September Digest: Keep Calm, Fall Is Here

Posted on October 1, 2014 by veracityamg

September is already over. Fall entered the stage and leaves are showing a whole new range of orange and red. Here is an overview of posts we released on this blog this past month and key news from the utility industry.

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Blog posts

News

What happened to that national high voltage transmission system? http://ow.ly/AZaZj ““You can’t get enough clean energy from distributed resources,” said former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) chairman and staunch distributed energy resources (DERs) advocate Jon Wellinghoff.”

State governments pushing cities and utilities to get microgrids http://ow.ly/AZcSJ “The microgrid concept is gaining popularity especially in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey and New York, all of which have microgrid initiatives.”

U.S. utility’s 10-year $8.1bn transmission investments to boost economy http://ow.ly/AZXBL “The investment will bring $4.3 million in salary and benefits, along with $640 million for state and local governments, NJ Spotlight reports.”

Electric grid facing security threats from all sides http://ow.ly/B5RQ1 “”The secure and reliable delivery of electricity is a vital cornerstone of modern American society,” according to the CSPC.”

U.S.-wide blackout possible from small scale attack: FERC http://ow.ly/BhIeP “The report states that of the 55 substations in the nation, it would only take nine of them to fail in order for the whole power system to go down. The U.S. has only three separate grid systems.”

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Duke Energy set to auction off a million items from shuttered Crystal River nuclear plant http://ow.ly/BLME8 Auction is a good way to recover investment. We can help you do the same: http://ow.ly/BLMVy

Longest transmission link delivers renewable power http://ow.ly/BDWtQ “ABB has commissioned the converter stations to the 3,150 megawatt Rio Madeira High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) link in Brazil. At approximately 2,400 kilometers, the power connection is the longest transmission link in the world, according to ABB.”

Boldest utilities moving to the cloud http://ow.ly/BVVCI “Cloud computing is presenting challenges for regulated utilities in that the opportunity presented by the cloud must be looked at differently in the utility industry, according to IDC Energy Insights.” http://ow.ly/i/70EiL Veracity Connect is a part of the cloud and makes things easy for utilities to source critical spares: http://ow.ly/BVW4g

The utility that wants to build microgrids for customers (should you do the same?) http://ow.ly/BOKha “”Far from threatening the utility business, as the naysayers would have it, microgrids could present new business opportunities for utilities, with two recently launched initiatives pointing the way,” says a recent article in Engerati.”

Dynegy to buy over $6B in power generation assets from Duke, ECP http://ow.ly/BYHx5 “The company plans to spend $2.8 billion on Duke’s retail business and ownership interest in several plants and $3.45 billion for assets of Energy Capital Partners, or ECP. The deal will add about 12,500 megawatts of coal and gas generation and expand Dynegy’s retail business into Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.”

Have a great October month!

Don’t miss a chance to get in touch with us by calling us at 866-694-1252 or info@veracityamg.com.

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We Are Ringing At The Door! Here Is The July Newsletter!

Posted on July 31, 2014 by veracityamg

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Veracity Connect Newsletter Investment Recovery

The 7 R’s of Investment Recovery

Last month the second R, Reconditioned, was discussed. Rebuilding assets such as valves, pumps, transformers and motors is more economical than purchasing new.

This month we will consider the third R which is Return to supplier. In order to maximize the value of this option, it is suggested that a return clause be added to supplier contracts.

Companies often have assets, such as standard equipment and parts, in new condition in their original packaging. Although they are considered as obsolete within the company, they still have value on the market. If a pre-existing return clause is in the contract, these items can be returned to the supplier at a pre-arranged buy back price!

Occasionally it can be effective to use a third party to contact your supplier. The third party can discuss return options rather than making the product available to the public. Often, for competitive reasons, vendors will buy back the product in order to keep it off the marketplace.

So, before getting rid of surplus items, review the contract to determine if there are return options. If there are not, you may try to leverage upcoming purchases and have your supplier discount the new purchase with the return of old stock. You could also look for assistance from a third party.

Veracity brings on new clients!

Generation, transmission and distribution utility, 490,000 customers, $7 billion in assets

Distribution utility, 315,000 customers, 35,400 transformers

Transmission utility, serves 85% of Albertans, 280 substations

Generation utility, 36 energy facilities, serves 500,000 homes

Your Feedback

What our clients are saying!

“Veracity’s process not only helped us maximize the recovery value of the decommissioned assets, but saved us both administrative and removal expenses. Veracity’s service was seamless and added significant value to the substation decommissioning”.

Herbert Haller P.Eng.
Vice-President, Engineering & Stations
Waterloo North Hydro Inc.

Strategic Critical Spares Management

The development of a critical spares management strategy is no longer nice to have, but rather a must have to avoid the risks associated with large power transformer failures.

With aging infrastructure, threats of vandalism and extreme weather, utilities must assess their supply of critical spares. Utilities can no longer afford to take an internal approach and must focus on external collaboration to share risks and costs. Due to long lead times and cost of these units, it only makes sense to adopt an industry wide spares program.

The report “Large Power Transformers and the U.S. Electric Grid”, published in April 2014 by U.S. Department of Energy, shows how critical Large Power Transformers (LPTs) are, and exposes the risks of these units going down.

“LPTs have long been a concern for the U.S. Electricity Sector, because the failure of a single unit can cause temporary service interruption and lead to collateral damage […]. Key industry sources have identified the limited availability of spare LPTs as a potential issue for critical infrastructure resilience in the United States” and in North America in general.

A collaborative network such as Veracity Connect helps utilities share an effective service model. It allows them to access critical spares such as transformers and optimize buying rates and logistics to anticipate failure.

A glimpse of assets we manage for our clients

Transformers (substations)
Pad mount transformers
Pole mount transformers
Switchgear
Valves
Steam turbines
Fleet vehicles, such as:

1997 “Reach All” Freightliner FL80 Double Bucket Aerial Truck – 45,600 K, last certified in February 2014Interested in some of these assets? Contact us at 1-866-694-1252 or info@veracityamg.com.