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Home My WebLink AboutElectric Board - Minutes - 03/21/2007Fort Collins Utilities Electric Board Minutes Wednesday, March 21, 2007 Electric Board Chair City Council Liaison John Morris 377-8221 Kurt Kastein Electric Board Vice Chair Staff Liaison Dan Bihn 218-1962 DeEtta Carr 221-6702 Roll Call: Board Present Chairperson John Morris, Vice -Chair Dan Bihn, Tom Barnish, John Graham, John Harris and Steve Wooley Board Absent: Jeff Lebesch Staff Present: Kraig Bader, Bill Bray, Brad Burke, DeEtta Carr, Eric Dahlgren, Joyce Grenz, Bob Hover, Bob Micek, Tom Rock and Mike Smith Meetine Convened Chairperson John Morris called the meeting to order at 5:32 p.m. Citizen Participation There was no public comment. Approve Minutes of February 21, 2007, Meetine Board Member Dan Bihn made a motion, seconded by Board Member Tom Barnish to approve the minutes of the February 21, 2007, meeting. The motion passed unanimously. Mercury Polution Update John Bleem, from Platte River Power Authority, said that Platte River had been working on mercury pollution for several years. Mr. Bleem discussed the health issues and misunderstanding of mercury. Mercury is not an issue in the air we breathe, the water we drink or any other health related concern. The mercury that is of concern is methyl mercury. There are advisories around the U.S. in almost every state. In Colorado, there are ten advisories, with being based on new measurements. For example, Horsetooth hasn't been measured before. Since Horsetooth has been in the press so much, Mr. Bleem mentioned there is absolutely no concern with the drinking water. Because this is the first time Horsetooth has been measured, it Electric Board Meeting Minutes Wednesday, March 21, 2007 Page 2 Is not know how long it has been this way. A lot of the water in Horsetooth comes from the western slope. Mercury questions arose about whether it came into Horsetooth, was it shoreline exposure, was Rawhide a small source, could it have been in the soil or did the wind bring it in. Rawhide wind data shows that wind blows away from Horsetooth over 90% of the time. In the U.S., mercury deposition comes from natural resources a little over 50% of the time, including from rock and soil erosion, forest fires, volcanoes and oceans. The rest of the mercury comes from manmade sources such as mining, waste burning, manufacturing, and coal burning. Only a small percentage of this comes from the U.S. (3 - 5%). Most of the manmade sources come from Asia, with China being a big source. Mercury seems to be a global concern with the movement of pollutants. Inside the U.S., about 40% of mercury pollutants come from coal-fired power plants, which means almost half of 1 — 2% is from coal-fired power plants. Most of the mercury comes from Midwest and Eastern plants (90%). There are a lot of older plants without scrubbers in this vicinity. A small amount (10%) comes from Colorado and the West. A federal rule was established in 2005 to help regulate mercury. Mr. Bleem explained that it is hard to find and regulate mercury with the little that is coming from the U.S., the only country in the world with a plan for mercury reduction. Colorado is one of the more health conscience and environmentally concerned states and will have one of the more stringent mercury rules. Platte River Power Authority has had mercury reductions planned and are in advance of the federal government timetable. Platte River has a few concerns, including cost effectiveness and long-term plant effects. Over the next 10-12 years, Platte River will likely spend over $10-12 million to get rid of 1 % of mercury. Platte River has made the decision that this is worth it. The Electric Board would like to have an annual report, if not earlier, from Platte River Power Authority on the issue of mercury reduction. Substation Presentation Bob Hover, Electric System Design & IT Manager, gave a slide presentation on our substations. Mr. Hover provided examples of what we want to avoid, including a transformer fire in the Denver area that had 42,000 customers out of power. He also mentioned a fire in 1988 in a city south of Fort Collins that was due to switchgear failure. Mr. Hover said we have not had a disaster such as these in Fort Collins and have never had a transformer failure. He noted it is very expensive to repair or replace a transformer. Platte River Power Authority is the sole provider of bulk power for the City of Fort Collins. Then the substations are the City of Fort Collins responsibility. The electric system design group is responsible for: • Substation design, construction, and maintenance; • Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition (SCADA)integration, installation and maintenance; • Security systems integration installation and maintenance; • Parallel generation (steam photovoltaic, methane); -2- Electric Board Meeting Minutes Wednesday, March 21, 2007 Page 3 • Distribution automation; • Outage analysis; • Control room operations; and • Operational safety. Another slide showed a typical substation configuration. Mr. Hover stated that the electrical substation responsibilities include: • Design drawings; • Foundations; • Transformers; • Electrical switchgear and capacitor banks; • Power circuit breakers; • Protective relays; • Control and power cables; • DC battery banks; • Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition (SCADA); • Oil Spill Prevention & Countermeasure plans (SPCA and • Substation security. The design drawings are basically created in-house, except for the foundations. A safety device was designed in-house for a 15KV breaker power racking device. This equipment helps eliminate a dangerous process in electrical switchgear when they are opened or closed and when crews install and remove breakers from switchgear cubicles. Mr. Hover showed slides for all phases of substation construction. There are possibly two or three substations slated for construction in the next 10 years, and all of the technologies used now will be used in the new substations. The responsibilities of the Supervisory Control & Operations (SCO) group is: • System dispatching — outage analysis & restoration; • Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition (SCADA); • System mapping and map book production; • Trouble call system; • After-hours answering system; • Hot Shot (water heater control) load management; • Hotline orders; • Substation security monitoring and control. The phone system for Fort Collins Utilities is available 24 hours a day. There is an after-hours phone service, operating out of Virginia, so customers can reach the Utilities at any time. -3- Electric Board Meeting Minutes Wednesday, March 21, 2007 Page 4 Field Maaaine System Brad Burke, Network Application Specialists, showed slides of the City of Fort Collins Mobile Field Mapping System. With all the utilities the City of Fort Collins serves, they have eliminated over 50 map books and are still working on this project. They went from map books to laptops with databases that are taken into the field each day. The crews enter work order information and update data in the field. The laptops are brought in each night, where they are docked and the data is exchanged correctly, not just copying data but exchanging and updating data. Crews also benefit from maps installed on their laptops. Mr. Burke discovered software that would be user friendly and, with Eric Dahlgren's assistance, loaded all the City, plus aerial views. Mr. Dahlgren draws the maps at his desk on his computer with a tool that allows those who know the data the best to draw the map. This eliminates the need to wait on other departments. The maps are updated correctly and in a timely fashion. The maps then show updated street names, addresses and subdivision names. On a different line, the map tracks stormwater and every drop of water in the City. If there was contamination of stormwater, it could be tracked on the maps to the source of contamination. It also shows every sewer pipe and all electrical lines, as well as the work orders at each address. Mr. Burke tested 35 different types of software. The software Mr. Burke has chosen is quite amazing and very cost effective. Other Business Board Member Steve Wooley is willing to give the Electric Board legislative updates. Chairperson John Morris asked Council Member Kurt Kastein to join the Electric Board for dinner at April's meeting as there will be a new City Council Liaison after April. Future Agenda Items Chairperson John Morns would like everyone to read the Electric Energy Policy and have discussion about items 3-5 and number 11, which was discussed last November. The Board needs to allow themselves enough time to go over these items at the next meeting. Adiournment Board Member Tom Bamish made a motion, seconded by Board Member Dan Bihn to adjourn. The motion passed unanimously and was adjourned at 7:50 p.m. C- ' )O�6 &1a J e 6renz, Electric and Secretary lie