Note:

Online registration is currently closed, but spaces are still available. If you would like to attend this event, please call NWPPA at 360-254-0109, and our staff will be happy to help you.

Who Should Attend:

Engineering managers and staff from public utility districts, cooperative utilities, and other public power utilities within Oregon. (Only utility employees may attend this event.)

Meeting Overview:

The NWPPA Oregon Engineering roundtable is designed to offer learning and networking opportunities for engineering personnel from electric utilities throughout NWPPA's membership within Oregon. This is your chance to join your Oregon colleagues in a casual atmosphere to network and discuss key issues, best practices, and hot topics that are important to you and your neighboring utilities.

The meeting will include Roundtable topics as well as a case study presentation by Salem Electric.

Roundtable Topics for Discussion:

• Marijuana grow operations – share experiences and what has been learned to date
• Distributed energy resources – residential batteries and solar, etc. and offers being made to utility customers by 3rd parties.
• AMI system selection, installation, pitfalls, best practices
• SCADA system selection, installation, pitfalls, best practices
• Data centers / Bit Coin centers – what to know if one seeks to move onto your system
• Substation rebuilds – lessons learned
• Workforce retirements and retention – staffing discussion
• Mobile workforce – new service workflow
• NISC or similar installation –share your advice and experience
• Cyber issues – anyone having any issues with security
• How Utilities are integrating Distribution Automation (DA) into their System. Benefits to Operators using DA.
• Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR) Projects in the NW.
• Using a Vulnerability and Risk Assessment (VRA) as a capital planning tool - a discussion around how we arrived at the report that we have and why we did it. This would center around the 3 key areas - substations, transmission system, and communications system - pointing out how they relate to each other.
• Communications Systems performance versus Systems Requirements - a discussion of how to begin a requirements-based RFP or RFI when contemplating a modernization of your communications network.

Please contact Scott Lowry at slowry@nwppa.org to submit additional topic suggestions prior to the meeting.

Meeting Schedule:

Registration will begin at 9 a.m., and the meeting will run from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.  

Meeting Location:

Salem Electric
Conference Room (entrance on north side of building)
633 Seventh St NW
Salem, OR 97304

Note: To make room for utility customers, attendees are asked to park on the street when at Salem Electric's offices.

Suggested Hotels:

The Grand Hotel in Salem
201 Liberty St SE
Salem, OR 97301
(503) 540-7800

A room block has not been established for this meeting. Please call the hotel or go online for the best available rate.  

Meeting Fees: