Golden Valley Electric
2022 YEAR IN REVIEW
gvea’s mission: recognizing gvea’s importance to the economic, environmental, and social viability of our communities, the Cooperative’s mission is to safely provide its member-owners with reliable electric service, quality customer service, and innovative energy solutions at fair and reasonable prices.
I hope that you appreciate and are proud of GVEA’s collective achievements and those of your respective departments. GVEA’s 2022 successes are impressive.
GVEA powers Interior Alaska but it is you, GVEA’s employees, who make it possible! Working together you ensure that GVEA accomplishes the mission of providing safe, reliable electricity to our members at fair and reasonable prices - every hour of every day.
I am proud of what we accomplished together and privileged to serve as GVEA’s CEO.
Sincerely,
1 Table of Contents
2022 Highlights Fast Facts Engineering Power Supply Member Services Information Technology 1 6-18 3-4 7-8 9-11 13-14 15-16
A Message from John Burns
This newsletter serves as a retrospective year-in-review and highlights GVEA’s 2022 accomplishments – and challenges. As you read
the
Dear GVEA:
through
newsletter,
Operations 12 GVEA GOOD Works 5 Finance 17-18 Human Resources 6
19-22 Anniversaries and farewells 2
What’s To Come...2023
GVEA’S THREE CORE PRINCIPLES
Safety
Keeping our employees and members safe is, and always will be, our number one priority.
30 years
Al Rottnek, Finance
15 years
Marc Dugas, Operations
MIssion focus
We remain committed to our mission always.
Fiscal responsibility
It’s not our money. So, it is our responsibility to make wise spending decisions.
Anniversaries
25 years
Dan Bishop, Engineering
David Brown, Power Supply Healy
BJ Keith, Power Supply Healy
Allen Sparks, IT
Lancer Green, Power Supply NP
Anthony Kappel, Engineering
Kerry Knoll, Power Supply NP
John Riddle, Power Supply NP
Jed Roland, Engineering
Davey Wells, Engineering
RETIREMENTS
10 years
20 years
Steve Brown, IT
Terry Garwood, Engineering
Michael Hays, Power Supply NP
Les Hayward, Power Supply NP
Garrett Howard, Power Supply NP
Wayne Livingston, Engineering
5 years
Ed Coronado, Power Supply NP
James Curry, Operations
Randy Dunn, Power Supply FBKS
Zachary Nelson, Power Supply Healy
Eric Newton, Power Supply Healy
Bryan Norris, Power Supply NP
Michael Bartch, Finance
Dana Daily, Engineering
Molly Howard, Engineering
Lisa Newman, Finance
Sarah Villalon, Finance
Robert Davison, 18 years, Operations | Dale Lupton, 16 years, Finance
Jackie Pruitt, 15 years, Operations | Ron Woolf, 13 Years, Finance
Carol Benton, 12 years, Finance | Dean Bean, 12 Years, Operations
Will Howard, 9 years, Operations | Joseph Matthew, 6 years, Operations
Gary Jennings, 4 years, Engineering | Rodney Hughey, 2 years, Power Supply
2
Employee & HR stats
Employee peak: 278
Employee low: 258
Total recruitments: 101
New hires: 55
Rehires: 26
New hire orientations: 34
Promotions: 38
Fast Facts
Member Services
Calls handled: 65,064
Member walk-ins: 15,331
Kiosk transactions (all locations): 2,527 totaling $562,690.20
Member form submissions through the new website (live 8/31): 685
PR Web & social
GVEA.com
• Total visitors: 154,453
• Sessions: 266,284
• Avg session duration: 1:08
Facebook
• Followers: 10,004
• Total impressions*: 1,993,226
LinkedIn
• Followers: 839
• Impressions: 19,351
*Impressions are the number of times
GVEA page content was shown to users - 2021 total impressions were 1,388,136 on Facebook and 9,374 on LinkedIn
Solar, BESS & wind
Solar Farm
• Produced: 451,794 kWh
• Max output: 389 kW
BESS
• Events covered: 76
• Outages per meter prevented: 8.1
• Member outages prevented: 386,235
Eva Creek Wind
• Events covered: 76
• Outages prevented per meter: 8.1
Land Management
Easements & permits acquired: 52
Preliminary & final subdivision plats reviewed: 127 New subdivisions reviewed for PUE dedications: 70 preliminary plat reviews, including 16 final plat comments
e-shop
Annual testing of relays: 100+
Annual battery testing & maintenance: 61
Annual transformer & breaker testing & maintenance: 20% of fleet completed
Member locate requests completed: 160+
Meters tested: 400+
SNAP & SNAP+ Programs
SNAP & SNAP+ applications received: 126
Members are SNAP and SNAP+ producers: 681
Producer capacity totaled: 4,010 kW
Produced by the SNAP program: 2.65 million kWh
CAD and GIS
Plats: 66
Map corrections: 362
Staking sheets: 120
Connects: 593
Substation drawings: 611
Power Supply drawings: 1,024
Engraving jobs: 277
Exports from Map3D to Milsoft for outage management: 35
Power Supply Engineering
Uptime on Dispatch
SCADA system: 100%
Projects active during 2022: 29
Contribution to MW increase: 10+MW
3
Line & Vehicle shop
Line
• Service connects: 733
• Outage calls responded to: 2,070
• Force Accounts: 21
• Miles of distribution line patrolled: 450 Vehicle shop
• Work orders completed: 988
• New vehicles in service: 4
• New ATVs/snowmachines: 10
Fast Facts
ROW Maintenance
Danger trees removed: 23,477
Distribution cleared: 275 miles
Transmission cleared: 16 miles
Mech. side limbed: 84 miles
New employees hired: 3
Purchasing
Purchasing
• Purchase orders created: 6,250
• New fleet vehicles purchased: 27
Accounting
Invoices processed for payment: 13,200 totaling $279m
Between Accounts Payable and Payroll, payments procressed: 12,600
Capital credits
BOD approved full distribution of 1997 capital credits in the amount of $3.3 million
• Checks issued: 7,339
• Credits applied to active accounts: 6,200
Information Tech
Issues opened: 1,175
• Completed: 972
• Cancelled: 130
• Still open: 52
• On hold: 16
• Waiting for end user verification: 5
Issue Categories:
• Bug fixes: 108
• Data change requests: 258
• Documentation requests: 67
• Permission requests: 321
• Report or Information requests: 62
• System enhancement requests: 90
• User training issues: 28
Operations Admin
Oracle requestions: 688
Requisition lines: 1,705
UD Locates processed: 611
Locate appointments: 152
Line appointments: 312
CIS service orders generated and processed: 2,434
Invoices processed: 1,472
Billed with line orders: $131,711
New Services created in WOMS: 857
Materials/Warehouse
• Value of Healy inventory: $12,776,878
• Annual Healy inventory accuracy: 99.9%
• Cycle counts performed by Healy Warehouse: 121
• Value of Fairbanks inventory: $10,557,262
• Annual Fairbanks inventory accuracy: 99.6%
• Bucket jobs (GVEA line jobs w/ bucket) to which warehouse issued inventory: 343
• Workdays lost to injury at Fairbanks and Healy warehouses: 0
• Outages: 42
• Cyber events: 4
• Other: 195
Generation Peak Load: 205.5 MWh on December 20 at 5 p.m.
4
gvea good works
gvea Employees lend a helping hand
Over the course of 2022, 86 employees volunteered 393.5 hours in Interior communities. Compare that to 2021, when 64 employees volunteered 292.25 hours in our communities. Way to go GVEA! Volunteer opportunities will continue in 2023 so we can do even more for the communities we serve.
GVEA Benevolent Fund Members serving members
This fund was launched in December 2020 to assist members struggling to pay their electric bills. As of December 2022, the fund amount of $250,000 was exhausted.
Good¢ents Round-up program
During 2022, 66% of GVEA members participated in the Good¢ents roundup program. Trustees of the program awarded 27 grants, totaling $159,547.61 to non-profits throughout our communities. Grants awarded since the program began in 2011 total $1,490,189.
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general 2022 highlights
Annual Meeting - May 5, 2022 Virtual Annual Meeting
The 2022 Annual Meeting was once again held virtually. We took what we learned from our first two virtual meetings and (nearly) perfected it! The meeting was livestreamed on YouTube from the GVEA Board Room, GVEA’s IT team and Jonathan Huff of Alaska Universal Productions assisted in planning and broadcasting the event. Over 582 members viewed the meeting live and over 670 members watched the recording.
The 2023 Annual Meeting Committee is working on this year’s event, which will be back in person at the Hering Auditorium with an option for members to attend virtually. There will also be an inperson member appreciation event prior to the Annual Meeting this year. The 2023 Annual Meeting is scheduled for April 27.
GVEA’s Wellness Program 2022 Highlights
• 163 active registrations (~59% participation)
• 53 employees have earned status:
□ 18 bronze / 7 silver / 11 gold / 15 superstar
• $23,483 total points earned with $21,648 redeemed.
□ Top six point earners were:
▶ Cori Taylor
▶ Josh Parsons
▶ Adam Saunders
▶ Mallory Wetherington
▶ Susan Redlin
▶ Grace Wilson
GVEA Scholarships
Investing in the future generation
Eight scholarships were awarded for a total of $39,000. The students awarded the scholarships are incredibly deserving and grateful!
United Way Campaign We’re still going!
The 2021-22 United Way campaign raised over $48,000 for the United Way of the Tanana Valley! The 2022-23 campaign has been a success so far, raising $59,271, reaching 91% of our $65,000 goal! The campaign wrap up and thank you drawing for 50,000 Alaska Airlines miles will be during the Watts meeting on April 12, 2023.
HUMAN RESOURCES
HIGHLIGHTS
▶ Enhanced supervisor training program including a leadership micro-certification through UAF’s Career & Technical Institute, monthly training during the supervisor’s meetings and monthly online training through Touchstone Energy LinkedIn Learning.
▶ Implemented a formal Ride-Along Program which allows all employees to shadow an employee to learn how their job interacts with departments within GVEA. The program was finalized and went live in May.
▶ Opened 101 recruitments which resulted in 55 new hires and 26 rehires.
▶ Enhanced employee onboarding to include Fairbanks campus tours, introduction of executive team, and requirement to complete three Ride-Alongs within the first year.
▶ Completed the five-year comprehensive compensation analysis. This analysis required an update to over 110 job descriptions, ranking of all non-bargaining positions, a benefit review and comparison of similarly sized companies and Railbelt utilities within Alaska, and implementation of 2023 salary range and pay methodology.
▶ Continued COVID-19 response planning and implementation of CDC requirements and recommendations for much of 2022.
▶ Sponsored a Mental Health Awareness month for employees. Provided opportunities to alleviate the symptoms of stress in the workplace and build relationships with coworkers.
▶ NISC implementation and testing during 3rd and 4th quarter of 2022.
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NEW CONSTRUCTION
◆ Eighteen contracts for line construction awarded to local line contractors.
◆ Built eight miles of new distribution line.
◆ Successful grant application for a 30-mile long 25kV distribution line extension to Black Rapids Arctic Training Site.
◆ Replaced two pad-mount transclosure installations. Transclosure replacements are on hold until we receive an adequate amount of pad mount transformers for inventory.
◆ Completed a LIDAR data gathering project across all of GVEA’s 411 miles of transmission line. Data is being used to pinpoint problem areas for reliability and safety.
◆ University Avenue 138kV transmission line relocation from Airport Road to the Mitchell Expressway was completed.
E-SHOP
Painted the Gold Hill Static Var Reactors to help extend their life by 20 years. Moved the Healy Distribution relays from the plant to the substation. This was a huge undertaking! Installed a brand new transformer at Brockman Substation.
LAND MANAGEMENT
Eliminated $72,000 per year “megawatt” fee from the Eva Creek Wind lease. This resulted in an enormous savings for the membership.
Assisted other departments in obtaining funding for the Black Rapids line extension.
Easement and permit work to reenergize the Gold Hill Substation to Ft. Knox tie line utilizing the abandoned Cold-War era Love Site line along Old Murphy Dome Rd.
Mapped 14 of 38 substations.
Mapped access routes to the Southern Intertie. Created clearing and easement maps for Chena Substation.
7 Engineering
Engineering & Grid Modernization
Completed the advanced metering infrastructure project. Led the demand side management & distributed generation strategic directive effort.
Applied for and received a grant for installation of meteorological towers needed to verify wind resources near Murphy Dome. Completed the installation of three 200ft meteorological towers (aka met towers).
Issued and awarded a request for proposal (RFP) for development of a wind RFP as part of the Strategic Generation Plan.
Engineering led and collaborated with the Electric Shop, New Construction and Line to install the world’s first commercially available 145kV vacuum cicuit breaker at Gold Hill Substation. Issued RFP for BESS systems as part of the Strategic Generation Plan.
Substantially completed the 2022 Load Forecast (GVEA’s projected electric load for the next 20 years.
Completed a cyber-security project to both secure remote access to protective relays at transmission substations and to automatically retrieve data during power outages. This is used to assist restoration efforts and root cause analysis during power outages.
Drafted and proposed a strategic plan for maintenance and improvements to the Alaska Intertie, which runs from Anchorage to Healy.
In collaboration with the Electric Shop, relocated control and protection systems for the Healy Distribution Substation from the Healy 1 Power Plant to the substation control building.
Facilitated the installation of DC Fast Chargers in Delta Junction, completing an EV charging corridor from end-to-end of GVEA’s service territory.
Completed the removal of transformer installations from building interiors that were received as part of the purchase of the FMUS electric system.
Updated installation plans for mobile substations.
Replaced Brockman transformer T2.
Awarded a contract and began work to upgrade the Jarvis Creek SVC.
Installed improved sectionalizing equipment in collaboration with the Electric Shop and Line. Initiated work on a voltage optimization system for distribution feeders.
CAD & GIS
In addition to the Fast Facts on page 3, the CAD & GIS department has been diligently working to update the landbase and electrical maps for the entire Denali Borough. It is 90% complete with only a small portion of Healy still needing updates. We also started rolling out an ESRI mobile mapping app on iPads for field crews. This will help them to rely less on paper maps, have a more current representation of our system, as well as make it easier to report changes and corrections to CAD/GIS.
8
Power supply
2022 Fuel Diversity
◆ Hydro, 5.5%
◆ Coal, 42.5%
◆ Natural Gas, 15.2%
◆ Oil, 33.1%
◆ Solar, 0.03%
◆ Wind, 3.7%
Power supply engineering (PSE)
Power Supply Engineering (PSE) supports our generation sites and dispatch through collaborative, efficient and cost effective solutions. The past year, PSE has spearheaded and contributed to various capital and operating projects involving waste water treatment, boiler combustion systems, distributed control systems, SCADA and more.
Developed and rolled out a Management of Change program for Power Supply.
Contributed to Healy 2 shutdown guidance committee.
Upgraded North Pole Distributed Control System (DCS).
Extended Healy DCS read-only access across entire GVEA corporate domain.
Instituted training programs for Healy E&I department.
Supported grid upgrades with T&D Engineering and the E-shop.
Created and implemented a chain wear monitoring program for the submerged drag conveyor to forecast chain replacement.
9
Environmental
□ Prepared and submitted over 200 regulatory and compliance reports during the year.
□ Managed the annual stack testing programs at the Healy and North Pole Plants.
□ Coordinated and supported key aspects of the GVEA Strategic Generation Planning process.
□ Assisted E-SHOP in establishing a vegetation management program at multiple substations and communication sites.
□ Reviewed and updated Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) plans for Healy, North Pole, and Zehnder/HQ.
□ Received two comments from GVEA personnel we serve indicating that our work is appreciated, four comments indicating that others were really glad they don’t have our job, and at least seventeen comments comparing our job to the herding of felines.
□ Successfully negotiated renewal of Healy’s Alaska Pollutant Discharge Elimination discharge permit.
□ Assisted with promptly addressing a fuel oil tank leak at Zehnder.
□ Supported Healy with removal of two, 25,000 gallon underground storage tanks and subsequent remediation in preparation for the Unit 1 SCR project. Supported Healy through final removal of the ash ponds.
□ Reported 14 oil spills, up from five in 2021.
□ Supported engineering, Healy operations and management with planning and design of Unit 1 wet ash management system to replace to the Unit 1 ash ponds.
□ Managed groundwater monitoring and corrective action for Coal Combustion Residual compliance at Healy.
□ Assisted Healy with the disposal of over 26,000 lbs of lime, identifying a means of disposal that saved up to $30,000 in disposal costs.
□ Successfully renewed North Pole’s pretreatment discharge permit.
□ Demonstrated SPCC compliance at Zehnder in an inspection with the Environmental Protection Agency.
□ Directed contaminated groundwater management at headquarters and BESS sites.
10
Power supply
Gas Turbines
North Pole Combined Cycle (NPCC) forced outage rate (FOR) for 2022 was 1.9%. Achieving low FOR’s like this are a direct result of a dedicated and skilled workforce.
Zehnder Unit 2’s load gear, which is responsible for reducing the turbine speed from 5100rpm to 3600rpm (synchronous speed) was completely overhauled in house with GVEA Power Supply employees.
Two of GVEA’s five 50,000-gallon diesel fuel tanks (turbine supply) were internally inspected and repaired.
Generator electrical testing performed on the Delta gas turbine generator.
Two new 125-volt battery banks and chargers were installed within GVEA’s plants. One installed by the in-house electrical group, the second installed by an external contract group.
Upgraded pressure safety valves (PSV) were installed on GVEA’s light straight run pressure vessel at NPCC. This project was carried out by in-house employees, an external petroleum engineer and an external mechanical engineer who specializes in pressure vessel construction and operation.
An emergency diesel generator was installed at the Delta Power Plant to improve its black start capability. This EDG generation was spec’d out by the electric and installed as a joint effort between the plant operator mechanics and plant electricians.
Safety handrails were installed on top of both Zehnder Frame 5 gas turbine packages. The addition of these handrails allows the operator mechanics to safely access the turbine package roofs without the need for fall protection.
Round three of four Machine Shop Training was completed for the Operator Mechanic group. The benefits of this training are twofold: First, it allows this department to continue to perform this major maintenance in-house, which significantly improves unit reliability and reduces costs. Second, it supports employee development, which is how great teams are built.
Healy Power Plant
Replaced service emergency lighting in both units, installed beam clamps in various spots of the plants to be used for additional fall protection and added anti-slip material to Unit 2 lube oil area. In 2022, 362 Safety work orders were completed.
Held a slips, trips and falls campaign and purchased additional safety equipment for employees. Since implementation, employees have taken ownership in the program and there have been 0 incidents to date.
Met EPA deadline of closing ash pond and reclamation of site.
Conducted a fish impingement study in collaboration with environmental.
After successful closure of the ash ponds, Healy management worked with environmental and engineering to design a long-term solution to handle and process bottom ash transport water being sluiced between Unit 1 and Unit 2.
Re-tuned fuel coal delivery, changing velocities through system which allowed plant to achieve 60 MW consistently (20% increase in capacity factor) as well as the units’ greatest MWH generation to date.
Dry Sorbet Injection System was installed on Unit 2. Increased overall plant safety, reliability and decrease overall potential for S02 violations.
Facility roof repairs were made that included iceguards to reduce safety hazards from ice sliding off facility.
Richard Storm of Innovative Combustion Technologies provided training to operators to increase pulverizer/boiler performance.
Ground was broken in the fall of 2022 on the Unit 1 SCR project. This included the removal of two decommissioned fuel tanks from the site of the SCR foundation area.
Assisted Board of Directors in Strategic Generation Plan. Healy staff worked in collaboration with various GVEA departments to generate two separate reports. One report identified shared systems between the units that would need to stay in service during the systematic retirement of Unit 2. A separate report was also generated, systematically identifying potential repurposing options for Unit 2.
11
Operations
LINE
• Started the season with a challenging Christmas 2021 storm requiring a lot of repairs in 2022. July and August summer wind storms caused extensive damage and required a lot of effort for post storm cleanup.
• Identified idle transformers across the system to know where we have live spares, given long lead times and high costs for new units.
• Successful installation of the mobile substation at Brockman to support the replacement of Brockman Substation T2.
• Supported Electric Shop maintenance work by isolating switching orders.
• Supported GVEA contractors on the replacement of Gold Hill Substation B8.
RIGHT OF WAY MAINTENANCE
• Two apprentices journeyed out.
• Chena Substation Feeders started to be cleared by contractors - will be completed in 2023.
• Contractor cleared transmission lines in several hot spot locations that needed attention in the Fairbanks area.
Significant efforts during the summer went to adressing service orders related to hazard trees caused by the July 2022 wind storms.
VEHICLE SHOP
• Vehicle replacement orders were significantly delayed, which required additional maintenance on units slated for replacement.
• Significant support for out of town equipment located in Healy, Eva Creek and North Pole.
12
Regulatory
Successfully received Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) approval of a 12 month extension to GVEA’s current power purchase agreement with the University of Alaska – Fairbanks (UAF).
Worked to further GVEA’s Industry Influence Strategic Directive by working with representatives from the Railbelt Electric Utilities to advocate at the federal and state level on projects/priorities of Railbelt-wide importance.
Coordinated GVEA’s response and regulatory strategy on a request for interconnection received from Delta Junction Renewable Resources, LLC.
Worked with GVEA staff to successfully negotiate and receive RCA approval of a gas sales agreement with ENSTAR Natural Gas, LLC.
Ensured GVEA-specific views continued to be represented on the Railbelt Reliability Council (RRC) and during the RCA proceedings on the RRC’s application for certification as an Electric Reliability Organization.
Member Services
□ Member Services spent most of 2022 focused on the training, validation and implementation of the new NISC software. This project took over 2,395 hours in meetings, planning, validations and training for Member Services alone! This was in addition to normal day-to-day tasks. Some of the major changes that occurred were:
• Billing changed from 19 cycles to nine.
• New member app and portal with a single log on.
• Ability to text/email receipts to members.
• New bill look and layout.
Public relations
◆ Developed and launched a new website that is ADA compliant, mobile friendly, easier to navigate and has enhanced features and a dedicated support team.
◆ Successfully facilitated response to grant for $13 million to fund line extension to Black Rapids.
◆ Delivered robust messaging campaign to members about transition to MyGVEA – very positive response from members regarding communication.
◆ Coordinated and executed many internal and external events - Heart Walk; United Way Campaign Soup Cook Off; first employee holiday party since COVID; fair booth and EV event.
◆ Coordinated numerous opportunities for employees to volunteer for Fairbanks and Healy nonprofit organizations.
◆ Supported Strategic Generation Efforts.
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member services
SAFETY
The GVEA Safety Strategic Directive Team (SSDT) reviewed a peer to peer safety recognition program that was presented by a New Mexico electric cooperative at the 2022 Alaska Power Association Safety Summit. The program annually recognizes employees who exemplify an attitude of safety. The SSDT agreed to explore development of the program at GVEA.
In coordination with GVEA Power Supply Engineers and Environmental Specialists, GVEA Safety performed a comprehensive audit of the Healy Unit 1 wet ash system. The risks, hazards and inefficiencies of the operation had raised some concerns among plant personnel, managers, supervisors and Safety.
Several GVEA Fire & Safety Procedures such as Bloodborne Pathogens Control Plan, Confined Space Permit and First Aid/CPR procedures were reviewed, updated and published as current. Reviews and updates to the Fire & Safety Procedure Library will continue through 2023.
Personnel
Training
Brady Hansen with Written in Red Electrical Safety Training Solutions conducted OSHA 1910.269 and Electrical “Square-up” training classes for GVEA and contract linemen and wiremen.
Rowen Tree Training conducted annual Tower Climbing/Rescue, Tree Climbing/ Rescue, and Bucket Truck Rescue Training.
• Wasilla, Alaska based Learn to Return Training Systems provided Delayed Care Wilderness Medical Training for GVEA ROW Maintenance, Linemen and Electricians.
• GVEA employees attended and completed in-person ALICE Active Shooter Response Training. GVEA received ALICE organizational certification in October 2022.
• A Safety Leadership Workshop for GVEA executives, managers and supervisors was conducted by Bud Branham - NRECA Safety Director.
GVEA Safety conducted live Fire Extinguisher Training for all Fairbanks, Healy and North Pole employees.
▶ The GVEA Safety Department was reorganized and moved under Abby Dillard, Director of Member Services.
▶ Norm Alden was promoted from Safety Specialist to Safety Manager.
▶ Bobbie Perkins was promoted from Safety Assistant to Safety Specialist.
▶ Patti Sellner was hired as Safety Specialist - Healy Operations.
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Information systems
» Addressed Log4j exploits and implemented remediation across our code base.
» Submitted information for BDO audit.
» Provided ongoing support for CIS that is being phased out in lieu of NISC.
» Spin down checklists for NISC GO Live, involving over 13 systems for Customer Care & Billing go-live and CIS planned phase out.
» Various annual reports provided to respective groups including 2021/2022 Energy Assistance and Form 8300 IRS reporting
» Information Systems completed documenting 80% of our processes and procedures in 2022.
» IT supported the NISC transition with data cuts and answered many questions on data configurations of systems that came online in January 2023.
information technology 15
Industrial Communications & Technology
Succession planning was a huge accomplishment for the Industrial IT group in 2022. Two full-time and one part-time employees were hired which allowed work to begin on network upgrade/replacement projects that required additional resources.
Network bandwidth was upgraded from 1GB/s to 10GB/s from Illinois Street campus to the off-campus backup located at 901 Bidwill (BESS warm storage) to support increased data backup needs.
A lot of time and effort was spent improving system and network monitoring. With the assistance of the rest of the IT team, much time was spent working on the transition to NISC (special thanks to Steve Brown for all of his work in this area).
A monitoring software suite for GVEA’s control systems was selected and sensors were installed as they arrived.
cyber security
□ All security awareness training for 2022 was completed by 100% of employees that required it.
□ A huge thank you to admin assistants and supervisors that assisted in getting all of these scheduled and completed.
□ Payment Card Industry Compliance was validated with KeyBank for all of 2022 and through Q2 of 2023.
□ Monthly security campaigns continued through the year. Monthly reports were sent to the EMT and supervisors with phish-prone counts and security awareness tip guides in lieu of a monthly newsletter.
□ We did not have a single month with a repeat clicker from the previous month.
□ All Oracle licensing and support was reviewed, renewed for the needed time, and confirmed to be completed properly by Oracle for 2022.
□ GVEA performed constant scans externally and had partner entities do the same to detect and address any vulnerabilities.
□ Provided a Cyber Security presentation to the board and continued to work on and build upon all items covered.
□ Worked with cyber insurance carrier’s Cyber Team and partner entities to ensure that our scans did not show vulnerabilities which could jeopardize our ability to obtain cyber insurance at renewal.
□ GVEA suffered no reportable Cyber Incidents and worked closely with Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Agency, and Department of Energy to ensure that we have the proper procedures in place in the event of a breach.
□ There were ample Phish Alert reports by employees in 2022, 3,115 reports through November, compared to 3,950 reports in 2021, 2,039 reports in 2020, and just 605 in 2019.
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finance
Accounting
▶ Submitted 2021 year-end external reports in a timely manner; RUS Form 7, RUS Form 12 and FERC1.
▶ Completed SRF filings in a timely manner.
▶ Closed out 2021 financials successfully.
Facilities
Treasury
▶ Presented annual banking report to the board.
▶ Renewed KeyBank Line of Credit.
▶ Submitted tax return in a timely manner.
▶ Filed annual and quarterly USDA reports for REDLG grant.
▶ Completed annual and quarterly Payment Card Industry compliance attestations.
▶ Capital Credits paid out $3,300,000 for 1997 capital credits.
▶ Implemented additional fraud prevention tools on all bank accounts.
After 16 years of leadership, Dale Lupton retired and handed the reigns of leadership over to Mack Wiehl. Mack looks forward to continuing his work with all his fellow employees to ensure that needs are met in a timely fashion.
Once again, Facilities recorded an injury-free year with no lost time. Facilities continues to focus on using job briefs as an effective tool before starting a project to better understand risk and how to protect themselves from injury.
A major project to replace an aging boiler in the Nerland Building that had cracked its casing was undertaken in-house by GVEA HVAC Specialist Jacob Wipf. Jacob completed the swap just before the first blast of cold weather hit. By doing the project in-house, GVEA was able to save thousands in contractor costs.
Jacob also upgraded the HVAC software for the New Vehicle Shop to better control the heating and cooling of that facility.
▶ Transitioned to a new department supervisor
▶ Hired a new team member – Travis Lunney
▶ Developed and deployed a new Fix-it Ticket system
▶ Zero workdays lost to injury
17
Materials Management/Warehouse
The Healy Warehouse had a productive and busy year. Besides their daily functions, Tim Ehresman and Deanna Daniel supported three scheduled plant outages and continued to put effort into improving inventory controls. The Healy outdoor cold storage areas were cleaned and reorganized. They increased the number of cycle counts performed, which led to a successful annual inventory. They also became more involved with the Eva Creek inventory, performing the first annual inventory there.
The Fairbanks Warehouse was also very productive. Great effort was put into warehouse and yard cleanup/reorganization. After revamping the Bidwell yard, Fairbanks began utilizing it for special material storage and laydown. Ryan Middleton, Justin Gleason, Adam Zaverl, and Dave Woods also supported line crews through three major storm events. They ensured needed materials, tools, and consumables were available 24/7 during these incidents. The monitoring of inventory levels, needs, and their supply chain continued to be a major focus as well.
Both Warehouses completed their portion of the Quality Management Systems projects and made preparations for the upcoming NISC conversion.
Purchasing
Purchasing went through major changes in 2022, including staffing and preparation for NISC. The purchasing team supported several outages and large-scale projects.
• Transitioned department supervisors and hired a new purchasing agent.
• Purchasing assisted and defined needs in providing line crews with food, lodging, refreshments and logistic support during major outages.
• Purchasing supported Healy and North Pole through all planned and unplanned outages. Revamped the FR online ordering system for more user-friendly access and faster turnaround times.
Records Management
After a few years of research, implementation and training, our records management system is up and running. With regular maintenance and necessary updates, SharePoint, Teams, VisualSP, and Gimmal will set GVEA up for success in managing necessary documentation and increasing collaboration and communication. The Konica Minolta document scanning project moved along in 2022, with another pallet of mostly Engineering paperwork scanned and ingested into SharePoint for better usability and research purposes. Stacey Baldridge served (and continues to serve) as the main contact point for NISC Document Vault, and in 2022 worked with respective users to set up permissions, attributes and folder structures within the program to serve the new Connect/iVue system which went live in January 2023.
◆ Laserfiche to SharePoint migration completed.
◆ Multiple departments shared drives migrated to SharePoint.
◆ Stacey and ShareSquared migrated old internal web to SharePoint.
◆ Pallet three sent to California for scanning, and ingested into SharePoint.
◆ NISC Document Vault meetings and actions were deployed.
◆ Massive Generation SharePoint re-org.
◆ IE retired.
◆ Stacey completed in-depth Gimmal training.
◆ Built new fix-it-ticket system.
◆ Developed Management of Change tracking workflow with ShareSquared.
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WHAT’S TO COME
Regulatory
▶ Continue to strengthen GVEA’s industry influence by building on successes of 2022 as efforts to implement the Railbelt Vision carry on.
▶ Develop and gain RCA approval of filings implementing changes to GVEA’s tariff post-AMI and post-NISC conversions (On-Bill Financing, Schedule M, etc.).
▶ Continue to ensure GVEA’s interests are represented on the RRC Board of Directors, as well as during RCA proceedings, investigating the tariff, surcharge methodology, and rules of the RRC.
▶ Continue to provide Regulatory support and guidance on the five prongs of GVEA’s Strategic Generation Plan, including obtaining federal funding as it may be applicable.
▶ With the hiring of Jessica Broker as regulatory specialist, ensure that Regulatory continues to provide quality and timely customer service to internal and external stakeholders.
public relations
→ Continue strategic coordination of employee communication and event opportunities.
→ Focus on building partnerships at local, state and federal level to benefit employees and members.
→ Develop extensive new member outreach.
→ Expand GVEA’s digital presence and interactions.
→ Continue work to improve information available to members on GVEA.com.
→ Increase GVEA interactions with Key Accounts.
→ Maximize media opportunities for GVEA.
Member Services
• Trasitioning to NISC. This is a big project and we are ready for it. Exciting stuff!
• Partner with public relations on new member outreach program.
• Work with other GVEA departments on the development of on-bill financing and community solar projects.
Capital Credits
▶ Mail out IRS 1099-MISC’s to taxable capital credits payments during 2022.
▶ Allocate new 2022 Capital Credits to members (mid-year 2023), mail out about 50,000 letters to members with details on their new capital credits payable in 25 years.
▶ Process an estimated $1M of Capital Credit early retirement payments during 2023.
▶ Continue transition of new NISC software for both cash and capital credits processes.
Human Resources
◊ Employee Referral Program
◊ Employee Survey
◊ NISC Financial transition
Materials/Warehouse
• Both warehouses are preparing for NISC and looking forward to the opportunities it will provide to improve inventory management and day-to-day tasks. There will be a significant focus on learning the new operating system, adapting to it and utilizing it to our advantage –all while ensuring service levels remain high.
The supply chain continues to be unstable, especially critical items such as transformers, conductor and hardware. So, we will continue to be proactive and secure material so that projects and work are minimally impacted.
Purchasing
• Purchasing will ensure we are as prepared as possible for the deployment of NISC, this includes creating and offering training for requisitions and educating employees on purchasing practices.
• Comprehensive review of the Purchasing Manual will take place in 2023.
• In an effort to continue standardizing work processes and procedures to maintain efficiency, purchasing is working on standardizing contract language and creating requisition request forms.
Records management
Stacey will continue to support digitization efforts throughout the company by working with other GVEA staff to locate and process paper and microfilm materials. Stacey plans to ship out at least one more pallet of paper documents for scanning and ingestion into SharePoint. Having access to paper files digitally will be a massive time saver and allow more employees to access and retrieve more information for their daily work.
• Stacey will also be training new GVEA staff members on SharePoint, reviewing SharePoint best practices, hosting advanced training for the Microsoft O365 suite and keeping up to date on all the newest apps and features O365 has to offer.
• Stacey will continue ensuring GVEA follows the established retention schedule and updating it as needed.
Facilities
Finish a major refresh of the facilities workspace creating more area for warehouse operations and for facilities tasks to be performed, this will include the cleaning and reorganization of the mezzanine storage area.
• Replace 100% of the Variable Airflow Valves in the Operations Building to gain better control of the heating and cooling in that building.
• Complete AC upgrade in the Member Services Building in the Spring of 2023 so that there is better control of the temperature in the offices.
Environmental
▶ Continue to strive to be as responsive and proactive as we can to support personnel in satisfying GVEA’s environmental responsibilities.
Accounting
• Complete implementation of NISC Finance.
• Recruit and hire open positions.
• Continue staff cross training rotation.
Treasury
▶ Implement the relending portion of the GVEA Rural Economic Development Revolving Loan Fund.
▶ Complete implementation of NISC Banking module.
CAD/CIS
We have contracted a surveyor, working in conjunction with our Engineering Technicians, to accurately locate and determine GPS coordinates for the section corners in Delta as we plan to continue updating our landbase in some of the more troublesome areas. We also look forward to building on the ESRI mobile app for the field crews to test in an effort to make it as robust and user friendly as possible.
E-Shop
For 2023, on top of the engineering projects and regularly scheduled maintenance, the EShop will be adding a new generator to the Healy Repeater to ensure that the Healy plant has communication during a power outage, replacing the fire alarm system at BESS (this is an enormous project!), assisting with the new SCADA upgrade in Dispatch, and replacing field reclosers and adding dispatch control to them where possible.
Land management
• Easement and permit acquisition to energize Black Rapids Training Center.
• Several single phase to three phase upgrades for Delta Ag. region.
Cyber security
→ Install and configure server and network infrastructure for new corporate IT environment.
→ Continue with NISC transition – CC&B module, Finance module and other modules to follow.
→ Complete VPN transition to Fortinet and decommission/remove EOL Cisco ASA and AnyConnect client.
→ Shift GVEA completely to Microsoft365 for email.
→ Ensure encryption for sending emails externally and safe links are both working properly and train employees on what they are and how they are used.
→ Implement patching procedure using new patching software recently purchased.
→ Implement a new ticketing system for more uniform problem management.
→ Look into purchasing five MTA communication sites (fiber huts) back from MTA.
→ Plan for eventual HVAC refresh in DC2 with Facilities and E-Shop.
→ Continue to improve our network and server monitoring.
Safety
▶ Develop and deliver leadership training to help promote and strengthen safety expectations.
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▶ Partner and engage with all departments and divisions to improve safety culture through management commitment to safety and health.
▶ Begin construction on the Gensuite safety management software.
Power Supply Engineering
• Zehnder 2 DCS upgrade.
• Healy Unit 1 wet ash water treatment improvements.
• Optimizing existing generation process through KPIs, operating guidance and implementing process improvement opportunities.
• Develop written best practices for project management.
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PHOTOS
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1. The 2nd annual GVEA Office Olympics featured a flip-cup tournament in 2022. | 2. Thank you to every employee who made Adopt-A-Family a success last year! | 3. Santa Joe Waggoner and his holiday cheer squad. | 4. Bri Kurzenberger, being as wholesome as can be, making apple pie on her lunch break. | 5. Bobbie Perkins and Norm Alden were the celebrity judges of the Halloween Cook-off. | 6. The PR team at 2022 Annual Meeting | 7. Chili cook-off champions! | 8. Golden Valley employees raised $48,842.56 for United Way in 2022! | 9. 31st Annual Tree Giveaway. | 10. John Kelly leading a tour of North Pole power plants for a fourth grade class. | 11. Coolest cleanup crews around - 93 employees in Fairbanks, Healy and North Pole participated in clean-up week. | 12. Oz Bolles and Kareen Achman competing in a game during Fairbanks’ Holiday Party. | 13. GVEA volunteers did so much great work in our Interior communities in 2022! | 14. Golden Valley employees and Healy community members came together for the 2nd annual Healy Heart Walk 15. | Art Hughes and engineering intern, Julia Murph on a right-ofway ride along.
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