20 17
Formed in 1971, AMP is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, with approximately 170 fulltime employees at headquarters and generating facilities.
American Municipal Power, Inc. (AMP) is the nonprofit wholesale power supplier and services provider for 135 members, including 134 member municipal electric systems in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana and Maryland; as well as the Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation, a joint action agency with nine members headquartered in Smyrna, Delaware. Combined, these member utilities serve more than 650,000 customers.
The organization is governed by a Board of Trustees that consists of 21 AMP members - 20 elected by the members or subgroups of members and AMP member Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation (DEMEC), on behalf of its nine member systems. Each such elected member then appoints a person to represent it on the Board.
As the industry continues to evolve, it
is critical for AMP to adapt to change.
In 2017, AMP Board of Trustees
adopted an updated three-year strategic
plan to address the many changes within the
industry. To achieve this, AMP engaged an
outside consultant to facilitate an update to the
organization’s strategic plan — AMP Strategic Plan
2020. The updated plan includes eight priority
teams, comprised of approximately 50 staff members,
who have established 51 initiatives and 171 tasks to
accomplish goals outlined in AMP Strategic Plan 2020.
The eight priority teams outlined are power supply; transmission
strategy; member engagement and communications; value and
cost management; member distribution systems; member system
benchmarking; member IT solutions; and high-performance culture.
Additionally, AMP collaborated with its financial partners and Moody’s Investor Service (Moody’s) in an effort to better understand what rating agencies are currently looking for and what metrics are no longer relevant to credit monitoring trends. These collaborations helped to provide a great deal of feedback and insight into the credit rating process, helping AMP to determine a better path forward.
In 2017, all projects remain rated in the A category. Moody’s reaffirmed AMP’s A1 issuer rating with a stable outlook, AMP’s Prairie State Energy Campus (PSEC) Project ratings, and AMP Fremont Energy Center (AFEC) Project ratings. Fitch reaffirmed its ratings for OMEGA JV5’s Belleville Hydroelectric Project, AMP’s PSEC Project, and AMP’s AFEC Project. S&P Global Ratings reaffirmed its A rating for AMP’s PSEC Project and AMP’s AFEC Project.
AMP entered into a five-year, $600 million Revolving Credit Agreement with
a syndicate of nine commercial banks led by Royal Bank of Canada as
the administrative agent. This commitment ultimately improves AMP’s
access to liquidity and is expandable to $850 million. The new
agreement reduces AMP’s fixed draw fee, lowers the
commitment amount by $150 million, adds three new
financial partners and results in annual savings of
approximately $300,000 in unused line fees.
The National Federation of Municipal Analysts’
(NFMA) awarded AMP with the 2017 Excellence
in Disclosure Award, citing tireless work to
interact with and inform the investor
community. NFMA highlighted that AMP has
“a notable track record of presenting at
investor events and making time for
one-on-one meetings to ensure that
investors have the information they
need.”
Following years of work to make an IT hosted solutions approach
a reality for members, in 2017, AMP completed the configuration
of back office systems, partnered with Silver Spring Networks, Electsolve, BlueBridge Networks and stood up the necessary infrastructure to allow
for the launch of AMP’s Advanced Metering Program. This led to the successful implementation of an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) network f or the
Borough of Ephrata and has made the service a possibility for all AMP members.
In addition to the rollout of the Advanced Metering Program, AMP also released a new real-time data portal to allow members to view their wholesale metering data.
AMP also finalized IT system implementations at all newly built hydroelectric and solar facilities, and continues to support systems across the entire generation asset fleet. AMP’s aging enterprise storage system was replaced in 2017, which has resulted in a nearly 70 percent data reduction across data center IT systems.
In a continuing effort to monitor cybersecurity, AMP has taken steps to make its systems more secure by completing the rollout of next generation security devices across all AMP facilities. These new security measures allow for faster detection of cyber threats and a more effective response. AMP is also increasing employee education and outreach regarding cybersecurity, to help everyone better identify and defend against cyber threats.
An accounts-payable automation system was deployed and integrated with AMP’s enterprise resource planning financial module in 2017. Additionally, third-party vendors were selected as part of an ongoing renewal of all AMP telecommunications circuits, which is expected to result in an annual savings of more than $100,000 beginning in 2019.
AMP’s strategic coordination of peak shaving was successful throughout 2017, resulting in around $59 million in savings from AMP and members’ behind-the-meter generation for the upcoming planning and calendar years. AMP entered into 34 remaining requirements power supply arrangements, as well as a long-term natural gas purchase agreement for AFEC, which will help to stabilize fuel costs for the period of 2018–2027. Throughout 2017, AMP conducted more than 110 one-on-one meetings with member community representatives helping to educate members on the many issues facing public power and to help strategize each community’s power supply.
Throughout the year, AMP completed development on a number of
generation facilities. The Smithland Hydro Plant achieved commercial
operation in 2017, marking completion of the Phase I Hydro Project – the
largest deployment of its kind currently in the United States.
In January 2017, the first facility of the AMP Phase II Solar Project went into operation. The 20 MW project is in Bowling Green, Ohio and consists of 85,690 solar panels spanning 165 acres.
The generation facilities are owned and operated by NextEra Energy Resources, and AMP purchases all generation output. An additional nine sites totaling 12.1 MW are also now in operation in Ohio, Michigan and Virginia, and more sites in Ohio and Delaware are in development. The project will provide peaking energy, as well as capacity and transmission savings for participating members.
Over the past several years, AMP has worked to develop four run-of-the-river hydroelectric facilities on existing dams along the Ohio River, adding more than 300 MW of renewable generation to the region.
As of 2017, the Willow Island, Cannelton and Smithland hydroelectric plants have all achieved commercial operation, completing the Phase I Hydro Project. Combined, these hydroelectric plants are estimated to produce an average annual output of more than 1.6 billion kWh. Currently, 79 member communities from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia are participating in the Phase I Hydro Project.
The Meldahl and Greenup hydroelectric projects continued successful operation through 2017. Combined, these two hydroelectric plants are estimated to produce an average annual output of more than 800 million kWh. Currently, 48 member communities are participating in the Meldahl and Greenup hydro projects.
The performance of the Prairie State Energy Campus (PSEC) continued to improve in 2017. The plant finished the year with its best (the lowest) annual equivalent forced outage rate (EFOR) in its history at 9.9 percent. This represents a significant improvement from the 2016 EFOR of 12.7 percent.
Additionally, during 2017 PSEC:
- set a new record for highest monthly plant capacity factor (based on 1,582 MW plant rating): 101.3 percent achieved in November 2017;
- set a new record for highest monthly plant equivalent availability factor: 99.28 percent achieved in November 2017;
- set a new record for most energy generated in a month by Unit Two: 595,392 MWh achieved in December 2017;
- reached a new record for highest monthly Unit Two capacity factor (based on 791 MW unit rating): 101.8 percent achieved November 2017; and
- reached a second-highest monthly Unit One capacity factor (based on 791 MW unit rating): 100.8 percent achieved November 2017.
The AMP Fremont Energy Center (AFEC) continued its excellent string of success, recording no lost-time accidents or recordable events through operations during 2017. There has been no lost-time accident or recordable event on-site at AFEC in the past six years of operation. This coincides with an operation and maintenance (O&M) agreement that staff made with NAES Corporation (NAES).
A new O&M agreement was successfully negotiated with NAES in 2017 and went into effect in January 2018. This agreement will again charge NAES with oversight of O&M at AFEC for five years. (As of April 2017, NAES also oversees O&M at AMP’s peaking, solar and wind distributed generation facilities.) Look for more detailed information about the AFEC facility in the separate 2017 AFEC Annual Report.
AFEC had a strong 2017, operating for over 6,000 hours with a capacity factor above 50 percent and a forced outage rate (FOR) of 0.32 percent. AMP completed several upgrades and modifications during the spring outage, including installation of new high-pressure isolation valves to allow for improved operating flexibility. AMP also completed the scheduled combustion inspection on Unit One combustion turbine (CT1) in October. AFEC set a new record for highest generation in a single month with 394,501 MWh in December. 2017 was the second highest operating hour year, closing the year strong — being online the entire month of December.
AMP continued to increase its presence and influence at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and as a stakeholder within PJM Interconnection (PJM) and the MidContinent Independent System Operator (MISO), as well as other non-RTO areas.
Throughout 2017, AMP was involved in many issues before FERC, and at PJM and MISO, resulting in several achievements for AMP and our members. To highlight a few, AMP defeated transmission owners’ attempts to continue a hiatus on addressing a deficient transmission planning process for transmission projects; AMP sponsored a problem statement and obtained stakeholder support to force discussions regarding modifications to the capacity construct in PJM; identified deficiencies and inaccuracies in PJM’s assessment of the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC) integration, and garnered support from other stakeholders to oppose the integration.
AMP achieved several transmission cost-controlling initiatives for its members throughout 2017. AMP was able to reach settlements with American Electric Power (AEP) and the Mid-Atlantic Interstate Transmission to ensure that the formulas for their forward-looking transmission rates were appropriate. AMP also filed a complaint against AEP asserting that AEP’s return-on-equity (ROE) was too high. AMP also reached a settlement in the AEP ROE complaint, which is pending before FERC.
To better address the changes in the transmission side of the industry and deal with rising costs, AMP brought on a director of transmission planning. The addition has helped AMP improve expertise of the issues and ultimately increase our influence within the PJM and MISO regions.
Additionally, as a result of AMP’s leadership, to compliment AMP’s efforts, The Energy Authority also hired a transmission planner and procured transmission planning power flow models that cover both PJM and MISO.
In 2017, AMP made incredible strides spotlighting an issue that is heavily affecting the PJM region. Transmission projects are on the rise across the country and associated costs have increased dramatically in recent years. From 2011 to 2017, transmission rates rose by more than 475 percent in some areas. Recognizing this alarming increase along with trends indicating intent by investor owned utilities to shift capital to even greater investments in regulated transmission assets, AMP commissioned Dr. Ken Rose, a nationally recognized expert in the structure, regulation and economics of the U.S. energy markets, to study the trends.
Rose’s study found that much of these cost increases are due to a rise in supplemental transmission projects, which are not required to satisfy reliability standards, operational performance or economic criteria. Supplemental projects do not receive the same rigorous review and oversight from PJM as would baseline projects (projects addressing reliability concerns), even though the project costs are passed through to consumers.
In response, AMP worked to bring this issue to the forefront by working with legislative and regulatory bodies, raising awareness with key industry leaders and educating other stakeholder organizations on the issue. AMP has also increased its efforts to bring attention to this matter through social and traditional media, and published an opinion editorial — To avoid skyrocketing costs, FERC scrutiny of ‘supplemental’ projects needed — with the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
AMP will continue to engage and advocate for meaningful oversight of supplemental transmission projects and continue efforts to mitigate increasing transmission costs.
In 2017, AMP’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) process continued to improve and adapt to the growing complexity and informational needs of the organization.
Through collaboration with The Energy Authority, AMP’s Risk Management Committee developed a Risk Index Model, to better manage energy procurement risk and replace an outdated method of evaluating potential counterparties that provide energy to member communities.
As AMP continues to grow, the organization continues to evaluate insurance products and increase coverages to mitigate potential exposures, such as developing an endorsement for the generation assets property policy that ties premium costs to the value of claims made, which allows for premium reductions and caps premium increases, and increased the professional liability from $1 million to $2 million. AMP also added advanced metering infrastructure and safety training to the professional liability policy to provide further coverage of these services while exploring cyber, debt service and capacity performance insurance products.
AMP submitted more than 325 compliance reports, performed more than 100 site inspections of AMP assets — with no violations cited by any regulatory agencies — and submitted nine Renewable Energy Certification (REC) applications for five facilities across six states. In addition, a recently developed environmental audit program was conducted at three hydroelectric plants.
The EcoSmart Choice program continued to grow in 2017, adding a new member and nearly 200 customers. EcoSmart Choice offers a green-pricing option for individuals and companies who are interested in purchasing up to 100 percent renewable energy through the purchase of RECs. Participating communities purchased more than 43,419 MWh of green power through the program in 2017.
AMP continued its efforts in the Focus Forward Advisory Council (FFAC). A new strategic plan was implemented for the FFAC, the member extranet was simplified and distributed energy resource (DER) interconnection templates were developed for members.
AMP members asked for more flexible energy efficiency options, which became available with the rollout of Efficiency Smart 3.0. Efficiency Smart can now better serve the different needs of different communities. The Efficiency Smart program grew by two members in 2017, with the addition of Versailles and Montpelier. The program currently is under active consideration by four additional communities.
The results of the Efficiency Smart contract for 2014–2016 were completed and verified in 2017, and the program exceeded expectations, achieving 146 percent of its three-year MWh savings target. All participating member communities achieved guaranteed energy savings.
In addition to work performed under the Efficiency Smart program, the AMP Direct Connections (Key Accounts) program orchestrated and finalized nine U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) grant-subsidized energy audits and 14 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant-subsidized energy audits for members subscribed to the Direct Connection program. Since its inception, the Direct Connections program has been awarded nearly $600,000 in grant funds to assist program participants with their business retention efforts by providing energy efficiency education, training and energy audits for key accounts located in member communities.
Look for more detailed information regarding AMP’s sustainability, including reforestation efforts and environmental filings in the separate 2017 Sustainability Report.
AMP remained active in the legislative process at the state and federal level in 2017. Maintaining our influence in Washington, D.C., AMP was able to work with the White House and congress to protect the ability to use tax-exempt municipal bonds and Build America Bonds (BABs) in the new tax plan. Lawmakers adopted legislation to waive the Pay-as-You-Go Act of 2010 requirement, which prevented the elimination of the payments to issuers of BABs and New Clean Renewable Energy Bonds. AMP and OMEA continue the work of addressing the adverse effect that sequestration has on BABs.
During the 2017 APPA Legislative Rally, AMP focused heavily on the issues of tax-exempt municipal bonds and BABs, as well as on rising transmission costs, capacity market impacts on customers and environmental policy.
AMP is consistently involved in legislative efforts at the state level, representing members and industry-related interests. In Ohio, AMP worked to ensure that
AMP/OMEA amendments were adopted and included in the annual state
spending bill. Included in the amendments are provisions beneficial to
small hydro; clarifying language on kwh tax, ensuring members
aren’t put at a competitive disadvantage; and language to
protect and preserve municipal utility assets in the event
of village dissolutions. Additionally, AMP helped defeat
(via line-item veto) a burdensome service territory
provision.
In 2017, Pennsylvania was facing anti-municipal
legislation and AMP is assisting members
by securing appropriate resources to fight
against the onerous legislative efforts.
In West Virginia, AMP is assisting
members in their efforts to simplify
the rate making process by
reducing regulatory hurdles.
AMP increased its communications activity throughout 2017, with an across the board expansion of member outreach efforts. Social media activity increased, including the creation of an AMP Twitter account. There were more than 200 informational posts across AMP social media platforms in 2017, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. These posts aim to keep members better informed and to provide easily sharable social media content to bolster each member community’s local outreach efforts and enhance awareness of the benefits of public power. These efforts will continue in 2018.
In 2017, annual reports for AMP, OMEGA JV2, OMEGA JV5, OMEGA JV6, AFEC, Sustainability and OMEA were developed, printed and distributed, and made publicly available on the AMP website. Three editions of the Amplifier were distributed to approximately 2,300 people; annual calendars were distributed to more than 800 people; and the Update, AMP’s weekly member newsletter, was transitioned to an email format and is distributed to more than 1,300 people each week.
AMP continued its scholarships program in 2017, with the Richard H. Gorsuch Scholarship and the Lyle B. Wright Scholarship programs, each of which honored four winners. Drew Hanna of Arcadia, Courtney Slider of New Martinsville, Haley Suffel of Montpelier and Kyle Pape of Oak Harbor were the 2017 Richard H. Gorsuch Scholarship recipients. Amanda Lehmkuhl of Minster, Madison Summers of Montpelier, Paige Kuck of New Bremen and Kyle Turner of Jackson were the 2017 Lyle B. Wright Scholarship recipients. Since 1988, AMP has distributed $308,000 in scholarship awards.
More than 400 participants attended the 2017 AMP/OMEA Conference, Sept. 25-28, 2017, at the Hilton Columbus at Easton. The conference featured speakers from the American Public Power Association, Smart Electric Power Alliance, the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and other industry experts.
During the conference, Bruce Metz, village administrator of Jackson Center, was named the 2017 Seven Hats Award winner for his impressive work in the areas of planning and design, administration, public relations, field supervision, accounting, personnel or employee direction, and community leadership. Additionally, numerous other AMP members were recognized and presented awards for finance, innovation, system improvement, public power promotion, electric system sustainability and safety, as well as commendations for mutual aid.
AMP had yet another year of growth, hiring 36 new employees for positions at both AMP headquarters and for AMP generation facilities. Many of these new employees report to the new hydro facilities. In response, human resources has a greatly expanded presence in the plants — providing job interviews, open enrollment meetings and other services on-site.
AMP made several improvements to the benefits offered to employees. It is hoped that these efforts will help to attract and retain the high-performance talent that AMP continually seeks.
AMP facilities were upgraded and repaired throughout 2017 as part of the routine maintenance schedule. The first and fourth floor of headquarters underwent construction and needed upgrades, a three-phase AMI meter demonstration room has been added, a new chiller and control system has been installed and a full roof replacement has been completed. Additionally, a new lease has been negotiated and executed with tenants on the second floor.
In an effort to further improve employee engagement, the Corporate Responsibility Engagement Team was established and has organized charitable giving events and efforts at AMP headquarters and generating facilities. In 2017, AMP staff members contributed more than $21,000 to charitable organizations through payroll deductions, provided nearly $4,000 toward Hurricane Harvey relief efforts and donated more than $1,400 and 400 lbs. of food, clothing, essentials and toys during the annual Holiday Giving Program.
The fourth annual AMP Lineworkers Rodeo was held Aug. 25–26, 2017, at AMP headquarters in Columbus and featured competitors from Bryan, Coldwater, Cleveland, Cuyahoga Falls, Jackson Center, Piqua, Tipp City, Wadsworth and Westerville. Participants competed in three levels of competition (team, individual journeyman and individual apprentice) and were judged on safety, work practices, neatness, ability, equipment handling and timely event completion. The event also provided participants the opportunity to take part in training sessions to enhance on-the-job skills and improve safety practices. Overall winners from each category receive AMP sponsorship to attend and compete in the national APPA Lineworkers Rodeo.
Throughout 2017, AMP again offered member communities access to its broad offering of training courses and service programs. Hundreds of participants from member communities took advantage of technical, lineworker, safety and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) training courses, as well as the many additional member services programs, such as Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3) application assistance, legislative services and annual events. The Board of Trustees approved the restructure and increase of OSHA rates, which was successfully implemented with all members remaining in the program.
AMP worked to ensure compliance with NERC’s Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) cyber security plan in 2017, and successfully implemented all necessary changes in a timely manner. Following these adjustments, AMP successfully completed an in-depth tabletop exercise, which tested the details of the plan and helped to ensure compliance.
Usage of the Circuit Rider program increased by 34 percent from 2016 to 2017, due to the addition of member communities Lucas and Prospect, as well as the ability to provide services after-hours and for storm restoration. The Circuit Rider program offers AMP member communities the services of an experienced, qualified field superintendent. AMP energy services consultants offer guidance to municipal employees and expertise on electric system operation and maintenance. This service can also provide smaller communities with assistance or training on a scheduled or special-project basis including capital improvements, equipment troubleshooting, safety and system design or mapping.
Utilization of the eReliability Tracker increased by 20 percent in 2017, bringing the total number of member communities utilizing the program to 42. The eReliability Tracker program, a service provided through the American Public Power Association (APPA), assists public power utilities to simplify operations decisions by providing detailed outage summary reports and mobile support for field employees. AMP has arranged to provide the web-based eReliability Tracker service to all AMP members. Active participation in the program earns points toward the RP3 designation. As of 2017, 27 AMP members hold RP3 designations, and nine of those members recently applied for renewal to the program.
Continuing strong corporate safety efforts into 2017, AMP had no lost time accidents and only one recordable incident in 2017.
In 2017, AMP’s training programs were attended by 320 employees from more than 45 member communities in five states. AMP offered a variety of technical and lineworker classes, including Groundworker, Substation 101, Metering, Hotline, Pole and Bucket Rescue, and Underground Distribution Workshop.
Fifteen lineworker/technical training courses and four regional safety meetings were held throughout 2017, covering a variety of relevant safety topics for municipal electric systems.
The AMP Technical Services Conference was held April 25–26, 2017. More than 100 municipal electric utility officials and technical staff from 22 member communities attended. The annual Technical Services Conference provides an opportunity for staff from member communities to increase their technical understanding and capabilities by learning about new utility related products and services, strengthening relationships with other community representatives, and exchanging ideas and experiences with other utilities that might be facing similar challenges.
The Wall of Fame program was launched in 2010 to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to AMP and public power.
In 2017, John Bentine was inducted into the AMP Wall of Fame. Bentine served as general counsel for AMP and the Ohio Municipal Electric Association since 1981.
Bentine is widely respected in the legal field and considered one of the
foremost municipal and utility attorneys in Ohio. He joined AMP in 2012 as
senior vice president/general counsel and also served as a longtime ex-
officio member of the AMP Board of Trustees. He retired in February
2017, but continues to serve the organization part-time. Prior to joining
AMP full time, Bentine was with the Columbus law firm of Chester,
Willcox and Saxbe; served as assistant attorney general and
counsel to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio; and served
as senior assistant city attorney for the City of Columbus.
Wellington, OH
Steve Dupee
Chair
Village Manager Village of Wellington
Orrville, OH
Jeff Brediger
Vice Chair
Director of Utilities
City of Orrville
Bryan, OH
Kevin Maynard
Secretary
Director of Utilities
City of Bryan
Delaware Municipal Electric Corp.
Patrick McCullar
Treasurer
President & CEO
Delaware Municipal Electric Corp.
Bowling Green, OH
Brian O'Connell
Director of Utilities
City of Bowling Green
Carey, OH
Roy Johnson
Village Administrator Village of Carey
Cleveland, OH
Ivan Henderson
Commissioner
Cleveland Public Power
Coldwater, MI
Paul Beckhusen
Director
Coldwater Board of Public Utilities
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
Michael Dougherty
Superintendent
Cuyahoga Falls Electric Department
Danville, VA
Jason Grey
Director of Utilities
City of Danville
Dover, OH
Dave Filippi
Plant Superintendent
Dover Light & Power
Ephrata, PA
Tom Natarian
Director of Operations
Borough of Ephrata
Hamilton, OH
JIm Logan
Director
Executive Director of Infrastructure
City of Hamilton
Montpelier, OH
Kevin Brooks
Village Manager
Village of Montpelier
Napoleon, OH
Joel Mazur
City Manager
City of Napoleon
Oberlin, OH
Doug McMillan
Utilities Director
Oberlin Municipal Light and Power System
Paducah, KY
David Carroll
General Manager
Paducah Power System
Philippi, WV
Karen Weaver
City Manager
City of Philippi
Piqua, OH
Bob Bowman
Assistant Director of Operations
Piqua Power System
Wadsworth, OH
Robert Patrick
Public Service Director
City of Wadsworth
Westerville, OH
Chris Monacelli
Electric Utility Manager
City of Westerville
Note:
- The Member coal figure includes the participation of AMP members Paducah and Princeton in PSEC through the Kentucky Municipal Power Association.
- The wind and solar figure includes member-owned solar.
- The hydro figure includes member-owned hydro.