Idaho Falls Utility Board Meetings

July 12, 2018 The City Council of the City of Idaho Falls met in Special Meeting (Idaho Falls Power Board), Thursday, July 12, 2018, at Idaho Falls Power Conference Room, 140 S. Capital, Idaho Falls, Idaho at 7:00 a.m. Call to Order, Roll Call, and Announcements: There were present: Mayor Rebecca L. Noah Casper Councilmember Thomas Hally Councilmember Shelly Smede Councilmember Michelle Ziel-Dingman Councilmember Jim Freeman Councilmember Jim Francis Councilmember John Radford Also present: Jackie Flowers, Idaho Falls Power Director Wid Ritchie, Energy Services Manager Bobbi Wilhelm, Energy Analyst Michael Kirkham, Assistant City Attorney Kathy Hampton, City Clerk Mayor Casper called the meeting to order at 7:02 a.m. Mayor Casper noted this would be the last Idaho Falls Power (IFP) Board Meeting for Director Flowers as she has accepted a position in Tacoma, Washington. Mayor Casper stated Sue Kelly, President and CEO of American Public Power Association (APPA), was recently in Idaho Falls. Her visit included engagement with Idaho Falls Power staff. She commended Director Flowers for leading this City in the power production. General comments followed regarding Ms. Kelly’s visit to Idaho Falls. Strategic Plan Update: Director Flowers stated the Idaho Falls Power Strategic Plan was developed with the previous Council over the course of several presentations/discussions. This Strategic Plan is considered the policy makers direction of priorities. She briefly reviewed the Mission Statement and the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT). Director Flowers presented the following with general discussion throughout: Strategic Areas of Focus: Customer – IFP will serve as the customer’s trusted energy advisor.  Service Experience: Enhancing customer experience by identifying, streamlining and implementing one process improvement per calendar year. Director Flowers indicated most of customer service and customer contact has been outsourced to Municipal Services. She stated the areas of improvement include the peoples’ systems process that can accommodate change, she would also like to pursue additional functionality in the Cayenta software system. Key Account Services (large customers) are monitored closely regarding power outages. Staff will formalize a procedure in the near future for these customers. One-stop shop services at IFP is anticipated versus redirecting customers to City Hall. This will include transition of connecting/disconnecting services for new homeowners.  Education and Communication Outreach Plan: Develop a plan and review annually.  Integrated Programs: Develop a technology plan to address customer needs and evolve utility services. Technology plan is targeted for year end. Financial – IFP will operate in a stable, financially prudent and forward looking manner.  Utility Best Practices: Map data availability of sources, identify gaps to collect, add data reporting in Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and budgeting - prioritized implementation plan, and integrate data into one or two programs per calendar year. 1  July 12, 2018  Power Supply/Markets: Develop in-house scheduling expertise to coordinate and update procedures to leverage external scheduling agencies. Brief comments followed regarding the expertise of the newly appointed IFP Director Bear Prairie.  Regulations: Establish a target hydropower relicensing plan and schedule. Director Flowers indicated this topic is a high priority with APPA. She noted it was recommended to keep the relicensing plan and schedule in-house. Growth – IFP shall anticipate energy and broadband needs for the continued vibrancy of the community.  Load Growth: Develop a load growth plan that includes identification of available resources and target industries that would benefit from those resources for strategic recruitment.  Economic Development and Land Use: Identify and implement recruitment tools to promote our area for targeted industries. This includes facilities plan.  Infrastructure Growth: Identify geographical areas that are targeted City growth/industry recruitment areas and implement infrastructure expansion plans. This includes fiber expansion, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) expansion, large single load to potential industrial growth area, and transmission expansion. Reliability – IFP will embrace change and technology to ensure a modern, adaptive grid.  Maintain: Establish procedures for continued progress toward sophisticated reliability tracking.  Enhance: Develop a technology plan for cyber and distribution automation.  Future Planning: Develop and implement a plan to island and restore power (micro-grid) to critical load center; actively participate in regional transmission planning by requiring biannual updates on transmission studies and implementation while coordinating regional participation. Workforce – IFP shall maintain its position as an industry leader enabled by talented and trained staff.  Compensation Policy: Implement a utility-wide market based scale. IFP will continue to work with Human Resources.  Succession Planning: Develop a comprehensive company succession plan including individual employee development plans.  Safety: Develop safety metrics to track and monitor monthly progress, develop “safety ticket” and “good catch” program. Director Flowers commended the IFP staff for the progress in this area.  Board Development: Identify and document three Council/Board policies; develop new Council/Board training book; develop a self-evaluation tool for the Board to conduct on itself. Director Flowers briefly reviewed maps related to Idaho Falls North Loop expansion project. Collaboration will need to occur with PacifiCorp related to Conditional Use Permits. Customer Satisfaction Survey Results: Ms. Wilhelm stated the survey results included overall satisfaction with IFP electricity service; satisfaction with electricity rates; satisfaction with bill layout; awareness of outages and satisfaction with IFP outage response; awareness and satisfaction with IFP service offerings; and suggestions for improvement. Ms. Wilhelm reviewed the following with general discussion throughout:  Demographics - survey respondents did not closely match the demographics of the general population of Idaho Falls.  Utility Bills - fewer than half of respondents (45%) named all four services without prompting; a large majority of residents (69%) understood the City utility bill; most respondents (82%) were aware of bill payment options although a relatively small percentage utilize those options.  Customer Service - one-fifth of respondents (21%) said they interacted with customer service agents. Professionalism = 86%, Helpfulness = 81%, Overall Experience = 81%.  Power Outages - while customers were generally satisfied with the speed of power restoration, they were less satisfied with the level of communication provided during the outages. The majority of customers (68%) would prefer receiving text messages. 2  July 12, 2018  Satisfaction and Feedback - customers are overwhelmingly satisfied with IFP as their electric service provider. The majority of customers also trust IFP to act in the best interest of the community. Ms. Wilhelm briefly reviewed comments, both positive and negative, received from customers throughout the survey. General discussion and comments followed. Mr. Ritchie believes customer satisfaction has increased over the previous year. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 8:43 a.m. s/ Kathy Hampton s/ Rebecca L. Noah Casper CITY CLERK MAYOR 3