SRP jobs saved by stimulus funds, officials say

Officials say money preserved positions, speeded installation of 'smart meters'

 by Ryan Randazzo - Nov. 12, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2010/11/12/20101112srp-jobs-saved-by-stimulus.html#ixzz157yAX729

Salt River Project officials said that stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is preserving jobs for meter technicians, electricians and linemen at the non-profit, municipal utility.
Utility officials said that in addition to the long-term energy savings the stimulus projects will bring for SRP customers, the company also is able to keep many people on staff that otherwise would be laid off amid the sluggish economy.
The largest grant from the stimulus act for SRP was $56.9 million to speed up installation of "smart meters" for the company's 940,000 customers. So far, the company has spent about $13 million, according to records from the U.S. Department of Energy.

About 50 SRP employees are working on the project now, said Mike Lowe, SRP's customer-service manager.

"That is 50 people employed locally in this process today that would not be employed if not for the grant," Lowe said.

The new meters, similar to those being installed by utilities nationwide, allow utilities to control electric meters remotely via radio signals, without visiting customers.

They allow the utility to offer time-of-use rates to customers and are helping SRP avoid tens of thousands of service calls a month.

Lowe said the project should pay itself back in less than five years with the avoided costs of physically inspecting each meter for billing.

Customers with smart meters are able to check their power usage the next day online and can request e-mails from SRP estimating their monthly bill based on the amount of power they've been using.

The smart-meter project's price tag tops $114 million when the cost-sharing from SRP is included. The company already had planned smart meters for all its customers, but the stimulus project sped up the installations.

More than 580,000 SRP customers now have the meters, and Lowe said that, so far, SRP has not had to lay off any of the employees who formerly visited those customers to read how much power they had used and send them a bill.

"We have quite an incredible success story," he said. "We've helped them all find other work within SRP or outside the company."

Some of the meter readers also have retired or moved to other jobs on their own, he said.

The stimulus grant will help SRP convert all its customers to smart meters by 2013.

Once the installation is complete, he said, the company still will need the employees now installing the meters.

"We will need more professionals to run the systems and so forth," he said. "We will have an ongoing need for highly skilled people."

SRP also is using $3.1 million in stimulus funds to install solar-electric and water-heating systems on low-income homes, and for large solar projects on schools.

About 30 SRP electricians and linemen are being trained to install the solar-power systems, said Lori Singleton, SRP's sustainable-initiatives manager.

The employees will be trained on how to install the systems and will work on the projects in the next year, filling in time between their regular duties, which have slowed with the economy.

"The fact is we are using them and not laying them off," Singleton said.

Most of the money will go to solar-power systems at schools, lessening the schools' electric bills, she said.

SRP also is installing solar-electric systems on several group homes run by the Centers for Habilitation in Tempe and Marc Center in Mesa, which were selected for the projects based on their previous relationships with SRP, she said.

"They both have several group homes," she said. "We have been evaluating their homes to see which make the most sense for installing solar."

Saving money on their energy bills will allow the non-profits to put more money into their core programs, she said.

SRP also is working with Chicanos Por La Causa and Habitat for Humanity to install solar water-heating systems in low-income neighborhoods, she said.

The utility will use the stimulus money and its own funds to install about 11 school solar-power systems, 60 water-heating systems on low-income homes, and about 40 electric systems on group homes.

Arizona Public Service Co. also has several stimulus-funded initiatives. One is its test in Flagstaff to evaluate operating several solar-power systems on a single utility line, and it has a $4.4 million project similar to SRP's installing water heaters for low-income housing, spokesman Jim McDonald said.