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November 1998
It’s reassuring to get a payroll statement every two weeks. Leave status, thrift savings deposits, retirement accounts, health and insurance coverage, and of course, net pay to the bank. It’s all there, listed by pay period and year to date.
But dependable as the system seems, it’s only as good as the computer programs that run it. In just over a year, the computer systems that run just about everything today will be in for a real test.
Government, financial institutions and businesses are aware of the problem. For the past few years they have been working on the “Y2K” bug or “Year 2000” problem. It’s the most widespread and basic programming glitch since the inception of computers in the mid-1900s. The problem comes from the two-digit year field used for computers. What was okay to distinguish all years from one another in the 1900s now poses a problem for when the calendar and clocks turn over to 2000.
Computers that don’t accommodate four digits in the year field may read “00” as “1980.” Or they might read it as “1900.” They may perform errors in calculations or they may just crash.
What was your salary and grade on Jan. 1, 1980? None of us want to wake up early in 2000 and find that our pay has reverted back to that of 20 years ago. Or to find that a savings or other account has been wiped out.
BPA has been working to be sure we don’t have power system or personnel system problems. But what’s the status of nationwide efforts to overcome the Y2K bug? And what’s being done to stop it from affecting our personal lives as well as work? Here’s an update on some efforts that touch people personally.
Sources estimate that businesses are spending upwards of $50 billion to correct Y2K problems. The Department of Energy may spend over $200 million. BPA is contributing $3 million to that total, says Larry Sims who coordinates BPA’s Y2K business systems.
The first priority of BPA’s comprehensive agencywide plan is to ensure a safe and reliable power supply to the region. BPA employees are essential to that effort and paychecks are essential to BPA employees.
“Everything should look exactly the same to employees on their first pay stub of the year 2000,” says Sims. The last pay period of 1999 closes, in fact, on the first day of the year 2000. Employees will see their payroll statements for that pay period on Jan. 7, 2000, and their paychecks will be deposited one week later – the same as always.
BPA uses a DOE system called PAYPERS to handle employee pay and benefits. The system has two parts. PERS handles all the personnel inputs – grade and step changes, health and life insurance coverage, awards, retirement and thrift savings accounts. PAY uses the PERS data to churn out the pay stubs and paychecks.
In 1996, DOE and BPA bought PeopleSoft’s Federal HRMIS to replace PERS. They knew PERS had Y2K problems. “Buying Human Re-sources Management Information System was more cost-effective to solve Y2K than trying to fix the old program,” says Dick Bemrose. He manages HRMIS in personnel services.
PeopleSoft certifies that it is Y2K ready for all its computer systems. “And as best we can tell,” says Bemrose, “its third-party vendors are also ready. Even so, BPA will test its complete HRMIS system for Y2K – just like all the other 700-plus BPA systems.”
The PAY part of DOE’s system couldn’t interface with Peoplesoft’s product. So DOE “bit the bullet” and decided to up-grade PAY itself. It’s a huge project, says Sims. “The program has more than 3 mil-lion lines of code,” he says. “DOE is doing the Y2K upgrade with its staff and is on track to be done by March 1999.”
The banking industry is getting – and giving – more careful scrutiny on Y2K than perhaps any segment. Chairman Donna Tanoue of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said, “Year 2000-related risks are the number one safety and soundness concern at the FDIC.”
Many BPA Portland and Vancouver employees are members of the Northwest Federal Employees Credit Union. The credit union has been working since 1989 to update its systems. “I feel very confident that our systems will operate fine,” says Bobbie Lindekugel, executive vice president.
The credit union joined 300 others nationwide that use the same software. They contracted with a major auditing firm that specializes in Y2K testing. Because credit unions can’t shut everything down while their systems are tested, the firm will do proxy tests of the common software.
Lindekugel has a greater concern – a projected run on banks as consumers withdraw their money out of fear that computers may cause a crash. “Obviously, nobody wants to go out of business,” she says. “Everyone’s scrambling.” The Federal Reserve is actually printing more money. And credit union employees won’t be able to take vacations in the last quarter of 1999.
Thrift Savings Plans, Social Security and Office of Personnel-Management programs are the most common retirement plans for BPA employees. All rely on computers to manage people’s money, so those groups are intensely focused on Y2K.
“SSA is confident that all its benefit payments will continue uninterrupted in the new century,” proclaims the Social Security Administration’s Web site (www.ssa.gov). SSA says that 286 of 308 mission-critical systems were Y2K ready as of Aug. 31, 1998. And it receives superlative reviews in Y2K audits.
“We expect no interruption to TSP-related functions in the year 2000,” says the Thrift Savings board on its Web site (www.tsp.gov). A five-member board manages the TSP and con-tracts with Barclays Global Investors to run the C and F funds. Barclays invests in its own mutual funds. So TSP depends on Barclays to be Y2K ready. The G fund is invested in government bonds.
The Office of Personnel Management expects to have updated versions of all its computer systems in operation by the end of this year. That will allow for a yearlong test to find any glitches. “The Federal government is giving these retirement programs plenty of funding to do the necessary upgrades,” says P.J. Holbrook, employee relations specialist. “They’re not going to let them crash and burn.”
It’s clear that lots of people are working very hard to prevent Y2K bugs. They want to make sure your first paycheck or retirement premium of the 21st century is on time. And that the amount doesn’t take you back in time.
Pat Zimmer is a writer in communications
Lorri Bodi joined BPA this fall as a senior advisor on fish issues. She is an attorney with more than 20 years experience in natural resources law, fisheries, and hydroelectric issues. Most recently she served as co-director of the northwest office of American Rivers. She and her husband live in Seattle and have two children, ages 7 and 10.
Administrator Judi Johansen says she brought Bodi on board to help BPA and the region agree on a unified plan for fish restoration. Just what does Bodi think about the challenge? What are her views about the Northwest’s fish future and BPA’s role? To find out, Pat Zimmer of BPA’s communication group interviewed Bodi for the Circuit.
Circuit. Both you and Judi Johansen have said you want the region to have one plan for fish restoration. How will we get to one and when?
Bodi. The National Marine Fisheries Service has said it will have a long-term plan by the end of 1999. BPA has an opportunity to use the 1999 NMFS deadline as a catalyst to merge the multiple plans and concerns of river users into a unified fish plan for the region. We both would like BPA to play a pivotal role in helping things come together.
Right now we have dueling fish plans. We have a Biological Opinion from NMFS, a plan from the Northwest Power Planning Council and a tribal recovery plan. People spend a lot of energy in different places for lack of a plan. Every party sees every process as a place where they need to position themselves politically, instead of focusing the region’s energies into creative implementation.
Circuit. What would this fish plan look like?
Bodi. A fish plan would outline what BPA and the federal dam owners have to do to protect fish for the next 10 to 20 years. To succeed, the plan has to work on a number of levels. It has to work for the fish, biologically – it has to get a scientific seal of approval. It has to have the support of fish and wildlife agencies, as well as tribes, states and river users. It should include a financial plan – how we are going to fund it, a timeline, and who’s going to kick in money besides BPA.
It should also provide legal assurances that the plan will satisfy the Endangered Species Act, the Northwest Power Act and Indian treaty rights. Finally, we have to have a game plan for moving the agreement forward within the region and outside the region.
The fish plan would have two key goals. First, to restore fish we can harvest – not just “museum pieces.” And second, we want BPA to continue to sell power at cost, below the market price for the people of the Northwest.
Circuit. What will move this along now?
Bodi. We have a deadline – the 1999 NMFS decision. And we have a lot of frustration right now in the region over the lack of resolution. People are tired. We have a lot of processes going on, but no one knows how and where the real decisions are going to be made. But I think out of confusion comes opportunity.
BPA has a strong business interest in having a unified plan. The longer we go without a plan, the more money we spend on things that may or may not be part of the long-term solution. And we have the people on staff who can help to make it happen.
Circuit. Is it really possible for BPA to carve out its piece of the responsibility for fish and wildlife and move on with its business?
Bodi. This has eluded us for a long time. If anything, people are more entrenched now than ever. So just saying BPA is going to do its part presents a formidable challenge. But yes, I think we can do it with the help of the states, tribes and other regional interests.
The unified fish plan isn’t a complete salmon recovery plan for the Columbia Basin. It’s a way to set performance standards and boundaries that describe how BPA will contribute to all four “Hs” – habitat, harvest, hatcheries and hydro. But BPA won’t be the funder of all sal-mon recovery measures throughout the basin.
Some people might criticize it, but my feeling is that you have to bite off manageable chunks. A single plan can serve as a bridge to move into other areas of fish restoration.
Circuit. Can fish mitigation and power marketing peacefully co-exist?
Bodi. Actually, one of BPA’s strengths is that it can integrate fish and wildlife, conservation and renewables, and power marketing. I think there is an underlying feeling at BPA that we would like to be the green utility and a leader in the environmental area. We have a hydro system that is a good energy resource. One outgrowth of having a unified plan would be that we could market some or all of the power from the hydro system as green power and start positioning BPA as a green utility.
And, if one of the things that comes out of a fish agreement is that we can’t do quite as much load following or peaking as we used to, we can look at conservation measures to lower those peaks.
Circuit. Judi (Administrator Johansen) says she worked pretty hard to persuade you to take this job. Did you have reservations, and why did you ultimately decide to do it?
Bodi. Well, when Judi approached me with this opportunity, my first reaction was, “Oh no, I don’t know if I can do this.” But then I realized it was the right thing to do. What better chance to take my background, my contacts and my interest in negotiations and see if we can make it happen? Now that I’ve been here a while, I’m even more enthusiastic about my decision. I think we have a team of people at BPA and in the region who can turn a fish agreement from a dream into a reality.
Circuit. Does BPA look different as an insider?
Bodi. I have to admit I was a bit of a BPA critic for years, and I was apprehensive about how people would receive me. But everyone has been incredibly supportive and helpful. It’s really helped me make the transition.
The October Circuit had three errors. I apologize to Sherry Lind of media services who took the photos of BPA’s renovation of its historical control house at Eugene. We didn’t list her as the photographer. Stuart Sandler wrote the interesting article, and Lind shot the good photos. The article also wrongly listed Janet Burns as project manager. She was the construction manager and Dave Caines was project manager. We also erred on the chart that showed the results of the customer surveys. The chart wrongly labeled the results for the Power and Transmission business lines. They should have been reversed, so I apologize to the people in those work groups.
We heard from a reader who wanted to clarify a story that ran in the September Circuit. “Squeezing a constrained system,” reported on how BPA operates the Columbia hydro system under various constraints, most notably for fish. The article said releases from Libby Reservoir and others upstream impact recreation there.
True enough, as BPA’s Mark Reller of Helena says. But he wrote to point out that the operations for downstream fish also cause another problem upstream. They adversely affect resi-dent fish in Libby and below it, including listed species such as white sturgeon and bull trout.
We make occasional goofs in the Circuit, like those above, and hope it doesn’t offend folks when that happens. Thanks to you readers who let us know so we can correct errors. We want the Circuit to be accurate and represent BPA well to all our readers.
Finally, we heard from BPA’s Tony Morrell in the field. After recent Circuit articles about BPA’s efforts to help control noxious weeds around the region, Morrell got some phone calls. Members of the Clark County Weed Control Board read the stories and called to ask his advice on a “growing” weed problem in Clark County. He also heard from a BPA retiree at Kennewick, Wash., who said his area has a similar problem.
I appreciate it when we get reports, such as Morrell’s, that the Circuit helps reach the public about BPA and what we do. As he said, “The Circuit ... gets a good circulation outside the agency.” So we want to make sure the Circuit continues to, in Morrell’s words, “represent the agency well.” – Jack Odgaard, editor
What would BPA, the Columbia River and the Northwest be like today if we still had an operation like that before the 1960s? For one thing, there would be no power interties between the Northwest and California. For another, there would be a lot more water spilled over U.S. dams during flood runoff each spring.
BPA would also have a lot less generation today. That would affect its ability to keep the heat and lights on during Arctic freezes in the Northwest. And in the spring of 1996, Portland would have had its worst flood in history.
What’s magic about the 1960s? Before then, the Northwest regarded the Columbia Basin as a system that began at the Canadian border. But the United States and Canada had earlier begun work on a Columbia River Treaty. The treaty would have a big effect on river operations in the future. It would benefit both nations and provide economic opportunities for yet more benefits now being explored.
The U.S. and Canada signed the treaty in 1961 and later ratified it. The treaty led to four new large projects in the basin. And it led to coordinated operation of the river for the mutual good of both countries. British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority manages the treaty for Canada. BPA’s administrator and the division chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manage it for the U.S.
Greg Delwiche of BPA’s hydro operations describes a big change the treaty brought. “Before the large Canadian dams were built,” he says, “Grand Coulee filled and spilled every spring because there wasn’t enough capacity to generate power with all that water. Now, instead of spilling, we have huge peaking capacity at Grand Coulee’s third powerhouse. And the interties let us move power south when it’s surplus to Northwest needs.”
Half of the Columbia River system’s eight major storage dams – and the vast bulk of storage capacity – were built as a result of the treaty. B.C. Hydro built Mica, Duncan and Keenleyside dams in Canada, and the Corps of Engineers built Libby Dam in Montana. The projects provide power, power storage and flood control for both countries. They also have incidental benefits for recreation and navigation. The U.S. paid $64 million for 60 years of flood control benefits.
The February 1996 flood that reached the top of Portland’s seawall would have been much worse without the Columbia River Treaty. B.C. operations helped reduce the flood level by seven feet and helped prevent about $3 billion more in flood damage. “Without those projects and our excellent relationship with British Columbia, we’d have been much wetter,” Delwiche says.
The water stored behind Canadian dams also generates more electricity at the mainstem dams in the U.S. Half of that power – about 1,400 megawatts of 2,800 total – belongs to British Columbia. B.C. sold its share, called the Canadian Entitlement, to U.S. utilities the first 30 years. It used the revenues from that sale to help pay for the three Canadian dams.
The first part of the entitlement sale ended early this year and BPA began to deliver downstream power to Canada. The power returns will step up in 1999 and again in 2003. But Canada and the U.S. are working on an agreement that would let B.C. Hydro sell its energy directly in the U.S. That would conserve transmission losses and help sustain the reliability of the U.S. grid.
Nestled in the Canadian Rockies 100 mies from the U.S. border, Columbia Lake is the northern headwater source of the Columbia River. From here the river flows north 180 miles and then south to the U.S. Huge Canadian dams help manage the river for flood control, power and other operations in the U.S. |
BPA’s Tony White is secretary for the U.S. entity that manages treaty affairs in the U.S. He says the agreement would be good for both countries. “They now have to take their power from us at the border,” White says, “and BPA’s power business line is paying the northbound freight.” White says, “An agreement between the U.S. Department of State and Canada’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade could get around this issue and save us both money.” Meanwhile, BPA has an agreement with non-federal owners of mid-Columbia dams. BPA takes their share of the Canadian Entitlement and delivers it north. The U.S. and Canada are also working on other changes to improve operations. |
The treaty parties determined the amount of Entitlement power based on a four-year critical period, or drawdown cycle. But since the 1995 Biological Opinion, BPA now runs the U.S. system on an annual cycle. It provides as much water as possible for fish migration within flood control requirements. “So BPA has to produce some return energy out of inventory,” Delwiche says.
“The treaty strictly covers power and flood control,” he says. “And treaty provisions are sacrosanct, unless both national governments agree to changes for mutual benefits.”
In 1992, the parties renegotiated the Non-Treaty Storage Agreement for just such added mutual benefits. Under that agreement, 4.5 million acre-feet of Mica’s space – not covered by the treaty – is used to store water to benefit both countries. It is then released for commercial use, downstream salmon migration in the U.S., and rainbow trout spawning in Canada.
Each year operators find more workable arrangements for the upstream system to benefit both countries. They now release stored water from Arrow instead of from Libby Dam to augment salmon flows.
Summer drawdowns expose silt on the lake bed at Arrow Reservoir and high winds blow the diret in the afternoons. So B.C. Hydro manages Arrow storage to curb this air pollution in Revelstoke, B.C. From mid-December through mid-January, B.C. Hydro maintains low, steady flows just north of the border to help whitefish that spawn there.
Some ideas won’t work well for both countries. Salmon that migrate late in the U.S. may benefit by fall drafts from Canadian dams. But recreation in B.C. would be hurt, and the provincial government puts a high priority on it for economic development.
The Columbia River in Canada will become more important to both countries in the future. As populations grow and economies develop, pressure to preserve the environment will also increase. Last month, B.C. Hydro let a contract to install two hydro turbines at Arrow Dam. Until now, Arrow has been used only to store and spill water. But power operations there will have more than one benefit. The dam will no longer spill all the water that enters the reservoir. Some of it will generate power and that will reduce gas saturation in the river downstream.
Today when we think of the Columbia River system, we need to look beyond the U.S. It’s not just the Snake and the Clark Fork rivers, and Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho and Buoy 10 at the mouth of the Columbia River. No longer can we view the Columbia as starting at the border with Canada. Now we must look north to British Columbia. The river runs through it, too.
Lynn Baker is a writer in communications
In the early and mid-20th century, utilities built the big transmission grids that carry power across the nation. The major challenges they faced were natural obstacles on the land.
The Bonneville Power Administration faced more challenges than most. In the late 1930s BPA laid out the main power grid for the Pacific Northwest to connect cities and towns hundreds of miles apart with hydro dams on the Columbia River hundreds of miles away.
Power lines had to cross deep gorges and steep valleys. They had to climb up and down mountain ranges and through dense rolling forests. They had to span wide rivers and reach across rugged roadless plateaus.
The days of building the main power grid are behind us. The times of new engineering feats and tough physical work to overcome barriers on the land have passed. But new natural barriers confront BPA today. And the challenges to overcome them are just as formidable as those of the past.
BPA’s major task today is to keep the power flowing and meet growing electric demands. To do that, BPA must upgrade and improve its system. It must rebuild and replace power lines to meet bigger loads. It must connect new power sources and new users to the system. It must find occasional routes for new lines to serve growing customers and new loads. And it must do all this in a new “environment.”
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Public awareness and interest in the environment have grown in the latter part of the century. Laws and regulations now protect fish, wildlife, plant life and natural areas. Government rules and programs preserve scenic areas and historic and cultural sites. All of these have become part and parcel of BPA’s work and operations today. BPA’s fish program may be the largest environmental effort of its kind in the world. The fish program gets vast attention in the press. Less noticeable is the work of BPA’s Transmission Business Line in the environment. |
Power and environment can exist side-by-side. These BPA transmission towers are located in a wetland and wildlife refuge below McNary Dam in eastern Oregon. The refuge is part of the Columbia River dam project, built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. BPA's power towers were designed to be compatible with the wetlands and refuge set aside in the area. |
Before BPA can upgrade a line or build a new connection, it must study the impacts.
Where once a mile-wide gorge or steep mountain presented an obstacle to building a huge power line, another natural barrier today may stand in the way of a short connector line to serve a new power load. It may be a rare butterfly, an unusual wildflower or an archeological discovery.
The field study for new projects sometimes finds such a species or cultural site. When that happens, BPA engineers, biologists and other staff face a new challenge. One that requires old as well as new skills. They must look for innovative alternatives. They must coordinate with other agencies and public interest groups. They must cooperate and negotiate with many parties to find the best solution.
This edition of the Circuit has two articles about current BPA projects to meet new service needs. One is a line upgrade and improvement to wheel power from a wind project in eastern Oregon. It didn’t encounter environmental problems. The other did. It’s a short connector line to help Eugene Water and Electric Board serve a new load at a commercial plant. That project ran up against two environmental barriers – a rare butterfly and a wetland.
While the nature of barriers to the power system has changed from the early to late 20th century, BPA has evolved with that change. Engineers, technicians and many others today must be as innovative as BPA people were in the past. Modern challenges demand skills that barely reached beyond the classroom or the laboratory a few decades ago.
BPA’s main purpose hasn’t changed over the decades. But the agency has changed to meet new challenges so it can continue to provide dependable power for the region. At the same time, BPA also provides other benefits to the Northwest – as a steward of the region’s natural resources.
Jack Odgaard, editor
Workers in the 1930s needed physical stamina and brute strength to overcome natural barriers in building the BPA power grid. They climbed and crossed mountains, gorges, rivers and rough terrain. Workers today need patience, perseverance and social skills to overcome natural barriers of a different kind. And it’s not to build new large power lines but often just to improve service from the power grid today.
A current project at Eugene is an example. It’s been going on for two years, since the city of Eugene landed a big commercial prize. Hyundai Semi-Conductor chose Eugene for a large chip manufacturing plant. It would be built in three stages and would need a 160-megawatt electric supply. BPA customer Eugene Water and Electric Board would serve the plant.
The plant site was on a commercial-zoned tract, and EWEB’s Willow Creek substation was just over a mile away. Two BPA 115-kilo-volt lines pass by the substation. EWEB put in its service lines to Hyundai and the first phase of the plant is now built and operating.
In order to serve the new load, EWEB had to enlarge its substation. And it needed at least one more 115-kV line into Willow Creek for backup. The solution was to tap into one of BPA’s adjacent lines.
BPA accommodated EWEB and the two utili-ties did their work. BPA had to erect a single pole to correct for the different phasing the utilities use. That single pole caused a problem and opened a dispute about right-of-way. BPA has resolved such issues in the past, but this time much more is at stake. A wetland, an endangered species and its rare habitat.
The new pole and main support structures for the two BPA lines are located in the wetland. BPA donated the wetland to The Nature Conservancy in the 1980s. When BPA built the lines many years before that, no one knew about Fender’s blue butterfly or that it might become endangered. And who knew that a natural plant in the wetland, Kincaid lupine, was a rare food source for the butterfly?
Well, biologists and officials know now. So the presence of the butterfly and its favorite food have opened a new chapter in BPA’s transmission service west of Eugene.
“For nearly two years, BPA has been working with others to find the best solution to the problem,” says John Schaad, BPA customer service engineer at Eugene. BPA has had several meetings with all the various interests. Besides BPA, EWEB, The Nature Conservancy, and two federal agencies are involved. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for wetland permits, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oversees endangered species.
BPA has looked at a half dozen options to resolve the issue. Some would move the BPA lines or reroute them. They would require new easements and disrupt residences and business nearby. One would require BPA to purchase an expensive parcel of land. All the options would cost money. The parties have met on the options and look to BPA to provide the best solution.
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“So far most of us lean toward one option,” Schaad says. “It would be the most reasonable and least costly and disruptive.” It calls for BPA to removethe existing wood poles and install very tall tubular steel poles. They would have larger spans so fewer would be needed. And they would use non-ceramic insulators. With that design, BPA can almost eliminate line maintenance. It would make it more un-likely that the wetland and habitat would be disturbed in the future. Schaad says, “We hope to resolve this by the end of the year so we can complete a project in 1999.” Perseverance, patience, people skills. Those are the mettle that BPA workers need today to provide the transmission service to communities in the Northwest. It’s quite different from the physical strength and stamina needed to build the power grid in the early 20th century. |
(Above left) The Fender's blue butterfly, an endangered species, inhabits a wetland west of Eugene, Ore. Two BPA transmission lines cross the tract that BPA donated to The Nature Conservancy years ago. (Above right) BPA customer service engineer John Schaad examines the habitat under BPA's power lines. The pole to his right corrects the phasing from BPA's system to EWEB's Willow Creek Substation. |
But one thing about BPA service – and its value to the Northwest – hasn’t changed. Whether it was funding fish ladders 50 years ago, building hatcheries 30 years ago, buying and setting aside wildlife tracts 10 years ago or protecting habitat and rare species today, BPA is a responsible steward of the region’s natural resources.
The Northwest’s first commercial wind project is now on line. BPA began delivering power from the Vansycle Ridge Wind Energy Project in northeastern Oregon last month. Vansycle is an example of BPA’s role today to serve new loads and power sources in the region.
BPA doesn’t own part of the Vansycle wind farm. But BPA’s transmission is a vital part of the project. The wind farm is a joint venture of FPL Energy, Inc. of Florida and Portland General Electric. FPL built the project and PGE buys and markets the energy. BPA wheels the power to PGE.
The wind farm is 20 miles northeast of Pendleton on a high ridge near the Washington border. It overlooks the Walla Walla valley. The project has 38 windmills with a combined cap-acity of nearly 25 megawatts. Each one can produce 660 kilowatts. The Vestas Company of Denmark made the state-of-the-art wind turbines.
The windmills tower 240 feet high above the ridge, from base to tip of the top blade. Each tower weighs nearly 80 tons. Each blade is 77 feet long, made of a fiberglass and epoxy compound. Each three-blade propeller has a 146-feet diameter.
FPL project manager C.S. “Collie” Powell says Vansycle should generate power “about seven months out of the year.” The windmills need eight miles per hour wind to begin turning. “They reach full power at 23 to 24 mph winds,” Powell says. He estimates the energy cost from the farm to be 65 to 70 mills.
Wind farms such as this are usually built in remote areas. While they avoid problems of heavy population centers, their remoteness can often present other challenges. So it was for Vansycle, especially BPA’s part of the project.
FPL built a substation and put in a road to the site across several miles of rolling hills and wheat fields. It didn’t have difficulty finding level sites along the ridge to build the windmills. BPA, though, had to rebuild and upgrade a power line that crosses high rolling hills and ravines with steep elevation changes. The longest span on the wood-pole line is 2,000 feet, and several others are nearly as long.
BPA’s 40-mile line from Walla Walla to Pendleton dates to 1941. BPA didn’t acquire access rights when it built the line. Workers then used all-terrain vehicles to get across the land. So BPA had to buy access and put in nearly five miles of access roads for its work.
To handle the new power supply, BPA needed to rebuild a portion of the line. It replaced 69-kV structures with 115-kV structures. To support the longest spans on the line, BPA built some 230-kV wood structures. BPA also upgraded the rest of the line by raising the height of 18 wood pole structures. BPA then put in new communications and metering equipment at Roundup Substation near Pendleton and new relays at Walla Walla.
People who worked on the Vansycle project praise the coordination among the groups involved. FPL especially complimented BPA for its efforts.
“Our workers on the site couldn’t believe your crew got the line done in the time it did,” FPL’s Powell says. BPA’s Pasco line crew did the work. Foreman Monty Ward says the time was about normal, “Although we worked many days in 100-degree-plus temperatures.”
Towers over eastern Oregon -- (Top left) This bird's-eye view from atop a windmill tower shows some of the 38 units of the Vansyckle Wind Project in eastern Oregon. Each windmill reaches 240 feet above the ground, from base to the tip of the top blade. (Top right) BPA line foreman Monty Ward (left) and project engineer Kirk Robinson look at the finished work of BPA's line upgrade and tap at the wind project site. (Lower left) Vestas Co. technician Ramon Mendoza (right) explains to BPA's Ward how operators on the ground can adjust the pitch of the blades on a windmill. The two men are inside a windmill housing, called a nacelle, 170 feet above the ground. |
BPA’s Kirk Robinson says, “This may be BPA’s fastest track project of its size in history.” Rob-inson served as project manager and says, “BPA’s work took just five months to complete from the contract signing in late March.” BPA first energized the new line in early August. “Normally it would take nine months to a year and a half,” Robinson says. “But Al Komarek of the real estate group got access and right-of-way easements from virtually all landowners in record time.” |
FPL paid for the rebuild and split the cost with BPA for the upgrade. Robinson says the project significantly improves line reliability.
BPA’s crew worked in some of the difficult terrain typical of the early years when BPA built the Northwest power grid. But it didn’t encounter any environmental barriers. Still, as part of its routine stewardship, BPA seeded its access roads when the work was done. A grass cover by next spring will curb soil erosion from the BPA right-of-way.
VSI ... for a few retired Bonneville folks it has two meanings. Voluntary Separation Incentive to be sure. But for Ed Sienkiewicz, Gary Fuqua, Larry Larson and Dave Francisco it also means — especially in the fall — vineyard servitude indefinitely.
The four, all retired managers who spent at least 22 years at BPA, have formed Fermenting Friends, a not-quite-hobby, not-quite-commercial winery. It includes both grape-growing and wine-making operations.
“This is vertical integration to the ultimate,” says Fuqua. Grapes are grown and picked at his vineyard in Dundee, Ore. They are then crushed and fermented at Sienkiewicz’s place up the road near Newberg.
Last year, their first, they made 50 cases of pinot noir and a pinot gris that captured second place among amateur wines at the Oregon State Fair. They’re hoping to double their production this fall by adding cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay to their wine list.
With their motorized stemmer/crusher, electric pump and a press that’s as handsome as it is effective (Sienkiewicz’ retirement gift from BPA colleagues), they produce more wine than most hobbyists but still far less than even the smallest commercial winery.
There are 13 Fermenting Friends in all. These four are the “GRUNTS” (Grape Reapers United, Nearing Total Solidarity) who do most of the labor. Former BPA vice president Walt Pollock and two others with energy connections, Al Wright and Harrison Call, aren’t yet retired, so they contribute mostly money. They’re the “capitalists” as far as the “grunts” are concerned. “They just want to take their share,” wisecracks Sienkiewicz. Add six wives and you’ve got quite a wine appreciation club, which is how it all started when Francisco was retiring from BPA in 1982.
“We got together fairly regularly to taste wine. It was a way to stay in touch,” says Francisco, who’s kept notes on over 1,700 wines that the group has sampled.
“Over the years we’ve all become students of the grape,” says Roxanne Sienkiewicz. During the crush she’s the chief cook — the men are the bottle washers — while the GRUNTS work the wine press. They consider lunchtime their daily “board meeting.”
“They’re a lot like BPA meetings, only totally different,” jokes Larson. But like BPA, the Fermenting Friends share a vision. It’s “to make good wine,” says Fuqua, who’s sold his grapes to commercial wineries and been a home winemaker since 1972.
Fuqua and Sienkiewicz got the idea to get more serious about a non-commercial winery once they took the VSI early last year. The rest of the group quickly joined in.
Sienkiewicz has just finished converting a horse barn on his three-and-a-half acres into the Fermenting Friends’ backyard winery. Roxanne calls it “the boys’ fort.” He spent the summer putting in the last of 2,000 grape plants around their hilltop home, planted in the style of a small French vineyard. He hopes they’ll eventually yield up to five tons of fruit.
But grapes aren’t all that’s being cultivated. So are deeply-rooted relationships. “This operation is something that has cemented friendships,” says Larson, “and that’s reflected in our name.”
(Top left) Ed Sienciewicz spreads pulp residue from the grape press to fertilize young vines. (Top right) Gary Fuqua checks the level as a wine cask is filled. (Above) Four of the Fermenting Friends work the wine press: (left to right) Dave Francisco, Ed Sienciewicz, Larry Larson and Gary Fuqua. |
Fermenting Friends is a nonprofit operation, but one that promises many liquid assets. They hope to produce wines that will measure up against commercial bottles that sell for $25 to $40 each. “If we deliver on that, we’re going to be drinking wine that we couldn’t afford to buy,” Sienkiewicz deadpans. “As retirees on fixed incomes.” And, lest you get any ideas, Francisco cautions their friends, “Don’t contact us to buy wine. We’re greedy. We want it all for ourselves.” Adds Sienkiewicz, “We’re not even making enough to satisfy our own interests — especially when it turns out to be good!” |
Unlike their wines, their enthusiasm for their hobby and each other just can’t be bottled up.
Ken Kane is a Web guy and all around media man in communications
We’ve finally got E-mail figured out. Some of us have even weaned ourselves from the Franklin Planner and have been using most of the features in Schedule Plus. So why is Information Systems taking it away and making us learn another software package?
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“This new product will provide us with the most modern electronic message and calendar system available,” says Gary Van Bemmel, manager of Information Systems. Van Bemmel is talking about Outlook 98, a new information system that combines E-mail, Schedule Plus and other features into a single program. The decision to change products wasn’t made by Van Bemmel’s group. It came from a team of technology managers from across the agency. And it will take an agencywide effort to make the change. “The new package has so many more features,” says computer specialist Barbara Miles of the information group. Miles has been working with the product for a little over a year and is impressed with its new features. “I really like the desktop view because it shows your calendar, mail and tasks all on one screen. All you have to do is click on a heading to go there.” It also has other new features – distribution lists, a journal, tracking of tasks and posting notes. BPA will install Outlook 98 on all PCs begin-ing in December, including those in the field. The work will take place by groups, but users need to do some PC housekeeping first. “We encourage employees to delete old E-mails and clean out their personal folders in order to add space to their mail storage,” says Miles. |
"Another *@%!$&?> upgrade? Have you ever tasted mouse?" (Audrey Perino)
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The information group hopes to make the transition easy. It is providing support, briefing sessions about the product, and training. But hands-on experience is always the best teacher. “I have found that the more I use the new features the more I have come to depend on them,” says Miles. “Change isn’t easy, but in this case, it’s a great improvement.”
Cheri Larson is a writer in communications
BPA has an aging workforce. And it isn’t getting much younger as the agency reduces staff to help cut costs and become more efficient. So, one of the quandaries BPA faces is having a capable, trained workforce to fill in the positions that will run the agency in the future.
Will the next generation be up to the tasks of running a complex operation like BPA? Will the young people of today have the skills, the training and the know-how to continue BPA’s tradition of service? Some may wonder in view of much negative press about schools today.
Yet BPA employees have had experiences with high school interns. These young people may be representative of the next generation of BPA employees. Carolyn Stokke of personnel services was assigned an intern this summer. The Circuit asked her to write about the experience and her outlook as a result of it. This is her report. – Editor
Andy Schmitt just got his driver’s license a few months ago, but he’s been cruising the information superhighway for four years. I first got acquainted with Andy when Veronica Williams, head of the former Human Resources group, told me she wanted to bring on a sum-mer student to work on a Web page.
I’ll admit I was a little skeptical about my ability to find a student for such a task. But what started out as a routine item on my “to-do” list, turned out to be an eye-opening adventure for me.
To find a pool of qualified students, we contacted Portland area high schools and the Saturday Academy. All proved to be good resources for finding qualified students. The Benson High School vocational advisor even cautioned us that we might not be able to offer a competitive salary. After some phone calls, we found three promising applicants who were interested in our summer position.
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However, I still had second thoughts about taking on the responsibility for an intern. Co-workers had raised the issue of the time required to supervise a student. I wondered how I could make the time to provide the guidance and support such a “high-maintenance” employee needed. So it was with some concern that I entered the interview process. Interest rapidly replaced trepidation as I met the three applicants and put faces with their electronic personae. (All our prior contact had been electronic, either by E-mail or fax.) Our candidates had diverse experience and we believed each could do what we needed. I remember one student’s application in particular. He used a passport for his picture ID, and it had his baby picture for a photo. That created a dilemma in getting him into BPA headquarters for an interview. When we interviewed Andy, he asked a question that caught the interview panel by surprise. “Could I work at home?” he asked. Why would he want to do that? He told us he had better tools and programs at home. |
High school intern Andy Schmitt is surrounded by personnel services folks who admire his work on the group's Web site. Standing (left to right) are: Carolyn Stokke, Roy Smithey and P.J. Holbrook. |
We were able to offer Andy a competitive salary because of his related work experience. I spent less than an hour with Andy his first day in the position. We had envisioned that he would come up with a redesign that he would run by us for approval. To me, that meant a hard copy of a design. But to Andy, it meant he would create a “draft” Web site.
The Benson High senior did that his first week. Since then, it’s been full steam ahead. Throughout his summer tour, this “high-maintenance” employee and I spent less than three hours together.
The entire experience amazes me. And I’ve been wondering if Andy is typical. Is he representative of the next generation? Or, at least of the computer segment of the next generation? I don’t have the answers, but we still have Andy. He’s with Personnel Services as a temporary student employee.
To learn more about Andy, I asked him some questions – by E-mail, of course. His first computer was “an old Commodore V2, that I got at a garage sale when I was 10,” he says. “It had no games and, as a result, I had to write all my own,” he says. “Oh, of course,” I thought. I remembered when I was 10 years old. I was play-ing softball in the street with neighbor kids.
Andy says he continued to learn “the hard way. I taught myself how to use every computer I could get my hands on, mostly trashy ‘toy’ computers,” he says. “Eventually, I found a PC XT, and that’s when I got started on IBM-based systems.”
I thought about when I was 14. I was babysitting, going to movies and dances, reading, and listening to music. Andy was using the Inter-net. He says, “I learned HTML (hypertext markup language) a year later, but didn’t do much with it until people started wanting Web pages. And even then I worked on hardware and programming more often than HTML.”
After that, Andy says, he progressed to PC troubleshooting jobs. His friends and his dad were his best agents, “especially my dad. Some guy would tell him of the miseries he was suffering because his computer was going berserk, and I was on for a job,” Andy says. “And people would come back, some for big jobs like upgrades, some for small jobs.”
Andy’s job interview with BPA was his first formal one. To prepare, he completed the Web site he was creating for his dad’s company to use as a sample. “And I got an HTML manual and ‘inhaled’ it to make sure I was up on my topic,” he says. “Just in case I was asked any technical questions.”
I still don’t have the answer to some of my questions. Is Andy typical of the next generation? Is he a typical PC whiz? Or is he just Andy, our ‘Web guru?’ But I can say this. If more students today are like Andy Schmitt and others we’ve had as interns, I have no doubt that BPA will be in good hands in the future.
The challenge has been given. Captain Mike Hall of the US Coast Guard says,”Beat my organization in Combined Federal Campaign contributions this year and I will kiss this pig! If BPA loses, Judi puckers up.” The CFC campaign started Nov. 1 and will end on December 11 this year. Contribute generously and give rank its privilege. |
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Dozens of BPA people from Portland, Vancouver, Seattle and elsewhere in the Northwest took part in the 27th annual Portland Marathon on Oct. 4. Besides many runners and walkers who entered the marathon race events, more than a dozen BPA folks, retirees and family members worked as volunteers. Many helped at the BPA/Kiwanis Club aid station at Mile 21.
Don Davey of energy efficiency again coordinated the aid station set up. BPA employees, family and retirees who worked all or part of the long marathon day, were: Joe Bebee, Mike Caldwell and son Robert, Don Davey, Leasia Day, Allison Draper, Loretta Durrow, Maria de la Garza, LaGrande Grant, John Holmstrom, Asmara Measho, Lloyd Meyer, Shera Neal, Marta Salazar, and Behanu, Martha and Noah Tesema.
Davey took snapshots of some of the BPA runners and walkers as they passed the BPA aid station. Two sisters from transmission (center photo), Barb Gocus (number 7) and Anna Cosola (number 1209) walked together in their 10th consecutive Portland Marathon. How many other BPA folks (and relatives) can you identify in these snapshots?
Sharon Everett of purchasing chats with Karen Hauser of communications at her craft table in Oct. Everett chairs the annual Associates craft bazaar where employees sell their wares and others do some holiday shopping. The bazaar will take place again on Nov 19 and 20 at headquarters.
