Crews from Houston-based CenterPoint Energy Inc. are among hundreds of out-of-state utility workers helping Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. with power restoration after the May 20, 2013, deadly tornado that hit Moore and south Oklahoma City.

Employees of Houston-based CenterPoint Energy Inc. are among the hundreds of out-of-state utility workers helping restore power in the wake of this week’s deadly tornadoes.

CenterPoint has about 100 employees in Moore and south Oklahoma City assisting Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. with repairs. While the utilities have worked together on storms before, this week’s restoration has added significance for the two utilities since their parent companies decided to form a master limited partnership for their midstream operations. The deal closed May 1 and will combine OG&E’s Enogex division and CenterPoint’s pipelines and operations into an $11 billion company.

Bruce Baxter, operations manager for CenterPoint, said the utility has several crews in the area, including about 40 workers doing high-line work. Most of the workers left Houston early Tuesday and arrived that evening to a staging area at Crossroads Mall. The high-line workers came in on Wednesday.

CenterPoint has been concentrating on repairs around Briarwood Elementary School in Moore, Baxter said. Most of the high-line work has been near Southmoore High School. They are working 16-hour days to restore service and expect to be here five to seven days.

“We’re helping rebuild the infrastructure around the most damaged areas so they’ll have power when they’re ready to rebuild,” Baxter said.

Baxter said CenterPoint has plenty of experience restoring power after hurricanes, but tornadoes aren’t as frequent in the Houston area as they are in Oklahoma. Hurricanes typically inflict damage over a widespread area. He said tornado damage is limited to a smaller area but can be very intense, like the the devastation in Moore and south Oklahoma City.

Outside of the new ties between their parent companies, CenterPoint and OG&E crews get to see some old friends when they team up for power restoration following disasters.

“We’ve worked other storms with OG&E and over the years had a good relationship,” Baxter said. “You get used to seeing some of the same faces.”

 

]]> http://blog.newsok.com/energy/2013/04/24/recap-of-the-osu-energy-conference/feed/ 0 http://blog.newsok.com/energy/2013/04/16/irs-clarifies-rules-on-construction-to-qualify-for-wind-tax-credit/ http://blog.newsok.com/energy/2013/04/16/irs-clarifies-rules-on-construction-to-qualify-for-wind-tax-credit/#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:54:23 +0000 Paul Monies http://blog.newsok.com/energy/?p=2691 Congress granted the wind industry a one-year extension of a critical production tax credit in the deal cut at the end of 2012 on the so-called “fiscal cliff.”

But the extension also changed the trigger on when the tax credit can be claimed.

If you’re a fan of watching things blow up, then have I got a video for you. The Los Angeles Times has a great video of a power plant in Chula Vista, Calif., being demolished over the weekend in a controlled implosion. A Tulsa-based company, Dykon Explosive Demolition Corp., was one of two companies in charge of the demolition.

The newspaper said the plant was built by San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and came online in 1960. The 700-megawatt generating station burned fuel oil and was shut down in 2010. Developers are hoping to turn the site into a park and resort hotel. Read more from the Los Angeles Times here.

Those words grace the cover of the Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings, which was first published in 1991. The 10th edition was released Tuesday.

Lead author Jennifer Thorne Amman said the book can help customers achieve the savings promised on its cover.

“Every kilowatt-hour you avoid using saves over a pound of carbon dioxide that would otherwise be pumped into the atmosphere. So, if you take your 20-cubic-foot refrigerator from 1998 and replace it with an energy-efficient 2012 model, you’ll save more than 300 kilowatt-hours and 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year. That translates to real savings on your energy bill, and real progress toward curbing carbon dioxide emissions from your home,” she said.

The consumer guide includes more tips than just replacing older appliances.

The latest edition of the guide boasts major expansions and updates to the lighting, home electronics, building envelope, and water heating chapters, offering information that will help homeowners and renters decide which improvements will save them the most money and help them incorporate energy efficiency into future projects.

Hard copies of the book are available from New Society Publishers or major book retailers. The publisher also offers an e-book version.

Great Scott!

Up to 353 coal-fired power plants in 31 states should be shuttered, the Union of Concerned Scientists said Tuesday.

The environmental group detailed its plan in a report, “Ripe for Retirement: The Case for Closing America’s Costliest Coal Plants.”

The group said the country’s older, less-efficient coal plants should be closed because it will cost more to install scrubbers than to use natural gas- or wind-powered generators instead.

The targeted coal plants produce about 6 percent of the country’s electricity and represent about 59 gigawatts of power generation capacity — or more than 48 times the amount of power needed to travel through time.

Oklahoma’s coal-fired plants were not on the list, even though Tulsa-based Public Service Co. of Oklahoma announced in April that it will close its last two coal units by 2016 and 2026.

Satellite view of Hurricane Sandy on the Eastern United States on Oct. 29, 2012. Image courtesy of NOAA.

Crews from a couple of Oklahoma electric utilities are headed east to help with power restoration in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. sent a 60-person storm team to help Maryland’s Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. earlier this morning, said OG&E spokesman Brian Alford. OG&E also mobilized 69 contract lineman and 90 tree trimmers.

Public Service Co., a unit of Ohio-based American Electric Power, sent about 70 employees and contractors from Tulsa, McAlester and Lawton over the weekend to Wytheville, Va. They are expected to arrive this afternoon or evening and receive their assignments there, said Stan Whiteford, PSO’s spokesman.

Meanwhile, energy monitoring firm Genscape has opened up its proprietary system to the public during the storm for updates on electricity, power plants and refinery outages.

While Sandy has yet to come ashore, the effects of the storm are already being felt along the Mid-Atlantic and into New England. One estimate from engineers at Johns Hopkins University said up to 10 million people could lose power from the storm.

A new documentary on energy, “Switch,” is getting good reviews from both environmentalists and those in the energy industry.

I had the chance to see it last night at a screening in Oklahoma City. (It continues tonight and Thursday.)

I’ve seen the controversial fracking film “Gasland” and the energy industry’s response, “Truthland,” so my tolerance for talking points on both sides of the debate was fairly low. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth and measured tone of “Switch.”

The movie, which was made with the help of the American Geosciences Institute foundation, follows geologist and University of Texas professor Scott Tinker around the world as he explores where and how our energy is harvested. It includes some spectacular shots of massive coal mines in Wyoming, hydro projects in the fjords of Norway and wind farms in Texas.

“Switch” also features a short interview with Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon and follows a Chesapeake “fracking” crew out in the field. The documentary doesn’t shy away from discussing the public concerns about hydraulic fracturing and has interviews with environmentalists, policy makers and industry officials.

But “Switch” is more than just fracking. It takes a comprehensive look at the world’s energy needs, with a particular emphasis on the rapidly growing demand for energy in China, India and other developing countries. The takeaway? Those countries will be using coal and oil to meet their future energy needs, and there’s little the developing world can do about it.

It doesn’t take long for serious discussions about energy to get complicated, but “Switch” boils down all the talk of megawatts and BTUs to a simple unit: the amount of energy an average person uses in a year. (If you’re curious, Tinker defines it as about 20 million watt-hours of energy.) From an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico to a concentrated solar plant in Spain, the movie defines the energy produced in terms of how many people it would power.

For all the technology improvements in energy, “Switch” makes it clear that it comes down to scale. A technology advancement or discovery might be great, but if you can’t scale it up to serve large numbers of people, then it will remain a niche solution. Through a combination of renewables and nuclear power, the film estimates the world will reach a “switch” point in 2064. That’s when the use of renewables and nuclear will match the use of “foundational” fuels coal and oil.

The last part of “Switch” focuses on energy efficiency and what individuals can do at home to save money–and energy. The efficiency side of the equation is often forgotten about in the political fights over energy policy, but the film makes it clear that the energy we waste is just as important as the energy we create use.

If you can’t make it to the remaining screenings in Oklahoma City, check out the “Switch” website, which has short videos and some highlights from the documentary.

Research students from the the University of Alabama measure wind speeds as Hurricane Isaac makes landfall, Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012, in New Orleans, La. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Crews from Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. are traveling to Louisiana today to help with power restoration in the wake of Hurricane Isaac.

Latest estimates from the storm put more than 500,000 people without power.

OG&E Electric Services said 71 employees will help Cleco Power. They will stage at Cleco’s headquarters in Pineville, La., and be dispatched to surrounding areas in need of help.

OG&E is a member of the Southeast Electric Exchange, which organizes mutual assistance teams from utilities across the south after storms.

“Our crews are always ready and willing to help others in a time of need during outages like this,” said Mike Mathews, OG&E’s vice president of power delivery operations, in a statement. “They’re working safely to get power back to the citizens of Louisiana, or wherever they’re needed, and they’ll continue until the job is done.”

In March, OG&E won the “Emergency Assistance Award” from the Edison Electric Institute for its efforts to restore service following several regional weather emergencies in 2011. The award recognizes utilities that help neighboring or regional utilities that have been disrupted by severe weather outages. Among the service restoration events OG&E helped with were severe thunderstorms, flooding and tornado damage in Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and Alabama.

Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. has billed its smart grid program as a way for customers to exercise more control over their electricity costs.

But such promises from Centerpoint Energy did not sway a Houston woman.

Thelma Taormina got her gun when she was unable to prevent a Centerpoint worker from trying to install as smart meter at her home, according to Houston television station KENS5.

Taormina, 55, contends smart meters are an unnecessary violation of her privacy.

“Our constitution allows us not to have that kind of intrusion on our personal privacy,” she told the TV station. “They’ll be able to tell if you are running your computer, air conditioner, whatever it is.”

Texas regulators are considering a measure that would allow residents to have smart meters removed from their homes.

There is not an opt-out program for OG&E customers in Oklahoma or Arkansas, company officials said, because that would create holes in the network and limit the system’s benefits to customers and the company.

OG&E has installed more than 600,000 smart meters in Oklahoma, while Centerpoint has put in more than 2 million in Houston.

For now, Taormina will be allowed to keep her old meter, but her utility company is not pleased with her actions.

“We are deeply troubled by anyone who would pull a gun on another person performing their job,” a CenterPoint spokesperson told KENS5. “CenterPoint will be taking additional steps – including court actions – because what happened is dangerous, illegal and unwarranted.”

Taormina has formed a group called “We the People” to push regulators to allow Texas residents to choose whether they want smart meters.