November 14, 2024

It’s Public Power Week! Every year, the first full week of October marks a time to celebrate and recognize the many contributions that public power utilities make in providing safe, affordable, and reliable power to our communities.

To honor the occasion, we’re highlighting the people who make public power possible – our workers. The past two years have been a whirlwind of highs and lows, challenges and successes, but through it all the City Light team has remained committed to serving our community and keeping the lights on.

Below, we’ve invited several City Light employees from across the utility to share how they’re helping our community.

Ryan Pham, Grid Modernization Engineer

City Light is preparing for a fully electrified future. And like many utilities, it is under increasing pressure to improve reliability, minimize customer losses and optimize system performance. Enter Grid Modernization Engineer Ryan Pham. His work includes implementing new technologies to improve system reliability, operational efficiency, safety, and customer satisfaction.

Ryan joined City Light almost eight years ago to lead the distribution automation project and develop a long-term plan for implementing new technology throughout the system. What is distribution automation? Distribution automation uses digital sensors and switches with advanced control and communication technologies to automate feeder switching; voltage and equipment health monitoring; and outage, voltage, and reactive power management.

Ryan — whose team developed the utility’s Grid Modernization Plan to update the electrical grid — was excited to “see our efforts paying off.” He added, “The new systems have saved thousands of customers from continuous power outages and improved operational efficiency and customer satisfaction… It is a challenge but also interesting to work in a broad technical aspects of the project, including power system planning and design, telecommunications, operational technology integration and cybersecurity.”

Grecia Elenes, Environmental Equity Advisor

City Light is committed to creating equal connections with the community. However, the complexity of utility operations and regulations has historically kept many customers and stakeholders out of the conversation. Environmental Equity Advisor Grecia Elenes is trying to close this gap. Community involvement can be challenging, but bringing diverse voices and interests to the planning table is necessary to ensure an equitable clean energy transition.

Grecia works across the utility to ensure that City Light’s policies, programs, and projects proactively address historical and ongoing inequities that disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous, and communities of color, through to build real partnerships and collaborations with these communities.

Grecia, who joined the utility this summer, is energized by “working with diverse groups of people and communities to ensure they have equal access to spaces, processes, and decision-making where we have historically been excluded and ignored.”

Tanya Panomvana, Principal Electrical Power Systems Engineer

Electricity in a home or business starts with the connection to the electric service. This is where the electric company connects its wires to your home’s feeder wires that connect to your home’s meter.

Principal Electrical Power Systems Engineer Tanya Panomvana manages the North Distribution Engineering Services group, which designs electrical service connections to residential and commercial buildings as well as engineers overhead and/or underground changes to distribution power lines for service related projects.​​​​

Tanya has been with City Light for 15 years but is new to her role, where she focuses on improving processes, workflows, and productivity within the work group as well as coaching engineers to make decisions that benefit the customer and the utility.

“Currently, my key motivator is the desire to learn different aspects of how to be a successful leader and how to fulfill the duties and expectations of this role,” explained Tanya who was inspired by her team. “I work with an excellent team, and I enjoy working and learning with them on challenging engineering projects. “

Marcello Girardi, Principal Material Controller

The utility sector is no stranger to turmoil caused by supply chain disruptions. Natural disasters and weather events across the country mean equipment such as transformers and meters are in short supply. For City Light Principal Material Controller Marcello Girardi, tackling this challenge is all in a day’s work.

Marcello assists in the purchase of transformers and components and equipment essential to the delivery of electricity. He analyzes supply chain data to set inventory targets, builds models to predict how many transformers the utility will need in the future, and coordinates with industry manufacturers. Marcello said a key motivator is “working towards a green energy future that will benefit us as well as future generations.” He added, “I enjoy learning new things and coming up with creative solutions to problems.”

Kiyomi Morris, Greenhouse Gas Strategic Advisor

The challenge of climate change has never been more acute. As a public power provider, City Light is committed to a clean energy future that is safe, reliable and affordable. Moving away from fossil fuels requires significant commitments and partnerships.

Washington state recently passed a series of landmark laws and funding packages designed to strengthen our response to climate change, in part by setting limits on the amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted. Under these laws, City Light implements existing and future programs that affect all areas of the utility.

Meanwhile City Light’s Greenhouse Gas Strategic Advisor Kiyomi Morris tracks, reports and works to reduce the emissions associated with the utility’s business as well as help maintain the utility’s greenhouse gas neutral status. “I am inspired by the communities we serve. What we do has a direct impact on people and the environment,” said Kiyomi, who began her career at City Light in 2015 as an intern. “I feel like I have a part to play in doing what we can to make sure the impact is positive.”

Michele Westwood, Cable Splicer

Some days Cable Splicer Michele Westwood can be found sleuthing in subterranean Seattle, where a system of large concrete boxes called vaults (more than 1,500!) – all designed to deliver electricity to customers at City Light. Underground power distribution networks provide power reliably in high-density population load areas, such as downtown Seattle.

Michele serves on the utility’s network protector crew, ensuring the safety of equipment and workers. What is network protector? It is a device that monitors and controls the flow of electricity between interconnected power systems. The crews who build and maintain these vast underground systems often go unnoticed, but they are a vital part of delivering electricity.

“I enjoy the challenge of finding problems that arise. Sometimes they are mechanical, and sometimes they are electrical,” said Michele who has worked at City Light for five years, four as a cable splicer apprentice and one as a journeyman. “Cutting electrical drawings and tracing circuits helped me stay sharp. I love knowing that I helped keep our city strong.”

Janelle Fisher, Utility Account Supervisor

From meter reading through secure wireless transmission, software processing and payment collection, accuracy is important at every step of the utility billing cycle. With nearly 480,000 residential and business customers in our service area, the Account Services team, part of the Customer Operations Division, is a production-oriented unit responsible for billing, account maintenance, and tasks with customer relationship.

“We make sure our City Light customers receive the correct utility bill,” explained Utility Account Supervisor Janelle Fisher. “We are constantly monitoring the output from the databases to identify inaccuracies and discrepancies in our meter readings.”

Janelle and her team embody the “customer first” mindset. They work to issue timely and accurate bills and make adjustments when necessary as well as provide professional and courteous service to customers with account and billing questions.

Matt Klein, Streetlight Crew Chief, South Service Center

Street lights energize our community by illuminating streets, sidewalks, and various public spaces, including alleyways and parks. Street lights increase visibility, promote road safety for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists and help discourage crime. Streetlight Crew Chief Matt Klein and his team maintain, repair and replace approximately 43,065 streetlights throughout the utility’s south service area. City Light has approximately 85,000 streetlights in its 131-square-mile service territory that provide lighting for residential and arterial streets.

“Prior to my time at City Light, I really didn’t know the full extent of proper street lighting in our service area,” explains Matt who has worked at the utility for 13 years. “Locations that are dark or without street lights are especially a public safety concern, directly impacting business owners, residential customers, and our community as a whole.”


A big thank you to all of our utility-wide employees who help make public power possible!

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