Empire District Electric adds System Reliability Center

Empire District Electric Co. opened its new System Reliability Center at 920 Broadway in Joplin with a Nov. 21 ceremonial ribbon cutting.

The center will be a hub for subcontractors working with the company's vegetation management department and house employees within the system reliability division.

Josh Clements will serve as manager of system reliability, overseeing the electrical transmission and distribution system for sale and reliable delivery to Empire customers.

Scott Mackey will serve as supervisor of vegetation management, coordinating with sub-contractors and supervising Empire's vegetation crews. Sam McGarrah, director of engineering and line services, will manage the center.

The center is located in a renovated historic Joplin building - it once housed Joplin's bottling center for Dr Pepper, and served as a taxi station. American Construction now owns the building and coordinated with Empire on renovations. Empire leases the building from American Construction.

"We're pleased to be a part of the revitalization of historic buildings downtown and the strengthening of neighborhoods," said Mike Palmer, vice president of commercial operations.

"This center allows us to view and improve on the restoration process through vegetation management and system reliability. It brings two departments together to work together toward containing and removing vegetation, as well as monitoring on a circuit-by-circuit basis," he added.

Palmer said the addition of vegetation crews and manpower is an extension of steady growth in financial investment by the company each year.

It also meets criteria mandated by the Public Service Commission earlier this year.

Following the ice storms of January and December 2007, which left 85,000 and 65,000 Empire customers without service, respectively, the PSC reviewed Empire's store preparation and response.

The PSC produced a 73-page document that included 25 recommendations for Empire.

The company said the center addresses two recommendations in particular: the PSC's suggestion that Empire "evaluate contracting with a vendor to take overflow during periods with a high volume of calls" and that the company "revise vegetation management procedures to incorporate the commission's new standards."

"We started this revitalization three years ago and we changed our plan in 2005," Palmer said.

"We spend more money each year (on vegetation management). From 2005 to now, we've about doubled our effort," he added.

McGarrah said the new center would allow Empire to enhance the plans already in place.

"Our goal is to improve service to our customers," McGarrah said. "This center will allow us to determine where problems are occurring more accurately. We've also added five new employees and 12 contractor employees, as well as half a dozen to a dozen new crews.

"Since 2005, when we introduced the new vegetation management program, we've seen a 19 percent increase in expenses per year, but we've seen a 35 percent increase in production per year. By doing that much additional trimming we're maintaining reliability for the customer."

Empire says it increased its tree-trimming budget in the years prior to the ice storms from $2.5 million in 2002 to $5.8 million in 2007.

Jeff Wells is editor of Joplin Tri-State Business, SBJ's sister publication.