice in the newspaper describing the positive samples. Jess is drafting the working of the notice. I will send a copy to the Directors and let you know when it will appear in the Sierra Sun. 7. NCPA meeting in Truckee: This is just a quick reminder that the regular monthly NCPA Commission meeting for August will take place in our Board room on Thursday, August 22, 1996 beginning at 9:00 A.M. You may want to attend just to see what NCPA is doing these days. 8. SPPCo: Things have slowed down considerably since SPPCo and WWP terminated their plans to merge. There is still one matter pending at FERC, the SPPCo Rule 888 filing. We are intervenors in that matter to make sure that SPPCo follows the FERC rule in setting its open access tariff. I will keep you informed at things develop further. 9. Snow removal contractors: A group of snow removal contractors voiced concern over that fact that our crew handles much of our snow removal needs. I have drafted a report for Jim Maass to use in having further discussion with those contractors, a copy of which is attached. Electrical id Prone ! ry It f ail Lure 16A—Reno Gazette-Journal Thursday,August 15,1996 AS Power David Foster oer.ASSOCIATED PRESS 1 si Power out Two major power outages in the West this summer have It seems farfetched: A high- From page I highlighted weaknesses in the nation's largestpowergrid oltage line sags near a tree and in the Reno-Sparks area and 1.5 How an outage can occur cuts power to niiiiions across the million in eight western states Hydroeiecr c A[r'rican 'Vest. But it happened and parts of Canada lost power power station tm summer — twice — and that day. Sierra Pacific officials OSoanng temperatures expand the metal and utility watchdogs warn it could said the failure of three major insulation of a high-voltage transmission line, happen again. lines caused the local blackout. causing it to sag as much as eight feet.The line Soaring demand. industry de- Last Saturday's outage was even drops close to trees.Electricity in the au blackens regulation and complex trades bigger, affecting 4 million homes the tree,as the line short-circuits.Remaining lines o1-electricity across the `.Vest are and businesses throughout the become overloaded. snaking the nations biggest West. It also started with a line i power grid more prone to wide- sagging toward trees, this time in spread failure, the watchdogs Oregon. The resulting short cir- The power© say. cult triggered a chain reaction station shuts Power does not reach "Under no circumstance that shut down the main Pacific homes and businesses. down when there Power companies may should this happen, let alone connection between the North- is too much power Feeder shut down certain areas to twice in one summer," said Bob west and California. backed up. cables on stop the cascading effect Jenks, executive iirector of the In both cases, the blackouts pylons of an overload in a grid. Citizens Utility Board in Port- might have been smaller if not land, Ore. "A tree shouldn't be for the power grid that lets utili- + Substations able to cause the power system ties trade electricity around the Cascading outage �. Homes and across the American West to go region, moving it from where The ower rid in the West is �"' businesses down." supply is the cheapest to where made up ojg111,998 miles of Transformer -��, . c first blackout occurred demand is the greatest. high voltage lines.Last J , tivhcn hot waather made a The West's interconnected ! Saturday's outage; oa.,,000 volt power line in Ida- system, with 88 member utilities r.-01pm.—A transmission line about no droop too close to a cotton- and more than 112,000 miles of Wmileseastof Portland,Ore.,sags Ifgh wood lice. An electrical arc transmission lines across 14 and shonaircuts,The electricity instead vouags, short-circuited the line, and dur- states, covers the most territory flows through other lines in the area. due ing the next 35 seconds, one line of any of the continent's nine re- p6 .m—Overloaded with the new Q, , after another went out across the gional grids. wersurge,a line south of Portland West. cutting power to '_ million In the July 2 outage, swelter- shuts off. customers in 14states. ing residents of Utah, Idaho and �fzszp.m.—Another line south of Nfore than 37,000 customers California were turning on air Cbnland shuts off. conditioners and drawing huge See POWER on pace16A amounts of electricity supplied //��3:42p,m—Near Hillsboro,Ore . by dams in the Northwest and tihother sagging line shoe-cirauns. -- ---- coal-fired plants in Wyoming 3,47pin The sensing instability in and Utah. Qe 5yst;l ,tWo units on the Columbia Last Saturday's outage still is River shut off automatically. under investigation, but what officials do know is that it was a Wit p.m.—Voltage fluctuations shut case study in the domino effect: y{ it the main interior from Oregon to At 2:01 m. Saturday, a sag, California.Two units at the Diablo P- g- Canyon power plant in San Luis Obispo, ging transmission line sent an j Calif.shut down. arc of electricity into the trees 60 --• miles east of Portland, Ore. The line short-circuited, and the re- Heat sulting surge of electricity Average Departure Average Departu knocked out two other lines in wave mperarure of from no mal temperature of jmm aorma[ the1asr7daps temperature the last 7 days temperature Oregon during the next 50 min- Portland 75.e' +s.e' Phoenix 96.W +4.e ute6- San Francisco 64.0' +0.7o Boise 83.80 +9 8- At 3:42, another sagging line Riverside,Cali 83.10 +5.3o El Paso 79,5' -1,5' short-circuited over a filbert or- San Diego 72.5- -0.31 Los Angeles 79.7' +3.6- chard just west of Portland. Five Las vegan till +4.6' Denver 74.8- +2.4' minutes later, two units at the Albuquerque 76.5' -0.5' Seattle 69,91 +3.9- ® McNary hydropower dam on Sources:Western Systems Coordinating Council,AP research APfiracie Tso the Columbia River sensed the system's instability and shut down automatically. One min- ute after that, voltage fluctua- tions shut down the main con- nection from Oregon to California. with electricity. brittleness in the system," said The reality, if not monitored utilities this week are taking closely, could be messy, said steps to head off more blackouts. Bob Finkelstein, attorney for a Crews are out trimming trees, San Francisco-based consumer and engineers are running thou- Utility officials defended the group called Toward Utility sands of computer simulations system as an efficient way to bal- Rate Normalization. of events that could bring the anee supply and demand — es- "The system that's been on- griddown. pecially as the West, the nation's usually taxed twice this summer "They may no longer be aber- fastest-growing region, contin- is going to be facing even heavi- rations because of high power ues to demand more electricity, er traffic in the next few years," use and the complexity of the "If each part of the region had Finkelstein said. system," Mahar said. "It's clear to build power plants to meet California's version of deregu- there's a bug in the system, and peak demand, we'd have power lation is a new law designed to we're going to track it down." plants that were idle most of the end utility monopolies during As the utilities launched long- time," said Daley Mahar, the next few years by allowing term studies. Westerners faced spokeswoman for the Bonneville new companies to market elec- more pressing power concerns Rower Administration, which tricity through the grid. Similar this week. markets Columbia River hydro- legislation is pending in most In steamy California, air con- power. states. ditioners blasted and govern- But watchdog groups are con- "Rather than five or six utili- ment officials urged conserva- cerned that power outages may ties, at any given time you'll tion measures, become more common as dereg- have hundreds if not thousands In Oregon, meanwhile, com- ulation increases the number of of buyers looking for cheap pow- plaints arose that Californians energy suppliers using the grid er from the Northwest and try- were using hydropower made to transmit power. The idea be- ing to figure out how to transmit with water supposedly reserved hind deregulation is to cut con- that across the system," Finkel- for ushering endangered sumers' costs by giving them a stein said. salmon down the Columbia choice in who provides them Mahar, conceding "there's a River. 16:43 i4 _n iG 1e. :38 :42 1996 Paea S if NetFax Manager Northern California Power Agency 180 Cirby Way 0seville, CA 95678 To : STEPHEN HOLLABAUGH From: ALP Cc : 'PUCKEE DONNER Cc: Northern California Power Agency Data : 16 :38 Mon 12 Aug 1996 Tel #: (916)781 -3636 Sub: act : Fxd : Saturday Outage Fax #: 916-781 -4263 DTMF Number of Pages : 1 NCP6 staff and generation resources played an important role in miticating the effects of Saturdays electrical outage. We all can be prod, of the response of our staff . On Saturday , all major high voltage transmission lines between Oregon and California tripped open . At the time, power was flowing into California to rest the demands of the hot weather . The resulting electrical dic—rbances caused many generating units in California to shut down . As a result , there weren' t enough generation resources on line in California to supply electric loads . The electric system then automatically dropped loads to regain balance between generation and loads . NCPA staff began an immediate response . _ _chers worked with plant operators to stabilize and keep our urrently operating geothermal and hydro units on line . Dispatchers also contacted PG&E, our members, and other utilities to determine the nati;,-e and extent of the problem. In a coordinated response with PG&E and c-�hers , our operating staff was called in to start the five Comb_stion Turbine No . 1 units and the Combustion Turbine No. 2 unit , and to -.-,crease water releases from New Spicer Meadows reservoir to supply the --.gran-stream Collierville generating units . Jithi , a short period of time, all NCPA units were on line at full power, helping to supply the California electric system. NCPA units were kept on line during the outage until power was restored to those customers who los power . The above is the "Readers Digest" version of the event . The full drama and impact of this event is conveyed in the NCPA Dispatch logs for the evert and also the WSCC press release. Copies will be available in the lunc`� room at the home office and at each of the plant sites . It makes for some interesting reading . I ' d 'like to thank and commend NCPA home office and plant staff for their dedis:ated response on Saturday . Mike McDonald MEMO August 19, 1996 TO: Director Jim Maass FROM. Peter L. Hotzmeister, General Manager SUBJECT. Use of contract services An issue has been raised regarding the use of local contractors to provide services for the District. Over the years we have found that it is clearly in the public interest to make use of the services that contractors provide. Without the help of private contract firms we would not be able to accomplish many of our tasks. However, we do not use contractors to do everything. There are tasks that we are able to do with District staff quicker, more thoroughly, and for less money than can be done through contract service. We are constantly evaluating this "do or buy" decision, and we . make changes in our procedures as new information is available. In this memorandum I would like to describe some of our current practices and the reasons for them. Truckee Donner PUD maintains two separate maintenance and construction crews, one for electric system tasks and the other for water system tasks. These crews are supported by several different types of private contractors. This memo focuses primarily on the water crew. Our water crew consists of a Superintendent, a crew foreman who supervises six technicians, a system planner and a pump station operator. The foreman and his crew of six perform many daily maintenance and construction tasks on the water distribution system. They repair leaks; install new services; install service laterals and main line taps; inspect the work of contractors; perform USA notifications; repair damaged hydrants, valves, and pressure reducing stations; clean water storage tanks; and provide support to the pump station operator. In the winter our crew continues to perform leak repairs and we are able to redirect our attention the to inside of our water pump stations. We find that Truckee contractors remain busy year round, so our water crew is also busy year round providing water services to builders. We also use the winter to perform upgrades on commercial water meters. They also clean snow from the District headquarters building and from the district water pump stations. As time permits they clean snow from hydrants as a service to the Truckee Fire Protection District. In recent years we have not been able to adequately perform all of these services because privately contracted pipeline ® replacement crews have required closer inspection and system operation. During 1996 and 1997 the work of Southwest Gas pipeline crews will keep our water crew busy with USA notifications and inspection of common trench areas. To support the work of our water crew we maintain certain pieces of heavy equipment. We have a ten-wheel dump truck, a six-wheel dump truck and two backhoes. The two backhoes are also equipped with one yard buckets for loading. During the winter months we lease a loader to help with snow removal. The dump trucks are used for hauling materials to and from construction sites. They haul backfill material and cold patch to sites of leaks, main line taps and later or main line installations. They also support the electric crew in their hauling needs. The two backhoes have different uses. One is over fifteen years old and is used only when two hoes are needed for a job. At other times it is kept at Southside well complex and used to load cold patch or backfill into the dump trucks. The newer hoe is used for leak repair, installation of services, and any construction jobs performed by our water crew. The hoe also is used by the line crew when they construct underground facilities. In a normal year the dumps and newer backhoe are used continually through the construction season. This year, when our crew is primarily working with Southwest Gas contractors, we use that equipment less often. • The question sometimes asked why we do not use contractors exclusively to perform the construction and maintenance work of the water system. Some of the work we do is after hours emergency repair work. We find that we cannot get a contractor to respond after hours as quickly as our own crew responds, so our customer service is better if we do the work ourselves. Installing water system facilities is important to our ability to provide service to our customers. Having the ability and expertise to do so is a core competency that we need to maintain. We need to be able to perform the basic functions of our business in-house. We find that we are able to perform these tasks quickly, more thoroughly and with better attention to quality than is done by a private contractor. We do use contractors to supplement our water crew during periods of peak need. During the busiest parts of each season we use contractors to do part of our leak repair, part of our snow removal, part of our water system construction. Private contractors do all of our permanent patch paving work. Another question that comes up from time to time is why we lease a loader each winter and perform part of our own snow removal. Briefly stated, we find that at a few locations we need to have snow removed quickly and thoroughly. We cannot wait for a private contractor to finish work on other customers before responding to us. Our headquarters building needs to be cleaned quickly and continuously during a snow storm. That building is the center of our activity during a storm and we need unimpeded access to it. We have found that when we used a private contractor to clear snow at our headquarters building ® our own staff spent a great deal of time recleaning and widening the cleared ares. We also found that private contractors were unable to respond as quickly and as often as we needed, so we began to do the work ourselves with a leased loader. Once we made that decision we found that it was better for us to clear snow ourselves from our pole yard, which is another critical location for us during a storm. We are sometimes criticized for moving our loader to different locations in town. Contractors find that it is inefficient to move their equipment from neighborhood to neighborhood because the road time represents unbilled hours for their equipment and employees. We find that it is inefficient for us to have our crew waiting around until a contractor has a chance to plow us out. We cannot let customers be out of power or water so we use our crew to clear our high priority facilities so we can get right to work. We do not need to clear all of our facilities during the storm. Some of our water pump stations can wait for a few days after the storm leaves the area to be cleaned. We are able to schedule our crew to clean those stations on a lower priority basis, and clean them at a lower cost than using a contractor. And we clean them more thoroughly with less damage to our facilities. During the past couple of years we have had to sue one contractor in small claims court to collect money to pay for damages resulting from snow removal. We have always used private contractors to clear snow from the access road to our electric substations, but not within the substations. We do not want a snow removal contractor in our substations where he could be seriously hurt or he could cause significant damage to critical electrical facilities. We have always cleared the inside portion of the substations ourselves. The leased loader cuts our time by half or more in cleaning substations. Once we had a loader cleaning the District headquarters building, the pole yard and the inside of electrical substations we found that we could do a far better job of cleaning water pump stations with the loader. Water pump stations can be cleaned a day or two after the storm ends, after our more pressing snow removal needs are satisfied. We find that by the time a storm clears out of Truckee there can be several feet of snow on the ground. The loader is heavy enough to handle that kind of deep snow. We find that our crew can clear snow from all those sites for the same cost as a private contractor, and we do it more timely and with less damage to our facilities. For those sites where we do use a private contractor to plow snow there are very few contractors willing to do our work. The snow removal contractors tend to remain in one geographic area and perform work there. For example, one contractor may like to stay in Tahoe Donner, while another may stay at Donner Lake. They get enough work in those areas that it is not efficient to move their equipment around town to other locations. The contractor who plows our Tahoe Donner substation serves other customers in Tahoe Donner, the contractor who plows our Donner Lake substation stays in the Donner Lake ® area, and so on. When we have bid snow removal at these locations in the past we have i STAFF REPORT August 19, 1996 TO. Board of Directors FROM: Kathy Neus, Support Services Manager SUBJECT: July Staff Report A G:END:A # 7] PURCHASING AND WAREHOUSING 1. A few more jobs were staged for the line crew. Material is being delivered to the crews in the field. Conduit for future undergrounding of electric facilities has been delivered to different areas for Southwest Gas to install. 2. When Northern Pipeline hit the transformer at Sierra Mountain Middle School, Joe fabricated parts for the line crew. He also drove the oil sample down to Sacramento and • waited for the results of the test to be sure that no PCBs were involved. The test came back negative for PCBs. 3. There were three inventory cycle counts done in July. BUILDING AND GROUNDS 1. There were no emergencies in the building for the month of July. Normal bulb replacement, the grout repairs, sprinkler repairs that couldn't wait for the landscaper and miscellaneous weed wacking in the areas inside the yard were some of the items accomplished. 2. 1 have been working on different sources of fuel for heating the District's office. I have figures from Suburban Propane and better figures from Southwest Gas. I still need some figures from a heating company for the fixtures that the gas company isn't going to retrofit. Scott Terrell is getting a proposal on a ground source heat pump. METER READING 1. The Meter Readers retrofitted two more hard to read routes in July. The one in Sierra Meadows is a route with lots of fences and dogs. It is a route that is read from the back of the houses. The other route was in Tahoe Donner. This is another route that is long and hard regardless of weather conditions. There are close to 1800 AMR meters currently installed in the District. ® 2. Even with changing out routes, the Meter Readers are current in their readings. There were 424 meter change outs (routes, hard to reads, connects and disconnects), 247 service reports completed and 152 notices delivered. VEHICLE MAINTENANCE 1. Tom had another busy month - 17 service inspections, six aerial inspections and three brake and drive line services. There was only one field repair, Unit 38 lost the serpentine belt at Boomtown and it was repaired on the spot. 2. Unit 10, one of the line trucks, was shuttled to Reno for repairs on the boom. KN/smc 0 0 ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES: July-August, 1996 STAFF REPORT Submitted by Mary Chapman, August 19, 1996 CUSTOMER SERVICE: Activity has slowed down for the customer services staff. This has allowed them to get caught up with their work and filing. NEW CONSTRUCTION: The staff has been very busy processing requests for new services and sending the USA's to the crews. During July, the electric crew was given 259 USA's and the water crew was given 253 USA's to mark. We have received a total of 16 new service applications during July, 1996. The electric crew has installed 48 new services (12 underground services, 32 temporary power pole connections, and 4 permanent original overhead services); they have also transferred 9 services from temporary to permanent service. The water department has installed 26 new services and upgraded 9 existing services. • BILLING: Billing is current. Since the Board has accepted the Hirschdale Treatment Plant, we will begin to bill the Hirschdale customers at the District's zone 11 rate which is $43.70 per month. We will be going out to bid later this week for folding and inserting equipment to replace our existing equipment. The new equipment will allow us to insert multiple documents into customer bills. We currently have to run everything through the system two times in order to send out the newsletter or any other billing stuffer. The current equipment also jams frequently. We have been using it for almost ten years; our needs have changed and the machine is tired. ACCOUNTING: Accounts payable and payroll are current. We are currently working on the July financial reports. COMPUTER OPERATIONS: We are currently upgrading all of the personal computers to the most current version of Word • Perfect. It amazes me how far this product has come since the first version that I used. During the month of July, OrCom upgraded the AS400 operating system. We experienced a few problems, but things are working well now. FINANCE: I have executed the loan documents and forwarded them on to Municipal Services Group, Inc. I have also submitted a request for reimbursement for the disbursements that the District has already made in the amount of $136,803.35. The loan should be funded this week. We should be receiving the reimbursement next week. Our payments will begin in September. OTHER: Town Lease Amendment: I have spoken with our insurance company regarding the fence around the air conditioners that were installed by the Town. Their recommendation was that the fence should have a locked gate with a sign and should be four to five feet tall. 0796MOLY.RPT • TRUCKEE DONNER PUBLIC UTILITY DISTRICT PLANNING DIRECTOR ACTIVITIES JULY, 1996 Note: Since most of these projects are ongoing, Staff continues to report the basic information and highlights the activities that have occurred during the reporting month. When a project or activity is completed it is reported, then deleted from this report. Strategic Planning/District $Savings Business Customer Communications- Staff is developing a Key Account Management Program proposal designed to foster a positive, open line of communication with our largest customers and determine how they feel about TDPUD's service and how they see working with TDPUD in the future. After completion and approval of the proposal, discussions with our largest customers will take place, planned for Fall & Winter. Staff attended TTSA's July 14 Board meeting to discuss TDPIJD's interest in working with our customers to keep their costs down as the electric utility industry evolves toward deregulation. TDPUD Competition Plan- Staff is planning to prepare a report about the different utility issues we are currently being challenged by. The report will include a discussion of the different approaches TDPUD can take to meet these challenges as well as an analysis and recommendations to respond to competition. This comprehensive report is being postponed until the evaluation results of the GSHP pilot, the large Business • Customer meetings and other competition related projects and issues are available. Energy/Water Showcase Program- HDR Engineering, Inc. has prepared and submitted a report to TDPUD Staff that identifies cost-saving energy-efficiency water system improvement options available to TDPUD. HDR is currently completing some in-depth analysis on the cost-effectiveness of some additional controls for water system efficiency. After the final document is completed TDPUD can decide which options may be worth implementing based on their cost-effectiveness to the District. Conservation/DSM/Economic Development Ground Source Heat Pump Pilot Site Activity- Nine GSHP pilot site units are currently in operation. A tenth site is being planned for completion August 21 in Glenshire. This will culminate the pilot site installations. Truckee Community GSHP Pilot Project- Davis Energy Group was selected to conduct the GSHP pilot research in Truckee and Sacramento. The monitoring activities are expected to begin Fall, 1996. Staff has been working with DEG to prepare the TDPUD pilot monitoring plan. The grant-funded research activities including the findings will be completed by April of 1997. CA GEO-Heat Pump Show- TDPUD and Sierra-Pacific Power Company Staff are • currently planning a California Ground Source Heat Pump Show in North Lake Tahoe October 19-20. The information package to attract exhibitors has been developed(see attached). Show marketing in the Truckee-Tahoe/Reno area will begin soon. TDPUD will be using the TDPUD display system at the Show. The Show will educate consumers and building professionals on the technology. The Show will include many GSHP industry exhibitors. GSHP Bulk Purchase & Installation Program- I am working with Truckee consumers to plan and implement a bulk purchase & installation program for home and business owners interested in installing ground source heat pumps at a reduced cost. The first meeting on July 2 was successful with 17 potentially interested participants. Staff is planning to hold these meetings every month and continue to attract new participants. The next meeting is August 5. TDPUD GSHP Cost Study- I have arranged at Kathy's request a study to determine the cost of installing GSHPs into the TDPUD building for heating and cooling. The study is being conducted by Sierra Air in Reno and WaterFurnace International, a major GSHP manufacturer. The study will be completed by August 16. CFIA Demonstration Project- Staff has been in contact with Professor Samuel Sami of Moneton University in Canada regarding his testing of a Combined Cycle Fully Integrated Air/Air Heat Pump(CFIA). Tests so far have shown that it has comparable performance benefits of GSHPs without the cost of a ground loop. Staff has • developed a CFIA mini-pilot draft proposal and a draft confidentiality agreement. These documents are currently being reviewed. GSHP/Water Heater Promotion- Staff is working toward getting the Truckee GSHP pilot monitoring program in place so that we will have data available to perform an analysis of the benefits and costs of using GSHPs in Truckee. The results of this study will be used to determine GSHP's role in TDPUD's Strategic Plan. A draft proposal has been developed to promote the benefits of high efficiency electric water heating to TDPUD customers. Energy Surveys/High Bill Assistance- Staff completed 0 commercial and 1 residential energy survey(s) this month. Staff also responded on-site to 1 "high" bill complaint(s). Business & Energy Efficiency Partnership- The incorporation of energy and water efficiency measures are expected to be retrofitted into the Chamber building by Summer, 1995. Currently about 75% of these measures are installed. Silvertip and Rare Earth Landscaping contractors are currently implementing the low-water use landscape plan. Staff is currently working on a self-guided tour brochure of energy and water efficiency measures for the Chamber building. An Open House for the new Chamber facility and the Business & Energy Efficiency Partnership is being planned for October 8, 1996. A letter was sent out July-end to all Partners inviting them to the Open House[Mixer. Truckee Businesses and residents will be invited and are encouraged to attend this event. Comm unications/Public Relations/Education Newsletter- The Summer Current Issues newsletter is currently being implemented. Topics include: Chamber Open House, GSHP Bulk Purchase & Installation Program, GEO-Heat Pump Show, Automated Meter Reading, Address Visibility, other. Critical Issues Communication- Staff met with five different marketing and advertising agencies July 19 to discuss their ideas on implementing a critical issues communication program for TDPUD. A selection on which agency to help us is planned for by August-end. Community Calendar- TDPUD Staff has met with Tahoe-Truckee USD representatives to discuss the development of a community calendar. The calendar is almost ready for publication and they are currently soliciting sponsors for each of the 17 months. Staff has reserved May and October to promote Water Awareness Week and Public Power Week. TDPUD text has been provided to calendar developers. Community/Statewide Involvement Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Committee- Working with other businesses in reviewing: the Downtown Specific Plan, an Incubator/Business Park Feasibility Study, ect. Staff attended the July 2 EDC meeting. Tahoe-Forest Hospital Healthly City Committee- Working with other agencies and community groups in the development of a Healthly City Plan for Truckee. Staff • attended the July 26 meeting. Current plans include developing a presentation to the community on areas of need within the community as derived from surveying local groups and organizations responding to a survey. Town of Truckee Air Quality Management Plan Advisory Committee- Staff is currently working with other interested parties and agency representatives in reviewing a draft report on Truckee's AQMP prepared by the Northern-Sierra AQMD in conjunction with the Town of Truckee. The July 9 meeting was cancelled. Staff attended the July 23 meeting. The Committee is currently evaluating different options for mitigating the PM 10 problem in Truckee. GSHPs are one of the options being considered. The end result of the Committee's efforts will be to recommend mitigation efforts to reduce PM 10(particulate matter <10 microns) in Truckee. The two main causes of PM 10 in Truckee are road sand dust and burned particulate matter from wood burning. Northern California Power Agency Member Services Task Force- Staff participated in the July 10 NCPA Member Services Task Force conference call. California Municipal Utilities Association Committee on Energy Efficiency- Working with other public utilities statewide and a consultant on a Model Energy Services/ Competition Program Guidebook. This document contains a description of many of the strategies utilities are using to respond to a changing, more competitive electric utility environment. Programs are designed to increase customer satisfaction and result in customer retention. CEC California Ground Source Heat Pump Collaborative- Staff participates in quarterly meetings of the California Energy Commission's GSHP Collaborative. The Collaborative was formed to oversee the development and promotion of the GSHP industry in California. The next Collaborative meeting is scheduled for October 18 in Truckee, TDPUD Board Room. The Geothermal Resources Association out of Davis, CA has applied for about $500,000 of grant assistance to implement a statewide GSHP contractor training program. The TDPUD Board approved TDPUD's participation as a co-applicant with GRA for $159,337 from the CEC Geothermal Funding program. The focus of the proposal is to strengthen the infrastructure of the GSHP industry in California by developing GSHP training for HVAC, plumbing, drilling, excavating and other contractors. Utility Energy Forum Planning Committee- Staff participated in a meeting in Sacramento July 22 to continue to plan for the 1997 UEF meeting in Graniibakken. The next meeting is scheduled for September 9 in Sacramento. I have agreed to Chair this Committee comprised of electric and gas utilities as well as the CEC, NCPA and CMUA. Employee Safety/Training Safety Committee- The TDPUD Safety Committee met July 19. i. Wellness Program/Healthy Meals- This continues to be a popular program with TDPUD employees. We had a "healthy" lunch July 3 and July 31. The menus included: Turkey ramen salad, polenta triangles w/ sauteed mushrooms, and creme caramel; (2)taco casserole, caesar salad, and buttermilk raisin sticky buns(see attached recipes and nutritional analyses). Wellness Program/Health Education- Tahoe-Forest Hospital Staff gave a presentation at the July 17 All employees meeting on their individualized exercise program planner. Interested employees had one-on-one consultations to develop custom exercise programs July 17, 18. On July 23 interested employees were instructed how to properly use the exercise equipment by T-F hospital Staff. • STAFF REPORT August 15, 1996 iTo: Board of Directors From. Bob Quinn, Electric Superintendent Subject: July Activity Report AGENDA ITEM During July, Jim Wllson, our electrician, continued support of the various departments within the TDPUD. it was also during July that Jim decided to accept an offer to buy into a local electrical firm and sever his employee relationship with the TDPUD. Jim gave us a three week notice with a termination date the first week of August. Jim was a key player in the way we do business and an exemplary employee. He will definitely be missed. July 3rd found myself on the way to Alaska for a three week venture into remote m1demess areas. The fourth week of the month I attended a Northwest Public Power Assn. management course that 1 had started five years ago and was finally able to corrplete. in my absence, Steve Holiabaugh and Ron Reynolds were at the helm of the department. Crisis were met and dealt with and routine work accomplished smoothly. It is comforting to know we have such capable people upon which to rely. Projects that staff was involved with during July are as follows: On July 8th, Northem Pipeline (Southwest Gas) dug into a primary line supplying power to Sierra Middle School. When this happened, the primary conductor was pulled by the excavator which resulted in extensive damage to the transformer and an oil spill that required clean-up. This was a non-PCB spill. Repairs to the conduit and replacement of the cable and transformer was required Power was out at the school for approximately 4 hours until facilities could be isolated and the Districts generator truck hooked up. The school was on generator power for a complete day until the damaged facilities could be replaced. On July 12th, our Donner Lake substation was hit by lightning resulting in an outage of less than 1 hour. Primary insulators within the sub were damaged and required replacement of the ones most severely damaged. New insulators are on order and will replace those that were not replaced during this emergency. On July 291h, at approximately 6:15 AM, a car travelling north bound on Highway 267 ran off the roadway and collided with a power pole supporting our Martis #2 circuit. Power was restored to our customers at the senior citizens complex within an hour. More extensive switching restored power in the Sierra Meadows tract at approx. 9:15 AM(3hrs). Due to the location of the accident, power was not able to be restored to the Best Mstem Motel and the airport until the pole was replaced at approx. 11:30 AM. iSugar Pine Estates, a development started last year, was corrpleted. A pole in Olympic Heights was replaced to allow separation between electrical and telephone facilities. Within Sierra Meadows, a hazardous condition was elanvnated with the Installation of several spans of primary neutral conductor. The area, prior to this project, had a neutral that was common to both the primary and secondary systems. This condition is hazardous to those who work on the system. The crew replaced several transformers with transformers of a larger KVA rating due to added load on the secondary system. Approximately 3500' of conduit for future use was installed within the community in conjunction with South West Gas. Hazardous tree removal, a budgeted project, was started in various parts of the District. The service crew completed 259 underground facility locates and 48 new service installations Additionally, two new lineman started with the District during the month. Pat Waite from Washington and Dave Bourque from Souther California were the successful candidates that ire tested and interviewed in earty June. Projects coming up in the Immediate future are: Completion of the new Mattis #k3 circuit that crosses the Truckee River bridge Knight's Crossing, a commercial development in Glenshire Rhodes Development, a residential underground installation adjacent to Sugar Pine Est Installation work for the new SGADA system As you can see, the department staff was kept busy this past month and it appears the trend MY continue. We wall need to replace Jim K41son but with the addition of the two new employees, we can effectively and efficiently meet the needs of our customers. Respectfully, NWMORANDUM TO: Bob Quinn, Electric Superintendent FROM: Stephen Holllabaugh, District Electrical Engineer4 SUBJECT: July Purchased Energy Report DATE: August 16, 11996 Bob, During July, the District saved$11,179.20 by buying energy from NCPA. The year to date savings is $62,559.33. Below is a brief outline of the energy the District purchased from NCPA for the 1996 Months through July and Year to Date. In July the transmission system was constrained. 1f you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Energy Purchase Data. Month Total Energy NCPA Energy %NCPA of Total Purchased(KWH) (KWH) Energy July 9,184,361 3,108,275 33.8 Total Year to Date 67,166,989 13,251,835 19.7% Energy Cost Data: Month Sierra Pac. Sierra Pac. NCPA Savings to Total Energy Energy Energy Bill District Charge ($) Charge Credit for Energy (KWH) July $253,029 $-60,767 $49,588 $ 11,179 $241,850 Year to $1,850,451 $ -260,051 $197,492 $ 62,559 $1,787,892 Date • file:c:iwpwinldatalformslenerjul6.wpd