Utility Education & Trade Show Days

The 2010 FMEA Utility Education and Trade Show Days (UED) will be held September 14 at the PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens and September 15 at the Gainesville Hilton.

UED brings together professionals from the energy industry for top-notch speakers and topics and the latest in utility products and services. The convenient one-day format allowed utility staff to keep travel costs low, while receiving high-value training.

Look soon for more information!

The 2009 FMEA Utility Education and Trade Show Days was held September 15, in Gainesville and September 16 in Jupiter Beach. Gold sponsors included Asplundh Tree Expert and Milsoft Utility Solutions. Eagle SWS was the Bronze sponsor.

Speaker presentations are now available

Key note speaker Bob Losure, former CNN Headline News anchor, shared both painful and humorous stories about his life and work as a CNN news anchor, during his presentation, “Aspiring to a Higher Standard in a Demanding World.” Losure reminded attendees of the power of tenacity and the strength of the human spirit as he shared stories about his bout with cancer that helped him get a position with CNN and the comical antics of Walter Cronkite and Ted Turner.

Mike Bates, Vice President of GridPoint Inc. discussed, “How the Smart Grid is Changing the Way we do Business.” Bates encouraged attendees to embrace the changes that the Smart Grid will bring, because they offer convenience to customers and build the customer relationship. According to Bates, benefits to customers include helping them develop their energy awareness by providing online account and billing information; offering energy audits and consumption data; and offering dynamic rates and energy budgeting programs.

Bates also warned that outside companies offering Smart Grid related services such as Google and Microsoft could erode the relationship between the customer and the utility, saying “If you don’t do it [provide access to Smart Grid technologies], someone else will.”

In the afternoon, breakout sessions addressed Transmission and Distribution topics including Bi-directional power flow from distributed resources on substations, sub-transmission and transmission; life extension and safety benefits of underground equipment inspection and repair; using mobile technology, GPS, data collection and data maintenance in the field; and LED lighting technology, economics and comparison to existing lighting solutions.

Customer Connections breakout sessions addressed social media communications with customers, using interactive voice response to enhance the customer experience; how to handle customers filing for bankruptcy; and how the smart grid transforms customer service.

Safety and Training and Lineworker training breakouts addressed first aid for lineworkers in remote areas; fall protection, the pros and cons of cradle-to-cradle/ground-to-ground rubber glove policies; balancing production and safety; and safety procedures for grid-connected photovoltaic systems.

"Our first Utility Education & Trade Show Days exceeded our expectations," said Barry Moline, FMEA Executive Director. "More members took advantage of the low-cost and high-value training than we imagined. Next year will be even better."

For information about 2010 vendor and sponsor opportunities, contact FMEA Director of Marketing and Communications Nicole C. Easley at 850-224- 3314 or neasley@publicpower.com.