Scottsboro EPB Blog

SEPB Power Alert System - 2011-2012 Winter Update

2011-11-30T20:35:00.005-06:00

Hello and Get Ready for Winter!!! We are already into the Winter season with an overnight low forecast of 26F. We had a RED (Stop) Power Alert this morning Wednesday 11/30 and will have another Thursday 12/1. The main reason for these Power Alerts is to reduce our total Electric System demand. We chose to take this action on the last day of November and the first day of December for very particular reasons. This brief cold snap may very well be the day when we set our system peak demand.

TVA charges us a system demand charge so every kilowatt we can reduce at the exact peak hour we set our monthly demand will save us a great deal of money. On a typical month, SEPB purchases about $2M worth of power from TVA. The system demand charge makes up about 25% or about $500,000 of our TVA wholesale power bill. So, every kilowatt (kw) of demand we can move or reduce during the peak hour will save SEPB and our customers a great deal of money. These alerts are working and we estimate that we have saved about $100k this summer so far. We also know that the Winter months pose the greatest risk of rising demand costs due to unpredictable cold fronts that can drop the temperature sometimes up to 60 degrees in just a few hours.

You can learn all about our Power Alert System by clicking on the following link:

http://www.sepb.net/index.php/power/poweralert

We are not just asking our residential customers to reduce and conserve to lower our peak. We are enrolling industrial customers into TVA's EnerNOC program wherein they are paid to agree to reduce a small amount of load when TVA calls a reduction. Several industries along with the Scottsboro Water, Sewer, and Gas Board (SWSG) are in the process of getting hooked into the EnerNOC system. As the program goes forward, we will expand to as many large commercial and industrial customers that want to participate.

Additionally, SEPB and SWSG are taking steps to reduce electric load during these Power System Alerts. We are running generators at our office and warehouse to reduce about 120 kw. SWSG has agreed to move their water and sewage treatment power usage in these winter months away from the 6:00-8:00 AM time period. This is a good example of the great working relationship we have with Mr. Roy Light and our friends at SWSG.

Please participate in all the Power Alerts we issue this winter. We try to keep these to a minimum and we hope to get better at predicting the exact hour we set our peak demand each month. It is, however, a little easier to predict a peak during extreme weather conditions.

A White Christmas and Cold Weather!!!

2010-12-29T11:31:00.004-06:00

I hope everyone had a Merry "White" Christmas this past week. From what I read in the media, North Alabama had its' first white Christmas since 1969.

The National Weather Service is reporting the average temperature for the North Alabama area is running 6.2 degrees below normal. Heating Degree Days (HDD) is a measurement of how much heat is required. HDDs are calculated by subtracting the average temperature (High + Low/2) from 65 degrees. For the 2010-2011 Winter season, HDDs are 1178 which is 29 above normal. However, December is running 30% above normal. So, heating bills for December will be high.

All this depends on when your electric and gas meters are read and when the cold weather occurs. Scottsboro Utilities has billing cycles each week and every week. So if your meter is read on the week of the 15th and the cold weather didn't begin until the 18th, the higher usage will be next month's bill. Either way, increased usage due to cold weather will be billed sooner or later.

Click Here and you will be directed to a TVA web site where you can do an energy self-audit on your home. Each customer that completes the online audit will receive an energy savings kit from TVA and SEPB. As energy costs continue to rise, it is important that you as an energy consumer be aware of your home's insulation levels and determine if you have any problems that waste energy. It's all the rage right now to replace your windows, but beware that the windows being marketed by some less-than-reputable firms are probably less energy efficient than the ones you already have. You should favor doing business with firms affiliated with the TVA Qualified Contractor Network so you won't be sorry for the financial investment in energy efficiency that may not work so well.

Well, we are just getting started on this Winter season. I hope we can avoid an ice storm or a significant snow event. But rest assured, SEPB crews will be quick to respond to Electric or Cable outages when they start to occur. As always you can contact us at 256-574-2680 or email us at questions@scottsboropower.com. With our new Cisco IP Phone System at SEPB, there are no more busy signals and an easy way for you to leave us a message if all our customer service folks are busy helping other customers. We are also setting up a Twitter page so look for that on your PC or Internet-ready TV in a few weeks!!

A Busy Summer for SEPB

2010-08-16T03:18:00.006-05:00

Scottsboro EPB has had a busy summer in 2010. Most notably, we've seen a return to a normal number of thunderstorm days. According to the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, Alabama usually experiences 50-70 thunderstorms per year. For whatever reason, from the late 1990's until the mid-2000's, North Alabama had only about half the typical number of thunderstorms. 2010 is closer to a normal year and is causing all sorts of power outages and customer equipment damage. Our crews have been busy restoring damage that these storms cause.

Due to local economy being slow, our Electric crews worked on a substation construction project in recent months. This project called the Alternate 13 KV Source for our Scottsboro Primary TVA delivery point, will enable us to transfer our 13 KV load off the main transformers at that station. Our employees became construction workers reading blueprints, digging footings for structure supports, pouring concrete, installing a grounding grid, running conduit and control cable, and installing electronic control panel boards. I am always amazed and proud of the capability and teamwork of our employees. This was also a great learning experience for our young employees. This $900,000 project was financed out of cash flow and did not require any new long-term debt.

Our Cable employees have also had a busy summer. We are experiencing a good bit of growth in business phone line installations and fiber optic data installations. Our phone partner Knology (based in West Point, Georgia) is doing a great job for us. Knology provides the telephone switching and long distance connections so we can concentrate on customer connections and customer service. My grandparents ran a telephone exchange in Danville, Alabama in the early 1900's, so it is neat for me to be able to participate in providing telephone service to our customers here in Scottsboro. Of course my part was only to get this service available and now stay out of the way!

I also can't say enough about our great office staff. The ladies in the office do a great job working with customers and getting their requests or problems addressed. With 8500 bills sent out each month, 8500 Electric customers, 5500 Cable customers, 3200 Internet customers, 1400 Digital Cable customers, and 1800 Phone customers, I think they do a wonderful job. If you think about it, take a moment and thank a utility employee who serves you everyday so that our community will be a great place to live.

SEPB Uses Technology to Serve you Better

2009-12-07T15:41:00.001-06:00

Technology is a wonderful thing. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines technology as the "the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area" and "a capability given by the practical application of knowledge as technological advances increase the usefulness of modern devices.” The Scottsboro Electric Power Board today embraces technology to see if we can improve the services we deliver to you and the customer service we provide for you.

As I write this article, SEPB employees are using technology investments we have made over the last few years. Our Electric Meter department is deploying “smart meters” that will enable us to remotely read the meter, thus saving manpower and vehicle expense. We are planning to have every electric meter automated by 2012. This technology will allow us to read all 8,500 electric meters in less than 15 minutes! Meter reading today takes our meter readers about 100 hours a month using two pickup trucks spread out over 4 weeks to complete.

The April Wind Storm gave our Electric System SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acqusition) System a real workout. More than 1,500 data points are reported back in real-time to our SCADA system via our Metro Fiber Network. Our engineers can monitor and control substation and line circuit breakers and other power system devices. Years ago, lineman or engineers had to drive to each substation, open the gate, enter the substation and find the appropriate switch to control. Our SCADA system hasn’t save a lot of money, but the convenience and collective information it provides us is invaluable to us in times of severe storms like the April Wind Storm. Future plans are to automate more Electric System devices and provide some automatic switching that would automatically by-pass damaged facilities and the majority of the customers to be restored.

SEPB is moving ahead to provide our customers even more convenience. While many utilities and telecommunication providers have closed their offices in the 80’s and 90’s, SEPB expanded our offices at 404 East Willow Street adding a second drive through and an expanded customer service lobby. In 2003, SEPB added online bill presentation and will now make it possible to pay online in the coming weeks. Today’s modern convenience of online banking and purchasing should be enjoyed by all our customers so they can pay their SEPB utility bill online.

SEPB’s Cable System is one of the most successful municipal telecommunication projects in the United States. SEPB is only one of 3 cities in Alabama who provide its’ citizens Cable TV and we have become the first municipal local telephone provider in Alabama. We now serve over 10,000 services to approximately 5,200 cable customers in Scottsboro. SEPB Cable System has saved Scottsboro cable subscribers over $10M since the project’s inception in 1998. This $8.5M investment in technology has been a financial and technological boon for the people of Scottsboro.

SEPB is going to continue to use technology to improve the services we deliver to you. We are careful not to choose technologies that have not matured or are too expensive to deploy. We wait patiently for a particular technology to survive and sustain itself. Only then will we consider purchasing and deploying that technology in our utility.

TVA Will Raise Wholesale Rates October 1, 2008

2008-08-22T16:12:00.002-05:00

It seems this is becoming a nightmare that just won't end - Another power rate increase from TVA!!! This week, the TVA Board of Directors approved a 20% increase in wholesale rates that will take effect October 1, 2008. This will likely translate into a 14-18% retail rate increase for all Scottsboro EPB Electric Customers. Most of the increase, $11.20 per 1,000 kilowatt-hours, will go toward the escalating costs of fuels used to generate electricity. Coal, natural gas, and purchased power costs are increasing at alarming rates consuming hundreds of millions of dollars more in 2008 as compared to 2007.

An additional $2.05 per 1,000 kilowatthours is an increase in base electric rates to cover higher costs in in several other areas - cost of working capital, cost to reserve future power purchase, and investments in energy efficiency.

TVA's budget for 2009 includes $12.613B for operating expenses and $2.088 for capital investments. TVA will spend $232M in clean-air projects to reduce emissions at six TVA coal-burning plants and $325M for improvements to the TVA Transmission System. TVA will spend $1.056B to expand generating capacity which includes work to complete Watts Bar Nuclear Unit 2.

I want you to know the Scottsboro EPB is working to keep power rates as low as possible. In January, SEPB absorbed $350,000 in additional fuel costs charged by TVA. Then, in April of this year, SEPB absorbed an additional $300,000 of increased costs when TVA raised wholesale power rates to SEPB $1.3M. We will look at what we can do to absorb some of these recent power increases as well.

For now, SEPB recommends that every electric customer reduce use especially during the Summer months from 3-8 PM and from 6-9 AM in the Winter months. During those time periods, TVA is having to purchase expensive power from outside the Valley. If we can reduce the amount TVA has to purchase and continue to help TVA build new low-cost generation, it is possible to slow the increase of these electric rate increases.

The Cost of Energy Continues to Rise!

2008-06-24T14:45:00.000-05:00

The cost of energy seems to be increasing every day. TVA raised electricity prices on April 1, which most of which had to be passed along to our customers here at Scottsboro EPB. However, I have asked the Board of Directors over the last few months to soften the blow of these power increases to our customers. At the March Board meeting, the SEPB Board of Directors approved a rate increase that was $300,000 less than the TVA rate increase. This will ease the burden of a $1M rate increase and a $900,000 fuel cost adjustment TVA recently passed. Our Goodyear Generation Project will provide us with some cash flow profit that will offset these increases by TVA. We will continue to work hard to keep our power rates lower than the national average.

There seems to be no end to rising energy prices. With gasoline at $4.00 and diesel fuel at $4.70, everyday life is getting more expensive all the time. Now, even a quick trip to Walmart is a decision to spend at least $3.00 on gas and perhaps more. People are deciding to combine several individual trips into one large trip to make 3 or more stops. Since our country and our county is fairly rural, everyone has to drive everywhere. With almost no public transportation option, we have to either drive our car, depend on a friend, ride a bicycle, or walk. It's not much fun to walk when it's 95 F degrees outside!!

With the rising cost of food and everything else, many people are choosing to pull back on their spending for non-essential items. Recreation, clothing, eating out, and vacations have become the victims of these high-fuel prices. I wish I could say it is going to get better, but I don't see any relief in sight. A lot of us are stuck with low mpg SUV's and trucks and can not afford to trade vehicles. But, I suppose the next vehicle purchase we all make will be one that gets significantly higher miles per gallon.

Ice Storm hits Mid-West - Updated!

2007-12-11T12:08:00.000-06:00

A deadly Ice Storm has hit greater mid-West during the past few days. More than 1 M customers in 5 states are without electricity. Utility crews from surrounding states will come into Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Illinois. In fact, our Asplundh tree trimming crew has been called to go to Missouri to help there. CNN has just reported that the power outage in Oklahoma is the worst in their history.

This storm reminds us all the danger we have during the winter months when an ice storm could strike anywhere in our area. Ice storms in 1938, 1960, 1986, and 1996 paralyzed Scottsboro and much of North Alabama. It is a good time to get emergency supplies purchased in preparation of severe winter weather. Most grocery stores have a list of emergency supplies for you to go purchase. Also, a quick search of the Internet will also yield a good emergency supply list.

There is a very good possibility of major power outages would occur if we were to see ice accumulations greater than 1/4-inch. Our aggressive tree trimming practices should have helped reduce outages to some degree. But, there are many, many trees that overhang utility lines in the downtown area of the city that would pose problems.

I ask that customers cooperate with us in trimming or removing danger trees. If outages occur, please be assured that SEPB crews will be working to restore service as quickly as possible. If the outage event creates widespread damage to our electric or cable systems, we will call in crews from other utilities to assist in repairing the damage. SEPB crews have helped Huntsville Utilities, Chattanooga EPB, Pulaski ES, and Sheffield Utilities in the past. We have mutual agreements in place that allow us to call on other utilities for assistance during large outages.

Hopefully, we will get through this Winter season without seeing a major snow or ice storm. But, you never know! Be prepared for the unexpected!!

Cable TV and Digital TV Signals

2007-10-26T15:01:00.000-05:00

Many customers have called us to ask about what they need to do when the transition to digital occurs in February 2009. The FCC has ruled that TV Broadcast stations must stop broadcasting their signal on analog frequencies by February 17, 2009. If you receive your broadcast signals through cable TV or satellite, you do not have to do anything. Scottsboro EPB has agreements in place and equipment in service that is receiving digital transmissions from all of the Huntsville and Chattanooga TV stations. REMEMBER - You do not have to do anything to prepare for this if you are a SEPB Cable Customer!!

So, you don't have to purchase a new digital or HD TV or even a digital receiver for your TV. But, if you want to take advantage of our Digital Cable and Digital HD service, you will have to subscribe to our Digital Cable Service. SEPB's Digital and Digital HD cable services are available now and use a digital set-top converter box. HD TVs do offer enhanced viewing of movies and sports programming that many customers are enjoying.

Additionally, customers ask what TV technology is right for them - tube, projection, or flat-screen are the types of TVs on the market today. For flat screens, customers have to decide whether they want LCD or Plasma. Consumers should evaluate viewing angle, screen sizes, burn-in, brightness, product life, and power consumption. Also, these larger flat-screen TVs use more energy and produce more heat that will be emitted into the room. A small room could become noticeably warmer if a large flat-screen TV is selected.

Don't be misled by some slick TV salesman and make an expensive unnecessary purchase. For example, SEPB Cable and Digital Cable customers do not have to buy a digital receiver (as much as $500 or more) if they buy a digital TV. Our digital converter box handles that and those can be rented from us for a low monthly fee. If you have additional questions about digital TV's or the digital transition, please feel free to email me at jimmy@sepb.net or call us at 574-2680.

Utility Customer Appreciation Day - October 11, 2007

2007-09-12T09:22:00.000-05:00

We would like to invite all the Scottsboro EPB and Scottsboro WSG customers out for our annual Customer Appreciation Day. We will have several family-oriented activities for everyone to enjoy. SEPB and SWSG take this time each year to thank our customers for their business they they give us for all the services we provide. SEPB and SWSG operate the utility offices at 404 East Willow Street for the convenience of our customers. In most cities, utility customers have to call and drive all over town to sign up for water, sewer, gas, garbage, electricity, cable TV, and high-speed Internet.

We will have a portable fishing cove from 10 AM-7:30 PM so that schools can bring their students over for an outdoor activity. We will also have several other activities for children to participate in as well. SEPB employees will be providing bucket truck rides for all those willing to venture up!!

As the heat of Summer breaks and we prepare the the Winter season ahead, please join us as we simply say - Thank you!! If you have any questions please call us at 574-2680 or email us at questions@scottsboropower.com

Extreme Heat loads up TVA Power System

2007-08-15T10:27:00.000-05:00

Temperatures over the last week have reached 100 F here in Scottsboro. Our power system is performing well with loads of 69 megawatt demand on Friday at 5:00 PM. We only are seeing demands reaching about 40% of our system capacity. But, heat does cause equipment failures from time to time.

A significant outage occurred this past Saturday on Wynn Road just east of the entrance to City Park. A dead pine fell on our 3-phase line that loops around Wynn Road. Our new recloser just installed on Bob Jones operated and locked out to keep the rest of that feeder online. The location of the fault created several restoration obstacles for our Electric Operations personnel. They had to cut jumpers and operate the Bob Jones recloser a couple times to restore power to as many customers as possible until repairs could be completed. The outage affected approximately 389 customers for about 75 minutes.

We are trying to keep the electricity and cable on during the days of 100 degree heat. We have ample capacity and are in daily contact with TVA in assisting them as power system conditions change. TVA and its' distributors have an Emergency Load Curtailment Program in place to deal with emergency conditions that can occur during extreme weather events such as heat, winter storm, or tornadoes.

If you know of older individuals that live by themselves, please take a moment to call them to check on their well-being. It will give you a chance to talk or visit your neighbor to see if they are ok. We have donated some portable fans to CASA in case someone needs one.

Tree Trimming to Prevent Outages

2007-07-16T16:23:00.000-05:00

We have contracted with Asplundh Company to perform tree-trimming work for us. The first crew started to work today on circuits out of our Willow Street Substation. This 3-person crew will be trimming trees from around distribution lines to prevent outages. With the recent rains following a period of drought, the trees will show a significant amount of growth over the next six weeks.

This Asplundh crew are clad in orange to promote visibility and safety. The Asplundh foreman will usually visit customers on each street to give them some notice that they will trim on their particular street. We hope their work will allow us to reduce outages and have minimum impact on our customers property. We realize everyone loves their trees and our tree trimmers as well as our contractors will do everything possible to keep the right-of-way clear and prevent damage to private property.

If you have any questions, please call us at 574-2680 or email me at jimmy@sepb.net

4th of July Holiday

2007-07-01T17:20:00.001-05:00

Scottsboro EPB and WSG offices will be closed for the 4th of July Holiday. Our offices will re-open on Thursday July 5th at 8:00 AM. If you have a electric or cable outage, please call 574-2680 and press 1 to speak to a dispatcher during the 4th. If you have Internet trouble, press 2 and an Internet Technician will call you back shortly.

Please take time to be thankful for the free country in which we live. In the winter of 1775-1776, General George Washington led our troops through pivotal battles driving the English out of cities like Boston, Trenton, and Concord. With just a few troops as compared to the English and the will to be a free nation, General Washington and his fellow Americans were victorious. Later as the Continential Congress convened in Philadelphia, the authors of the Constitution penned the Declaration of Independence which endowed the basic rights of all citizens.

As the global war on terror continues, let us remember and be thankful for our free nation and all the brave men and women who have sacrificed their own personal lives and fortunes so that our country and her citizens can work, go to school, go to church, and travel in freedom. May all of you have a great 4th of July Holiday.

We Need Some RAIN!!!!!!

2007-06-11T22:45:00.000-05:00

We are in the midst of the worst drought in over 100 years here in the Tennessee Valley. For the Scottsboro area, we are more than 17 inches below normal in rainfall. Luckily, our community is right on the Tennessee River and we have an abundant supply of fresh water. TVA is holding back water to keep the lake levels at their Summer pool.

TVA has notified all the power distributors that continued dry weather may cause the fuel adjustment to be slightly higher that previous forecast. The restart of Brown's Ferry Unit 1 was supposed to bring about a negative (or credit) on TVA's Fuel Cost Adjustment, but now I am starting to fear that this dry weather may wipe out part or all of that credit.

I think it is time to do a rain dance, ask your favorite pilot to seed the clouds, pray for rain, or anything else that might help bring rain. We really need a few good soakers right about now. Does anyone have any brilliant ideas? If so, send them to me at jimmy@sepb.net.

Severe Weather Alert this Afternoon

2007-06-08T15:43:00.000-05:00

The NWS has issued a Sever Weather Alert for this afternoon. With the present dry soil conditions, any significant storm with lightning could produce numerous outages and some electrical equipment damage.

I would recommend unplugging any sensitive electronic device not plugged into a surge protector to save it from being exposed to potential lightning surges.

If outages do occur, we have Electric and Cable crews on standby to restore service as soon as possible.

Memorial Day 2007

2007-05-27T21:35:00.000-05:00

Our office is closed Monday May 28 for Memorial Day. We will re-open Tuesday at 8:00 AM. This is a federal holiday, formerly known as Decoration Day, was first observed in 1868. Congress designated it Memorial Day in 1968 and set its' observance for the last Monday in May. This day we honor those men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice of their lives in service to our country.

I encourage you to fly an American flag this Memorial Day to honor the sons and daughters of Scottsboro and Jackson County that have died in combat protecting our precious freedoms that we enjoy every day.

I also encourage you to attend the Memorial Day ceremony at 11:00 AM at Collins Elementary School. The local VFW and American Legion will participate.

Have a safe and enjoyable holiday.

Negotiations with TV Station Continues!!!

2007-05-23T21:54:00.000-05:00

I want to express my sincere appreciation for all our customers that called, emailed, and became informed of our work to come to terms with a broadcast TV station from Huntsville. We have resumed negotiations with their consultant and I hope they will be productive and will achieve a workable agreement soon.

We will continue to be diligent and sincere to protect the interest of our customers in an effort to keep our rates low. I will tell you that there are other channels that keep raising their rates of which we don't negotiate directly. You should also realize that your Basic cable rate of $30 per month is about half the rate where no competition exists. Our one rate increase of $2 in 2004 has been more than eaten up by programming costs increases. Again, of which we don't negotiate directly. So, sooner or later, we are going to have to increase rates a little to offset these increases.

Hopefully, the next time I write about our negotiations with the TV stations, I will be able to bring you good news.

I thank you for your support. I will do my best to answer each email individually in the next few days.

Jimmy Sandlin
General Manager, SEPB

Internet Network Maintenance set for Wednesday 6 AM

2007-05-01T23:10:00.001-05:00

Our Telecom Staff will be doing network maintenance on our Internet equipment this Wednesday beginning at 6 AM. The work should be concluded in about 30 minutes. During this maintenance activity Internet customers will lose access to the Internet and will have no email service.

I apologize for the lateness of this notice. I was out of the office most of the day and did not have access to a computer. If you have any questions, please call our office at 574-2680 or send an email to feedback@scottsboropower.com.

Squirrels and Trees Cause Numerous Outages in April

2007-05-01T08:46:00.000-05:00

As April has ended, our operations staff hopes that outages will reduce in number. Of the 29 outages that occurred in April, almost half of these were caused by animals and trees.

We track outages and calculate outage indices that are widely used by the utility industry. CAIDI (Customer Average Interruption Duration Index) is the average length of outage for each customer that is interrupted has fallen from about 40 minutes in 2006 to less than 20 minutes so far in 2007. The SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) is the average minutes interrupted per customer the the year has fallen from 110 minutes in 2006 to around 75 minutes today.

We initiated a Distribution Reliability Initiative in 2004 to improve system reliability using advanced techniques used by larger utilities. We will continue to work to reduce the number of outages and their duration for all customers.

Internet Equipment Upgrade set for Tuesday May 1

2007-04-30T13:43:00.000-05:00

Our Telecom staff will be installing a new piece of network equipment in preparation for additional bandwidth to be installed in the coming weeks. This installation will begin at 6:00 AM on Tuesday May 1st and should only take a few minutes.

Barring any unforeseen events, the Internet system should be down less than 15 minutes. If you have any questions, please call our Telecom Staff at 574-2682 or email us at feedback@scottsboropower.com.