NewsPascoag Utility District Successfully Executes Power Supply StrategyMay, 2011PUD, together with its energy advisor Energy New England, was able to successfully execute its 2012-2014 power supply strategy as approved by the Board of Utility Commissioners for an extremely beneficial deal in sourcing the Standard Offer Service component of our rates. The basic structure of the deal is this:
This will be a great program for the Pascoag Utility District in helping us keep the Standard Offer power supply portion of our rate structure very competitive for the next three years. Energy New England was a critical partner in helping us execute this strategy. I also want to thank the Board for allowing me and my management team to push this forward. Mike Kirkwood
Pascoag Utility District Celebrates Richard Jenks’ Retirement
April 30, 2011The Utility District staff members threw a retirement party for Richard Jenks at the Knights of Columbus grounds on April 30, 2011. Richard has been an extremely important and dedicated member of our staff for 41 years now, an incredible feat in itself. In fact, Richard has recently been the staff member with the longest tenure as of his retirement. Richard is a first class lineman, which means he has worked diligently in the most severe weather conditions and also in repairing damage from vehicles accidently hitting utility structures. It is no easy thing to be called out in the middle of the night to repair damage in bad conditions, but Richard’s dedication and compassion for our customers has shown through time after time during these events over the years. Our staff would like to congratulate Richard on his long and productive work career. As a show of appreciation, staff chipped in to present Richard with a meaningful and symbolic gift, which is a leather lineman climbing hook, mounted on a beautiful inscribed wooden base. Richard was clearly touched with this gift, which shows in many of the photos linked to this article. So from all the staff at the Utility District, our hat’s off to you Richard. We hope you have a thoroughly enjoyable, and well-earned retirement. Please visit our photo gallery to see pictures from the party!
Winter Storms of 2011
Friday, February 4th, 2011Well, we are about halfway through the winter of 2010/2011, and I must say the weather in this corner of the world has been somewhat more challenging than usual this season! You will experience in the attached photos a strange dichotomy... the scenes show an absolutely beautiful winter wonderland, while at the same time they belie the difficult conditions such weather places on the power and water systems servicing our customers. I know many of our customers are dealing with their own very real issues of snow loading on their roofs, and the fear of ice dams that can back up melting water into their living spaces. For us here at PUD, our major concern is how these severe conditions can affect our power lines and water system in a way where outages have the potential to put our customers in harms' way or discomfort. We have fared much better than I could have hoped for this season with only a few spot outages from these conditions. The week of January 30 through February 5th was our most challenging period, in that the potential for icing of our power system was extremely high. Icing can weight down our lines and structures to the point of breaking, and also cause overhead branches to fall on these lines and short them out. The fact that we only had minor outages during this period was a combination of good luck that the freeze/thaw temperatures prevented major icing, and that the dedication of our staff over the years to build a durable system and maintain that system has kept our facilities robust. Such good construction and care has really helped minimize storm damage, and my hat goes off to our caring staff. When PUD designed the reconstruction of its primary system several years ago, the decision was made to use coated wire which allows the system to withstand substantial branches crossing over the lines. In an uncoated system, falling branches can immediately short out a line. PUD has also had a very aggressive tree-trimming program that has helped keep snow laden branches from crossing our lines to a minimum. So let's hope the weather for the remainder of this winter moderates to a more normal level. In the meantime, the PUD staff will continue to work extremely hard to keep our facilities well-maintained and we will be responsive to the infrequent outages when they do occur. And above all else, we ask our customers to be safe, to report outages and downed lines when they occur, and to always, always stay away from downed power lines. Mike Kirkwood |
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