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RMEL Report
From the Desk of RMEL Executive Director Rick Putnicki RMEL Fall Leadership & Management Convention - FINDING SOLUTIONS TO TOMORROW’S CHALLENGES
One Week Until the Virtual Fall Convention - Register for Individual Registration or a Company Package! One of the advantages of a virtual format is it allows our membership to take advantage of a great opportunity to share the quality and relevant content deep into our member organizations. The RMEL Corporate Registration Package is an economical way to allow ALL employees to sign up for any, or all, of the Fall Virtual sessions. Check to see if your company has already signed up for a Corporate Registration Package – your registration cost may already be covered! We’ve had 16 companies sign up so far. If you don’t see your company on that list, there is still time to take advantage of the Corporate Registration Package for our member companies. Individual registrations are also available at $395 to allow members to take advantage of our quality programing. Tuesday and Thursday provide our educational programing, while Wednesday will feature a Disaster Response Roundtable Discussion and the Technology Showcases. Join us! Here is a quick look at our program:
John Ellis is a top technology and futurist keynote speaker, best-selling author, and expert in new and emerging transportation technology. His work in the field inspired the book The Zero Dollar Car: How the Revolution in Big Data will Change Your Life, a #1 Amazon Best Seller (Auto Industry Book). For the past 25 years, he has been the managing director of the industry consulting firm JTE Consulting. John speaks around the world about how data—from cars and all kinds of devices—will transform industries, business models, and our lives. As a former executive at Motorola and Global Technologist at Ford Motor Company, he led or participated in teams that built many of the innovations we see today in connected vehicles on the ground and in the air. Since then he has helped businesses and organizations understand how technology is affecting the way they operate now and into the future. CEO Panel Data Mining – From the Utility and Developer Perspectives What the Heck is Going On: A Guide to the Climate Debate in Washington Cost-Effective Resiliency-As-A-Service: A Critical Facility Microgrid Case Study at Salt River Project Tapping into Your Untapped Resource: Unconscious Bias Grid Security: Key Questions and Answers with PacifiCorp Renewable Policy and the Implication to Energy Markets Anirban Basu and the Chamber of Data (Economic Update) Powering Decarbonization: Strategies for Net-Zero CO2 Emissions Disaster Recovery – it is not “if”, it is “when” Roundtable Discussion Complimentary Technology Showcases and Other Sponsorship Opportunities are Available Don’t miss the opportunity to promote your organization through Sponsorship opportunities throughout the event. Complimentary Technology Showcases are available and come with a dedicated landing page on the platform for your company. Please contact us at info@rmel.org if you are interested in a Fall Convention sponsorship. *Topics and presenters are subject to change. RMEL to Honors 2021 Award Recipients During the 118th Fall Convention RMEL is honoring six individuals with RMEL’s top awards on Tuesday, October 19th during RMEL’s 118th Fall Convention. Please click their names to read more about each of these inspiring leaders in the industry. Thomas J. Kent, President & Chief Executive Officer, Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD), will receive RMEL’s highest honor, the 2021 Distinguished Leadership Award. This award recognizes an individual that has demonstrated significant contributions to the electric energy industry, their respective organization, and an advocate for the RMEL Mission. Doug Bennion, Retired, PacifiCorp, will receive RMEL’s Honorary Life Membership Award. Honorary Life Membership is conferred upon an individual “whose knowledge and accomplishments in the electric energy field entitle him/her to special recognition.” This award recognizes their years of service and dedication. Four individuals will receive the Industry Leadership Award. The Industry Leadership Award recognizes individuals whose leadership has made an impact within their organizations. The 2021 recipients are: Keith Carman, Vice President of Transmission Operations, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association; Nicholas Peters, Manager, Operating Engineering Group, Colorado Springs Utilities; Angela Piner, Vice President, HDR, Inc.; and John Quintana, Supervisory Electrical Engineer, Western Area Power Administration. RMEL Foundation Scholarship Fundraising It wouldn’t be an RMEL Fall Convention without an Auction! This year is no different! The virtual RMEL Foundation Auction will open this week, and we encourage you to bid high and bid often! Please SHARE the Auction list of items with colleagues. Everyone is invited to participate whether they are a RMEL member or not! The Auction raises scholarship dollars for students pursuing electric energy careers. Over the past 21 years the Foundation has awarded 461 scholarships totaling more than $1 million. If you have an item you’d like to donate, contact us. Upcoming Educational Hybrid, In-Person and Virtual Programs We recognize the desire of our membership to “get back together”! RMEL couldn’t agree more! We are proceeding cautiously, as safety is paramount. We tested the water with our first hybrid event on September 30th at Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association with a Generation Workshop and Roundtable. Thank you to Tri-State for allowing RMEL members to experience your state-of-the-art facility. We received high marks from both virtual and in-person attendees. Please contact us if you’d like us to bring an event to your region. We will continue to provide complimentary webinars, roundtables and low cost workshops to our members. Hybrid RMEL Safety Roundtable Chris Ukowich, Region Safety Officer for the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), will share his extensive knowledge of traffic control and commercial vehicle operations and licenses to lead a discussion of situational and traffic awareness best practices. He will speak to move-over laws for utility workers, load securement, inspection issues, helpful checklists and the amount of time electronic inspection should take, electronic inspection logs. From there, he will go into more of an in depth discussion on specific items including CDL, pre/post-trip inspections and traffic control. We Hope to See You at the Fall Convention and upcoming RMEL Events!
Education and Upcoming Events
RMEL's 2021 Virtual Fall Convention – October 19-21, 2021 
RMEL Member Information
RMEL's trusted network is now accessible on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. These are forums intended for RMEL members only. Working side-by-side in a cooperative manner, RMEL members band together for the common goal of bettering the industry and improving service for utility customers. For more than 100 years, these key principles have proven successful, and more importantly, are tried and true methods for building strong business relationships.
RMEL Champions is a prestigious group of RMEL supporters with access to useful and beneficial promotional opportunities. Thank you 2021 RMEL Champions!
Industry Information
 Global energy storage deployments will nearly triple in 2021 compared to last year, reaching 12 GW/28 GWh this year, according to a new report from Wood Mackenzie.
The demand for electric vehicles has never been higher. Government leaders see the elimination of internal combustion vehicles as a crucial step to reduce global emissions and slow the effects of climate change.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $45 million in funding for 12 projects to advance point-source carbon capture and storage technologies that can capture at least 95% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from natural gas power and industrial facilities that produce commodities like cement and steel.
This week on the Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast, guest Kevin Hernandez, Partner of Grid Edge Community of Practice at ScottMadden, shared what he's seeing as trends in the electric vehicle space as the utility stakeholders continue to brace for the massive changes that will be necessary.
 The market data provided here are republished, with permission, from data collected by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and are updated biweekly.
Some say the power generation mix of the future will be nearly all renewable energies and battery storage, exclusive above all other resources. Fossil fuels like coal and natural gas are living on borrowed time, they say.
Freshly emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Chesapeake Energy today announced a deal to acquire publicly traded Vine Energy for $2.2 billion, or $15 per share.
Member Announcements
Austin Energy is seeing unprecedented demand among its customers for whole house generators and solar panels with batteries designed to act as backup power sources during electrical outages.
APS CEO Jeff Guldner recently participated in an insightful 1-on-1 podcast. During the 23-minute Q&A with iHeartMedia’s William Harfosh, Guldner discussed our Clean Energy Commitment, electric vehicles, climate change, our reliability compared to the recent situation in Texas, and economic development in Arizona.
 Basin Electric announced today the cooperative is partnering with ALLETE of Duluth, Minn., and Dairyland Power Cooperative of La Crosse, Wisconsin, to develop new natural gas-based generation.
Representatives of Nebraska Public Power District, The City of York and Solar Developer GRNE will hold an official groundbreaking event for the York Community Solar project located at 1214 Road 15 (York landfill), north of York.
Several electric providers that serve millions of customers in the Western United States announced plans today to evaluate regional market solutions together.
On the heels of announcing signed agreements for three new solar power plants in Arizona, SRP announced its largest standalone solar power plant to soon be under development northwest of Flagstaff, Arizona.
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association would continue to meet its carbon dioxide reduction and clean energy goals as identified in its Responsible Energy Plan and supported in a supplemental Electric Resource Plan (ERP) filing made today with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
As WAPA's Human Performance Improvement/Just Culture Program gains traction, Human Performance Program Manager Krystall Valencia is interested in better educating employees on how the program benefits them.
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Fall Convention Keynote: Seeing Around the Corner – A View of What’s to Come
