6.5. ERMUSR 03-10-2009 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Utility Commission Proposed Labor Reduction Study -March 2009 Impact on the Engineering Department of a 36 hour workweek Locating -Looking at 2008 and 2007 locate numbers, the months of April, May, June, and July make up for respectively 58% and 53% of the annual locate total. This does not give con- sideration to the extensive time that road projects add to the locating workload. Spring and early summer are the busiest time of the year for locating. For 2008 and 2007, the daily average during these busy months was approximately 25 per day. A locate ticket can take 30-60minutes or more. The same time is often needed to locate for installation of a realtor sign as that of a new utility service. By law, these locates need to be done within a set window of time. A reduction in hours may not always be possible because of the ticket load. In the times of the year when there are fewer locate tickets, the locators assist other departments. They assist with mapping, meter change out, tree trimming, and system analysis with the new thermal imaging camera. Mapping -System mapping is an important tool used to protect our facilities as well as assist in safe system maintenance. The workload is partially driven by new water and electric construction. The workload is also driven by all the projects the linepersons do day in and day out. Since taking the mapping back in-house, there has been a continuous process to increase the accuracy and readability standards making the mapping a more valuable tool. There are many mapping improvements in the queue to be implemented. Along with maintaining the mapping, cataloging as-builds and digitizing water tie cards requires ongoing attention. Updating the electrical specification book and assisting MMUA by updating their specification book are other current projects. A reduction in hours would impact maintenance and improvement progress on system mapping for water and electric. Metering -Many of the ongoing workload can not be cut regardless of hours worked including: weekly/monthly substation checks, substation maintenance, assistance with monthly generation and annual urge testing, assistance with generation facility maintenance, metering equipment installation, load control installation, assistance in system maintenance. Areas directly impacted by a reduction in hours would fall under customer service and would include: addressing off- peak issues, addressing billing/metering issues, addressing power quality issues, and implementing meter change out. Security -This department is unique because it's essentially a one man show. A reduction in hours would result in a proportional reduction in system sales and installation. This would in turn result in a proportional reduction in new monthly monitoring fee revenue. This would also impact the departments ability to provide maintenance and customer service. Currently this department's growth is limited by labor. Reducing labor would reduce growth.