Articles

1-10 of 31 items listed

Turning On The Lights For Customer Service Appointments

By Jennifer Friedman, Vice President - Marketing, TOA, July, 27, 2011 -

more...
Article Viewed 2207 Times | Be the first to comment on this article.

Aging Workers Won't Leave Utilities in the Dark

By Joe Kovacs, Freelance Writer, , December, 22, 2009 - The utility industry is getting older. By some estimates, nearly half of today's workforce will be eligible for retirement in the next decade. Years of hard-won knowledge seemed doomed to disappear just as utilities are implementing smart grid initiatives and benefiting from improved data collection and opportunities for advanced customer communications and energy efficiency. Is this the perfect storm? Are veteran utility leaders dreaming about golf courses and easy chairs rather than smart grid technologies just when their experience is most needed? Philadelphia-based PECO Energy, which serves approximately 2 million electric and natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania, and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in California don't think so. more...
Article Viewed 4360 Times | 3 Comments

Mash-in: KCP&L and Con Edison Draw in the Web

By Mike Breslin, Freelance Writer, , November, 24, 2009 - As utilities turn to the latest applications available to them to more quickly manage reliability and outage management issues, mobile workforce management becomes more real-time, as well. Here, we look at two utilities using Web 2.0 applications, and its advantages. more...
Article Viewed 4242 Times | Be the first to comment on this article.

Sensing Limbs: Electronic Vegetation Management in Action

By William Atkinson, Freelance Writer, , October, 27, 2009 - For most utilities, using smart grid technology for vegetation management information is still in the theoretical stages, and it will be well into the future before it is actually implemented. A few utilities, however, are already moving ahead with the technology. more...
Article Viewed 3782 Times | Be the first to comment on this article.

Critical Infrastructure Projects Need Upgraded Emergency Plans

By Samuel Mullen, Principal, MPS Communications & Planning, September, 22, 2009 - Today's smart-grid and critical infrastructure projects represent significant expense and exposure to risk and require dedicated planning. Project plans should show that utility project managers have carefully considered how the loss or compromise of any new system will affect both system operations and the security of the power system and consumers served. more...
Article Viewed 3681 Times | Be the first to comment on this article.

Connecting the Field

By William Atkinson, Freelance Writer, , August, 27, 2009 -

From truck-mounted laptops to mobile laptops to smart phones, Northern Neck Electric Cooperative (NNEC) in Warsaw, Va., has come a long way in the past couple of years. "We have made our field crews into telecommuters," said Mike Hyde, customer information systems (CIS) and IT manager.

more...
Article Viewed 3849 Times | Be the first to comment on this article.

Content continues below ↓

Creating a Talent Pool: Workforce Development

By Susan Story, President and CEO, Gulf Power, July, 28, 2009 - The need for a resourceful workforce is a very real issue facing the energy industry. We lament that our colleges and universities aren't producing enough science, technology, energy and math (STEM) graduates. Just as critical, too few people coming out of high schools, community colleges, and technical schools possess the strong math, science and analytical skills key to being successful skilled technicians and technical support professionals. more...
Article Viewed 3917 Times | 3 Comments

Future Workforce: Meeting the Demands of Tomorrow's Utility

By Ryan Cook, VP, Employment Services Division, Energy Central, June, 23, 2009 - What does intelligence mean in relation to the utility workforce of the future? According to Wikipedia, intelligence is "a property of the mind that encompasses... abilities such as the capacities to reason, to plan, to solve problems, to think abstractly, to comprehend ideas... and to learn." more...
Article Viewed 5045 Times | Be the first to comment on this article.

No Wasted Motion: RFID in the Oil and Gas Industry

By Gary Crouse, Vice President, Wescorp Energy, Inc., May, 26, 2009 - Sometimes, we get so enamored with a technology that we don't use it. Seemingly everybody has heard about the U.S. Department of Defense and Wal-Mart demanding that suppliers have radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on their products or they will not be considered as a supplier. For the most part, RFID was seen as an "inventory thing." Great for retail, but we in the oil and gas industry have heavy, metal objects that don't fit through doorways with readers on them. more...
Article Viewed 4113 Times | 1 Comments

Cleared for Safety: The Critical 8 Steps

By Dan Stacey, Safety Program Consultant, Safety Health & Claims, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, April, 28, 2009 - As discussed in my previous article, any utility in the United States will tell you its No. 1 priority is safety. Earlier, we explored the relationships between utilities and their external agencies in preparing for unified emergency response scenarios. Today I want to share some experience with the most important safety process for protecting employees while they perform their work: the clearance process -- isolating and properly clearing normally energized equipment. more...
Article Viewed 4092 Times | 2 Comments

1-10 of 31 items listed