6th Power Plant Decommissioning Operational Excellence

July 14-16, 2020 | Chicago, IL, United States of America or a Virtual Option!

 For registration details and multiple attendee discounts, please contact:

Jeremy Wise
jeremywi@marcusevansch.com

Registration Details

© Copyright 2019 marcus evans conferences

LOCATION

Chicago, IL or Virtual

ABOUT THE INTERVIEW

Will you please describe your functions and the company you work for?

TIM: I have worked 36 years for Great River Energy, a generation and transmission cooperative in Minnesota.  Our member owners are 28 electric distribution cooperatives covering about 2/3 of the geographic area of the state and serve about 700,000 homes, farms and businesses.  I am a mechanical engineer and have spent most of my career in the construction, startup and operation of generating plants, including coal, natural gas and oil, and a waste-to-energy plant in Elk River, MN that was shut down in early 2019.  I am also the president of a Great River Energy subsidiary that operates a waste-to-energy plant in the city of Minneapolis for the state’s largest county.

THERESE: I am the manager of communications and marketing for Great River Energy, a wholesale power cooperative based in Maple Grove, Minn. I oversee communications – on-line and in print, media relations, advertising and many community involvement efforts for our organizations. I provided overall strategic communication support for the closure of two power plant projects. I worked with our leadership team to help ensure our organization did the right thing for our employees and communities.

Communities with plants that are about to and recently retired often view the loss of the station as impacting them negatively. How does one communicate effectively with the community surrounding a plant to ensure positive outcomes of a retired or soon to be demolished station?

TIM: Great River Energy communicated early and often -- first with our affected employees and then with all other company employees.  In Elk River, we were the garbage disposal technology for several counties and municipalities and we had many specific meetings with many of them.  Most of our affected employees did not have a job transfer opportunity.  Great River Energy provided more than six months of employment counseling, resume and interviewing coaching and transition planning for employees.  Employees also had access to the state of Minnesota’s Dislocated Worker Program, which provided to coaching and counseling services during working hours.

THERESE: As Tim mentioned we communicated early and consistently. I’ve overseen the communications for the closure of two plants – a coal plant in central North Dakota and a waste-to-energy plant near the Twin Cities. In both cases, we met with community leaders to provide plant updates prior to announcing any closure. Then immediately after telling employees about our plans to close the plants, we notified community leaders. We kept them apprised of decommissioning plans throughout the process. We also did a number of things to help ensure positive outcomes. At one location, a state official expressed concern that Great River Energy would leave an abandoned plant for decades and it would become an eyesore. We promised to conduct demolition and reclamation activities in a timely manner. That same state official, near the end of the project, gave Great River Energy a state reclamation award for our efforts. We also donated items from both plant to local non-profits and schools, which demonstrated our ongoing support of the communities.

What are some of the ways to continue to keep a community informed of the decommissioning process?

TIM: We have direct contact with the city and county community, environmental and communications representatives and provide frequent updates as activities are being planned and site conditions noticeably change.

THERESE: We met with community leaders (including local county commissioners and legislators), used social media and provided periodic updates to local media. We also kept our employees up to date with weekly e-mails. Employees live in the local communities and helped share the message of what we were doing. Employees are a very important (critical) part of the process of getting information out to those in the local community.

Can you provide an example of when community input effected decision making within site activities?

TIM: About 12 years ago, Great River Energy sponsored an Eagle Scout who wanted to build a falcon nesting box and put it up on top of our power plant.  Although Peregrine falcons had not been seen in the area, plant staff contacted the University of Minnesota Raptor Center for advice. A pair of falcons found the nest the first spring, and we’ve had a nesting pair every year since with 38 eyasses (young falcons) successfully fledged from the site. A camera live streamed the falcons’ activities via the company website for many years with many regular “fans.” In this case, the community was literally from all over the world.  Once the news was out that the plant was shutting down, the falcons were one of the biggest concerns. Great River Energy easily made the decision to relocate the falcon nesting box before the falcons return in the spring 2020. 

THERESE: Tim mentioned that Great River Energy relocated a peregrine falcon nesting box as a result of community input. We also donated equipment and supplies from both plants to local community groups and schools. In addition, there was a boat landing on next to one of the power plants (adjacent to the Missouri River) that was used extensively by the community. We worked with local officials and donated the boat landing to the city following plant decommissioning.

You will be some of our guest speakers at the “6th Power Plant Decommissioning Operational Excellence Conference”, what would you like to achieve by attending this event?

TIM: Communicate early, often and with respect.  Engaged employees usually know “why” the company has made the decision to shut a facility down, but sometimes fear results in procrastination and paralysis to move on.

THERESE: I would appreciate learning more about others experiences in announcing the closure of power plants and ongoing communications efforts with community leaders. I also want to convey that if you treat employees with respect during a very difficult process, they will remain engaged. We had heard that that employees became disengaged at other plants following closure announcements. As a result, we worked hard to keep employees informed throughout the process. Employees at both of our plants were engaged and did an outstanding job at getting the plants ready for the decommissioning.

Prior to our 6th Power Plant Decommissioning Operational Excellence Conference, we held a joint interview with Tim Steinbeck and Therese Lacanne of Great River Energy. Tim serves as the Director, Resource Recovery and Therese serves as the Manager, Communications and Marketing. They will be leading one of our premier pre-conference interactive workshops together.

TIM AND THERESE WILL BE LEADING WORKSHOP B!

Strategizing Proactive Messages for the People, the Plant and the Property to Foster Clarity and Transparency

Legendary sites can be a staple for the local community. This workshop will divulge best practices in public relations including timely and crafted communication to initiate a shift in the public persona of power plant decommissioning. Engaging in critical dialogue with the community will prove to be a direct correlation to successful project management.

This interactive workshop will provide you with the tools and strategies to:

- Remain transparent to the public to garner collaboration and input on the site

- Facilitate conversations on property assessments and reuse options with key stakeholders to steer the economic transition

- Update the public with timelines of demolition activities to control expectations and temporary workarounds

- Inform and respect the community with delays, disruptions and deconstruction