Monday Morning — December 8, 2014 News · Council committee update — Austin Energy staff received kudos from members of the Austin City Council for their effective and responsive presentations Thursday, Dec. 4, the last meeting of the Council Committee on Austin Energy for 2014. The committee, which began meeting in August 2013, has allowed council members to spend more time digging deeply into the finances and operations of the utility, which represents some one-third of the city budget. General Manager Larry Weis thanked the council for their attention and for creating the time for Austin Energy outside of the regular, lengthy city council meetings, which include zoning cases, ordinance, and operational questions from all other departments. During the last meeting, Khalil Shalabi, vice president of energy market operations and planning for Austin Energy presented updates to the proposed generation plan that received support from the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. “We share the concern that if we do too much too fast, it can cost too much money,” said Cyrus Reed, acting director of the Sierra Club chapter. The plan includes a 500- megawatt (MW), combined cycle power plant fired by natural gas to be constructed at the Decker site. The council is expected to make a decision on the plan at its final council meeting this Thursday, Dec. 11. You may tune in to atxn.tv to watch it live. · ERCOT releases updated 10-year Capacity, Demand and Reserves report — Based on current information available to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the organization predicts it will have sufficient generation to keep up with the state’s demand. The report shows capacity reserve margins exceeding 15 percent through 2018, an increase from the previous report. Contributing to this increase is new capacity including 2,109 MW of natural gas, 710 nameplate MW of wind and 38 MW of solar. The report does not factor in the effects of proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations, and ERCOT will continue to monitor its resources. Photo Gallery · Customer Care Top Performers Ceremony — The Customer Care Utility Contact Center held its yearly Top Performers & Employee of the Year Ceremony to recognize staff before the end of the year. These are employees who have consistently maintained outstanding performance measures throughout the year. The leadership team showcased the event by handing out trophies and certificates of appreciation to staff for their hard work and dedication. Congratulations to Employee of the Year Tori Prim, and all Top Performers: Sandra Hankla, Kala Black, Jessica Harrell, Leticia Bateman, Marilyn Brown, Yesenia Galo, Grace Brown-Jackson, Juan Escobedo, Kathryn Ascasio, Princess Mills, Karilynn Bressie, and Tani Wheeler. See photos. Housekeeping · Register for PE in new system starting today — Today at 10 a.m. the City of Austin Healthy Connections Program is opening registration with a new system; the main change is that you will be required to log in on the new HR Portal using the same login and password as eAccess. eAccess has been available to you for many years on Cityspace and allows you to view your earnings statement, PayPLUS statement and more. To login, you will need your Employee Identification Number (EIN) and your Personal Identification Number (PIN). If you can’t find your EIN, contact the CTM Help Desk at (512) 974-HELP. If you haven’t used eAccess or don’t remember your PIN, click here and then select “Forgot Your PIN” on the left side of the screen to reset it. Take a minute and get familiar with the eAccess login, so you’ll be ready next Monday to register for your PE class for Quarter 1. Look for the PE class schedule now on the HealthyConnections website. · TLC elevators scheduled for upgrade — Facilities Management will begin work later this month to modernize the Town Lake Center main elevators to increase reliability and convenience for employees and visitors. The Facilities Management workgroup is moving forward with an expedited schedule which will reduce the construction time from five (5) months down to three (3) months. The contractor will accomplish this by working 10-hour shifts, six (6) days per week. The main mechanical equipment will be replaced with modern elevator equipment. The interior of the elevator cars will remain the same except for some updated buttons and switches. During the work, one of the two passenger elevators will be available for use with the freight elevator serving as the second passenger elevator. This plan will help with the flow of employees moving throughout the building while minimizing delays and disruptions. If you have questions you may email Greg Warren. · Information technology (IT) move — The Business & Quality Management workgroup is announcing that three (3) of its Vendor/Asset Management employees have moved to the Systems Control Center (SCC). Vincent Hilton, Ray Molina, and Kimberly Scott, who make up the hardware team, have relocated to the SCC to drive tighter hardware asset management. Establishing an onsite presence at the SCC enables this team to own the full lifecycle for all IT hardware assets - from order requests to receiving, tagging, storage, inventory management, and delivery - in one consolidated location. Establishing a single delivery location for all IT assets improves process efficiency and also enables tighter control throughout the management process, improving overall customer satisfaction. Please contact Art Acuña if you have questions. · Reminder about mileage claims — The City of Austin Comptroller’s Office and the Finance & Corporate Services’ Accounts Payable workgroup at AE wish to remind everyone that mileage between home and the airport is considered commuting when an employee is traveling on City of Austin business; commuting is classified as personal miles per the Internal Revenue Service. The city does not reimburse employees for personal miles. Reimbursement to employees who choose to take alternate means of transportation (such as a taxi) between their home and the airport is limited to the amount that would have been reimbursed to the employee had the employee parked his/her car at the long-term parking lot at ABIA (currently $7/day). Example: If an employee was away on city business for 3 days, reimbursement for taxi fare is limited to $21. Email Yvonne Girod if you have questions. · Do you have issues with your Motorola 2-way radio? — The AE wireless radio team is at your service. If you need a repair or need to request a whole new radio, contact the four-member wireless team at 512-322-6770. Wireless team members are Lawrence Pawlik, John Gomez, Peter Maguire, and Sean Wilson. Industry & Professional · ESD managers present at conference — Power System Consulting Engineer and Supervisor of the Reliability & Power Quality Group Danny Ee, and Director of Smart Grid & System Operations Dan Smith participated in first-ever conference on Online Monitoring of Electric Assets at the AT&T Conference Center on the UT Campus last week. In addition to serving on the planning committee and moderating some of the sessions, Danny presented on the topic of advanced asset management for the smart utility and Dan presented on managing the distribution system for the smart utility. The conference was well-attended with more than 150 participants and is the only conference solely dedicated to online monitoring and asset management of electric utility infrastructure. Kudos · “A couple of months ago, there was a bad storm that knocked out two transformers on King Arthur Court and we were without power for almost a full day because of the amount of damage around Austin and the time it took to get a crew out to our neighborhood. When crew #2428 showed up, we were really excited…until their bucket truck broke down and we were afraid we’d have to spend a second day without power. However, these guys were VERY resourceful and didn’t give up. They found ways to fix the two transformers (one in a position where it was hard to reach) using pullies, mechanical levers, and more. It took them a long time because of the various obstacles but they didn’t give up and we got our power back on that afternoon. This was a very impressive group of guys. Thank you, John Lynn” Kudos to members of crew #2428 for their hard work that day: o James Behrens o Eric Brown o Kalel Edwards, Jr. o Travis Helmerichs o David Richard o Jeff Trevino · “Sarah [Fusco, Public Information Office], Thank you for your time at the Webberville Solar Farm visit with the Samsung group. Everyone I spoke with found it both informative and interesting. I wanted to personally extend my thanks for your time as well as your enthusiasm during the tour. I regret not getting more time to speak with each member of your team. I would like to learn more about Austin Energys future plans for alternative energy in the Austin area; thanks again and have a great day, Rick Phillips, Equipment Innovation Engineer at Samsung” Job Postings Job Type Open & Close Date Customer Service Supervisor (Customer Contact Center) Full-Time 11/24 12/8 Account Representative Senior or Account Representative Full-Time 11/24 12/12 Austin Energy Operations & Maintenance Specialist Senior Full-Time 11/20 12/15 Energy Development Program Manager- Strategic Planning & Tech. Full-Time 11/17 12/19 Contact Us at Monday Morning We always welcome feedback, comments, news and story ideas for Monday Morning. Feel free to email or call anyone in our Public Information Office: · Sherry Canady — Employee Activity Report and Job Postings (sherry.canady@austinenergy; 512-322-6240) · Carlos Cordova — Distribution, Energy Efficiency, and Green Building (carlos.cordova@austinenergy; 512-505-3576) · Sarah Fusco — Transmission, Substation, and Employee Life (sarah.fusco@austinenergy; 512-322-6230) · Peter McCrady — Traditional Power Generation and Corporate Topics (peter.mccrady@austinenergy; 512-505-3737) · Luis Rivas — Customer Care, Billing, and Austin 3-1-1 (luis.rivas@austinenergy; 512-322-6306) · Shannon Wisner — Renewable Power and Science Fest (shannon.wisner@austinenergy; 512-322-6282)
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 23:19:46 +0000
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