Being a Clark Public Utilities dispatcher is a lot like being forest fire lookout atop a mountain. They see the utility’s entire electrical networks from their desks — more than 6,600 miles of electric wire and 60 substations — and they monitor it for trouble 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When there’s a problem, they orchestrate the response, directing servicemen and line crews into the field for outage and emergency response and regular system maintenance.
“Our job is all about maintaining reliability and public safety,” said Greg Van Fleet, Clark Public Utilities Dispatch System Operator. “When there’s a fault in the grid, it’s like ringing the siren at a fire station.”
Clark Public Utilities maintains some of the shortest outage durations of any utility in the nation. Those are the product of years of proactive work and collaboration across the utility, but they simply wouldn’t be possible without fast-acting and high-performing dispatchers initiating the response.
When they spot trouble, dispatchers send a serviceman out to fix it. If it’s too much for one or two people, dispatch sends out a larger and better-equipped line crew.
The dispatch office is the nerve center of the utility. Its employees work directly with several other departments to share critical information between planners, engineers and customer service representatives to the line crews and servicemen on the ground.
When it comes to spotting outages in the 656-square-mile service area, dispatchers have a lot of tools at their disposal, but few are as helpful as customer outage reports. A call to PowerLine or the outage reporting tool on the utility’s website help crews pinpoint faults—whether one home or 10,000 are affected.
“Sometimes we don’t know there’s an outage if customers don’t report it,” Van Fleet said. “The more calls we get the faster we can locate the issue.”
Working as a dispatcher isn’t for everyone. It requires specialized trainings and utility industry certifications. Plus, the job can get chaotic, fast, but employees have to stay calm and organized under the pressure and be unafraid to dig into complicated circumstances.
“One minute everything is going fine, then all of the sudden something like 30,000 people are hit by an outage, and alarms start blaring and the phones ring off the hook, and it’s up to you to figure out what’s going on and develop a plan as quickly as possible,” said Van Fleet. “It can be a lot to handle in the moment, but, when it’s over, it’s hard to beat the sense of satisfaction you get knowing you orchestrated a quick and successful response.”
Clark Public Utilities is connected to a multi-state transmission system so dispatchers must work closely with area utilities such as the Bonneville Power Administration or PacifiCorp to keep power properly moving.
“Electricity supply and demand must be in a constant balance to keep the system stable, both locally and regionally” Van Fleet said. “Dispatchers are central to maintaining that balance. We help ensure issues in one area don’t risk an outage elsewhere.”
To report an outage at your home, call PowerLine at 360-992-8000 or by clicking “report an outage” at clarkpublicutilities.com.
Energy Adviser is produced by Clark Public Utilities and relies on the expertise of utility energy counselors and staff, who provide conservation and energy use information. To contact us call 360-992-3355, email ecod@clarkpud.com or visit www.clarkpublicutilities.com.
