As some continue to question whether green technologies can translate into well-paying jobs, Avangrid, a sustainable energy company, has steadily been proving they can. The company, based in Orange, Conn., has brought jobs to Clark County.
The company’s National Control Center is housed in Vancouver, and employs about 70 engineers, project managers, meteorologists, operators and others. The center must be staffed 24/7.
“If something happens, like a severe weather issue or lightning strike, they will get near real-time notifications,” said Keaton Thomas, communications manager for Avangrid.
The notifications allow the center’s operators to quickly see where repairs are needed, what kind of technician is needed and dispatch a crew to do the work.
“That’s how we ensure there is always energy going to where it needs to go,” Thomas said.
Avangrid is majority-owned by a Spanish electric utility company called Iberdrola. It is working to become the leading sustainable energy company in the United States. It has a wide range of energy projects relying on wind, solar and hydroelectric technologies. Along with its partner, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Avangrid owns and operates Vineyard Wind on the East Coast. It is the first and largest offshore wind energy project in the U.S. and is monitored from the Vancouver control center.
“Behind all these machines and what the operators are looking at, we’re pulling in about 1.2 million points of data every four seconds. That’s not an amount of data a human can process,” said Kit Blair, senior director of remote operations.
Blair said operators work in 12-hour shifts, with five operators on duty at all times. Engineers, meteorologists and others working behind the scenes make sure the data gets to the operators in a way that is useful.
“It only alerts them to things they need to take action on,” he said.
Chief Executive Officer Pedro Azagra said Avangrid has been promoting green energy since 2001.
The company provides more than 9,000 megawatts of green energy power — enough to power 6 million to 9 million homes — to its customers across the country.
By comparison, most onshore wind turbines produce approximately 2.5 to 3 megawatts, while offshore turbines produce about 3.6 megawatts.
Azagra said the shift to renewable energy is happening across the globe.
“Think about Oregon, right now. We are approaching 3,000 megawatts. That’s 30 percent of the green energy available in the state. That means (a total of) 9,000 megawatts in Oregon, more or less. That’s a huge amount of energy,” Azagra said.
Although many of its projects are in Oregon, Avangrid does operate three wind and solar projects in Klickitat County and produces about 700 megawatts of power. The company is also in negotiations with tribal authorities on new projects.
While he wants the company to continue to grow, Azagra said he is also paying attention to its legacy and ensuring “everywhere where we go, of a contribution to our employees, to our customers, to society, to the welfare of the world.”
At a time when calls to remove dams along the Snake River and even the Columbia River are growing, Azagra said Avangrid is exploring hydropower as a renewable energy source. The company already has hydroelectric projects in Spain and Brazil, as well as New York.
“It’s not so easy to build,” he said. “It’s very complicated.”
Changing technology will also have an effect on what types of green energy projects are built, as well as how quickly.
“In the short term, you have onshore wind. You have onshore solar. Wherever it can, I think hydro will be developed. I don’t see a lot of gas generation being built. I think we’ll see gas generation continue being used but no new ones built. Coal is on the way out, that’s clear,” Azagra said.
Even nuclear energy may come back in use within 10 to 15 years, he said.
“We shouldn’t rule out any energy source,” Azagra said.
Rather than worry about the errors and missteps of the past, Azagra said Avangrid is focused on what comes next week, next month or next year. Earlier this week, the company approved another 166-megawatt project in Oregon.
When it comes to renewable energy projects, Azagra said Washington and Oregon must be commended for leading the way.
“Washington is a very welcoming state. I’m very pleased,” Azagra said. “The result is people like us bringing this (control center) here.”
