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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-27-2023557 March 27, 2023 The Electric Plant Board of the City of Paducah, Kentucky d/b/a Paducah :AP:Rl Power System ("PPS') held a regular Board Meeting on March 27, 2023, in the m WR� Conference Room at the offices of Paducah Power System. 1 2023 The meeting was called to order at 12:00 p.m. by Chairman Ed Hely who LERK presided. Members of the Electric Plant Board present in addition to Chairman Hely were Mark Workman, Darryl Pea, Sandra Wilson, and Evan Rittgers. PPS employees present were Dave Carroll, Rick Windhorst, Andrea Underwood, Doug Handley, Brian Thomasson, Eileen Miller, and Sarah Durbin. Others in attendance at the meeting were Mark Rawlings (Baird), David Snow (Paducah Sun), Hardy Roberts and Kent Price (McMurry & Livingston). Chairman Hely opened the meeting by calling on Brian Thomasson who Safety Moment presented this month's Safety Moment as a review of the PPS Emergency Action Plan. Member Workman then offered a motion, seconded by Member Pea, that Re -appointment of the Electric Plant Board receive and file the municipal order adopted by the City Member Sandra Wilson of Paducah on January 24, 2023 reappointing Sandra Wilson to the Electric Plant Board with her term to expire December 31,2024. Kent Price informed the Board that Member Wilson had submitted her sworn oath of office in writing prior to the meeting. The motion was then adopted unanimously with all members saying aye. Member Wilson then offered a motion, seconded by Chairman Hely, that Appointment of the Electric Plant Board receive and file the municipal order adopted by the City Evan Rittgers to the Electric Plant of Paducah on March 14, 2023 appointing Evan Rittgers to the Electric Plant Board Board with his term to expire February 6, 2027. Kent Price informed the Board that Mr. Rittger had also submitted a sworn oath of office in writing prior to the meeting. The motion was then adopted unanimously with all members saying aye. Chairman Hely next recognized Hardy Roberts whose term as a member of the Electric Plant Board expired in February. Chairman Hely and CEO Dave 558 Recognition of Service of Hardy Roberts Consent Agenda March 27, 2023 Carroll thanked Mr. Roberts for his dedicated service to the Electric Plant Board over the twelve years that he served on the Board. They noted that for many of those years Mr. Roberts served as Chairman not only of the PPS Board, but also of the board of the Kentucky Municipal Power Agency. They further observed that Hardy Roberts was integral to the team that helped lead both PPS and KMPA through financially rough waters some nine to ten years ago. In appreciation of his years of service, a photograph of the Prairie State Energy Campus was presented to Mr. Roberts by the Board. The next item of business to come before the Board was a motion offered by Member Pea, and seconded by Member Workman, that the Electric Plant Board approve the Consent Agenda which consisted of (i) approval ofthe minutes of a regular meeting of the Electric Plant Board held on January 23, 2023; (ii) ratification of the promotion of Employee #252 from Working Supervisor G-1 to Crew Foreman effective February 24, 2023; (iii) ratification of the promotion of Employee #319 from First Class Lineman to Working Supervisor G-2 effective March 13, 2023; (iv) recommendation to the City of Paducah that the accounting firm of Alexander Thompson Arnold PLLC (ATA) be accepted by the City Commission as the firm to provide the statutorily required audit of the Electric Plant Board for the fiscal years ending on June 30 of 2023, 2024, and 2025, and that upon the City's grant of such approval, the appropriate officer(s) of PPS be authorized to execute the engagement letter for auditing services between ATA and the Electric Plant Board dated November 29, 2022; (v) approval of the bid of Border States Electric in the total amount of $103,923.35 as the best evaluated bid for distribution transformers as specified in the bid documents; and (vi) approval of the bid of Alice in the total amount of $307,681 as the best evaluated bid for the 60 -foot digger derrick device to be installed on a new Unit 40 truck when it is obtained in the future. The motion was then adopted unanimously with all members saying aye. 559 Election of Board Christmas in the Park Lighting Display Upgrade Community Scholarship Program Appointment of KMPA Board Representative March 27, 2023 Member Workman then offered a motion, seconded by Member Wilson, that Darryl Pea be elected as Secretary/Treasurer of the Electric Plant Board to replace Hardy Roberts in that office. The motion was then adopted unanimously with all members saying aye. The next item of business was a motion made by Member Rittgers, seconded by Member Wilson, that the Electric Plant Board approve a sole -source justification contract with Animated Lighting, Inc. in the amount of $69,930, plus shipping, to provide the lighting displays and related equipment and services as set forth in the company's quote to PPS dated February 9, 2023. Andrea Underwood then made a presentation to the Board conceming Paducah Power System's desires and plan to improve the Christmas in the Park experience which has become a bit stagnant in recent years in terms of attendance and donations. Ms. Underwood noted that new lighting displays have not been acquired in a number of years and that the type of lighting displays provided by Animated Lighting, Inc. - some of which incorporate music — could breathe new life into what has been a highly successful and important community event sponsored by PPS. She described a number of the lighting displays that are included in the company's quotation. Rick Windhorst shared a video demonstration of a number of the type of displays that the company would build and help install. After brief discussion, the motion was adopted unanimously with all members saying aye. Member Wilson then offered a motion, seconded by Member Workman, that the Electric Plant Board renew its annual $25,000 contribution to the Community Scholarship Program for the calendar years of 2023 — 2026. Chairman Hely noted that the program has been quite successful in increasing high school and college attendance and graduation rates. The motion was then adopted unanimously with all members saying aye. Member Pea then offered a motion, seconded by Member Workman, that Ed Hely be appointed as the Electric Plant Board's elected representative on the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Municipal Power Agency with his service on 560 1 March 27, 2023 the KMPA Board to begin immediately following the KMPA Board meeting on March 28, 2023. The motion was then unanimously adopted with all members saying aye. Member Workman then offered a motion, seconded by Chairman Hely, Ratification of that the Electric Plant Board ratify the employment of Matt Summers for the Employment of position of Storekeeper as PPS Employee # 384 for the Storekeeper p Psalary as set forth in the New Hire memo provided in the Board's meeting materials. The motion was then unanimously adopted with all members saying aye. Member Rittgers next offered a motion, seconded by Member Wilson, Ratification of that the Electric Plant Board ratify the acceptance of the bid of GE Grid for 69kV Acceptance of Circuit Breaker circuit breakers in the amount of $343,770 and the bid of ABB for 15kV circuit Bids breakers in the amount of $117,421.96 as the best evaluated bids for each grouping of breakers, all as recommended Patterson & Dewar. Rick Windhorst then explained that two of the breakers will be used at Substation No. 4, while the remainder will be employed in connection with the ongoing upgrade of Substation No. 3 on Nahm Street. The motion was then unanimously adopted with all members saying aye. Chairman Hely then called on PPS Business Systems Manager, Eileen Miller, who updated the Board on technological enhancements recently implemented by PPS. Ms. Miller described the new Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system and how it is being used to permit quicker payments of utility bills Update on Interactive Voice by customers while providing higher protection from data breaches affecting Response and Othe Technological customers' personal information. She provided data in graphic format depicting Enhancements the various methods used by customers in paying their PPS utility bills. The data demonstrates the wide acceptance of IVR bill payment in only the short time that it has been offered. Rick Windhorst added that the IVR system is also tied into the PPS automated outage reported system allowing faster reporting of customer outages. Eileen Miller also reported on additional technological enhancements recently made available to PPS customers. Customers can now pay bills on their 561 1 March 27, 2023 mobile phones by scanning the QR code printed on customer bills. Customers are now also being provided a "cutoff notification text" shortly before disconnection for nonpayment. These text messages give customers one last opportunity to make the arrangements necessary to maintain electric service in place and seem to be widely appreciated. PPS will shortly unveil an upgraded app for both android and ins phones that will have a new look and provide friendlier, customized services to the customer. Finally, Ms. Miller complimented the PPS Customer Service Representatives for their diligence in late 2022 in processing the high volume of customer questions concerning the Declaration of Domicile forms used in connection with documenting the non - applicability of sales tax on residential utility bills and implementing the use of the new forms. Chairman Hely noted the high volume of PPS bills being paid by credit card as shown by Ms. Miller's data and asked her to present data and recommendations at an upcoming meeting as to how PPS should handle credit card usage or "convenience" fees that some utilities are charging. The next item of business to come before the Board was an update presented by Doug Handley, the PPS Director of Finance, Power Supply and Rates, on PPS electric rates and recent market prices. Mr. Handley employed Update on PPS PowerPoint slides to graphically demonstrate the typical residential customer bill Customer Billing and Electricity amount in each quarter since immediately implementation of the PPS rate before q P Market Prices increase two years ago. The charts demonstrated that bills increased somewhat into the second quarter of FY2022 at which time they basically leveled out for about one year. Customer bills then decreased precipitously due to changes in the Power Cost Adjustment (PCA) into the second quarter of FY2023, then further decreased modestly the next quarter. The typical bill is expected to remain the same into the fourth quarter of FY2023 since the PCA will remain the same for that quarter. Mr. Handley then presented slides depicting similarly shaped graphs of bills for small, medium demand, and large demand commercial customers over the same time frame. He concluded his presentation with a graph 562 Executive Session March 27, 2023 depicting the effect of electricity market prices on PPS customer bills. Mr. Handley explained that the higher electric prices obtained for the sale of excess power sales from KMPA's Prairie State Energy Campus over time translates into a lower PCA that reduces the bills of PPS customers. Dave Carroll pointed out that the graphs presented by Mr. Handley demonstrate that PPS bills for its commercial customers are now significantly lower than they were immediately prior to the system -wide rate increase implemented by PPS two years ago. Member Wilson then offered a motion, seconded by Chairman Hely, that the Electric Plant Board enter into Executive Session for discussion of a specific proposal by a business entity where public discussion of the subject matter would jeopardize the location, retention, expansion or upgrading of a business entity, as permitted by KRS 61.810(1)(g). The motion was adopted unanimously with all members saying aye whereupon the Board entered into Executive Session. Member Wilson next offered a motion, seconded by Member Workman, Adjournment I that the Board return from Executive Session. Said motion was unanimously adopted. Member Wilson then offered a motion seconded by Member Ringers that the meeting of the Electric Plant Board be adjourned. The motion was adopted with all members saying aye, whereupon the meeting was adjourned. " �/ CHAIRMAN ATTESTED BY: