Greenville Utilities Commission

Greenville Utilities Commission

Greenville Utilities Commission

The Commission consists of eight board members appointed by the City Council.  The City Manager serves as a full-voting member of the Board and two board members are nominated by the Pitt County Board of Commissioners. All members are appointed to serve three-year staggered terms with a maximum of two consecutive terms. The Chairman and Vice-Chairman are elected by the Commission and serve one year terms. The Commission’s primary responsibilities are to set and maintain competitive rates, approve development plans and the annual budget, and establish all operating and extension policies carried out by the General Manager.

The General Manager/CEO has the overall responsibility for all operations. He is assisted by the Assistant General Manager/COO and the Directors of Electric Systems, Water Resources, and Gas Systems. The Greenville Utilities System serves 63,136 electric customers and 75% of the Pitt County land area and is the second largest municipal electric system in North Carolina. Water customers number 34,366. Gas customers number 22,004. Most water and gas customers are located within the city limits and the extraterritorial jurisdiction.

The General Manager is Ron Elks. He may be reached at 401 S. Greene Street, Greenville, North Carolina, 27834 (telephone 252-752-7166), www.guc.com

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Electricity

The GUC Electric System serves 63,136 customers in the greater Pitt County area. Purchased power is supplied through 230 kV transmission lines to two point-of-delivery substations.  In order to distribute electricity to its customers, GUC owns and operates high voltage transmission lines at 115 kV and 34.5 kV, as well as overhead and underground distribution lines at 12.5 kV. The electric system operates 19 distribution substation sites with a combined base load capacity of 540 MVA, two subtransmission sites at a combined base load capacity of 50 MVA, and two 115 kV transmission substations with a combined base load capacity of 480 MVA.

GUC is a member of the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency (NCEMPA) and participates in the purchase of electricity from generation facilities jointly owned by NCEMPA and Progress Energy. As the largest of the 32 cities participating in NCEMPA, Greenville holds a 16% individual interest in the facilities which provide base load power to the NCEMPA membership. The electricity purchased in FY 2010 by GUC represented 21.5% of NCEMPA’s total load.

Rates: Retail rates are based on a true cost-of-service philosophy and each class of customer pays its own fair share. There are no tilt rates providing fictitiously low rates to one class at the expense of another. Industrial customers participate in GUC’s Coincident Peak (CP) Rate Program.

Customer Mix: GUC has a broad base of customers with demand allocation of 42.5% residential, 7.6% small general service and 48.9% medium/large general service. Such critical customers as WNCT-TV, Vidant Medical Center, and DSM Pharmaceuticals are provided with automatic transfer power should an emergency occur.

Load Management: In 1978, GUC was one of the first municipal utilities in the nation to implement load management (Beat-the-Peak) to control the demand component of its cost of power. Residential customers voluntarily allow GUC to install radio-controlled switches on their central air conditioning units, heat pumps, heat pump supplemental strips, electric furnaces, and water heaters. During periods of peak demand, these devices are cycled off to lower total demand, significantly reducing wholesale power costs. A portion of these savings is credited directly back to the participating customers; the remainder is reinvested and used to hold down overall electric rates. GUC currently has over 36,500 devices controlled.

As part of the Load Management program, GUC operates diesel-engine peak-shaving generators at 12 industrial and large customer sites. These units are used to reduce the electrical demand during coincident peaking periods. The host customers receive a credit each month equal to a percentage of the demand savings accrued when the devices are operating. Additionally, the generators are available to supply limited standby power in the event of extended interruption of electric service. These efforts resulted in savings of $1.41 million in wholesale power costs in FY 2010 and the participating industries received credits of over $600,000.

As a supplemental tool in the operation of the load management system, as well as normal operations, the Electric Department has used a weather radar receiver system since 1987. The 24-hour weather radar system has proven a valuable tool in deciding when to begin load management operations. An additional benefit of the system is the ability to detect and track storm activity that poses a threat to the GUC service area. On the basis of information from the radar system, as well as from a lightning detection system, GUC is better able to initiate storm restoration activities and dispatch repair crews to areas likely to be most heavily damaged. GUC’s weather system is available to cable subscribers and can currently be seen on local cable channel 35.

Underground: GUC installed its first residential subdivision underground in 1965 and has provided underground electrical service to subdivisions, commercial developments and industrial complexes since that date. GUC has on hand a fully equipped trailer for rapidly locating and correcting underground problems should they occur.

System Control and Reliability: The Commission’s transmission and distribution substations are monitored and controlled by state-of-the-art computer-based supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) equipment. System loading and equipment status is continuously monitored by this equipment with all disturbances and deviations from prescribed limits immediately reported to the Commission’s dispatch control center for analysis. This facility is staffed twenty-four hours a day, providing the ultimate in customer service.

System reliability and availability is extremely high, particularly for the industrial sector. Most industrial customers are served by high-capacity dedicated distribution feeder circuits engineered for maximum service reliability. Redundancy of design is often characteristic of these facilities. Overall system availability for 2008-09 was 99.99437%.

Staffing: Design and engineering for the 34.5 kV transmission and 12.47 kV distribution system is performed by GUC’s own engineering staff; outside consultants provide engineering services for the 115 kV transmission and substation projects. Additionally, the department’s line operations personnel perform most major construction, utilizing contract crews for short-term needs and major substation and transmission projects.

Contact: Roger G. Jones, Director of Electric Systems (252) 752-7166

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Water Source & Treatment Distribution

The Water Treatment Plant (WTP), placed in service in January 1983 and upgraded in 2002, provides the majority of the drinking water for GUC customers with a limited amount of water supplied by deep wells. Current capacity is 22.5 mgd. The deep wells bring the total water available on any one day to 24.5 mgd. Peak-day demand is approximately 10.8 mgd, thus leaving surplus capacity of 11.7 mgd.

Raw water for this plant is drawn from the Tar River. The raw water pump station has a rated pumping capacity of over 18 mgd and can be expanded. The minimum recorded flow in the Tar River at Greenville was 34 mgd. The Tar River has always provided more than adequate flows to meet all peak system demands.

Water is pumped from the river to an 8 acre, 63 million gallon impoundment basin where the water is kept for five days while solids settle to the bottom. A coagulant is added to facilitate further settling of solids as the water enters the WTP. The settled water receives ozone for primary disinfection. The water then passes through filters, receives chlorine and ammonia to form chloramines for secondary disinfection, and is pumped into two 3 million gallon ground storage tanks. Treated water enters the distribution system via 36 and 24 inch mains from the water plant. Water is delivered to customers through more than 616 miles of piping ranging in size from two to thirty-six inches in diameter.

Storage: GUC has a two-tank elevated storage system consisting of 1.5 million gallon and 1 million gallon tanks, providing increased water pressure. Total storage, including the two 3 million gallon ground storage tanks at the water treatment plant, currently amounts to 8.5 million gallons. Plans include the addition of two more 3.0 mg ground storage tanks in the next five years to increase water storage capacity.

GUC also is nearing completion of its industry-leading Aquifer Storage and Recovery Project, the first of its kind in North Carolina. ASR is the storing of treated drinking water in underground aquifers (sand deposits) during low system water demand periods and recovering or using the water during the high system demand periods. This process allows GUC to store large volumes of treated drinking water for a fraction of the cost of storing water in above ground tanks. ASR has the potential to provide in excess of 300 million gallons of stored drinking water for use in emergencies or for peak shaving. To date, two 500-feet wells have been constructed at the site. GUC is currently in the process of constructing wellhead facilities that are necessary to provide infrastructure to inject and withdraw treated water.

Contact: Randy Emory, Director of Water Resources, (252) 752-7166

Chemical Analysis 2006

	SURFACE WATER	GROUND WATER	UNITS
pH	7.5 - 8.0	7.5 - 8.2
Turbidity	.06 - .21	.3 - .45	NTU
Total Alkalinity	12 - 35	200 - 250	ppm
Total Organic Carbon	2.0 - 5.0	1.0 - 3.0	ppm
Hardness	15 - 32	1 - 23	ppm
Conductivity	106 - 199	244 - 394	uMHOS/cm
Iron	<.01 - .03	.01 - .31	ppm
Manganese	.001 - .040	<.005 - .014	ppm
Fluoride	.86 - 1.2	1.35 - 1.90	ppm
Chloride	15 - 35	11 - 21	ppm
Aluminum	.001 - .04	----	ppm
Phosphate (total)	1.0 - 3.2	----	ppm
Silica	7.4 - 19.3	1.2 - 22	ppm
Calcium	13.7 - 21	6.5 - 15.9	ppm
TDS	62 - 158	242 - 358	ppm
Sodium	9 - 34	55 - 116	ppm
Temperature	7 - 30	16 - 20	Celsius

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Sewer

The wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), located on a 700 acre site 1.5 miles east of the City’s extraterritorial limits on the north side of the Tar River, was placed on-line in 1985 as a 10.5 MGD capacity facility and was expanded in 1995 to a 17.5 mgd tertiary treatment facility with nitrogen and phosphorus removal capabilities. The expanded facility provides additional protection for the environment and public health while exceeding state and federal regulations as well as continued opportunity for the community to grow. The WWTP treats an average of 10.12 million gallons of wastewater per day.

The wastewater collection system includes over 403 miles of gravity pipeline and 76 miles of pressure pipeline ranging in size from four to 48 inches in diameter and 38 pump stations with their associated force mains. These pipes and pump stations collect and transport wastewater to the WWTP where it is treated prior to being returned to the Tar River. The discharged effluent adheres to the target limits for total nitrogen and total phosphorus as part of a membership in the Tar-Pamlico Basin Association.

Residual Management: In 2005, GUC completed construction of a dewatering facility to reduce the amount of water in the biological residue from the treatment process (biosolids). The biosolids are transported to a private compost facility where they are mixed with organic fillers and processed to produce compost.

Contact: Randy Emory, Director of Water Resources, (252) 752-7166.

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Natural Gas

The Greenville Utilities gas system consists of 1,002 miles of service line, including 596 miles of natural gas mains, and provides natural gas to 19,940 residential, 2,034 commercial, 13 firm industrial and 17 interruptible customers. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010, Greenville Utilities sold 3,124,362 mcf of natural gas, 51.6% of which was to industrial/interruptible customers.

Greenville Utilities receives gas from Piedmont Natural Gas through three delivery points at a pressure of 55 psi. The western point of delivery feeds an eight inch line and a four inch line as does the Eastern Gate Station. A large diameter main connects the western feed point to the Industrial Area north of the river and an eight inch main provides an interconnection between the Southeastern Gate Station and the Industrial Area system. The third feed is in the southwestern edge of the distribution system and ties into a six inch main. The central area of town is served by a low pressure system fed by seven regulator stations at a pressure of seven inches W.C. Natural gas is available to about 80% of the structures within the City. The BTU yield of GUC natural gas averages about 1,035 with a guaranteed minimum of 1,000.

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Storage Facility: In 1997, GUC became the first public utility in North Carolina to construct a permanent LNG facility to meet peak demand. The LNG storage facility is located on Old Pactolus Road near GUC’s Wastewater Treatment Plant. The facility consists of a control room building that houses 24-hour monitoring equipment, four 55,000 gallon storage tanks, and a vaporization unit. When the super chilled liquefied natural gas is vaporized, it provide up to 500 dekatherms per hour for GUC’s gas system.

The satellite LNG facility increases the peak day capacity of the gas system to 24,000 dekatherms and provides another optional fuel source for industrial customers. In addition, the LNG facility enhances gas system reliability by allowing personnel to maintain a minimum pressure of 20 pounds per square inch (psi) throughout the system during peak hourly flow rates.

Because of an increase in customer demand for natural gas, GUC recently completed an expansion of the LNG facility. Four storage tanks, a generator, an upgraded control building, and a second vaporization unit was added. The total LNG storage capacity of the facility is now approximately 27,000 dekatherms.

Contact: Anthony Miller, Director of Gas Systems, (252) 752-7166

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