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News & Information About Your
Consumer-Owned Utility.
June 2001
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Employee
Profile: Jenny Knieling
How oftentimes life’s
practicalities throw hurdles in the path of young dreams! Jenny
Knieling, for example, planned for a career in forensics, to
become one of Oregon's few medical examiners, an expert on
diagnosing the cause of death in recently deceased humans. "I was
always fascinated by science, even the gross aspects," says the
23-year-old woman, one of Salem Electric’s newest employees.
Like many
youngsters who imagine exotic careers that remain just out of
reach, Jenny chose instead to focus on something equally
interesting but closer at hand - mathematics. After taking lots of
biology courses at the University of Puget Sound, Chemeketa
Community College and the University of Oregon, Jenny realized
that a medical examiner's license was still 15 school years away.
More importantly, she realized that the life they lead is very
demanding. "Since there are relatively few medical examiners,
they’re on call a lot," she says. "For somebody as family-oriented
as I am, that career choice began to make less and less sense."
Jenny’s
talent for science and math was a gift from her parents and
grandparents. Her mother is an accountant working for the State of
Oregon. Growing up, her mother, father and grandmother were all
intensely involved in 4-H chapters in the Willamette Valley.
Jenny’s early experience with sewing, gardening, cooking and
raising animals have continued to sustain her interests. In high
school, she became a "Junior Leader" for younger kids and attended
the national 4-H Congress in Orlando, Florida, as an Oregon "Ambassador."
More
recently, Jenny has signed on to help her mother with the
instruction of Polk County 4-H members in the K-12 age range. Her
father, who lives in Aumsville with Jenny’s younger brother and
sister, still leads a 4-H chapter there. He raises pygmy goats and
rabbits, and that becomes the centerpiece for teaching 4-H skills
to his and other children. Jenny, who lives with her mother in
Keizer, says the divorce of her parents was amicable and that
she's delighted that "they are still friends."
Jenny still enjoys cooking and has added some landscaping
touches to her mom’s yard, with annuals, perennials and a few
shrubs.
Salem
Electric hired Jenny last fall, to fill a position in the Customer
Service Department. When a position opened up in Accounting, she
applied and quickly fell in love with the new job, working on
payroll and accounts payable. "My position leaves me lots of room
to grow,
says Jenny, "and I plan to go back to school to get an
accounting degree." She may be a student of her stepfather, who
teaches accounting at Chemeketa.
"I
love storms," says Jenny, when asked about her interest in the
outdoors and travel. She’s particularly fond of beach combing on
the Oregon coast, where she and her boyfriend, Nick Gerig, go tent
camping. The couple also enjoys many aspects of gardening. Nick is
an OSU graduate with a degree in horticulture, and works at the
Oregon Garden in Silverton.
Oddly
enough, Jenny and Nick had met many years ago, but stumbled on the
discovery recently while looking at a photo album. "After we had
been dating for some time, Nick’s mother was showing me pictures
of Nick’s cousin’s wedding," recalls Jenny. "The faces seemed
familiar to me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it until she
showed me a picture of the wedding party in church. It turns out
that I was the flower girl and Nick was ring bearer!"
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 Look
For This Symbol
Since May of 1997, 133,860 ENERGY
STAR labeled
clothes washers have been sold in the Northwest. Each year these
machines save 80,316,000 kWh of energy and over 937,020,000 gallons of
water. The savings provide enough energy to light over 20 million homes
for a day and provide more water than five million people will drink in
a year!
ENERGY
STAR FACTS:
A 10-year old refrigerator uses as much energy as two
ENERGY STAR labeled refrigerators.
An ENERGY STAR qualified dishwasher with an internal
water heater can save 20% on water heating costs.
ENERGY STAR qualified windows can save 15% of your total
energy bill.
ENERGY STAR qualified clothes washers use up to 40% less
water and 60% less energy per load.
Did you know that Americans spend over $1 billion each
year to power their TVs and VCRs when they are switched off?
ENERGY STAR qualifications for TVs and VCRs is
determined by the wattage the unit uses while switched off, in the
stand-by mode.
An ENERGY STAR labeled TV consumes up to 75% less energy
than conventional models when switched off - or less than three watts.
An ENERGY STAR labeled VCR consumes up to 70% less
energy than conventional models when switched off - or less than four
watts.
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UPDATE: September Rate
Increase
June 2001
Salem
Electric’s rates will increase the first of September due to the
wholesale power increase from the Bonneville Power Administration that
will take effect October 1. Salem Electric’s increase begins a month
earlier. At the end of October when we pay BPA at their new rate, we will
have collected money from bills that were mailed out in September.
Rates for
the next two years will not be stable. BPA has adopted a plan under which
their rates will be trued up every six months, otherwise they would have
had to set rates that would carry them through at least two years of
uncertainty. The ability to adjust their rates every six months will allow
BPA to start with a lower increase since these rates will more closely
reflect BPA's current costs.
BPA will
release their final "record of decision," including their new
rates, in June. They are quoting a range that could increase our
customers' bills by 50% to 125%.
Obviously, the larger increase would be devastating to the
Northwest economy. BPA and its customers are doing everything they can to
keep that from happening. BPA is working with the region’s aluminum
industry to shut down their operations for two years. In exchange, BPA
would provide them with a cash payment intended to provide full pay and
benefits for aluminum workers during the two-year down time. At least one
aluminum firm has already signed an agreement.
BPA is
asking its investor-owned utilities, including PGE, to reduce their demand
on BPA by 10% for two years. All of BPA’s consumer-owned utilities,
including Salem Electric, are being asked to do the same. If they are
successful, according to BPA, this could substantially reduce the
projected rate increase. Investor-owned utilities have their own sources
of electricity, making it easier for them to reduce their loads on BPA.
Consumer-owned utilities, especially those like Salem Electric who get all
of their power from BPA, can only meet the 10% reduction through
intensified conservation efforts and negotiated load reductions by large
customers. A third option of contracting with outside power producers is
possible, if the resource is renewable and does not exceed three
megawatts.
Salem
Electric is exploring each of these methods. After nearly 20 years of
aggressively pursuing conservation, we benefit from having a staff of
professionals who are aware of the new technologies available for
increased conservation in residential and commercial applications. We have
been meeting with our larger customers to see if there are ways to make
their already efficient operations even more so. Some customers have
indicated that they have load which could be removed from Salem Electric
and negotiations are underway. We are exploring several renewable resource
opportunities that could also help us meet BPA’s 10% reduction goal.
In the
meantime, while we wait for BPA’s final rate number, we have hired a
consultant to review the way we allocate the "cost of service"
among our three classes of customers: residential, commercial and
lighting. As soon as we have BPA’s new rates we will inform our
customers of our new rates.
All the
while, Salem Electric will continue its long-time and long-term efforts to
provide our members - who are also our customers - with reliable power at
the lowest possible cost.
Robert
J. Speckman
General Manager
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