ENERGY TECHNOLOGYCENTRALIA COLLEGE

THE CENTER OF EXCELLENCE WINTER 2009 Vol. 3 No 1

For most of a century we’ve been told that nothing could come between the American consumer and his or her automobile. Conventional wisdom said the American public would give up every other fas-cination to keep its oversized, gas-guzzling SUV or pickup or luxury motorhome at the ready.

The American-made car was, Detroit insisted, the vibrant symbol of sex and power; the dream of young boys and the pride of old men. Nothing would make America forsake the two tons of plastic and iron in the driveway. Then gasoline hit $4.29 a gallon.

Conventional wisdom, we learned, was wrong!In the last year America has voluntarily cut the

use of petroleum-fueled family cars beyond anyone’s wildest guess. Our habits changed and the U.S. pub-lic reduced their driving by more than a billion miles a month!

The sale of European and Asian-based economy cars has skyrocketed while the “ Big Three” American auto manufacturers teeter on the edge of bankruptcy.

More telling is the prediction that America is hap-py with the energy-conservation arrangement. Some-thing as simple as a change of habit is putting nearly $40 million back into the US economy with every 10-cent drop in the pump price of gasoline. Energy efficient cars from Toyota and Honda are outselling America’s Big Three automakers combined.

What’s more, America’s combination of thought-ful energy conservation and a growing choice of energy-efficient products is here to stay.

This profound change in public attitude and be-havior speaks volumes about the future of the elec-tric energy industry. People are willing to pay more for renewable energy, will retrofit their home or business to take advantage of new developments in systems and appliances that consume less electricity, and are increas-ingly receptive to energy conservation education.

As demand, power efficiency, and generating ca-pability increase, America is reducing its dependence on foreign oil, natural gas, and other fossil resources. We in the Pacific Northwest will be the first benefi-

ciaries of this energy revolution––and it will spread across the continent.

New developments have recently put electric, tan-kless water heaters on the market. As the hardware is refined so conversion from fossil-fueled instant hot-water to a household electric unit is economically attractive, look for thousands of new customers en-joying an overall energy reduction of 10-30% on hot water appliances alone.

We are fortunate to have begun training the people who will produce, market, and distribute electrical energy to a population that appreciates energy effi-cient products and consciously embraces energy con-servation techniques.

Thanks to your guidance and to our partners in in-dustry, labor, education, and government, our train-ing programs are abreast of the changing world of energy––and we’re flexible enough to stay there.

Commentary by Barbara Hins-Turner

CALENDAR FWEE Recruitment WorkshopMarch 3, 2009New Market Skills CenterTumwater WA

Western Boiler Manufacturers March 10-12Davenport Hotel Spokane WA

NW Hydro Assn. ConferenceMarch 17-19Portland Marriot HotelPortland OR

Washington Innovation SummitApril 9Meydenbauer CenterBellevue WA

Earth DayApril 22Various times and places

COE Best Practices SummitJune 25-26Satsop Development ParkElma WA

For details on these and other energy-related events that will be announced later, please call Cindy Mann at the Center of Excellence for Energy Technology, (360) 736-9391, ext. 280.

HYDRO SPILL

Guests on an energy industry tour of Tacoma Power facilities watch as

the spillway gates are opened at Mossyrock Dam. Hydropower will continue to produce about 70% of regional energy needs.

DEVELOPMENTThanks to all who made the 2008 annual energy summit the most exciting ever!! It happened because our valued partners brought colleagues and cowork-ers. That happened, in turn, because the summit has become a key place to discuss trends and ideas in industry training programs.

The IBEW Local 77 line apprentice flag raising demonstration was again the ceremonial signal for the start of one of the Northwest energy industry’s most important gatherings.

The attendance this year reached 170 participants, our best yet. Randy Rawson, Executive Director of the American Boiler Manufacturer’s Association, set the professional tone of the summit in the keynote speech.

The summit theme––Workforce development––was evident as Dr. Alan Hardcastle, WSU Exten-sion Energy Program, examined our research project of the year, Workforce Challenges of Electric Sector Employers in Washington and Oregon. Our industry partners responded to the challenges with their best practices succession and workforce planning models.

The green economy continues to be at the fore-front our work. To that end, Rhys Roth, Climate Solutions; Roger Garret, Puget Sound Energy; and Andrew Munroe, Grant County PUD, outlined the probable future of renewable energy trends at our sum-mit. The green economy translates to new high skills, high wage jobs and in light of an increasingly difficult economy offers hope, renewal and the opportunity to reduce our nation’s dependency on foreign oil.

We are pleased that the Center of Excellence for Energy Technology is at the hub of the green econo-my, creating workforce collaboration for renewable

energy and “green collar jobs.” Our involvement has been illustrated by participation in the Northwest En-ergy Efficiency Task Force, the UK Ocean Energy Exchange, WSU’s Solar Summit, Climate Solutions Climate Free Prosperity 2025 Report and Washing-ton Senator Maria Cantwell’s Energy Roundtable discussion: Historic Tax Package To Create Green Collar Jobs, Stimulate Local Economy, and Acceler-ate Clean Energy Transition.”

These contacts have helped us begin the essen-tial educational design for skills training devel-opment across Washington State and the Pacific Northwest region.

Other COE highlights this fall include a special welcome to Peninsula College as a partner in our statewide outreach collaborative. This partnership is a result of a request from the Washington Office of Veterans Affairs for energy efficiency training for returning military in the Port Angeles area. Our first-ever development of a specialized wind energy skill panel got underway in November at PSE’s Wild Horse Wind Farm in Ellensburg with Columbia Basin College and Wenatchee Valley College. Energy Northwest, Puget Sound Energy, Portland General Electric and Everpower are supporting the project.

The foundation of this work continues to be the research component conducted by WSU Extension Energy Program partners. Watch for our next great joint publication in 2009, “Renewable Energy Trends in the Pacific Northwest.”

It is truly an exciting time in the energy industry as we drive workforce development for the future of renewable energy across our great nation.

Workforce

CENTRALIA COLLEGE

Mossyrock Dam“Tacoma Power’s Mossyrock facility uses a large spillway system to adjust reservoir

levels to accommodate upriver flooding or a rapid

Cascade snowmelt.”

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tools and skills they required. Foundational skills such as problem solving, critical thinking and basic communications also became more critical.

As electrician work has become more complex, it is increasingly difficult to recruit qualified per-sonnel. Filling vacancies by recruiting from other industry sectors provided an effective supplement to fill vacancies, but presented another set of chal-lenges. For example, while commercial and resi-dential electricians often install a lot of the equip-ment used in the power industry, very few ever troubleshoot these systems.

Industry declines in pulp and paper, aluminum and other manufacturing sectors has further made it difficult to recruit qualified people from sectors where electricians are familiar with the equipment used in the power industry. Those industries em-ploy electricians who are trained on similar equip-ment, and they can readily make the transition into power generation careers.

With those industries shrinking or leaving the region, however, it has become harder to attract qualified electricians.

Labor shortages and new skill requirements have led many employers, colleges and other train-ing providers to develop skill standards for power generation occupations, both to define what skills are required now, and to provide training bench-marks for the future.

The primary benefit of having power plant elec-trician skills standards in place is that it gives us an assurance that future applicants will have the foun-dational knowledge, skills and abilities needed to succeed in the industry. The standards provide a practical, detailed roadmap for colleges and other

Skill StandardsBy Pat McCarty

Most energy jobs have changed a lot over the last 20 years, due in part to the many technological ad-vances that have occurred; the changes to the power plant electrician’s job have been nothing short of dra-matic. For starters, power plant electrician’s duties were much less complex than they are today. In the

past, those tasks included installing the occasional conduit or cable tray run, changing light bulbs, do-ing annual maintenance on generators, and trouble-shooting. Troubleshooting was much easier back then because most all relays, governors and excita-tion systems were electrical/mechanical or mostly mechanical. These were fairly straightforward systems, and as a result, electrical problems were easier to identify.

That all changed with the introduction of elec-tronics and computers, which rendered the design of electrical systems and equipment far more com-plex. New systems and equipment such as solid-state protection relays, smart relays, programmable logic controllers, computerized plant control sys-tems, electronic governors and static excitation systems are more advanced. Today these systems are increasingly integrated and used in combina-tion with each other.

The introduction of new and integrated systems and equipment also called for the development of higher-level skills among electricians. Electri-cians were now required to use computers as an everyday tool for installation and troubleshooting. Education and training programs were modified to teach to the new systems, including the technology

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COE OUTREACHThe Center of Excellence and its partners from labor, industry, and education have embarked on a cooperative outreach program to serve the most engaged and prom-ising energy students. To provide the best energy training possible, the COE is building innovative mod-els to accommodate those students in every part of the northwest.

The COE recently established classroom ITV links with students at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Grays Harbor College, and Wenatchee College to offer students a variety of energy-specific classes at each.

The ITV system gives those students an opportunity to gain the same level of training as students learning face-to-face in live class-rooms at Centralia College, but without the expense or disruption of moving to the southwest Wash-ington campus. Standard academic classes are furnished by the stu-dent’s parent college.

Meanwhile, Rulon Crawford’s innovative basic curriculum has been adapted to another primary student market, and early results are very promising.

High school students engaged in vocational training will be able to enjoy a seamless transfer into college-level energy technology courses by taking a prescribed number of math and appropriate science classes in high school. Thus far the program is underway only at New Market Skills Center in Tumwater, but will expand.

Talks are currently underway with TechPrep, a consortium of a dozen school districts that offer specific vocational classes for students. With adequate high school-level basics, that student pool may be an espe-cially welcome population of future energy workers.

training programs to follow as they establish or modify relevant electrician programs. The standards also provide a specific tool for communicating with students, incumbent

workers and experienced electricians from other industry sectors what will be expected of them in the electric power industry.

Finally, the skill standards also provide power generation employers with a systematic way to identify the core work of our employees, and a measure for assessing how new technologies and a changing workplace will alter the skill requirements for power plant electricians in the future.

TURBINE CREWA maintenance crew works on a wind turbine generator at PSE’s Wild Horse Wind Farm near Ellensburg. The

photo gives a sense of scale to the turbine structures.

INITIATIVE

THE NEW MARKET Energy ProjectBy Randy Bachtell

The Alternative Energy Technology Program is under way at New Market Skills Center. The decision was made in late August to go ahead with a stand-alone program rather than an integral part of the Advanced Automotive program as originally intended.

The plan has proven to be a good one and at this point students are involved in several demonstration projects that will hopefully be in full operation by late February or early March. New Market Skill Center will have a fully functional model of a power production, transmission and distribution system incor-porating conventional, solar and wind energy sources. We will also have a full-scale mobile solar PV battery recharge system typically found in a small off-grid residential system.

Another project the students are excited about is a battery powered Electrathon race-car that they hope to campaign in the spring. Student interest is high and we hope to con-tinue to offer a program that attracts quality students while providing interesting, relevant career choices.

Veterans Group

One of the best illustrations of our outreach projects currently underway is the result of an expanded partnership with Peninsula College, The COE partners, and the Washington Department of Veteran’s Affairs. The Veteran’s Conservation Corps at Peninsula College learned of the potential for an ITV class in Energy Tech and began the process.

Mark Fischer, program manager of the Veteran’s Conservation Corps in the state veteran’s agency took the ball and ran with it. After meeting with the COE and looking at the adaptation of Rulon Crawford’s teaching model to ITV, Fischer returned to the Peninsula vet’s group and the program got underway.

“The Veteran’s Conservation Corps is invested in this initiative because for us, “conservation” means more than just the environment,” Fischer explained. “It is about conservation of all our resources. Environment means the whole picture, not just part of it.”

Fischer explained that the Peninsula veteran’s group was involved in this training because it made sense to those looking for a connection with something larger than themselves. Knowing the vets in this group liked working outside rather than at a desk, Fischer recognized the Energy Tech program with the COE as the right kind of opportunity. The students now taking the program at Peninsula voiced strong support and enthusiasm for the potential it offered them.

“We’re pleased to partner with the Centralia College Center of Excellence,” he said. “We think the energy field offers the kind of opportunity our students want.”

PGE Plant and StackBesides alternative generation systems, many

producers also use alternative fuels where economical. This PGE plant uses a

state-of-the-art stack system to reduce airborne particles to an absolute minimum.

Many industry observers suggest that nuclear energy production

facilities will be brought back on line––and new ones built––to

lessen North America’s dependence on imported

fossil fuels.

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DEVELOPMENT FOCUSThe Center of Excellence for Energy Technology at Centralia College has become the premier train-ing program for power production workers in the northwest. Now, according to COE director Bar-bara Hins-Turner, the power program is adding an economic development component. “We want the next generation of energy professionals to un-derstand their role in regional economic develop-ment,” she added.

To foster the new focus on energy sector deci-sion-makers, the Center of Excellence has hired Jim Lowery, a long-time expert in rural econom-ic development.

“The COE has done an excellent job of build-ing partnerships with labor, government, educa-tion, and some of the energy leaders,” Lowery said. “Now, we want to convince the very top level of private and public energy policy makers to get involved.

“Energy,” Lowery continued, “is the prime re-quirement for new industry to move away from high-density, expensive urban areas. We believe that leaders who play an active role in the COE

Rulon Crawford came to the Centralia College Center of Excellence two years ago. Now the assistant professor of Energy Technology, Crawford brought along his own, handmade en-ergy learning system that serves the needs of new power plant and energy workers in

all phases of the industry.After completing high school in Moses Lake,

Crawford enrolled at Big Bend Community Col-lege to take accounting. “I learned pretty quickly that I didn’t want to be an accountant,” he laughed. ‘I went out and got a job while taking some busi-ness classes in the evenings.” Crawford returned to college, this time at Eastern Oregon University, and earned a degree in Business Administration.

“I went to work for Portland General Electric,” he recounted, “and was asked to develop a basic electricity training course specifically for non-engineers. It was in response to a plan by PGE to

give marketing people, accountants, and even legal staff a practical knowledge of the energy industry. That way,” Crawford continued, “the people who fielded customer complaints and questions could deal with problems from the perspective of actual knowledge.” His innovative training program was successful beyond almost anyone’s expectations!

“I spent the next twenty years or more,” Crawford explained, “teaching electricity and energy to non-electrical people up and down the coast at dozens of major energy producers.” All that time he continued to improve and refine his brainchild to better serve a broader range of students.

“My challenge was to make the course fun and interesting to non-engineering employees,” he ad-mitted. “It wasn’t long before I realized it was a perfect entry-level approach for technical students entering the energy production field.”

Center of Excellence director Barbara Hins-Turn-er knew of Crawford’s success and contacted him to arrange a possible move to Centralia College.

Crawford’s curriculum design now serves as a basis for incoming Energy students at the Center of Excellence, and he’s modifying his system to serve high school classes aimed at steering younger stu-dents into the Energy Technology career field.

PROFILE

energy and conservation program will be able to plan new facilities in areas that are less ex-pensive and where eco-nomic growth is sorely needed.”

Lowery comes to the center through a grant as a WIRED coordinator (Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development) funded by the five-county Pa-cific Mountain Workforce Council. Lowrey is the former executive director of the Washington Rural Development Council.

“Bringing mainline and alternative energy leaders to the table will ensure they have an equal voice,” Lowery concluded, “as we consider energy resourc-es, efficiency, and distribution to meet the industrial demands and domestic power growth for the next 10 or 20 years.”

Economic

Rulon Crawford

CENTRALIA COLLEGE

FWEE WorkshopRecruiting Strategy Workshop

Electric utilities in the North-west are facing a crisis; over half of utility workers here are 45 years or older. As retire-ments increase, the bubble of need for highly skilled work-ers has become epidemic.

That means increased recruiting and training costs, increased competition for workers, new staffing chal-lenges, and potential gaps in service staffing.

A new workshop for HR specialists, utility educators, outreach specialists, coordi-nators of apprentice and pre-apprentice programs, educa-tion, union representatives, and hydropower leadership is coming in March.

The workshop focuses on ways to rebuild the pipeline of high school students into energy training avenues. Hydropower—up to 70% of the Northwest’s electricity—is the resource focal point.

The workshop, sponsored by the Foundation for Water and Energy Education and the Centralia College Center of Excellence, is set for March 3, 2009, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at New Mar-ket Skills Center in Tumwater.

Registration is needed by Feb. 17—call the Center of Excellence as soon as pos-sible for complete information and your reservation for this career summit. Call COE at (360) 736-9391, ext. 280: or call FWEE at (509) 535-7084.

Jim Lowery

CENTRALIA COLLEGE COMPLIES WITH EEOC GUIDELINES

CENTRALIA COLLEGE CENTER OF EXCELLENCE600 Centralia College Blvd

Centralia, WA 98531(360) 736-9391, ext. 280From Olympia, 753-3433www.centralia.edu/coe/

by Bob Guenther

With the events that have taken place in the political arena this cycle our country has the best chance of getting itself less depen-dent on foreign oil and forward to energy independence.

The Center of Excellence is ahead of the curve helping our students train for the new and emerging job requirements and enabling workers to do the work needed at the present time in the energy business. The next five to seven years will re-quire 200,000 line workers just to replace the workforce due to retirement.

The buzz is green jobs. We believe solving environmental challenges through training and action creates a green job. Labor’s state apprenticeship programs allow workers to react to the changing times and give workers the base knowledge to

adapt to new and emerging technologies. The Center of Excellence for Energy Technology is very active in meeting the student’s needs.

With the partnerships developed with industry, labor, workforce development, economic development and many other community colleges, Centralia College is poised to make available shovel-ready workers meeting industry nee ds. The partnership has developed and is developing apprenticeship programs for Power Plant Mechanic, Power Plant Electrician, Wind Turbine Technician, and Gas Fired Turbine Mechanics, and Power Plant Operator. The COE goal is preparing students for apprenticeship in the respective fields they would like.

In these changing times those prepared may be described as lucky, but it’s really the other way around; I feel much of the luck you receive is through preparedness. Just because the price of oil is 45 dollars per barrel now, we are convinced it will go back to 175 in the future.

Nine Canyon“Modern wind turbines are

environmentally friendly and permit surface farming, ranching, and wildlife habitat virtually under the structures. Cost-effective systems are

being studied to reduce or eliminate birds-of-prey mortality on wind farms.”

The FOREIGN OIL CHALLENGE

Innovation Summit 2009 Washington Innovation SummitThe Washington Innovation Summit––pre-viously titled the “Washington Technology Summit”––is presented by the Washington Technology Center and will take place at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue on April 9 from 7:30 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.

Last year’s summit attracted nearly 450 CEOs, entrepreneurs, investors, and economic development leaders from across the state. This year’s summit, “Innovating to Sustain Our Future,” is expected to be the biggest yet.

Keynoters are Thomas Plimpton, vice chairman of PACCAR Inc., and Gifford Pinchot, president emeritus of Bainbridge Graduate Institute.

The Summit will focus on Sustainable Energy, Innovative Material and Manufac-turing, Urban Sustainability, and Healthy Ecosystems.

The sponsor, Washington Technology Center, is a statewide economic develop-ment organization focused on technology and innovation. WTC channels state, feder-al, and private resources to help companies develop and commercialize new products and technologies.

Of particular interest to energy producers will be the initial focus on sustainable ener-gy and the role biofuels and other emerging energy options will play in manufacturing, urban design, and environmental stability.

For full information and details, contact Gayle Duncan, Executive Options, (425) 802-7034.

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