Best Practices in Electric Service Reliability
Request For Qualifications
May 11, 2009
Background
Bellevue is the fifth largest city in Washington, having a residential population of
119,200, a workforce of 140,000, and a typical daytime population of close to 200,000.
The city’s Downtown, with 40,000 employees, is the second most dense employment
center in King County (Downtown Seattle being the first), and is designated in growth
management plans as a regional growth center. By 2030, Downtown Bellevue alone is
expected to have 79,000 employees and a residential population of 19,000. The
residential population of the city as a whole is expected to increase by almost 25% over
the next twenty years, with an increase in employment of over 35% during the same
period.
Bellevue’s electric service provider, Puget Sound Energy (PSE), is a privately-owned
utility regulated by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC).
The WUTC serves the public interest by overseeing privately-owned utilities that offer
service to the public in Washington. The jurisdiction of the WUTC consists of the
regulation, in the public interest, of the rates, services, facilities and practices of all
privately-owned utilities in Washington State.
The WUTC has the authority to require utilities to add new services or improve existing
services if they are reasonably requested by the public. In addition, the WUTC can direct
utility companies to replace equipment and/or facilities that it feels should be improved
for safety, efficiency, convenience or other reasonable cause. Therefore, the WUTC is the
primary regulatory body over electrical services, whereas the city’s authority is limited
by the terms of the franchise agreement between the City of Bellevue and PSE.
Bellevue’s Comprehensive Plan acknowledges that providing highly reliable electric
service is a critical expectation for the electric service provider, as many of Bellevue’s
residents are a part of a high tech, home based business industry that requires a highly
reliable electric system for their livelihood. As the major population and employment
center for the Eastside, electrical service reliability will be critical for Bellevue to meet its
own, and the region’s, growth management and economic development goals.
Furthermore, a highly reliable electric service is important to meet economic, public
safety, and public health objectives, as well as customer convenience expectations.
Over the past two years, there has been increased interest in the city’s electric service for
three primary reasons. First, in the fall of 2006, the Puget Sound region was hit with a
severe windstorm, following heavy rains. This resulted in region-wide power outages
lasting many days. In some parts of Bellevue, residents were without power for as long
as ten days or more, raising questions about response time and communication among the
city, PSE, and their customers. Second, over the last 5-6 years, Bellevue has experienced
a tremendous surge of growth, particularly in the downtown core, creating significant
demands for additional power capacity in that area. This is exacerbated by the fact that
many of the new tenants in the downtown are high-tech firms with huge demands for
electricity. Lastly, as described above, Bellevue is experiencing growth in home-based
technology businesses, which places higher demands for electricity in residential areas.
In response to these events, growth, and changes in demographics, in July of 2008,
Bellevue City Council adopted an Electric Reliability Interest Statement (Attachment A)
that identified six key areas of interest pertaining to a highly reliable electric service for
our citizens and community. The Interest Statement was developed in consultation with
City Council, external stakeholders, and Puget Sound Energy.
Request For Qualifications
In the context of the attached Interest Statement, the City of Bellevue is seeking
information from prospective consulting firms on their background, experience and key
personnel to assist the city in addressing the following areas related to electric service
reliability:
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Nationally, what are the best practices for electric service providers in areas such
as system planning, operations and maintenance, technology enhancements/new
technologies, etc., that lead to a highly reliable electric system and/or lead to
increasing electric service reliability?
Based on the best practices work from above, assess the current and proposed
future electric system in Bellevue, both infrastructure (focusing on distribution
systems, including substations) and operating and maintenance practices
(including system upgrades and replacement, as well as outage response, system
hardening, etc.), to identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement to
increase reliability.
As a partner with the region’s electric service provider, what role can the city play
in ensuring a highly reliable electric system?
How should the city define and measure “reliable” and how do we monitor to
ensure the electric system is reliable?
Next Steps
Staff anticipates selecting a firm by early June. The first task for the selected firm will be
working with city staff and key external stakeholders to develop a scope of work. The
consultant will be working under an initial contract until the scope of work is developed
and approved by City Council, at which time a second contract to accomplish the scope
of work will be executed. As the scope of work is developed, and throughout the
remainder of the project, team leadership and facilitation skills will be critical. This
project will be a collaborative effort among the selected consultant, City Council, staff
and all stakeholders, including PSE. It is anticipated the consultant’s work will be
complete, and a finished product available, by the summer of 2010.