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October 1998
This month, BPA is asking its employees to review and comment on draft principles to improve the agency’s personnel, procurement and property management rules.
BPA estimates it can save $7 million to $10 million a year through more efficient systems. Besides the cost reduction, better rules can create a more rewarding and business-like workplace and more productive workforce.
To reach this goal, BPA plans to ask Congress to let the agency design its own unique administrative system. One that reflects BPA’s status as a self-financed agency in a competitive industry. BPA wants employees to review the principles that will guide development of the new system.
“This effort is important for making BPA a great place to work,” Chief Operating Officer Steve Hickok says. “BPA will be smaller in the future, but we want it to be enormously improved in the way our employees are supported,” he says. “Under existing authority, we’ll build the best compensation system, the best recognition system, the best recruiting, hiring, training, development, promotion, communication and work management systems we can. But with a few improved tools, the potential could be a lot greater,” Hickok says.
Paul Majkut of the general counsel’s office says, “BPA needs the administrative flexibility to adapt to market changes. Some of our administrative laws and rules hamper us. We need to be able to develop a system that works better in our highly competitive environment,” he says.
“This idea is not new,” Hickok says. “Ideas like these were circulating when Vice President Al Gore began his efficiency in government campaign. The same ideas came up in reinvention, and then in the cost review.” Hickok says, “We’ve documented that we could save $7 million to $10 million a year. That would go toward the $130 million in savings we’ve committed to achieve in response to the cost review and in the subscription proposal.”
“We need savings,” Majkut says. “This tool begs for use.”
“Even bigger than the tangible savings,” Hickok says, “would be the intangible benefits of a system that actually works well for us, smoothly and efficiently. Our high-performing organization goals call for a more rewarding workplace with improved critical business systems. This is part of our effort to advance to that target. It supports our business objectives.”
The principles cover six areas of BPA’s administrative systems. Those are: 1) hiring procedures; 2) compensation, including pay, benefits and recognition programs; 3) tools for changing the size and deployment of the workforce; 4) processes to address performance and conduct concerns; 5) labor-management relations; and 6) property management and procurement.
Some areas are not being considered for changes. These include: 1) BPA employees’ status as federal civil servants; 2) retirement, insurance and workmen’s compensation (might be improved but not reduced); 3) veterans preference principles; and 4) BPA unions’ representation of their bargaining units.
BPA is now distributing the efficiency principles and background material to all employees. Employees are encouraged to comment through Nov. 20. (See box for details on how to get involved.)
“Right now, we’re trying to define in broad terms the kind of workplace and workforce we need,” Hickok says. “The question for employees is: are these the right principles? Is there some overarching quality or attribute we ought to have that isn’t covered here?”
Once the principles have been reviewed and refined by employees, BPA will ask Congress for permission to design the actual systems. If Congress gives the go-ahead, BPA would work with its employees and their unions to design new systems, and return the results to Congress for review.
“When we get to the design stage,” Hickok says, “we’ll come down from the 10,000 foot level to 100 feet, and we’ll get into all the specific changes in rules and what they would mean for each of us.” He says, “We’ll have a very lively debate then. Right now, at the goals and principles level, things are pretty much motherhood and apple pie. But you have to start with broad objectives and principles, and that’s where we are now.”
Hickok says that involving employees in redesigning their own administrative systems is not usual for most organizations, “but it fits into BPA’s culture.” And he says, “It’s okay to comment that changing the system is not worth doing. But then I’d like to hear a counterweight to the annual savings. Right now, this looks like a chunk of change worth pursuing.”
“In the meantime,” Hickok says, “we’re going to be working around the edges of our existing systems, trying to make them as good as they can be under existing law.” He says, “I don’t imagine we could get a green light to implement systems that are outside of current law much before 2000. But if we’re going to get there, we need to get started. I’m looking forward to what our employees have to say.”
If the effort succeeds, sometime early in the next century BPA would have its own unique administrative rules. They would still be within the merit principles of federal employment, but tailored to BPA’s unique position as a self-financed agency that has to succeed in a business environment to pay its bills. And it might just be a more rewarding place to work.
Lynn Baker is a writer in communications
Employees can help BPA shape new administrative principles.Here’s what you can do:
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Members of the working press got a unique perspective on what it takes to keep the lights on in the Northwest. Reporters and photographers turned out Sept. 15 at the Ross Complex for BPA’s first “lineman for a day” program.
BPA linemen work on a pole while Northwest news media folks serve on the ground crew and watch. |
BPA held the half-day event to give the news media first-hand knowledge of procedures that utilities follow in power outages. The news folk got hands-on experience, taking turns as members of a line crew. The crew responded to a simulated outage caused by a lightning strike. BPA demonstrated its “safety first” approach for work on the transmission system. The BPA crew showed how it cuts power, clears a line and uses grounding equipment. The news people didn’t have to climb poles. But they did stand in as members of the ground support crew while BPA linemen climbed wood poles to replace broken insulator strings. Transmission’s Melanie Jackson said the program should help news people “better understand what’s going on when a real outage takes place.” She said the participants from the Oregonian and the Vancouver Columbian seemed to enjoy the opportunity. “We hope they got a better appreciation for the workers in the field who respond to outages and keep the region’s power flowing,” Jackson said. Besides the hands-on field exercise, the news group visited the Dittmer Control Center and got briefings. BPA staff gave a basic overview of the power system and energy flow from generation to distribution. Staff explained how the control center handles the Northwest’s power and transmission supply. And operators explained how they diagnose problems on the grid and dispatch line crews to fix them. |
Transmission senior vice president Harvey Spigal also briefed the group on the effects of deregulation. At the end of the program, Spigal gave the press members certificates for completing the course.
Melanie Jackson, public affairs specialist in Transmission, contributed to this article
On a first floor wall in BPA headquarters hangs a simple mission statement. “The Energy Efficiency group supports and fosters the efficient use of energy in the Pacific Northwest.” The statement describes the work of one of BPA’s new business groups – Energy Efficiency. It also reflects a shift in the approach to energy conservation in the Northwest.
Energy Efficiency was formed two years ago when BPA separated its Power and Transmission business lines. The changes were part of BPA’s response to federal deregulation of the electric industry. And they followed recommendations of the Northwest governors’ Regional Review of the Northwest Energy Future.
While some of BPA’s roles were to change, the region still has a strong consensus about BPA. The benefits of its operations should stay in the Northwest. Those benefits come from the Columbia River hydro projects and BPA’s fish and wildlife and other conservation efforts.
BPA had developed unique expertise in energy conservation under the 1980 Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act. By 1997, BPA programs had saved 690 average megawatts of power. That means the region will need one less large power plant in the future. So the benefits of conservation are obvious; but the ways to fund it in the future are changing.
Terry Esvelt, vice president for Energy Efficiency, explains. “The role BPA was given (in 1980) as a power supplier of the future was changed by deregulation. The marketplace will provide the resources of the future, and the process will be different than in the past,” he says. “So the question is, ‘Who’s going to build the next power plant?’” Esvelt answers his own question: “It may be firms like Bechtel, Mitsubishi, and others we haven’t even heard of before in the private sector.”
Where does that leave BPA and conservation? “With shorter time horizons, the marketplace tends to discount the benefits of conservation,” Esvelt says. And since BPA can no longer foot the bill for conservation programs, it has found new ways to help. “We’re not going to be the central funder of the past,” Esvelt says, “but we can be creative and help others get where they want to go.” That means the utilities and energy users must fund their own conservation.
“BPA’s role today is to be a catalyst – to help utilities and their customers find ways to make conservation projects happen,” Esvelt says. “Some-times good projects get stuck in the decision process, even though they make technical and economic sense. We can help break down the barriers they face and help them really save money.”
BPA’s new role had early skeptics. But in just two years, Energy Efficiency has proved its value, particularly with other federal agencies. “So far BPA has helped with more than 100 federal projects and those agencies have reimbursed BPA’s costs,” Esvelt says.
Besides the savings for taxpayers, these efforts reduce the need for more power supplies in the future. Those would likely cost more and come from sources that can harm the region’s environment.
Esvelt says BPA would like the Northwest states to step up and help ensure conservation efforts. “So far, they have been reluctant to establish ‘system benefit charges’ for conservation and renewables,” he says. So now he’s excited about BPA’s latest effort to promote conservation. It comes under the current subscription proposal for years 2002 to 2006.
A key component of BPA’s proposal is rate discounts for utilities that invest their own money in conservation and renewable energy. “BPA’s discount rates encourage customers to opt for efficiency and renewable resources,” Esvelt says. This is a new approach for BPA, he says, and it fits in the new energy marketplace. “BPA can be a catalyst to help the region get to where it wants to go. We’re no longer looked at to provide load growth. But we can still help the region get where it wants to be in the long run,” Esvelt says.
Others will build the power plants of the future, but BPA will still have a key role in the region’s power supply. By helping the region cut its energy use and develop renewable energy sources, BPA will remain a conservation leader. And it will continue to provide these and other public benefits to the Northwest.
Since October is Energy Awareness Month, the Circuit looks back to that time and the lessons the nation learned. Many BPA employees can recall the events that followed. We asked people to share their experiences, some serious and some humorous.
Lee Johnson of the Power Business Line was as close to the 1970s oil crisis as anyone. At the time it hit, he worked for the Environmental Protection Agency in Seattle. Within a few days he moved to the newly created Federal Energy Office for Region 10 as its public affairs officer. The government had set up the offices around the country to handle the oil crisis.
Johnson sets the scene for what happened. “When the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced it would cut oil production – by 8 percent, the U.S. panicked,” he says. “People rushed to gas stations to fill up their tanks. The fuel frenzy drained the oil pipelines almost over night. U.S. production couldn’t refill the pipelines fast enough and the supply shortage drove up prices dramatically,” he says.
Indeed, crude oil rose from $2 per barrel to more than $50. Gasoline at the pump jumped from 25 cents per gallon to 50 cents, and then topped one dollar.
Johnson says, “We didn’t know then what we did later, but the panic was mostly of our own making.” Still, he says, “It was very real for us at the time.” And Johnson thinks the oil crisis taught the nation a lesson. “The U.S. could no longer take for granted an inexhaustible supply of cheap energy,” he says.
For the remainder of the decade the nation pursued a new course of “energy independence.” The government took aim at energy use, passed laws for conservation and efficiency, and established the Department of Energy. Industry switched from its heavy reliance on oil to coal and electricity. Oil companies stepped up exploration and development, goaded by higher prices they could charge. Marginal oil wells became economical. The electric industry turned to nuclear fuel as the source for future power supplies.
Spurred by government incentives, companies formed to explore alternative fuel sources. New terms like “oil shale” and “photovoltaic cells” became part of the vernacular. Manufacturers began to make appliances that used less energy. The U.S. automobile industry was slow to respond and almost went under as a result. Americans bought more fuel-efficient foreign cars by the thousands.
Industry, government and the American public began to conserve energy like we hadn’t done since World War II. And one thing stands out more than any other in the minds of people who recall those years. It was the long wait in gas lines. The gas lines persisted for several months and were especially a problem in the larger cities.
Roy Smithey of personnel services then lived in Sacramento and worked for the Bureau of Reclamation. “It wasn’t that bad in Sacramento,” he says. “We had alternate days to buy gas and had to wait in line about 15 minutes or so. But it was bearable.”
Not so in San Francisco though, Smithey says. “We had seen news reports on big lines and problems in the bay area, but we thought they were hype,” he says. Until he went there, that is. “We wanted to go to San Francisco for a weekend. When we got there we stopped to buy gas and had to wait in a long line,” he says. “When we got to the pumps, the attendant noticed we didn’t have a lock on our gas tank. He said someone would steal our gas that night if we didn’t put a lock on our tank.” Smithey says, “We decided against staying for the weekend and drove back home instead.”
BPA press officer Ed Mosey lived in Olympia in 1973 and worked for the Associated Press. He later moved to Portland and worked for the Vancouver Columbian and then the Oregonian. Mosey says he covered “some hairy stories” about the gas shortage. “It was ugly at times,” he says, “when people shot out windows in some gas stations.”
Mosey says, “You had to wait in line to buy gas unless you knew someone who owned a station.” He says when his car got low on gas, “I would try to stretch my tank by shifting to neutral and coasting. It made my wife nervous.”
Carolyn Stokke of human resources lived in Portland and worked in a downtown store. “I usually took the bus to work anyway and only drove on weekends,” she says. “But we had to wait in line to buy gas then.”
And she remembers another woman at work. “She kept two gas cans in her car and would fill them up when she stopped for gas,” Stokke says. “We thought that was a little dangerous.”
Randy Perrin of business services was stationed in Germany in the Air Force when the oil crisis started. He returned to the states that same month. “The embargo didn’t seem to have much effect in Germany,” he says, “probably because their gas prices were already much higher.” But when he got home to gas lines in Tulsa, Okla., Perrin says, “it was enough incentive for me to buy a new Honda for the better gas mileage it got.”
Johnson laughs today about some of his experiences at the energy office in Seattle. “But most weren’t funny at the time,” he says. He recalls the day a group of truck drivers were to have a meeting to get more diesel fuel along the I-5 corridor. “They showed up wearing side arms,” Johnson says. “The regional director faced them down on the steps of the federal building – like a sheriff facing a lynch mob – and wouldn’t let them in until they checked their guns.”
Those were some experiences of people in the Northwest and West. But what was it like back east? I can recall vividly. I lived on the East Coast then and worked for a Nebraska congressman in Washington, D.C.
We had long waits to buy gas and I often sat in lines that wound around two or more blocks. Sometimes it took 45 minutes to get to the pumps. Gas lines were the lead stories in the evening news for many weeks.
I recall reports of two people who had heart attacks while waiting in gas lines. And the news sometimes reported that fights broke out when motorists tried to cut in line ahead of others. The violence was an exception, but the occasional news reports about it left many people on edge as we waited in gas lines.
I also recall a time when a group of Nebraskans paid $5 per gallon for gas. Some of them were farmers who couldn’t get more than a dollar and 20 cents for a bushel of corn at the time. But they gladly paid $5 per gallon for gas.
They were among a dozen people who had gone to Washington in March 1974 to attend hearings and meetings. The nearest lodging they could get was 20 miles away in Quantico, Va. So they rented four cars for their week’s business in the nation’s capital.
After their last meeting on Friday, I went to dinner with them. The gas tanks of two of their cars showed empty and they were concerned about running out of gas before they got to the airport the next morning. None of the nearby stations had gas to sell that night.
Two of the men found a local resident who would sell them some gas. They got a small trashcan from a motel room and paid him $20 for about four gallons of gas. They siphoned the gas from his pickup and then rolled up a newspaper for a funnel to pour half the gas in each of the two cars that were low.
Fortunately, incidents of violence weren’t widespread during the oil crisis. But most of us recall that it was an unsettling time. Besides the gas station lines, those of us on the East Coast also had occasional electric brownouts. Maybe those experiences of 25 years ago are why more people today are mindful of conservation than in the past. We’ve learned it can be good for our environment – in more ways than one.
Jack Odgaard, editor
DOE’s Energy Information Administration has a separate Web site on the 1973 oil embargo and the nation’s energy picture since then. You’ll find it on the Internet at: http://www.eia.doe.gov
As business lines have formed and work places have changed the past two years, work groups around BPA are finding ways to connect anew. BPA employees have historically shared social times as well as the work place to get to know each other. That was the idea behind a McKenzie River raft trip for employees at Alvey Substation this summer.
Dale Coulombe and Bill Gass came up with the idea early this year. Coulombe is supervisor for power systems and control at Alvey and Gass is a craftsman at the substation near Eugene. Gass had taken small groups rafting on the McKenzie in the past. The two men decided to hold an outing and invite employees and their families from all different work groups at Alvey. Coulombe organized the half-day event and Gass lined up the rafts and guided the group. Twenty-six people took the trip on Aug. 12, including two retirees, a high school student apprentice and transmission employees and some family members. The group put in at Finn Rock about 35 miles east of Springfield, and took out 12 miles downstream at a park campground.
John Schaad, a customer service engineer, said, “We had a great time on the scenic McKenzie River.” Glennis Yost, Alvey receptionist, said the rafts “got into intense water fights.”
The rafting and splashing on the McKenzie was a welcome respite from the 100-degree temperature. And the BPA workers at Alvey shared a fun time together and got to know each other better. Gass plans to retire in the next year, but Coulombe says he wants to hold the outing again next year.
Subscription has been a long time coming. But BPA is now about ready to offer sales contracts to subscribe its power beginning in 2001.
“The process was kicked off almost two years ago when the Comprehensive Review published its recommendations in December 1996,” says Syd Berwager, customer account executive for the Power Business Line. Berwager is BPA’s chief delegate to the subscription work group of the governors’ Transition Board. In its report, the Comprehensive Review of the Northwest En-ergy Future recommended that BPA use sub-scription as its main long-term marketing tool.
During the last two years, the subscription work group discussed and analyzed the issues around subscription. Work group members include individual customers, customer group representatives and representatives of tribes, fish and wildlife agencies and conservation groups.
BPA has been eager to get on with subscription because its power sales contracts with most customers expire in 2001. And BPA’s power is now in demand.
“There has been a major shift in the perception of the value of BPA’s power in the market,” says Paul Norman, acting senior vice president of the Power Business Line. “We’re getting our costs down, and prices in the market have skyrocketed in the last year. But we can’t count on that remaining true.”
Berwager says, “We want to get started early. The earlier we’re in the market, the better.” BPA’s customers are putting together their resource portfolios, and BPA’s competitors are pushing attractive products and deals in the market.
Now, Berwager says, “we’re right in the midst of the public comment on the proposal that we published Sept. 17.” The proposal is BPA’s subscription strategy. It describes how much power BPA will make available for subscription by customer types. It describes the products BPA will offer and how rates will be structured.
Issues of the proposal include resource acquisition, options for recovering stranded costs and options for funding fish and wildlife measures. And it includes BPA’s strategy to implement the Comprehensive Review’s recommendation for the residential and small farm power exchange.
“What we propose is a dramatic change from what BPA has done in the past,” says Berwager. “BPA proposes to spread the benefits of the Federal Columbia River Power System to the residential and small farm consumers of the investor-owned utilities by means of a power sale rather than a financial transaction.”
Norman says, “Instead of writing checks, the idea is to get power flowing to the customers of privately owned utilities in the Pacific Northwest.” This will keep BPA’s costs down. “Working to put this proposal together has allowed – or should I say forced – BPA staff to think of ways to do things in the future different from how we’ve done them in the past,” Berwager says. Staff had to change their viewpoints and methods.
The work group was a sounding board for the many issues that arose. Now comments are coming in from customers, constituents and other interested parties. Media coverage, public meetings and the Federal Power System Availability Conference on Sept. 29 gave the proposal wide exposure.
Berwager says that BPA will face some tough decisions in November after the comment period ends. BPA will consider the comments received as it prepares the subscription record of decision. Comments will come from varied sources that won’t all agree with each other or with BPA’s proposal. BPA will publish the record of decision in November and will set the strategy for the ensuing BPA power rate case.
“The power rate case will pick up this same baton,” Berwager says of the subscription proposal. “There is sure to be more excitement to come.”
Martha Swain is a public utilities specialist in the Power Business Line
(For more information on the subscription proposal, from outside BPA, check BPA’s Web site: http://www.bga.gov/Power/PL/subscrip/subscrip.htm).
You visit a doctor’s office, buy a pair of shoes, or ride the light rail these days, and someone shoves a survey form and a pencil in your hand. It seems that every business wants to know if you’re satisfied with them…on a scale of one to ten.
Electric utilities are no exception. What gives?
“Knowing what’s most important to customers is essential in the battle for market share,” says BPA’s survey consultant Dave Bourke. “Quality of service can often be the determining factor as prices get closer and closer,” he says. Helen Goodwin, policy strategist in BPA’s strategic planning group, puts it simply. “It’s one way we manage our business.”
Results are in from BPA’s 1998 customer, tribal, and constituent surveys, and they tell the story of increasing BPA focus on quality of service. Each year since 1996, BPA has surveyed these groups. And each year we’ve seen improvements. On a scale of 1 to 10, the customer rating went from 6.6 last year to 7.4 this year. Constituent ratings improved on 16 of 17 factors. The tribal groups’ satisfaction with BPA has increased steadily each year – from its low 38 percent in 1996, to 67 percent in 1997, and 78 percent this year.
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One of the reasons BPA gets better marks is the surveys themselves. “Survey findings focus our attention on the key issues,” says BPA survey project manager Diane Hollister. The customers, tribes and constituents help design the surveys and they focus on exactly what they want. They ask the same few questions every year. So each year, the surveys give BPA a succinct summary that highlights exactly how we’ve progressed in those groups’ eyes. Places where we’ve improved shine forth and places where we’ve lost ground are obvious. They can’t always be explained away. |
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A flurry of attention often results. Last year, customers gave BPA low marks for not having clear and concise contracts. Business lines stood up and took notice. The Power Business Line set a standard for itself to cut contract length to 25 pages. By the end of the year, its average contract length had gone from 37 pages to 17.
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“Compare that to the 1981 power sales contract,” says PBL account executive Paul O’Neal. “It came in a 3-ring binder.” Armed with information about what was really important to customers, BPA account teams made sure that customers knew we were paying attention. Even if some customers weren’t negotiating new contracts, O’Neal says he might show them a contract template and ask if the changes met their needs and where we could make improvements. |
Businesses survey customers in two different ways. Surveys that measure public reaction are called “lagging indicators.” They ask people what they think after something has happened. But these customer satisfaction polls can often miss emerging customer demands. That can leave a business pursuing the past year’s trends. Last year, for the first time, BPA business units started using “leading indicators.” Those gage customer needs and wants. So they’re more “real time,” right now, for the future.
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Marketplace standards, on the other hand, help set consumer expectations. If power marketers are offering 15-page contracts, BPA customers will start to expect BPA to offer them, too. BPA uses both lagging and leading indicators to manage its business. Last year’s customer satisfaction target, for instance, was a lagging indicator based on the survey results. At the same time, business units set leading indicators for themselves based on what competitors were doing. They sought to bring BPA up to those levels on problem areas in the surveys. |
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Each year, Bourke and one other colleague conduct all BPA’s interviews by telephone. This year they did nearly 400 of them . The telephone has advantages over mail surveys, says Hollister. Response rates are very high. And using only two interviewers gives continuity.
In addition to the three surveys of external groups, BPA conducted two employee surveys this year. The work environment survey was a follow-up to the 1997 “understand the business” survey and the 1995 Cultural Audit. It focused even more specifically on employee satisfiers than the earlier checks. For the first time, BPA used a managerial effectiveness survey to assess managers’ skill levels. It looked at 15 competencies judged to be important for BPA to achieve its business purposes.
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BPA’s employee surveys are designed and conducted by in-house staff. And BPA uses them in much the same way as it does the external surveys – to manage the business. While business results can be measured with revenues and production, employee satisfaction and managerial ability are a little trickier. If you design a new manager training program, did managers perform better? If reward systems were revamped, were employees more satisfied and productive? |
Many times a good way to find out is to ask people. So once again, survey results become the target.
For the past two years, for instance, executives decided that employee performance was based in part on whether employees understood BPA’s business. This year they wanted to see how many employees could link their work to BPA’s business. Managers and the Communications group gave the effort a full-court press to make sure people knew what we were doing. As a result, scores went up considerably this year.
“Setting targets is a hugely fascinating, difficult process,” says Goodwin. “What’s really impressive is that you’re making progress on all fronts,” says Bourke. Few businesses have the challenges that BPA has – to balance public purposes and business results. Or have such a host of intensely interested, diverse audiences to please. The surveys show that we’re getting many things right.
Pat Zimmer is a writer in Communications
It could be called “BPA 101.” Or “BPA Overview.” By whatever name, Diana McLain of personnel services, calls it “the best perspective I have gotten on what BPA is about.” And Paula Rawe, personnel office manager, says, “It’s an awesome, enlightening experience.” They’re talking about what guide Al Brandt calls simply, “up the river.”
Brandt’s “up the river” is a one-day field trip for employees and BPA visitors. The accountant in the business services group has been holding the mini orientation trips for small groups the past 14 years. And he did similar trips for people at the General Accounting Office where he worked before coming to BPA.
Ask Brandt how many times he’s gone “up the river,” and he’ll say “lots.” Over the years, Brandt has led VIPs and fellow employees on his one-day field trips. He has taken groups of students, managers, power customers and visiting dignitaries up the river. The tour participant from farthest away was the finance director of the Rural Electrification Board of Bangladesh.
A few years ago, Brandt held a trip for BPA senior vice president Jim Curtis and Betty Smedley, acting Department of Energy chief financial officer at the time. Curtis recalls that it was late fall. “We bemoaned to Betty, that while we would be able to observe hydro operations, we were probably too late in the year to see any real fishery activities,” Curtis says.
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“But Al arranged the trip so well that we had fish being caught at nearly every stream we passed,” Curtis says. “We saw salmon traveling up fish ladders and even salmon spawning at the foot of Multnomah Falls. Al’s trips are better than a Stephan Spielberg movie in breadth and realism.” Curtis says, “Al knows all the pieces of the regional hydro system and its challenges, and he knows how they all fit together. He brings an incredible depth and commitment to whatever he does.” Brandt’s interest in hydropower goes way back. Perhaps his father planted the seed for his trips, when Al was about six years old. “Dad worked for Puget Sound Power and Light, and he loved to visit dams,” Brandt says. “We didn’t go on vacations; we visited dams. Mom would think we were going on vacation to Lake Chelan and we’d end up visiting the Chelan Falls Powerhouse,” he says. Over the years, those family “vacations” took the Brandt’s to every dam in the Pacific Northwest. No question about it – Brandt knows his dams. And he understands the relationship between BPA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation – the agencies that run the Federal Columbia River Power System. Brandt also understands the Oregon-California Intertie, alternating current (AC), direct current (DC) and transmission. He knows substations and the complexities of generators and other equipment. And he knows a lot of trivia too – about BPA and the region. |
Al Brandt points out a stack of insulators at The Dalles to BPA staff on a trip “up the river” this summer. |
Ask him how he knows so much and Brandt explains, “I learn something almost every trip” at stops and from fellow travelers along the way. He also reads a lot. “It’s interesting to me,” he says. Brandt worked for a time as a transmission groundman and equipment operator. That gave him background in the technical field. And don’t forget those family vacations. All of that contributes to Brandt’s growing “reservoir” of dam and power information.
Five business services group employees took Brandt’s trip up the river this August. They included Teddi Lester, Tracy Lenz, Diana McLain, Paula Rawe and Carolyn Stokke.
The group visited Acton and Big Eddy Substations and The Dalles Dam. They stopped at the Celilo Converter Station, the Oregon and Washington sides of Bonneville Dam and the Ross Complex. The tour crossed the legendary Bridge of the Gods and visited the town of North Bonneville.
Brandt is currently on detail to the work management team of the Business Solutions Project. His tours fit in the category of “other duties as assigned.” When enough employees to fill a vehicle want a tour, and Brandt can flex his workload, he’ll go up the river once again. The weather has to cooperate though. After traveling once “on ice all the way from Cascade Locks to The Dalles and back,” Brandt says, “I don’t take trips in the middle of winter anymore.”
Carolyn Stokke is a program analyst in personnel services
The world of building design has changed in the nearly 60 years since BPA’s Eugene Control House was built in the renowned art deco style of the day. A BPA art deco control house? That’s right.
“It must have been a beautiful place when it was first built,” says Bill Hayden, a BPA dispatcher who maintained the building during the late 1980s and early 1990s. “It had a strip of lights around the front door, cream-and-brown-checkered floors, control room lights like flying saucers, and a back porch handrail like a waterfall,” Hayden says.
The art deco style, in its heyday from about 1920 to 1940, tried to unify form and function to create a total environment that evoked a fine-tuned machine. Today, the 115-kilovolt station connects a number of lines in the Eugene area and one to Albany. But when it was built, it was “probably the first substation down here, and a hub of the southern Willamette Valley,” says George Birchman, chief operator in the Eugene region. To Eugene residents in the 1940’s, this station must have conjured up beguiling visions of a futuristic world of technology suddenly at their doorsteps.
Now, leap forward to 1998 as construction workers encounter a different environment. Outfitted in moon suits and breathing masks, they enter and exit the station through decontamination portals to ensure that no asbestos from the decaying outside walls gets into the atmosphere. The workers are on deadline to renovate the station by this fall.
“You’d think we were dealing with nuclear waste,” says Janet Burns, manager for the $200,000 renovation project. “But we’re just trying to make the outside of this building look as beautiful as it once did,” she says. “We never anticipated all this.”
The building is still a viable, working BPA control house. It fits all the state and federal guidelines for historical registration. Unfortunately, it’s also falling apart.
Project manager Janet Burns oversees renovation of BPA’s historic Eugene control house (background). |
“Many years ago, the building was wrapped with a fiberglass coating to keep it from leaking,” says Burns. “But the coating cracked. All the old metal windows have rusted out and water has gotten in. The plaster on the inside is crumbling so bad there are actually holes in the wall. We had to do something fast.” Crews moved in on Aug. 24 with a goal to finish the renovation by Sept. 30. Then they encountered hazardous materials – asbestos and lead. So the project turned into part repair and part environmental reclamation. Crews have sealed off the area, including the scaffolding, while maintaining safe clearance from the electrical works, which are still on-line. |
Workers dress and shower in separate, sealed areas to avoid contamination. An environmentally safe product is being sprayed on the walls to keep the asbestos from becoming airborne. It turns the deadly substance into a liquefied residue that can be removed more safely and easily to a hazardous waste facility.
Other improvements are being made in the control house. It will have improved temperature and ventilation control to help maintain sensitive relays. And new meters and communications equipment will be installed. With the project deadline quickly approaching last month, Burns and others were putting in long hours, from as early as 4:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Burns says she loves the old building. “I can’t wait to see it looking as beautiful as it once did,” she says – perhaps wishing a shortcut or two would magically appear on the horizon. But not at the expense of correct procedure. “Everyone has to be safe and secure here,” she says. “Safety and protection come first.”
Stuart Sandler is a writer in Transmission
Energy deregulation is now reaching further into rural areas of the Northwest. Thanks to a new pact between BPA and the Northwest Indian tribes. On Aug. 28, BPA and the tribes launched a partnership to look for economic opportunities deregulation may offer on Indian reservations.
The partnership includes BPA, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) and the tribes’ Economic Development Corporation (EDC). BPA will fund $200,000 for the effort and EDC will have access to BPA staff and expertise.
ATNI-EDC hired Sonya Tetnowski to coordinate the effort, and Mitzi Seymour to be admi-nistrative assistant for the project. Tetnowski is a member of the Makah Tribe. She has been women’s business ownership coordinator for the Native American Business Network. Seymour is a member of the Colville Tribe.
Tetnowski will work with the tribes, local utilities and BPA. An early effort will be to develop energy profiles for individual reservations. She also plans to hold education workshops for the tribes. Those will look at the energy industry, energy transactions, utility operations and renewable resources.
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“We feel strongly that energy deregulation may present opportunities for Northwest tribes,” said EDC president Dave Tovey. “We’re going to work with BPA to get the information to the tribes so they can determine the best options for their communities.” BPA’s Paul Norman, acting vice president of power, said the partnership will help tribes “avoid risk and get the benefits of industry deregulation.” |
BPA Deputy Administrator Jack Robertson (left) and officials of the Economic Development Corp. (EDC) of Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) met to okay a new pact on Aug. 28. Next to Robertson (left to right) are EDC president Dave Tovey, board members Scott Clements and Wendell George, EDC energy coordinator Sonya Tetnowski, administrative assistant Mitzi Seymour and board member Mike Marchand. |
BPA and the tribes see the partnership as an historic change in their relationship. It can also be a national model for rural development and for tribal cooperation.
ATNI has more than 50 member tribes and has served their interests in the region for the past 40 years. The group set up the Economic Development Corporation in 1996. EDC is headquartered in Lynnewood, Wash., and provides regional support for economic development efforts in Indian country.
Ian Templeton is a writer in Communications
Logjams are a familiar remnant of flooding along streams and riverbanks. Not too long ago, fish and wildlife folks regarded logjams as obstacles to fish passage, so officials removed them. Now we know better.
Habitat biologists now realize that logjams provide benefits for fish in the Northwest. Not only do they help stabilize banks, but they also provide ideal habitat for juvenile fish. BPA and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife are now putting that knowledge to use. This summer they launched a project to improve fish habitat on the Tucannon (two-CAN-un) River in southeast Washington. The effort involved building logjams in a particularly poor stretch of the river.
“What makes this project extraordinary,” says Tony Morrell, “is not just the restoration technique itself, but that we did it with voluntary labor and donated equipment.” Morrell is BPA’s environmental specialist in the field. “Two local residents gave a week of their time and use of heavy equipment they own for the effort,” he says. Dan Culley and Dick Rubenser were excited about helping with the project, he says.
The project is located on state-owned land just outside of Dayton. The river flowed through a flat, rocky, treeless stretch exposed to the hot summer sun. “It had split into five smaller channels or shallow braids that became very warm and inhospitable to juvenile salmon,” Morrell says.
The project was billed as an “aggressive fish habitat restoration technique.” Workers first created a temporary channel for the river so they could redesign the permanent channel. The project consolidated five braids into a sin-gle channel with a meander to slow the erosive force of the river. And workers excavated five alcoves on the outside edge of the meander.
The water-filled alcoves served as the foundation for the logjams. Workers placed huge boulders in the alcoves. Large trees were cabled to them. Additional trees were then woven into the piles to form the logjams. River water will flow through the jams. When completed they may appear as haphazard piles of logs, but they will actually provide stream and fish benefits.
The logjams will provide shelter for juvenile fish from predators. Over time they will renew themselves as they capture other woody debris. Besides reshaping the river, the volunteers planted hundreds of willows and cottonwood trees to shade the stream and further stabilize the bank. Washington habitat biologist Steve Martin says, “Stream temperatures should be five degrees cooler through this reach when the project is established.”
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The Tucannon River effort was the first logjam restoration project in eastern Washington. BPA watershed coordinator Mark Shaw says, “What makes this project especially remarkable was that it was mostly accomplished with volunteer labor and equipment donated by local landowners.” It could have cost $100,000 but was done with only $20,000 from BPA. Administrator Judi Johansen wrote the Washington agency to commend local residents for their help. Tony Morrell, Environment, Fish & Wildlife, contributed to this article |
Workers plant willows along stream banks and use donated heavy equipment to install log jams. |
This fall BPA is taking part in more than a dozen water and salmon events across the Northwest. Employees staff booths and exhibits, set up displays at water festivals and lead students into streams at salmon festivals.
BPA staff from Boise, Seattle, Spokane, Walla Walla, Portland, Vancouver and other places take part. Dozens of BPA folks volunteer to work at the weekend events. Tens of thousands of people attend. And thousands of students trek into streams with BPA guides for BPA’s popular Kids in the Creek outdoor classroom.
Events in September included Boise’s salmon and steelhead days, the Seattle Aquarium salmon homecoming, the salmon shuffle at Cascade Locks, the Wenatchee River salmon festival at Leavenworth and the Spokane water festival. This month’s events included the Lake Roosevelt water festival and salmon festivals in Vancouver, Issaquah and Oxbow State Park near Sandy. Other events this fall include a Willamette River conference in Salem, energy education workshops in Montana at Great Falls and Missoula, and a teachers workshop at Bonneville Dam.
Kyra Chatfield of Seattle and Hope Pennell of Spokane took their cameras to some events. The montage above shows some of their snapshots at events held around the region.
Left – Managers Ed Bleifuss, Roger Schiewe, Roy Fox and Mark Maher cook burgers at a party they hosted for many employees in the Power Business Line. Right – Power people enjoyed the party with peers. |
