Public Power - November 2008 - (Page 45)

so anyone reading them knows which members have best practices. “This allows these utilities to contact other utilities with best practices and get information on what they are doing in specific,” he said. The Northern California Power Agency in Roseville has generation resources but no transmission or distribution. “Most of our facilities have seismic capabilities designed into them,” said Ken Speer, assistant general manager of generation services. However, the agency’s dispatch center has an emergency backup dispatch center in the event of a loss of power or loss of the facility. At the agency’s hydro facilities, there are procedures in place that require inspections after earthquakes of a certain magnitude. “We also spec dams and other critical facilities,” said Speer. “We have similar requirements for our combustion turbine facilities, where we have anhydrous ammonia. We want to make sure that doesn’t leak after an earthquake.” The agency inspects its natural gas pipelines after earthquakes of a certain magnitude. Anaheim Public Utilities has plans in place on the electric and water sides. The city has an emergency operations center that is managed by the fire department in collaboration with the utility. The emergency response team meets every month with two water representatives and two electric representatives from the utility to discuss earthquake preparedness. “We also have our own disaster response plans for electric, which are updated every year,” said Manny Robledo, electric operations manager. “We have our main control center here, but we have a back-up control center across town, which is fully functional with SCADA, satellite phones, system maps, etc.” All of the utility’s substations are batteryoperated, so they don’t need power to energize or de-energize the stations. The utility has emergency generators for city facilities. Warehouses are stocked with essential repair materials and fuel. “We also have an aggressive tree-trimming program, which would reduce outages caused by fallen trees during an earthquake,” said Robledo. The utility coordinates disaster response with the city’s emergency operations center, www.APPAnet.org public safety, and community services departments. “We try to restore critical load first, such as if the city sets up a community building for citizens to congregate,” he said. “We also have a contract work force available in case we need to supplement our city crews.” In addition, the utility has contract generators on call for areas that it cannot re-energize right away. “We also have a very robust system, a 69-kV to 12-kV loop system, so if there is a break in any of the 69-kV lines, power can be fed around through the loop,” said Robledo. “We get most of our power off the grid, with external transmission controlled by the California ISO.” Restoration would be coordinated with the Western Electricity Coordinating Council regional security coordinator, in compliance with North American Electric Reliability Corp. standards. “However, if we were separated, we have an internal generator that could pick up some circuits independently,” he said. “We have about 10 percent of our load covered. We are planning to add about 200 megawatts, which would take it up to about 40 percent.“ Plans are equally active and robust for the water services emergency response. “A few years ago, we made an assessment of our water facilities, specifically for seismic retrofit,” said Mike Jouhari, water operations manager. Anaheim made several improvements to its facilities. For example, during a seismic event, failure usually tends to occur where the water pipe connects to the reservoir. To address this, the utility inserted flexible couplings to help absorb any seismic induced movement that might occur. “We also have a couple of portable generators to utilize at our water facilities if there is a power outage,” said Jouhari. The utility updates its disaster response plans and conducts relevant exercises for water every year. In 2007, it was involved in the state’s Golden Guardian exercise, which is a statewide disaster preparedness exercise. “We activated our [emergency operations center] to level 3, which is the highest level,” said Jouhari. “We will participate in the Golden Gaurdian exercise again this year. We also do our own exercises within the city.” ❚ MERCURY CONTROL A TurnKey Approach ONE STOP MERCURY CONTROL SOLUTION FROM IAC We’ve done the hard work for you IAC developed your mercury removal strategy IAC Three Step Program 1. Demonstration IAC Fully Equipped 48’ Long Test Rig Trailer 2. Select PAC Sorbent Gas Stream Removal Testing at Evolution 3. Install Permanent PAC Equipment IAC Design/Build TurnKey Solution Call Today for YOUR plant’s Mercury Analysis RELIABLE & COMPREHENSIVE 1-800-334-7431 IAC is a worldwide leader in fabric filter baghouses, bulk storage and pneumatic conveying design/build equipment technology. 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Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - November 2008

Public Power - November 2008 Contents Perspective 10 Questions Capturing Knowledge Before It Retires Jackson’s GIS Search Keeping a Job Journal Japan Tackles the Kyoto Protocol Getting to 20 by 10 Damless Hydro Power Earthquake: The Hidden Disaster For Engineers Safety For Governing Boards DEED Hometown Connections Parting Shot

Public Power - November 2008

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