One California food company has a novel plan for dealing with food waste and cutting down the power bill: Feed it to bacteria. The Kroger Co. plans to chuck all food gone past its sell-by date into an industrial silo, where microbes will break it down to release methane. That methane will in turn be burned to generate electricity.
Kroger’s new food-to-energy plant is designed to make the most of the vast amount of food that spoils before it can be sold to customers, while reducing the company’s electricity bills. Sludge left over from the new energy plant will be used as agricultural compost. The L.A. Times describes the operation, which was built in a Compton, Calif., distribution center that serves hundreds of Ralphs and Food 4 Less stores:
Several chest-high trash bins containing a feast of limp waffles, wilting flowers, bruised mangoes and plastic-wrapped steak sat in an airy space laced with piping. Stores send food unable to be donated or sold to the facility, where it is dumped into a massive grinder — cardboard and plastic packaging included.
After being pulverized, the mass is sent to a pulping machine, which filters out inorganic materials such as glass and metal and mixes in hot wastewater from a nearby dairy creamery to create a sludgy substance.
Mike Vriens, Ralphs vice president of industrial engineering, describes the goop as a “juicy milkshake” of trash.
From there, the mulch is piped into a 250,000-gallon staging tank before being steadily fed into a 2-million-gallon silo. The contraption essentially functions as a multi-story stomach.
Inside, devoid of oxygen, bacteria munch away on the liquid refuse, naturally converting it into methane gas. The gas, which floats to the top of the tank, is siphoned out to power three on-site turbine engines.
The amount of food that we waste is enough to cause indigestion. With this system in place, the anaerobic digestion of some of the rotting waste will happen in a controlled facility, instead of moldering in a landfill somewhere, where released gases will warm up the globe even more.
Rigid rules for leafy greens are taking a toll on wildlife.
A deadly outbreak of E. coli in 2006, traced to a California spinach field, spurred an overhaul of food-safety regulations in the leafy-greens industry — and that’s got to be a good thing, right? Not so fast, says a study published last week in the journal Nature. Those regulations have contributed to a major loss of ecosystem diversity in California’s Salinas Valley, while at the same time doing little to alleviate the risk of food-borne illness.
In an effort to reduce the potential for contamination, the industry put in place standards that, while technically voluntary, quickly became widespread. Big produce buyers, fearing further disease outbreaks and the public-relations disasters they create, only want to do business with farmers conforming to the new guidelines. “Nationwide, U.S. fruit and vegetable farmers report being pressured by commercial produce buyers to engage in land-use practices that are not conducive to wildlife and habitat conservation, in a scientifically questionable attempt to reduce food-borne illness risk,” the study reports.
Researchers discovered that the new farming practices have further de-incentivized growers from farming in ways that take into account the importance of natural systems of resource cycling and plant regeneration. Instead, many have cleared land of native vegetation, erected fences and laid poison to deter the presence of wildlife. As a result of growers’ attempts to control for all potential variables on crop sites, farmed areas have become not only uninhabitable for wildlife but also more vulnerable to climate change.
The Salinas Valley is not only an important agricultural area — California’s “salad bowl,” where 70 percent of the nation’s greens are produced — but also an ecological gem, The Guardian writes:
The floodplain habitat is a stopover and feeding ground for migrating birds like the Great Blue Heron, its plains and river harbour a number of endangered species like the steelhead salmon, and the waterway connects with one of the country’s largest marine sanctuaries.
The study found that between 2005 — before the E. coli spinach outbreak — and 2009, the Salinas Valley lost 13 percent of that precious riverside and wetland habitat. Clearing vegetation between crop fields and waterways not only disrupts ecosystems and displaces wildlife, it also gives pesticides and fertilizers an easier path to pollute water supplies, and eliminates natural plant buffers that slow erosion and diminish the impacts of flooding.
The worst part is that these new practices haven’t really done squat for food safety, SciAm writes:
Since the 2006 outbreak of E. coli was linked with spinach grown in California, at least 15 more domestic E. coli outbreaks have been reported. More than half included cases reported in California.
Obviously we want to do everything possible to prevent food — especially spinach, for goodness’ sake, which is supposed to the epitome of healthy — from killing people. But not with misguided, ineffective reforms that endanger the entire ecosystem and thus our ability to grow food in the first place.
INTRODUCTION:
Highly-motivated; likes challenge; collaborative; committed to delivering high quality work… Did we describe you? Read on…
Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric utilities. We are an industry leader that is designing new and innovative ways to meet our customer’s needs. We are looking for highly motivated individuals who enjoy the challenge of working on key industry changing projects. We need your good ideas and your contributions to remain a leader in this industry.
POSITION OVERVIEW:
The successful candidate will support the regulatory requirements of SCE’s electrical distribution system by developing and designing plans, identifying necessary resources and providing cost estimates and options for the construction of distribution facilities. This position interacts with a diverse customer base on meeting electrical design needs and is responsible for providing successful outcomes for the customer and SCE on assigned or requested projects. Typical responsibilities will include: coordinating activities with other internal personnel and/or organizations to ensure compliance and appropriate follow-through of policies, procedures, rules, rates, and completion dates applicable to his/her assigned projects; managing work orders through the entire process and taking accountability for customer satisfaction; maintaining a current understanding of industry practices, standards and customer needs; acquiring permits and easements, identifying environmental requirements and coordinating required project components with other departments, customers, governmental bodies, and various external sources; managing numerous less complex design projects from inception to construction completion; performing meter spots and related design work; supporting system emergencies as they arise; and performing other duties and responsibilities as assigned. Maintaining a safety conscious work environment by following Edison safety protocols and safe work practice.
JOB REQUIREMENTS:
• Must possess a minimum of one year experience working in the Design, Engineering, Distribution and/or Transmission, Construction and Maintenance organization.
• A combination of formal education, training, and experience to gain knowledge, skills, and abilities generally equivalent to those possessed by a high school graduate.
• Demonstrated experience working with customers, identifying needs and resolving customer issues.
• Demonstrated experience, training or education in a technical or mechanical field, including learning or applying technical information related to engineering, drafting, architecture, construction, mapping, design, mechanics, mathematics, science or computers.
• Demonstrated experience managing several projects concurrently, adjusting to shifting priorities, and meeting deadlines.
• Demonstrated experience in SCE systems such as DPI, DSRP, CSS and DM
• Knowledge of resource books such as DDS, UGS, ESR, Overhead and Underground Construction Manuals.
• Must possess strong oral and written communication skills to interact effectively with clients/ customers. Demonstrated ability to collaborate with others.
• Demonstrated ability to gather and analyze information, and make sound decisions independently and in consideration of applicable policies and procedures.
• Demonstrated ability to take initiative and be accountable for the accuracy of information and for achieving results.
• Must possess a valid California driver’s license. Must be proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, Lotus Notes and the Company Intranet.
• Must demonstrate the ability to integrate work across relevant areas, develop the business and services to enhance customer satisfaction and productivity, manage risks appropriately, develop and execute business plans, manage information, and provide exceptional service to internal and external customers.
• Must demonstrate effective resource and project planning, decision making, results delivery, team building, and the ability to stay current with relevant technology and innovation.
• Must demonstrate strong ethics, influence and negotiation, leadership, interpersonal skills, communication, and the ability to effectively manage stress and engage in continuous learning.
Description
This position has been posted as an anticipated vacancy and may become available in the future. If this position becomes available and you meet the requirements, you will be notified via email to apply to the new posting. Please note you will not be sent a communication if this position does not become available.
Introduction:
Highly-motivated; likes challenge; collaborative; committed to delivering high quality work… Did we describe you? Read on…
Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric utilities. We are an industry leader that is designing new and innovative ways to meet our customer’s needs. We are looking for highly motivated individuals who enjoy the challenge of working on key industry changing projects. We need your good ideas and your contributions to remain a leader in this industry.
About:
Power Delivery is responsible for the delivery of electrical energy through SCE's transmission, substation and distribution system. PWRD has approximately 4,200 employees who provide services to more than four million customers throughout SCE's 50,000-square-mile service territory. Grid Operations is responsible for operating SCE's electric grid in a safe and reliable manner in conjunction with appropriate regulatory agencies. At this time, there are a total of 693 occupied positions throughout the numerous departments that make up Grid Ops. The organizational breakdown and asset details can be accessed through the links provided on this page. Additional resources, including the org chart, can be found in the Featured Links section on the right.
Position Overview:
The location of the positions include: Orange County, Devers, and Mira Loma.
The successful candidate will:
•Direct shift activities, including giving functional direction to operating personnel.
•Operate equipment at a substation switching center with jurisdiction over assigned bulk transmission lines, sub-transmission lines, distribution lines and substations.
•Determine operating status from previous shift personnel, station and equipment logs, dispatch board or automated system monitoring devices and inspection of station instruments and equipment.
•Operate or direct the operation of station equipment through manual or automated systems.
•Develop, issue, and verify step-by-step instructions to implement switching programs with consideration for impact on system status.
•Issue, transfer or release work clearances.
•Perform switching and logging to bring third party generation on and off line to the system.
•Determine cause and nature of abnormal station, equipment or system conditions and take action to operate or direct operation of equipment to restore lines and equipment to normal operating conditions.
•Maintain logs, records, report and pertinent information through manual and automated methods.
•Operate telephone and radio equipment.
•Perform multiple, concurrent assignments.
Typical Responsibilities include
•Monitor the SCE electric system using the Energy Management System and various related applications.
•Monitor interconnected system conditions, SCE and interconnected system line flows, voltages, Remedial Action Schemes, and equipment limits during normal and emergency conditions.
•Facilitate and tracking system equipment outages adhering to established SCE and CISO criteria.
•Review, comprehend, and apply operational policy and procedural changes in a time constrained atmosphere.
•Perform internal and external notifications of system events in accordance with established requirements.
•Maintain a safety conscious work environment by following Edison safety protocols and safe work practices.
Job Requirements:
•Must have 5 years of experience working in a switching center as an Electrical System Operator and/or Dispatcher.
•Must maintain a CA driver’s license
•Must be willing to work overtime and/or rotating shifts schedule.
•Must be able to obtain and maintain NERC certification.
•A combination of education, training, and experience to gain knowledge, skills and abilities generally equivalent to those typically possessed by a high school graduate.
•Experience with controlling, monitoring, or operating equipment that regulates or distributes electricity, using real-time data obtained from instruments or computers.
•Experience writing operating procedure/programs to isolate electrical equipment, and dispatch coordinate work.
•Experience with power system operation or distributing or regulating the flow of power on an electrical system involving transmission or distribution voltage lines, generating stations, substations and related equipment.
•Experience working in a switching center.
•Experience tracking conditions that could affect power needs, such as changes in the weather or system operating conditions and make adjustments to meet any anticipated changes.
•Experience with analyzing data or information – Identifying the underlying principles, reasons, or facts of information by breaking down information or data into separate parts.
•Ability to analyze power system conditions in a real-time operating environment and respond to changing conditions or emergencies to maintain system reliability.
•Ability to coordinate with engineers, planners, field personnel, or other utility workers to provide information such as clearances, switching orders process changes.
•Ability to respond to emergencies, such as transformer or transmission line failures, and route current around affected areas.
•Ability to prepare switching orders that will isolate work areas without causing power outages, referring to drawings of power systems, operating procedures and safe work practices.
•Ability to calculate load estimates or equipment requirements to determine required control settings.
•Ability to communicate with Supervisors, Peers or Subordinates – Providing information to supervisors, co-workers and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
•Strong multitasking with the ability to work independently, is self-motivated, takes responsibility and initiative, also works well as a team player.
•Demonstrated experience using Microsoft Word and Excel
•Must demonstrate the ability to integrate work across relevant areas, develop the business and services to enhance customer satisfaction and productivity, manage risks appropriately, develop and execute business plans, manage information, and provide exceptional service to internal and external customers.
•Must demonstrate effective resource and project planning, decision making, results delivery team building, and the ability to stay current with relevant technology and innovation.
•Must demonstrate strong ethics, influence and negotiation, leadership, interpersonal skills, communication, and the ability to effectively manage stress and engage in continuous learning.
Testing:
•2869 – System Operator Knowledge Test
•4812- System Operator Performance Test
•We encourage you to immediately begin preparing for any tests required in this job posting.
Comments:
•This position has been identified as a NERC/CIP impacted position – Prior to being hired, the successful candidate must pass a Personnel Risk Assessment (PRA) or Background Investigation. Once hired, the candidate must complete specified training prior to gaining un-escorted access to assigned work location and performing necessary job duties.
•There are multiple open positions for this requisition some of the locations include: Orange County, Devers, and Mira Loma.
•This position required overtime, rotating shifts, and call out as system dictates.
•This position has been posted as an anticipated vacancy and may become available in the future. If this position becomes available and you meet the requirements, you will be notified via email to apply to the new posting. Please note you will not be sent a communication if this position does not become available.
•Edison International and Southern California Edison reserve the right to close or cancel a posting at any time.
•If you are interested in this position, please submit your resume in confidence by visiting www.edisonjobs.com
•Edison International is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
•SCE provides access and opportunities to those with disabilities; please let us know if you require an accommodation for this appointment.
Southern California Edison, an Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, serves a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California. Join the utility leader that is safely delivering reliable, affordable electricity to our customers for over 125 years.
Introduction:
Highly-motivated; likes challenge; collaborative; committed to delivering high quality work… Did we describe you? Read on…
Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric utilities. We are an industry leader that is designing new and innovative ways to meet our customer’s needs. We are looking for highly motivated individuals who enjoy the challenge of working on key industry changing projects. We need your good ideas and your contributions to remain a leader in this industry.
About Transmission and Distribution:
Southern California Edison’s (SCE's) Transmission and Distribution Organizational Unit (T & D) is responsible for planning, engineering, constructing, operating, and maintaining transmission and distribution facilities throughout the 50,000-square-mile territory. T&D is the steward of roughly $19 billion in assets that safely and reliably deliver electricity to 14 million residents via SCE’s 4.9 million customer accounts.
Position Overview:
The Land Service Agent will be in the Interconnet Projects division within Southern California Edison’s (SCE) Transmission and Distribution Organizational Unit. The successful candidate will provide real estate support for 3rd Party Customer renewable energy projects.
Essential job functions include:
•Interface with Caltrans, City and County agencies to research and obtain information for projects on permits, road deeds, road widths, and details of prescriptive and franchise rights
•Interface with United Pacific Railroad (UPRR), Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) and other cross-country transportation authorities to obtain easements, Crossing permits and Supplemental Agreements
•Procure information during site inspections on existing easement rights/ROW by measuring road widths, and capturing GPS points to pass off to our mapping department
•Perform due diligence for each project to determine SCE rights to proceed with proposed project.
•Negotiate and purchase land and land rights (easements, permits, leases, and license) for transmission line projects.
•Maintains a safety conscious work environment by following Edison safety protocols and safe work practices.
Job Requirements:
•Must have at least one years of experience in negotiating and sales of real property.
•Must have a current CA Notary Public License.
•Valid California Driver’s License is required.
•Associate degree in Business or related field or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
•Demonstrated experience interacting with public agencies on real estate transactions.
•Demonstrated experience with right-of-ways.
•Demonstrated experience negotiating land rights.
•Must demonstrate the ability to integrate work across relevant areas, develop the business and services to enhance customer satisfaction and productivity, manage risks appropriately, manage information, and provide exceptional service to internal and external customers.
•Must demonstrate effective resource and project planning, decision making, results delivery, team building, and the ability to stay current with relevant technology and innovation.
•Must demonstrate strong ethics, influence and negotiation, leadership, interpersonal skills, communication, and the ability to effectively manage stress and engage in continuous learning.
•Demonstrated experience using Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Visio, and Project.
•Demonstrated ability to follow Edison safety protocols and safe work practices.
Preferences:
•Real Estate License.
Comments:
•This is a full-time, project regular position for an estimated duration of 36 months. This position is eligible for company benefits and incentives during the duration of the assignment.
•Visa sponsorship is not available with this position.
•Additional testing may be required as part of the selection process for this position.
•Edison International and Southern California Edison reserve the right to close or cancel a posting at any time.
•If you are interested in this position, please submit your resume in confidence by visiting http://www.edison.com
•Edison International is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
•SCE provides access and opportunities to those with disabilities; please let us know if you require an accommodation for this appointment.
Southern California Edison, an Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, serves a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California. Join the utility leader that is safely delivering reliable, affordable electricity to our customers for over 125 years.
Introduction:
Highly-motivated; likes challenge; collaborative; committed to delivering high quality work… Did we describe you? Read on…
Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric utilities. We are an industry leader that is designing new and innovative ways to meet our customer’s needs. We are looking for highly motivated individuals who enjoy the challenge of working on key industry changing projects. We need your good ideas and your contributions to remain a leader in this industry.
Position Overview:
This position will be in the Northern Hydro division of Power Production within Southern California Edison’s (SCE) Power Supply organization. The successful candidate will manage the Distributed Control System (DCS) for the Big Creek Hydroelectric project. This project consist of six major dams, numerous smaller dams and reservoirs, and other water conveyances and control equipment to deliver water to drive 23 generating units located in nine hydroelectric powerhouses.
Typical responsibilities will include:
•Manage the Ovation DCS to meet the energy market requirements and the associated corporate goals for operating effectiveness within the California Independent System Operator (ISO) requirements created by the Market Restructuring Technology Upgrade (MRTU) initiative; perform continuous improvement evaluations on any new or changed requirements to the System or to Market requirements that could also affect the DCS logic.
•Perform evaluation on Big Creek’s Water Plan’s effect on energy schedule, including new DCS program requirements from the new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) licenses to operate the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project.
•Responsible for the operations, troubleshooting, and modifications to the Ovation Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.
•Provide leading-edge technical leadership in developing and leading the implementation of a Project Operations Simulator that will provide training for new and incoming personnel.
•Consult with senior and executive management on the effect of the changing California Energy Market design on the dispatch of energy from the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project, including the introduction of renewable resources by SCE and other power generators.
•Develop and implement a strategic plan to monitor and resolve NERC-driven issues through the DCS programming as applicable, including Critical Infrastructure Protection access and security requirements, critical maintenance intervals, such as, Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) operations information, to protect the corporation from the risk of substantial fines from non-compliance.
•Maintain a safety conscious work environment by following Edison safety protocols and safe work practices.
•Perform other responsibilities and duties as assigned.
Job Requirements:
•Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Industrial Technology, or a related field, with an emphasis in Distributed Controls Systems (DCS) or an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.
•Must have experience working with the development, management, and system administration of: databases, point building, control logic, Plant I/O, Reports, Graphics and Operator Interfaces related to a DCS.
•Typically possesses seven or more years of experience performing activities related to controls and instrumentation in relation to a DCS for generation power systems in the electric utility industry.
•Typically possesses five or more years of project management experience or leading cross-functional project teams and implementing multiple complex projects.
•Demonstrated experience with the development, management, and system administration of: Database, Point Building, Control Logic, Plant I/O, Reports, Graphics and Operator Interfaces.
•Demonstrated experience with Cisco Command Line Interface (CLI) and managing Cisco networking devices such as switches, routers, and adaptive security appliances.
•Demonstrated experienced in development and execution of NERC-CIP compliance management plans and procedures related to power generation and controls facilities.
•Demonstrated practical current experience with Microsoft XP and Server 2003 O/S.
•Demonstrated working knowledge of VX Works O/S.
•Demonstrated experience using Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Visio, and Project.
•Demonstrated ability to interface effectively and collaborate with clients, peers, project personnel and all levels of management to develop solutions and ensure stakeholder buy-in.
•Ability to exert 20 – 50 pounds of force occasionally, or 10 – 25 pounds of force frequently.
•Ability to maintain a safety conscious work environment by following Edison safety protocols and safe work practices.
•Must demonstrate the ability to integrate work across relevant areas, develop the business and services to enhance customer satisfaction and productivity, manage risks and safety appropriately, develop and execute business plans, manage information, and provide exceptional service to internal and external customers.
•Must demonstrate effective resource and project planning, decision making, results delivery, team building, and the ability to stay current with relevant technology and innovation.
•Must demonstrate strong ethics, influence and negotiation, leadership, interpersonal skills, communication, and the ability to effectively manage stress and engage in continuous learning.
Comments:
•Edison International and Southern California Edison reserve the right to close or cancel a posting at any time.
•If you are interested in this position, please submit your resume in confidence by visiting www.edisonjobs.com.
•Edison International is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
•Candidates for this position must be legally authorized to work directly as employees for any employer in the United States without visa sponsorship.
•SCE provides access and opportunities to those with disabilities; please let us know if you require an accommodation for this appointment.
Southern California Edison, an Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, serves a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California. Join the utility leader that is safely delivering reliable, affordable electricity to our customers for over 125 years.
Introduction:
Highly-motivated; likes challenge; collaborative; committed to delivering high quality work… Did we describe you? Read on…
Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric utilities. We are an industry leader that is designing new and innovative ways to meet our customer’s needs. We are looking for highly motivated individuals who enjoy the challenge of working on key industry changing projects. We need your good ideas and your contributions to remain a leader in this industry.
About Transmission and Distribution:
Southern California Edison’s (SCE's) Transmission and Distribution Organizational Unit (T & D) is responsible for planning, engineering, constructing, operating, and maintaining transmission and distribution facilities throughout the 50,000-square-mile territory. T&D is the steward of roughly $19 billion in assets that safely and reliably deliver electricity to 14 million residents via SCE’s 4.9 million customer accounts.
Position Overview:
The Senior Project Analyst will be part of Southern California Edison’s (SCE) Safety & Environmental Data Analysis & Reporting team within Transmission & Distribution (T&D) Organization Unit. The Senior Analyst will provide high-level support and leadership for implementing and analyzing the effectiveness of projects and programs within the Safety & Environmental space. In addition, the successful candidate will perform quantitative and qualitative analysis on whether programs are successful in accomplishing Safety & Environmental goals.
Essential job functions include:
•Lead organization unit efforts for Monthly Injury Reporting for Executive Management or other initiatives, such as representing T&D on a sub-team for company-wide initiatives.
•Lead analysis and administration of programs such as Facility Assessments, overseeing the various process elements, such as database management, data entry, quality assurance and complex analysis.
•Evaluation of the effectiveness of safety programs such as the Ergonomics Program, and Safety Pilot Programs, making recommendations to management for improvement of program effectiveness.
•Lead a cross-functional team of analysts on specific safety initiatives to build a plan for implementation across T&D.
•Expert analysis and leadership of safety & environmental initiatives such as safety benchmarking, which is a process that involves a “deep dive†of data analysis within a particular organization, surveys of employees within that organization, and focus groups to determine where safety issues may be unresolved within the organization and to develop action plans to resolve these issues in specific craft organizations.
•Preparation of safety & environmental documents and presentation materials for principal managers, executives and officers regarding safety metrics and programs.
•Maintain a safety conscious work environment by following Edison safety protocols and safe work practices, and perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned.
Job Requirements:
•Must have experience with safety program design, implementation, training, and/or evaluation.
•Bachelor Degree in Business, Organizational Behavior/Psychology, Mathematics or related field or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
•Typically possesses of five years of experience performing data analysis.
•California Driver’s License.
•Demonstrated experience implementing, or improving safety programs.
•Demonstrated experience with benchmarking.
•Demonstrated experience leading process improvement projects.
•Demonstrated experience developing presentations for senior management.
•Strong communication and writing skills.
•Demonstrated experience using Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Visio, and Project.
•Must demonstrate the ability to integrate work across relevant areas, develop the business and services to enhance customer satisfaction and productivity, manage risks appropriately, develop and execute business plans, manage information, and provide exceptional service to internal and external customers.
•Must demonstrate effective resource and project planning, decision making, results delivery, team building, and the ability to stay current with relevant technology and innovation.
•Must demonstrate strong ethics, influence and negotiation, leadership, interpersonal skills, communication, and the ability to effectively manage stress and engage in continuous learning.
•Demonstrated ability to follow Edison safety protocols and safe work practices.
Preferences:
•Master’s Degree in Business, Organizational Behavior/Psychology or in Mathematics.
Comments:
•Candidates for this position must be legally authorized to work directly as employees for any employer in the United States without visa sponsorship.
•Edison International and Southern California Edison reserve the right to close or cancel a posting at any time.
•If you are interested in this position, please submit your resume in confidence by visiting www.edisonjobs.com.
•Edison International is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
•SCE provides access and opportunities to those with disabilities; please let us know if you require an accommodation for this appointment.
Introduction:
Highly-motivated; likes challenge; collaborative; committed to delivering high quality work… Did we describe you? Read on…
Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric utilities. We are an industry leader that is designing new and innovative ways to meet our customer’s needs. We are looking for highly motivated individuals who enjoy the challenge of working on key industry changing projects. We need your good ideas and your contributions to remain a leader in this industry.
About:
Southern California Edison’s (SCE's) Transmission and Distribution Organizational Unit (T & D) is responsible for planning, engineering, constructing, operating, and maintaining transmission and distribution facilities throughout the 50,000-square-mile territory. T&D is the steward of roughly $19 billion in assets that safely and reliably deliver electricity to 14 million residents via SCE’s 4.9 million customer accounts.
Position Overview:
This position will be in the Transmission Training division within Southern California Edison’s (SCE) Transmission and Distribution (T&D) Organization Unit. The successful candidate will be responsible for developing and delivering electrical system training to employees in T&D. The successful candidate will also establish and maintain working partnerships with Transmission employees and supervisors to ensure accurate and appropriate work practices are consistent with Company and Organization Unit/Group guidelines and policies.
Essential job functions include:
•Designing and developing self-study materials, classroom training and associated coursework, lesson plans, student guides and manuals.
•Determining pass/fail criteria for training courses and recommending corrective/coaching paths.
•Delivering/facilitating training in a classroom environment as well as non-classroom environments (e.g. field training).
•Partnering with front line employees and management to identify training gaps (needs assessment and job/task analysis) and resolve all training issues; assisting in managing the training budget.
•Evaluating and maintaining all training materials; creating, monitoring and reporting associated training metrics to measure training goals and progress.
•Determining major project milestones and deliverables.
•Attending grid communication and safety meetings throughout the organization.
•Providing subject matter expertise on changes and improvements to work processes and procedures.
•Participating as a member of the Powerline Trades management team.
•Promoting and maintaining a safety conscious work environment by following Edison safety protocols and safe work practices and performing other responsibilities and duties as assigned.
Job Requirements:
•Must have experience working as a transmission or distribution lineman.
•Bachelor's Degree in Education, Instructional Design, Business, or related technical discipline or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
•Typically possesses eight years of experience in designing and developing technical training courses (i.e. Extra High Voltage Hot Sticks, Bare Handing, Underground Splicing, and Helicopter Long-Line Work).
•Demonstrated experience with the instructional design process.
•Demonstrated experience working with cross-functional workgroups.
•Demonstrated experience presenting/facilitating technical training courses as well as determining pass/fail criteria and corrective/coaching paths.
•Demonstrated field experience climbing poles and working with underground and overhead transmission line construction.
•Demonstrated experience with the work methods, tools, policies and procedures related to transmission electrical systems.
•Demonstrated experience consulting with clients, including independently identifying client needs, developing action plans, identifying deliverables, and presenting results.
•Demonstrated proficiency with PC applications, including Microsoft Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint.
•Demonstrated ability to follow Edison safety protocols and safe work practices.
•Must demonstrate the ability to integrate work across relevant areas, develop the business and services to enhance customer satisfaction and productivity, manage risks appropriately, develop and execute business plans, manage information, and provide exceptional service to internal and external customers.
•Must demonstrate effective resource and project planning, decision making, results delivery, team building, and the ability to stay current with relevant technology and innovation.
•Must demonstrate strong ethics, influence and negotiation, leadership, interpersonal skills, communication, and the ability to effectively manage stress and engage in continuous learning.
Comments:
•Candidates for this position must be legally authorized to work directly as employees for any employer in the United States without visa sponsorship.
•Edison International and Southern California Edison reserve the right to close or cancel a posting at any time.
•If you are interested in this position, please submit your resume in confidence by visiting www.edisonjobs.com.
•Edison International is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
•SCE provides access and opportunities to those with disabilities; please let us know if you require an accommodation for this appointment.
Southern California Edison, an Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, serves a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California. Join the utility leader that is safely delivering reliable, affordable electricity to our customers for over 125 years.
As if Hollywood isn’t fracked up enough already. The New York Times Click on graphics in this post to embiggen.
The latest target of the unconventional oil craze is California, specifically the Monterey Shale in southern California (see map). Will California become the next North Dakota? Let us ponder.
Oil in California is nothing new — it’s the third highest oil-producing state in the U.S. (after Texas and North Dakota, which recently displaced Alaska for the No. 2 spot). The Monterey area has been drilled for years, profitably, though production has been steadily declining since its peak in the mid ’80s.
However, as you’ve no doubt read in recent breathless media accounts, drilling technology has advanced. Two techniques have been combined: hydro-fracturing, whereby fluids (a mix of water, sand, and chemicals) are injected into drill holes to break open tight rock formations, allowing liquid fuels to seep out; and horizontal drilling, whereby drills can travel laterally from drill sites, sometimes miles, allowing a single drill site to cover vastly more area. This is the “fracking” you’ve heard so much about. It puts all kinds of previously inaccessible fossil fuels within reach, albeit expensively. (Oil seems stuck near $100 a barrel, though; with prices that high, all kinds of crazy schemes are economic.)
The Monterey Shale hasn’t been fracked much, at least not with horizontal drilling, but oil companies have got their beady little eyes on it. The typical news report, like this one in The New York Times, pegs the oil resource in the Monterey Shale at just over 15 billion barrels of oil, more than four times the tight oil in the storied Bakken Shale in North Dakota and more than two-thirds of all the tight oil in the country.
(Vocab note: “shale oil” or “tight oil” refers to oil stuck in shale rock formations; “oil shale,” a kind of rock containing kerogen, which can be refined into oil, is a whole different thing — a grosser, even less economic thing.)
A new study from University of Southern California says that fracking all that tight oil could boost the state’s economy by 14 percent. Even for a purportedly green state, that’s a tough offer to refuse. Sure enough, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has been making positive noises about it, saying he’s open to it as long as there are proper regulations.
National enviro groups have not put up much resistance so far. They’re busy with Keystone or EPA or the like. But local protestors could use some help. This seems to me like one to fight. Here, in no particular order, are 10 reasons why.
1. This isn’t natural gas we’re talking about, which can displace coal and reduce carbon emissions. This is oil. And it’s heavy, carbon-intensive oil. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) studies the characteristics of each source of oil — extraction and transportation — and assigns it a score, the higher being worse for the climate. California oil scores badly:
Most oil sources worldwide have scores between 5 and 13, under the system used by California Air Resources Board.
[California's] Midway-Sunset oil scores 21.18. Crude from nearby Coalinga scores 25.36. The San Ardo field, whose bobbing pump jacks push up against Highway 101 between King City and San Luis Obispo, scores 28.82.
And the [Canadian] tar sands?
One synthetic oil from the tar sands — Albian Heavy Synthetic — scores 21.02. Another, Suncor Synthetic A, rates 24.49. Syncrude Sweet comes in at 21.87.
California’s oil is as dirty as Canadian tar sands! And with fracking comes increased energy intensity and hundreds more wells. So yeah, this stuff is unambiguously bad from a climate perspective. Depending on how much of that 15 billion barrels gets dug up and burned, it will mean billions and billions of tons of new carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, maybe even as much as will be piped through the Keystone XL pipeline.
2. Speaking of the oil being dirty: California recently implemented a “low-carbon fuel standard” requiring producers to decrease the carbon intensity of the fuels they sell in the state. The dirty sludge pulled out of the Monterey Shale is almost certainly not going to meet that standard. That means it can’t be burned in-state. They’ll have to export it.
So California gets the damage to land, air, and water, oil companies get the profit, and other states get the oil. Sweet deal!
3. That 15 billion barrels of oil in Monterey? It is, to put it charitably, speculative.
My editor is convinced that a full discussion of this point is unbearably boring and will drive away this post’s few readers. So I’ve moved the full discussion down to the bottom. Here’s the takeaway:
The amount of technically recoverable oil is determined by multiplying the total amount of oil that USGS estimates is under the Monterey Shale by the “recovery factor,” which is the percentage of the oil that can be recovered with today’s technology. The USGS estimate is based on mathematical models, not data, and is extremely speculative. The recovery factor that’s being used for Monterey is probably optimistic — it’s more than double that of other tight oil plays like the Bakken Shale. Long story short, 15 billion barrels is probably a) wrong and b) high.
For a full discussion of this fascinating matter, scroll down to the bottom of the post.
(I should pause here to say that most of what I know on these subjects I learned from energy analyst Chris Nelder, whose work you should be reading religiously. To better understand unconventional fuels like tight oil, start here and here.)
4. Colorado and North Dakota have fairly “flat beds,” i.e., stacked horizontal layers of rock. California has a messy bed (I owe the analogy to RL Miller), which is to say its layers have been cranked, tossed, folded, and otherwise mangled by frequent earthquakes. California is, you’ll recall, full of fault lines.
That may help explain why, despite the optimistic numbers above, the Monterey Shale has thus far proved something of a disappointment. A story in World Oil (paywalled) notes that disappointing results from Monterey have forced operators to “revisit their geological drawing boards.” The Energy Information Administration estimated that Monterey would produce 550 million barrels per well, but “operators today are reporting typical flowrates averaging only around 350 to 400″ barrels per day. At 400 barrels a day, it would take a well 3,767 years to hit 550 million barrels. Perhaps the EIA was a bit optimistic?
… drillers haven’t been able to get the Monterey Shale to produce oil at high rates. [Alliance Bernstein analyst Bob] Brackett suggests that there are a few characteristics of the geology that could make the field more difficult to develop. There are lots of natural faults in the rock, which means drillers can’t easily control the flow of oil through faults they create. Also, the rock is not under enormous pressure, so there is less force pushing the oil to the surface. And the oil may be relatively thick and sticky, which slows its flow.
If the Monterey had performed as well as the Bakken field in North Dakota or the Eagle Ford in Texas, it would be delivering an additional 300,000 barrels of oil per day by now, Brackett says. Instead, production in California is flat.
“We don’t expect a ‘Bakken Boom’ to strike the San Joaquin Valley,” Brackett wrote. “We expect California production to grow only modestly.”
A story in the magazine of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists was blunt in reaction to the EIA’s optimistic numbers: “Sounds good, until you realize there is no truly successful Monterey resource play to date.”
The promise of fracking in California is based on hope, not data. The danger is a debt-driven explosion of wells (and the chemicals they bring), followed by a bust as production proves disappointing.
5. Water is always a problem in California, a state that lurches from drought to drought and suffers constant bickering between cities, farmers, fishers, and everyone else over the dwindling resource. According to industry figures [PDF], every fracking well uses between 80,000 and 300,000 gallons of water. (That probably means they use way more than that in reality.)
In addition, as Food & Water Watch says in this informative issue brief, “Increasing demand for fresh water, leaking toxic waste pits, well-cementing failures and injection of chemicals underground all post serious short- and long-term water risk.”
Is this how Californians want to use their dwindling water? To expedite the export of dirty oil?
6. Speaking of water, fracking produces a shit-ton of wastewater. It can’t be disposed of in rivers or on the ground (though it very often leaks, accidentally, into both), so instead it’s typically injected far underground, creating the risk of “induced seismicity,” i.e., earthquakes. The link between injection and seismicity in areas with known faults is pretty well-documented at this point. Here’s a paper on it [PDF] in the journal of the American Geophysical Union. There’s also a great article about it in the latest issue of Mother Jones; it isn’t officially online yet, but it looks like you can get a bootleg copy here.
Less is known about injecting into areas with unknown faults, which are all over California. As far as I can tell, there’s been no research at all on deep injection in California specifically. The Mother Jones piece makes pretty clear that the industry is trying to squelch any discussion of this, but don’t worry, they pledge to “avoid known faults.” What could go wrong? (The 1994 Northridge quake, which killed 50 people, originated in an unknown fault. Just saying.)
7. Most people don’t get this, but getting at tight oil requires a lot of wells, because production at each well falls off pretty quickly. There’s not much data from Monterey yet, because there aren’t a lot of horizontal fracking wells yet, but data from other tight oil plays shows that the depletion rate is high, on the order of 80 or 90 percent the first year. Here’s the production profile of a typical well in the Bakken play:
Other tight oil plays have turned up similar results.
Oil companies are not particularly eager for people to know this. When petroleum geologist and researcher Arthur Berman looked at actual well data, it turned out oil and gas companies had systematically overstated shale well productivity:
With wells falling off quickly, and most early fracking funded by debt, producers are under huge pressure to keep digging new wells. Here’s what that looks like, in a graph put together by French petroleum engineer Jean Laherrère, taken from yet another Nelder post:
(For reference: kb/d is thousands of barrels per day; b/d/w is barrels per day per well.)
Nelder writes of this graph:
It tells the real story of tight oil production beautifully. Each well produces a mere 150 barrels or so per day on average, and like shale gas wells, their output declines rapidly after initial production. As [Foreign Policy's Steve] LeVine learned from a Bakken executive, the decline rate can be over 90 percent in the first year, then gradually tapers off. After seven or eight years, wells will have produced over 60 percent of their recoverable reserves. Therefore, you have to keep drilling like hell just to maintain production, and drill even more to increase it. … But at around $7 million per well, these wells are not cheap.
Given the steep decline rates of typical fracking wells, making the thick, hard-to-reach Monterey Shale oil pay off like oil companies want it to pay off — like they’re promising California officials it will pay off — means constantly drilling a swarm of new wells.
Meanwhile, four of California’s top 10 agricultural counties are in frack-targeted areas, which is why agricultural groups are starting to ally with greens against it. Then there are the threatened wells in the Baldwin Hills oil field near Culver City, where oil drilling has already had devastating effects on (largely poor) residents. The local impacts from these wells are no joke, and there are going to be a lot of them.
8. Can Californians trust their government to properly regulate fracking? (That’s what a lot of the borderline somnolent green groups seem to think.) The fracking that has gone on in the state so far seem to have flown completely under the radar of state regulators. Get this, from the L.A. Times:
This new interest in fracking plainly caught California regulators off guard. In January 2011, [state Sen. Fran] Pavley wrote to the state division of oil, gas and geothermal resources, or DOGGR (pronounced “dogger”), asking for information [PDF] about the number and location of fracked wells in the state, the amount of water employed, the permitting process and what was known about the risk to groundwater.
The agency responded with a detailed four-page letter, the gist of which was: “We don’t know nothin’.” Its actual words were: “The Division is unable to identify where and how often hydraulic fracturing occurs within the state.” It also said that “the Division has not yet developed regulations to address this activity.”
So, DOGGR doesn’t know where the fracking is, or how much there is, and it hasn’t bothered to develop any regulations to address it. But now, the agency insists it’s changing. It’s on top of things. This DOGGR. So … yeah. No worries, Californians. You’re in good hands!
9. That USC study about the economic effects of fracking I mentioned up top? DeSmogBlog did a little sniffing around and found oily fingerprints all over it. It was funded by, written by, and reviewed by people with longstanding ties to the industry. California officials might do well to take it with several grains of salt.
10. It is morally wrong to sacrifice the interests of poor people and future generations for the benefit of fossil fuel executives and shareholders. Kinda seems like this one should go without saying, but …
I guess that’s enough for now. If activists rally against California oil fracking, they’ll get the same lectures from VSPs that the Keystone campaign gets: “This one bit of supply won’t make any difference to climate change; as long as demand exists, they’ll get it out somehow; you’re distracting from the carbon tax pony.” But whatever. It’s time for states and oil producers to get the message that moving heaven and earth to reach the world’s filthiest fossil fuels is no longer socially acceptable.
Every junkie needs an intervention.
——
* So, as promised, for you hardcore nerds, more on why the 15 billion number is almost certainly wrong, and most likely high:
Here’s a handy chart that I’m going to steal from this piece in Oil & Gas Journal, because it’s behind a paywall:
First, we’re looking in the “Monterey” column, over on the right. Note that it estimates 500 billion barrels of original oil in place (OOIP), which represents the sum total of the oil in the ground. This not based on well data — remember, it hasn’t been fracked much — but on mathematical simulations. Such simulations offer a range of possibilities with different probabilities; it’s likely 500 billion was the mid-point probability. Suffice to say, that’s a highly speculative number.
Next, we’re looking at the “recovery factor” (RF), which is the percentage of the total oil that can technically be recovered — not economically recovered, but recovered with today’s technology, irrespective of price. This chart estimates 2.8 percent, which seems optimistic. The Elm Coulee play in Montana is a “sweet spot,” with comparatively shallow, easy to reach oil; the more common RF for big shale plays is between 1 and 2 percent. The Monterey play faces determined environmental opposition and some unfavorable geography. Once they get in and start drilling, the RF could well fall. It too is speculative.
Anyway, multiply the OOIP by the RF and you get the “estimated ultimately recoverable” (EUR) oil — the amount we might conceivably be able to get out.
OOIP x RF = EUR! Fun.
So in the case of Monterey, 500 billion barrels times 2.8 percent equals 14 billion barrels. That’s the estimate of technically recoverable oil. (The EIA pegs EUR at 15.4 billion barrels, which is what gets used in all the news stories. Not sure why this data set and the EIA differ by a bit — probably a different OOIP or RF estimate — but it’s not that important.)
That’s two speculative numbers multiplied. What if the RF turns out to be 1.4 percent, like in the Niobrara Shale? Well then there’s half as much recoverable oil in Monterey: 7 billion barrels. Fifteen billion barrels would satisfy U.S. oil demand for just over two years; 7 billion would satisfy it for a year or so.
Regardless: the 15 billion barrels figure that gets tossed around confidently by journalists is just this side of a guess, and probably a guess on the high side.
