POWERGRAMS

9 HONORS W hen Alabama Power Engineer David Boyd won a prestigious award for a computer application he developed, it wasn't because APC was one of the original 22 companies that founded the Southeastern Electric Exchange (SEE) in 1933. It was because his project has been a game-changer – allowing the company's Distribution organization to use a new approach for analyzing outage data to dramatically improve reliability. "It's truly an innovative idea that is most effective because David is a subject-maer expert in the area of reliability and he was able to develop the program himself," said Steve Thompson, general manager of Power Delivery in Birmingham Division. "This made the end result a very user-friendly program that targets the information our employees need for efficient and effective prioritization of reliability work." Boyd's "Industry Excellence Award" is just one example of how Alabama Power is wielding national influence at SEE, a trade association of investor- owned electric utilities from New Mexico to Pennsylvania. "Alabama Power is not just one of many names on SEE's member company list," said SEE Executive Director Sco Smith. "Instead, the company and its representatives contribute and lead across SEE working groups in pursuit of improved safety, enhanced customer satisfaction and improved reliability, and as they lend a hand to help their companies when called on." SEE's member utilities send employees to convene two or three times a year in what are called "working groups," where they discuss their own experiences, identify what is working and what is not, and come up with beer ways to get the job done from Supply Chain management to Transmission to accident prevention. For example, the Mutual Assistance Commiee is the forum where best practices for storm restoration are shared. It's where company- to-company relationships are established and maintained so utilities are beer equipped to help each other put the lights back on when a catastrophic storm overwhelms a member utility. Alabama Power's Bobby Hawthorne, Distribution Engineering Services manager, is chairman of the commiee. Another example is the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC), which is the American National Standards Institute's safety standard for the industry. The SEE commiee for NESC submits change proposals, and reviews and debates code proposals made by other stakeholders in support of NESC being updated every five years. The vice chairman is Alabama Power's Frank Agnew, an engineer in Transmission Line Services. Agnew cited the examples of NESC proposals related to the physical loading of structures and how having representatives from SEE at the table prevents adoption of burdensome requirements. "In one of those proposals, the required strength of insulators would have been so great that some of our standard structure designs would no longer be practical," he said. "Many times, proposed changes to the code would have negative consequences to the way we operate our system without any positive impact to the safety of our employees or the public. Through SEE, many of these proposals were defeated." A sampling of other working groups in which Alabama Power employees participate includes Rates and Regulatory, Accident Prevention, Network Underground, Real Estate, Supply Chain Management, and Finance and Accounting. "I am proud of the effort all of our employees provide to the SEE organization and the utility industry as a whole," said Senior Vice President of Power Delivery Sco Moore. "Our ability to engage and develop effective engineering solutions to difficult technical challenges always impresses me. These examples of personal leadership in the industry are critically important to the overall success our company can have in providing great solutions for the customers we have a privilege to serve." Chris Habig is APC's manager of Resource Planning and Operations, which makes sure the company generates enough electricity for customers. "My involvement in SEE provides me the most valuable conference or session I aend every year," Habig said. "The small group and active participation with peers from utilities around the country allows for candid and open discussion that really provides value, which I can bring back Shining SEE APC HELPS LEAD THE WAY FOR KEY UTILITY ASSOCIATION By Gilbert Nicholson

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