Ubits January / February 2017
Feb. 14 Delectable Desserts Bake sale in support of TPU’s Senior Assistance Fund
In this issue
Improvements coming to safety program at TPU In the new year, we’ll see an improved safety program at TPU. A 2016 analysis of the utility’s safety numbers revealed that TPU has a higher rate of incidents that require medical treatment than other utilities. Leadership has plans to fix that to ensure employees are safe at work. “We care deeply about each one of our employees,” Director Bill Gaines said. “They’re our single most important resource, with an incredible amount of knowledge and valuable skills that are essential to the utility’s success. We operate best when our entire workforce is safe and injury-free. More importantly, employees’ families expect and deserve to have them return home whole and healthy.” Over the last four years, Tacoma Power has had an average of 160% more incidents than other
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Q & A with Matt Beaumont of UTS
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similarly sized utility members of the American Public Power Association; Tacoma Rail 270% more than other American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association members. Tacoma Water compares its incidents with other water and sewer system rates calculated by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, and typically has an incident rate that is two to three times higher than the Bureau’s average. “It’s a real eye opener,” said Tacoma Power Generation Manager Pat McCarty, who is leading the new safety initiative. “We’re constantly talking about safety, but the numbers show that’s not enough. We’re not nearly as safe as we thought. We have to put a laser sharp focus on safety in order to honor our employees and to live out our top value of keeping them safe.”
Community Connection
Continued on page 4
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Budget & Rates
Q&A with Matt Beaumont Matt is TPU’s cybersecurity supervisor — a new position within Utility Technology Services.
Q
What is your role and why is it important for TPU to have a position like this?
A
As the cybersecurity supervisor, my role is to lead a team of engineers that will create the policies, procedures and standards needed to protect TPU’s information and maintain service reliability. We assess, evaluate and mitigate the utility’s risk by maintaining security tools and technology, monitoring regulation and policy compliance, implementing security controls, training employees to understand and reduce risk, and developing security incident response plans. The role is important because cyber threats to utilities have grown significantly in recent years, and that growth is expected to continue. As a cyber professional, it’s my job to remain vigilant, keep current on technology and use our resources to plan for future threats.
Protecting our personal and professional information and networks from bad actors should be on everyone’s mind. Such protection — known as cybersecurity — can’t be accomplished by a small team using administrative and technical controls alone; it’s a mindset that everyone must have. Employees need to ask themselves, “What will happen if I click on this link, plug in this thumb drive I found, or download this software or file?” Considering those questions before acting helps thwart threats like: Hacks: Breaking into technology systems to steal, modify or destroy information
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Malware: Installing bugs that make systems behave poorly, destroy or make information unavailable
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Ransomware: Copying and deleting information to extort money
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Denial of service: Attacking systems to interrupt or make services unavailable to our customers
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Q A
Why is it important for employees to understand cybersecurity?
In today’s digital world, it’s important to understand that everything is connected through the internet and the devices we use. It is a wonderful time where we have access to anything and everything at our fingertips. However, it’s equally important to understand that most of what we do at work, in the coffee shop and in our home has the risk to be monitored, exploited, modified or stolen if we don’t have the proper protections in place.
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Q A
What will you focus on first?
It’s my top priority to build and get to know my team. We will then assess our environment to identify what we do well and where we can improve. Then we will build a roadmap to fill the gaps and finally roll up our sleeves and get to work. One of my first projects was to brief the TPU Board on our past, present and future cyber security efforts, which was a very rewarding experience. I believe it went well, as they asked us to come back for an annual update. Another important project will be to document and formalize some of the great cyber work we already do which may not be documented or formalized.
“Protecting our personal and professional information and networks from bad actors should be on everyone’s mind.”
Q
How does your role differ from others who work on cybersecurity at TPU?
A
Current cybersecurity efforts are primarily focused on complying with federal regulatory mandates. In addition to that, my team and I will also develop and manage a holistic cybersecurity program that protects all of TPU’s critical infrastructure and customer and employee information. We’ll maintain reliability standards across all of TPU, not just those areas covered through a regulatory compliance program. My team and I will also work with City IT on policy and program development.
Q A
What are the top five goals for your position?
1. Build TPU’s cybersecurity team. 2. Create and maintain a cybersecurity awareness program. 3. Integrate cybersecurity into TPU’s standard business practices. 4. Mature TPU’s relationship with City IT. 5. Build and continually improve customer confidence in our ability to protect their private information.
Community Connection U P C O M I N G
E V E N T S
J A N U A R Y
J U N E
O C T O B E R
14 Emergency Food Network Repack 9-20 Food Drive
5 My Sister’s Pantry 10 Emergency Food Network Repack 5-16 Food & Basic Supplies Drive
2 My Sister’s Pantry 14 Emergency Food Network Repack 4 United Way Campaign Closing Ceremony and Swiss Celebrity Waiters Night 16-27 H.U.G.S. Drive TBD Adopt-a-Family
F E B R U A R Y 6 14 11
My Sister’s Pantry Delectable Desserts Emergency Food Network Repack
M A R C H 6 11 18
My Sister’s Pantry Emergency Food Network Repack Boys & Girls Club Bowl-a-Thon
A P R I L 3 8 29
My Sister’s Pantry Emergency Food Network Repack Rebuilding Together South Sound Home Remodel
M AY
J U LY 8 17 18
Emergency Food Network Repack My Sister’s Pantry Taste of TPU
A U G U S T 7 12 7-18 19
My Sister’s Pantry Emergency Food Network Repack School Supply Drive Dam Ride
S E P T E M B E R 9 18 13
Emergency Food Network Repack My Sister’s Pantry United Way Campaign Kick Off
N O V E M B E R 6 My Sister’s Pantry 4 Emergency Food Network Repack TBD Salvation Army Giving Tree D E C E M B E R 4 2 TBD
My Sister’s Pantry Emergency Food Network Repack Volunteer at Tacoma Mall Salvation Army Gift Wrapping Station
1 My Sister’s Pantry 8-19 Book Drive Cut out and save the dates!
Employees give back in big ways Community Connection’s mission is to provide opportunities for employees and their families to leverage their unique skills and resources to help meet critical needs in the communities we serve. The program promotes a highly engaged workforce by developing employees’ leadership skills, awareness of the community and empathy for our customers. “I am incredibly proud to lead this program,” said Erika Tucci, who manages the Community Connection program. “Employees thank me for Community Connection because it helps them stay close to the struggles our customers face. They tell me it helps them be more humble and human in their work to provide service. Helping our employees be kind and understanding with our customers and our community makes it all worthwhile.” TPU employees are known in the local nonprofit world as some of the best volunteers out there. You give up your time and money to make a difference in the community.
Here’s what you accomplished in 2016: Children’s Book Drive 1,519 books collected $4,557 in value donated n Bowl-a-Thon 209 participants $16,160 raised n Rebuilding Together 80 volunteers $19,830 in donated labor n My Sister’s Pantry 180 participants 450 volunteer hours n Emergency Food Network Repacks 180 participants 450 volunteer hours n
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Adopt-a-Family 147 people adopted $36,750 in donated gifts n Habitat for Humanity 15 volunteers $2,480 in donated labor n United Way Campaign $173,622 in giving Average of $387 per donor n Senior Assistance Fund Dam Ride $2,655 raised 26 $100 utility bill grants issued n Food & Basic Supplies Drives 1,221 food items collected $3,690 in donated value n
Totals for the Salvation Army Giving Tree and mall volunteers were not available at publication time, but on average, TPU employees volunteer more than 143 hours at this event and provide $5,250 in donated gifts.
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bits & pieces New generating mode provides additional capacity and stability When does a hydroelectric utility get generation value without using water? When it upgrades several generating units to “synchronous condenser mode,” or “sync condense.” This mode provides power system stability and energy capacity without consuming water. It has been added to two units at the Cushman Hydro Project and there are plans to upgrade a third. In this mode, the gates are closed and the water is turned off; the turbine basically becomes a motor. Instead of producing power, it consumes a very small amount of power and is ready to go into generating mode within a matter of seconds. “We added sync condense mode to provide Power Management with more generation flexibility and to address Transmission & Distribution’s changing reliability regulatory requirements,” said Production Engineering Manager Chris Mattson.
Realizing the value of hydro power
This mode also supports Tacoma Power’s desire to market more of its overall generating capacity to other utilities, including capacity to complement intermittent renewables, such as wind and solar.
“Selling just the capacity to generate electricity can sometimes equal the same amount we could make selling the electricity itself,” said Senior Power Analyst Leah Marquez-Glynn. “We have a certain volume of water we can use each day,” Chris said. “Before adding sync condense mode, we would
heavy — but infrequent — winter loads, a T&D assessment showed that the network did not meet voltage requirements. “Sync condense mode helps us operate the system to ensure it’s sufficient to meet our load service obligations reliably,” said T&D System Planning and Operations Manager Joseph Wilson. “It’s an economic alternative to building more expensive facilities that would be idle for some of the year.”
Team effort
The project involved teams from across the utility, including Production Engineering, Cushman Hydro Project staff, Utility Technology Services, Power Management and T&D.
Panoramic view of the Cushman No. 1 Powerhouse in Mason County. Photograph by Bruce Ecker.
still sell capacity by operating at a low output, but that wasted water and was hard on the equipment. Now we can save the water and sell the energy for more during peak hours at better efficiency while also saving on maintenance costs.”
Managing the load
The Cushman transmission lines also serve Peninsula Light’s load. During
“This was an excellent team effort,” Chris said. “It’s not often we get a project that involves so many different disciplines and business units.” The upgrades cost $20,000, but they’re paying off in spades. By monetizing the flexibility of Tacoma Power’s resources, this year Power Management has sold about $2 million in capacity and other non-energy products.
Safety continued from page 1
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The utility’s first step is to establish a TPU-wide safety office, with a goal none too small: Create a comprehensive safety culture, with unified policies, practices and application across all divisions. “A safety culture means that as an organization, we value workplace safety and employee wellbeing
above all else,” Pat said. “TPU’s leadership wants to foster a culture where safety is a fundamental aspect of everything we do, and it will be integrated into every work process and action we take.” To start, the utility will work with a consultant to conduct a gap analysis that shows what TPU needs to do to create a safety culture. It will reveal what’s missing
from TPU’s safety program, what regulatory requirements aren’t being met, where to focus first, and what resources are needed. A new safety manager will also be hired as part of the Human Resources team. The position will work with the divisions’ safety professionals already in place to develop a strategic safety plan. It will outline the utility’s plan for:
Tacoma Water recognized as a top 10 national utility Year after year of planning, strategy and excellence helped Tacoma Water win a Platinum Award for Utility Excellence from the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA). AMWA, which includes the largest publicly owned drinking water systems in the country, recognized Tacoma and nine other utilities with a platinum award this year. “The award demonstrates again that Tacoma Water — a utility with a long history of high quality, reliable service — continues to enhance customer value through improvements to processes, critical planning and analysis,” said Tacoma Water Superintendent Linda McCrea. “It also
highlights the extensive knowledge our employees have about water supply and distribution. They’re making good decisions around our assets and how we deliver service, and they’re thinking forward about sustainability to ensure we operate this utility in a way that allows us to deliver on our mission for generations to come.” Tacoma Water received recognition for its: Strategic planning and execution
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Construction and startup of the Green River Filtration Facility
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Significant natural resource enhancements and habitat work in the Green River Watershed
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GIS implementation
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Asset management program development
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The award is a reflection of the utility’s focus on both day-to-day and long-term planning. “Tacoma Water has made a pronounced shift toward using data and analysis in its decision making,” said Director Bill Gaines. “The change positions the utility well to adapt to future conditions and opportunities, ably serving customers in any condition. I’m very pleased that AMWA chose to recognize Tacoma Water with this award.”
Conservation’s video pilot program wins award Two members of Tacoma Power’s residential conservation team, Sara Bowles and Jordan Whiteley, earned major praise from the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), an alliance of more than 140 utilities and energy efficiency organizations. “It’s an honor to receive recognition from NEAA,” said Tacoma Power
An overall safety program n Safety policies n Employee training and communication n Best industry practices n Accident and incident tracking n Injury reporting and claims management n
Superintendent Chris Robinson. “We encourage innovative thinking, so it feels great to be recognized for it.” Sara and Jordan won the Leadership in Energy Efficiency Award for Innovation for their work in developing a video chat inspection pilot program. Instead of inspectors’ on-site field visits to customers’ homes, the program uses
Performance measurement and data management n Accountability n
The safety strategic plan and the steps for its implementation will then be shared with TPU’s Safety Governance Board — a group made up of senior managers and safety professionals from the divisions, Human Resources and Risk Management — for approval.
Facetime and Skype technology for real time virtual inspections. The award recognizes an outstanding achievement that has significantly contributed to greater energy efficiency in the Northwest. “Technology is available that can make our work more efficient and create less of a burden on customers, so it makes sense to use it,” Chris said.
“The goal is for these systematic steps to get us to a point where we know what baseline we’re starting from, where we’re headed and what will really work,” Pat said. “We have to crawl before we can walk, but employees should rest assured that we’re taking action to improve their work safety.”
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WHAT GOES INTO COSTS, REVENUES & RATES
TPU sets budget for this biennium TPU recently finalized its 2017 – 2018 budget. The result: It will cost $1.2 billion over the next two years to provide reliable services that customers want and need, operate the utility, maintain assets, and meet regulatory requirements. Budget setting is a year-long process. It includes things like reviewing and projecting revenues, prioritizing expenses and identifying ways to operate as efficiently as possible. Each of the divisions develops its budget with the challenging goal of minimizing rate impacts while making the power, water and rail systems even more safe and reliable. The budgets must ultimately be approved by the Public Utility Board and City Council.
Tacoma Water
Tacoma Water’s budget for the next biennium is $192 million — a 10% increase from the last biennium. Some of the major costs driving that increase include investments in asset management, workforce development and new technology, along with debt payments for the construction of the Green River Filtration Facility. The utility will also develop an integrated resource plan, conduct a risk assessment and enhance its performance management program. Capital projects make up $48 million of the Water budget and include: Replacing distribution mains n Making system improvements to increase seismic resiliency n Replacing lead goosenecks n Making an initial investment in Advanced Metering Infrastructure n
Tacoma Power
Tacoma Power’s 2017-2018 budget is $923 million. Driving that figure is the utility’s forecast for a decrease in customer demand and lower prices in the wholesale market, totaling about $49 million in lost revenue. Other significant costs include wages, benefits and tax increases. Capital projects account for $190 million of the Power budget and include: Upgrading the Click! network to gigabit speeds n Improving the City’s street lights with LEDs n Making an initial investment in Advanced Metering Infrastructure n
Starting in April, power rates will increase an average of 5.9% per year. That will cost residential customers about $5 more per month. Even with those increases, Tacoma Power rates are lower than neighboring utilities. To minimize rate impacts, Tacoma Power paid off $122 million of long-term debt in the recent biennium. Instead of creating new positions, utility managers changed the roles of about 30 positions to align with strategic plan needs.
Like Tacoma Power, the water utility proposed rate increases for both years of the biennium. The rate increase is the result of additional taxes, debt payments, and personnel and supply costs, along with a decrease of water sales in the wholesale market. Starting in April, water rates will increase about 4% per year. That will cost residential customers an average of $1.50 more per month. Despite those increases, Tacoma Water rates are less than the regional average. To minimize rate impacts, Tacoma Water used reserve funds to reduce the rate adjustment needed to cover costs, and used asset management data to drive decisions
that minimize the cost of providing service. The utility will continue to develop opportunities to sell its surplus water supply.
Tacoma Rail
Over the next two years, Tacoma Rail’s budget is $67 million – a 1.5% increase from the last biennium. Drivers for the increase include cost of living adjustments for personnel, and regulatory requirements like implementing positive train control and developing oil spill response plans. Capital projects make up $6 million of the Rail budget and include: Track improvements Facility upgrades n Equipment purchases n n
For the first time in five years, Tacoma Rail increased its rates. Charges for specialized services provided within Tacoma Rail’s terminal and switching yard increased by 3%. The rate increases took effect Jan. 1, 2017.
General Government and Service Divisions
TPU’s budget also includes the payments it makes to General Government — $38 million for shared services (IT, HR, Legal and Finance) and about $83 million for the gross earnings tax. The tax amount is a $13 million increase from the last biennium. Part of the increase comes from utility rate increases, but most is the result of the voter-approved initiative to increase the gross earnings tax on electric services from 6% to 7.5% to improve city streets. The divisions’ budgets include the costs for services provided by Customer Services, Management Services, the Director’s office and Public Affairs. Those services account for about 4% of the total TPU budget.
REVENUE - FUNDED OPERATIONS & CAPITAL DEBT TOTAL DIFFERENCE MAINTENANCE PROJECTS* SERVICE BUDGET FROM 15/16
Tacoma Power
$774.6
Tacoma Water
$130.6 $8.0 $53.0 $191.6 $17.7
Tacoma Rail
$81.8
$67.0
$923.4
- $101.6
$60.5 $4.3 $1.8 $66.6 $1.1 $965.7
$94.1
$121.8
$1,181.6
- $82.8
Does not include debt-funded capital projects. All numbers are in millions.
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Who’s new around here
Who’s ready to relax The following employees recently retired: Paul Hickey, license coordinator with Tacoma Power, retired in January after 27 years of service. Sandra Hoult, hydro utility worker with Tacoma Power, retired in January after 29 years of service.
Chelsey Weflen Office assistant Tacoma Water
Matt Beaumont Supervisor Tacoma Power
Josh Kay, engineer with Tacoma Power, retired in October after 24 years of service. Imo Okonkwo, supervisor with Tacoma Power, retired in October after 35 years of service. Sheryl Palmer, customer service technician with Tacoma Power, retired in December after 14 years of service. John Say, conductor with Tacoma Rail, retired in September after 30 years of service. Gwendolyn Smith, customer service representative with Tacoma Power, retired in October after 20 years of service.
Nicole Bufford Utilities economist Tacoma Power
Neal Daker Hydro utility worker Tacoma Power
Victoria Willis, financial assistant with Tacoma Power, retired in October after eight years of service.
Seven employees graduate from apprentice programs Dustin Hale Professional engineer Tacoma Power
Larry Hohn Utility worker Tacoma Water
Congratulations to the apprentices who graduated in 2016 to journey-level status after completing thousands of hours of on-the-job training, classes and tests. Watch a video at bit.ly/powerapprentice to learn more about what it takes to graduate from Tacoma Power’s apprentice program.
Tacoma Water Scott Mason n Mike Bauer n Chris Preston n
Dan Keeley Telecom tech Tacoma Power
Larry Laughlin Utility worker Tacoma Water
( Pictured from left to right. )
Tacoma Power Dan Wonderly Andrew Clark n Konstantin Pavenko n Nick Jordan n n
William Pearson Sales & service rep Tacoma Power
Kristin Williamson Biologist Tacoma Power
( Pictured from left to right. )
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Tacoma Public Utilities PO Box 11007 • Tacoma WA 98411
PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID TACOMA WA PERMIT NO 2
Customers give TPU high marks At TPU, we do our best to provide reliable, high-quality service. We are planning years in advance while also focusing on daily utility needs. We’re proud of our work, but there’s always room to improve, and we look to customers for feedback about our performance and what should come next. To get that information, we recently conducted a customer satisfaction survey — the third in three years. The results show that customers’ overall satisfaction with Tacoma Public Utilities is high and improving with each passing year. In 2016, 72% of those surveyed said they were very satisfied with TPU, compared with 70% in 2015 and 69% in 2014. TPU continues to be a leader nationally in customer satisfaction in a number of areas. TPU ranks: #2 of 98 utilities in providing reliable service n
Ubits is a publication for Tacoma Public Utilities employees and is provided as a courtesy to retirees. Jenae Elliott, editor cms@cityoftacoma.org • (253) 502-8754
#2 of 96 utilities in promptly fixing customer problems n
#3 of 97 utilities in overall satisfaction n
TPU is ranked in the top 10 nationally for being well managed, having knowledgeable and well-trained employees, and having friendly and courteous employees. Tacoma Power also ranks first out of 96 utilities measured for the value of the electric service provided, and second out of 96 utilities for the reasonableness of its electric rates.
Overall satisfaction of Tacoma Water grew, hitting a three-year high, and people continued to have a very favorable impression of water quality, despite the lead gooseneck issue rising to the forefront in the spring, before the survey was conducted. “There are many results to be proud of in this survey, too many to mention them all here,” said Director Bill Gaines. “The bottom line is, our customers are pleased with the services we provide and how we do it. They recognize the good work that’s happening here, and they also have some areas where they’d like to see us reach a little higher. This information helps ensure we focus our efforts in the right places.”
Using the results
Since TPU started conducting these surveys, here are a couple notable projects that have come about, thanks to survey feedback: Improving customer access to information, and the information itself, during power outages; we are in the process of updating Tacoma Power’s outage communication system now so better, more timely information will be available through more channels
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Updating our power conservation campaign to help more customers take advantage of programs that can save electricity and money n