Hudson Public Power (HPP) was honored for its achievements with awards for safety, innovation, promotion, and system improvements from American Municipal Power (AMP)/Ohio Municipal Electric Association (OMEA) during its annual conference.
HPP received an Innovation Honorable Mention in recognition of the Aerial Inspections/Photography project, which utilized a drone and camera to inspect for preventative maintenance opportunities, capital project documentation, and storm damage. Using infrared cameras, preventative maintenance of the tall electrical field structures is now performed in-house, rather than contracted out, saving thousands of dollars each year. Previously, workers walked the length of the lines, looking for the cause of an outage. The new technology is faster, more cost-effective and provides additional information for staff and citizens. Drone photography not only makes it quicker and easier to spot the cause of a problem, but helps residents stay informed with pictures and information that were not previously available.
Hudson Public Power received a System Improvement Honorable Mention in recognition of the Prospect Substation Rebuild, which replaced the utility’s oldest and most heavily used 12.47 kV substations with a new switch house and relay, transformer upsizing and new 69 kV ring bus, greatly increasing system reliability for one third of the utility’s customers, as well as the customer with the greatest electric demand. Installing the new substation was a challenge to make sure the electric load was transferred to other feeders to ensure power was not lost to customers during the construction. The result was increased capacity, increased system reliability, and better overall efficiency.
Hudson Public Power received a Public Power Promotion Honorable Mention in recognition of the Grade School Education Program, which consisted of interactive training classes for local grade school students on the topics of the types of generation resources, A/C and D/C power, and solar arrays.
Hudson Public Power also received a Safety Commendation in the Transmission and Distribution category for less than one percent time lost due to reportable accidents or injuries.
The annual AMP/OMEA Conference was held in Columbus Sept. 23 – 25, 2019 and was attended by more than 375 municipal officials and industry representatives, with speakers from various national organizations.
About AMP
American Municipal Power, Inc. is the nonprofit wholesale power supplier and services provider for 135-member municipal electric systems in the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana, Maryland and Delaware. Combined, these public utilities serve more than 650,000 customers. AMP members receive their power supply from a diversified resource mix that includes wholesale power purchases through AMP and the open market and energy produced at AMP and member-owned generating facilities utilizing fossil fuel, hydroelectric, solar, wind and other renewable resources. For additional information, visit AMP’s website at www.amppartners.org.
Photo Caption: Marc Gerken, AMP president/CEO (right), presents Frank Comeriato, Hudson assistant city manager for operations (left), with an AMP Innovation Honorable Mention.