Greg Shirek, Lead Support Engineer for Engineering Analysis at Milsoft Utility Solutions was recently chosen as Secretary Elect of the IEEE IAS Rural Electric Power Committee at the 2012 Rural Electric Power Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This first stage of the Committee’s officer rotation will lead to Greg being Chairman of the Committee in four years.

“Milsoft strongly supports the IEEE Rural Electric Power Committee,” said Wayne Carr, Milsoft’s co-founder and CEO. “It’s an important way for Milsoft to support our industry and the large community of electrical engineers who use Milsoft software.”  Milsoft has played an active role in the Committee’s annual Rural Electric Power Conference for many years. Several Milsoft employees have been members of the Committee, served as officers, or presented papers at the Conference.

Greg received his BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and worked as an electric utility consultant for 10 years at Power System Engineering Inc. in Madison, Wisconsin.  Greg joined Milsoft in 2008 as an Engineering Analysis Support Engineer.  Greg has lead responsibility for technical support for the Milsoft engineering analysis software user base.  He develops specifications for enhancements of the software to meet new industry needs and standards, conducts user training classes and writes and speaks on engineering analysis planning and analysis.

“I'm extremely honored to be Secretary-Elect of the Rural Electric Power Committee, " Shirek  said.  "I have been fortunate enough to attend the REPC conferences for almost a decade now and have witnessed what makes this conference thrive; not only from the high caliber of paper topics presented that directly apply to rural electric power engineering and operations practices, but also the vast vendor involvement and family friendly conference locations.  I'm looking forward to working with the other committee officers to continue the advancement of knowledge and aid the activities of rural electric power engineers.”

Greg is a registered professional engineer and a senior member of the IEEE.  He has extensive expertise and experience in transmission and distribution system planning including analysis of distributed generation interconnection impacts, arc flash modeling, harmonic assessment and mitigation, and reliability analysis. Greg serves as the Secretary of the IEEE Distribution Analysis Subcommittee of the IEEE PES Power System Analysis, Computing and Economics Committee (PSACE) and is an active member of the IEEE Standard 1584 Arc Flash Working Group.

About the IEEE Rural Electric Power Committee

The Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. The Rural Electric Power Committee is a part of the IEEE’s Industry Applications Society.  To learn more about IEEE and the Committee go to: http://ias.ieee.org/

About Milsoft Utility Solutions, Inc.

Milsoft has served the electric utility industry for more than two decades.  Some 1,000 electric utilities, consultants, universities and others in the US and abroad use Milsoft software. To learn more, visit: www.milsoft.com.

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GeoDigital Solutions today announced that Rockford, Minn.-based Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric (WHE) Association is the recipient of the 2012 Innovation Award, presented annually by the LiDAR mapping, imaging and data acquisition firm to utilities that create customer value with the company’s WorkStudio^® mobile work management software platform. WorkStudio has built a leading market position by automating typical utility work functions including vegetation management, storm assessment, maintenance management and engineering design. 

WHE is one of Minnesota’s largest member-owned electric utilities, serving more than 46,000 electric customers in Wright and western Hennepin counties west of Minneapolis.  GeoDigital recognized WHE for integrating WorkStudio mobile engineering tools with WHE’s Milsoft Core Engineering and Operations (E&O) System, transforming its outage management process into a highly advanced, automated system for faster restoration.  The updated system is now paperless, supporting a host of mobile data generated through WorkStudio that includes real time outage and restoration notifications, work orders and automatic vehicle location (AVL).

Lance Hovland, WHE's VP of Energy Distribution, said “Recognition by GeoDigital as an innovator is a testament to the hard work of our IT staff and the desire of our crews and dispatchers to continue to improve efficiency and customer service through technology.   In the office or out in the field, the new technology helps us be better organized, which results in improved outage restoration times.”

WHE began this project as a pilot program in Jan. 2011 to install a new AVL system and to strengthen its ability to locate and communicate with restoration crews and vehicles.  By February 2012, WHE completed the outage ticket project, implementing WorkStudio for outage tickets and AVL as well as engineering design.  Real-time outage information and AVL crew locations are visible in both the field and office, enhancing teamwork and safety.

“Wright-Hennepin is a leader in applying communications and information technologies for better engineering and operations,” said Milsoft CEO Wayne Carr.  “We are delighted to support them by working with our good friends at GeoDigital to ensure that our respective applications work together seamlessly for the benefit of the utility and its customers.”

 “Utilities just keep increasing the level of ingenuity and sophistication to improve their business processes and Wright-Hennepin is no exception,” said GeoDigital Solutions president, Scott Rogers.  “They’ve done an outstanding job of integrating operational and information technology to serve their customers better and we truly value our ongoing partnership.”

About Milsoft Utility Solutions, Inc.

Milsoft has served the electric utility industry for more than two decades.  Some 1,000 electric utilities, consultants, universities and others in the US and abroad use Milsoft software. To learn more, visit: www.milsoft.com.

About GeoDigital

GeoDigital International Inc. and its predecessor companies have a 20-year history in airborne mapping for the utility industry, providing leading-edge solutions for mapping, vegetation inspection and line rating and clearance analysis services to customers across around the world. With offices located throughout Canada and the United States, GeoDigital has mapped more than 480,000 km (nearly 300,000 miles) and more than 1,800,000 structures worldwide making GeoDigital the leader for corridor mapping in North America. For more information please visit www.geodigital.com.

About Wright-Hennepin

Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association is a member-owned, non-profit electric utility headquartered in Rockford, Minn.  Founded in 1937, the utility’s core focus has been from its inception to provide its member owners with competitive electric rates, reliable and safe power, and outstanding customer service. More information at: www.whe.org.

“We welcome Clatskanie PUD as a new customer,” said Nick Rude, Regional Account Manager at Milsoft.  “The power and accuracy of the Milsoft engineering analysis software will help them plan and operate their electric distribution system which serves very sparsely populated areas through long distribution lines.”

Clatskanie PUD Electrical Engineer Brian Fawcett said, “We will be using Milsoft’s electric distribution analysis software to help us plan and operate our electric system efficiently and reliably for the benefit of our customers.”  Brian had experience using Milsoft’s engineering analysis software while working at another Oregon PUD and wanted to continue to use it at Clatskanie PUD.

About Milsoft Utility Solutions, Inc.

Milsoft has served the electric utility industry for more than two decades.  Some 1,000 electric utilities, consultants, universities and others in the US and abroad use Milsoft software. To learn more, visit: www.milsoft.com.

About Clatskanie People's Utility District

Clatskanie People’s Utility District serves more than 4,600 customers in northwest Oregon.  To learn more visit:  www.clatskaniepud.com.

“We are delighted that Tongue River EC has chosen our engineering analysis software for their engineering and operations needs,” said Nick Rude, Regional Account Manager at Milsoft.  “They join a thousand users for whom our electric distribution modeling and analysis software and support have become the industry standard.”

Tongue River EC Project Engineer Dan Anderson said, “We will be using Milsoft’s electric distribution analysis software to help us plan and operate our electric system efficiently and reliably for the benefit of our consumer owners.”  Dan already had experience using Milsoft’s engineering analysis software while working at another Montana electric cooperative.  Milsoft’s integration via MultiSpeak with the utility’s mapping software was an important factor in the purchase decision.

About Milsoft Utility Solutions, Inc.

Milsoft has served the electric utility industry for more than two decades.  Some 1,000 electric utilities, consultants, universities and others in the US and abroad use Milsoft software. To learn more, visit: www.milsoft.com.

About Tongue River Electric Cooperative

Tongue River Electric Cooperative serves more than 2,600 consumer owners in rural southeastern Montana.  To learn more visit:  www.tongueriverelectric.com.

“We are pleased that The City of Athens Utilities has chosen Milsoft Communications IVR for their electric department operations and customer service needs,” said Milsoft Regional Account Manager Robbie Carlson.  “It will enhance the power and functionality of the Milsoft Outage Management System that they are already using.” 

Athens Utilities strives to provide their customers with quality service at a reasonable price by operating efficiently and professionally.  They selected Milsoft via an RFP process.  General Manager Gary Scroggins said, “The new Milsoft Communications IVR system, combined with our Milsoft OMS, will help us to respond quickly and communicate clearly with our customers during service outages.”

About Milsoft Utility Solutions, Inc.

Milsoft has served the electric utility industry for more than two decades.  Some 1,000 electric utilities, consultants, universities and others in the US and abroad use Milsoft software. To learn more, visit: www.milsoft.com.

About The City of Athens Utilities

The City of Athens, Alabama Utilities Electric Department provides electric service to more than 40,000 customers in Athens and Limestone Counties.  To learn more visit:  www.athens-utilities.com. 

“Bill Kersting’s book, Distribution System Modeling and Analysis, Third Edition, for many years a highly regarded university textbook, has been updated and published in a third edition by CRC Press. The book once again powerfully illustrates methods that will ensure the most accurate possible results in computational modeling for electric power distribution systems. “It is essential to be able to model an electric distribution system as accurately as possible,” said Kersting.  “As electric distribution systems become more complex and real-time analysis is needed, more sophisticated computer programs are required.”  

Unlike previous editions, which concentrated on developing models, this version focuses on the crucial element of how to apply them for use in planning and real-time analysis. For this reason, the new edition of the textbook includes the implementation of electric utility distribution network models in a computer model for use with Milsoft Utility Solutions’ WindMil engineering analysis software.

“We have relied on Professor Kersting for many years to help us ensure that our distribution analysis software modeling is complete and accurate,” said Milsoft founder and CEO Wayne Carr. The combination of sophisticated modeling, accuracy, ease of use, and unparalleled tech support have made Milsoft engineering analysis software the de facto industry standard for distribution utilities in the U.S. and around the world. Milsoft makes a version of its WindMil electric distribution analysis software available free of charge to any student.

About Milsoft Utility Solutions, Inc.

Milsoft has served the electric utility industry for more than two decades.  Some 1,000 electric utilities, consultants, universities and others in the US and abroad use Milsoft software. To learn more, visit: www.milsoft.com.

About William H Kersting

Bill Kersting received his BSEE from New Mexico State University (NMSU) in Las Cruces, and his MSEE degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology. After working as a distribution engineer at El Paso Electric Company, he became a member of the faculty of New Mexico State University in 1962 as a professor of electrical engineering and Director of the Electric Utility Management Program until his retirement in 2002. Bill is a life fellow of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers. He continues to be a consultant to Milsoft and is a partner in WH Power Consultants in Las Cruces.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

CRC Press | 561.994.0555 | orders@crcpress.com

“We are glad that Illinois Rural Electric Cooperative has chosen our engineering analysis software for their planning and operations needs,” said Chris Christensen, Regional Account Manager at Milsoft.  “They join a thousand electric utilities, consultants, universities and others for whom the Milsoft electric distribution modeling and analysis software has become the industry standard.”

Illinois Rural Electric Cooperative embraces new technologies that enable it to better serve its member owners. it was the first cooperative in the state to utilize wind energy, earning the USDOE Wind Cooperative of the Year Award in 2006.  Manager of Engineering Sean Middleton said, “We will be using Milsoft’s electric distribution analysis software to help us plan and operate our electric system as efficiently and reliably as possible for the benefit of our members and their communities.”

About Milsoft Utility Solutions, Inc.

Milsoft has served the electric utility industry for more than two decades.  Some 1,000 electric utilities, consultants, universities and others in the US and abroad use Milsoft software. To learn more, visit: www.milsoft.com.

About Illinois Rural Electric Cooperative

Illinois Rural Electric Cooperative serves more than 10,000 consumer owners throughout ten western-central Illinois counties.  To learn more, visit: www.e-co-op.com.

The joint solution provides utilities with a complete and powerful solution for predicting and responding to major and minor outages in a more informed, effective and efficient manner.

“The Clevest solution is now the only mobile workforce management system on the market today that supports all types of utility field work, which not only includes outage tickets but also service orders, meter exchanges, locates, construction work, inspections, audits and maintenance,” explained Lily Ligocki, VP Product Management, Clevest Solutions. “By shifting outage work to a mobile environment and providing the industry with a solution that optionally interoperates with leading OMS products, utilities are better positioned to restore service safely to the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time,” Ligocki emphasized.

“Outage events are a fact of life for utilities and their customers, and utilities need to be extremely agile in the face of managing them. With our combined solution, utilities can leverage technology to help them shorten restoration times, enhance public and worker safety, and dramatically improve communication between the field and the office—as well as with customers, the public and regulatory agencies,” said Brian Carr, VP of Sales, Milsoft Utility Solutions.

With the joint solution, Clevest’s MWFM system is regularly updated with outage information from Milsoft’s OMS. When an outage occurs, utilities take advantage of real-time status and location information supplied by the Clevest solution to determine the best crew(s) for the work. Within seconds, the outage ticket and all details are assigned wirelessly and crews have the information required to respond. Critical information on ETA, ETOR, cause codes and crew status is captured in real-time throughout the restoration effort, which keeps all staff informed as work progresses in the field until the power is back on. When service is restored, relevant completion details are sent by the Clevest solution to Milsoft’s OMS and system operators close the ticket.

Using the Clevest solution, outage work can be sequenced according to safety procedures. It can be assigned to any number of crews simultaneously and each crew has visibility into changing outage conditions and to the status of other assigned crews. During major outages, the solution can be extended easily to manage loaned crews in the same way as the utility’s own employees. The solution can also provide crews using in-vehicle GIS viewers or Garmin navigation device with route sequencing and turn-by-turn directions to an outage location, which is unique among MWFM solutions.

In addition, Clevest’s MWFM solution can be integrated with Clevest’s Automatic Vehicle Location for a single, powerful, map-based view of crews in the field and the work they are performing. The AVL solution can also be integrated with Milsoft’s OMS.

About Milsoft Utility Solutions

Milsoft has been supplying engineering, operations and customer service software solutions to the utility industry over 20 years. Milsoft customers include some 1,000 rural electric cooperatives, public power systems, and other utilities as well as universities and consultants both in the United States and abroad. For more information visitwww.milsoft.com

"We are very pleased that Dixie Electric has chosen our solutions for their operations and customer service needs,” said Robbie Carlson, Regional Account Manager at Milsoft.  “We are confident that our software and support will enable them to accomplish their goals.” 

Dixie Electric strives to meet the ever changing needs of its members through technological advances in order to provide an efficient electrical system and offer quality service at an economical rate to its members.  “Using Milsoft’s OMS and Communications solutions together will help us improve customer communications and response during service outages,” said General Manager Randy Smith.  “And it will help us serve them better all the time.”

About Milsoft Utility Solutions, Inc.

Milsoft has served the electric utility industry for more than two decades.  Some 1,000 electric utilities, consultants, universities and others in the US and abroad use Milsoft software. To learn more, visit: www.milsoft.com.

About Dixie Electric Power Association

Dixie Electric Power Association in Laurel, Mississippi has been providing electric service to rural Mississippi for more than 70 years.  The utility serves nearly 38,000 members in seven counties in south Mississippi. To learn more visit:  www.dixieepa.com.

Today Wayne Carr, founder and CEO of Milsoft Utility Solutions, was awarded the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Power and Energy Society and Industry Applications Society A.P. Seethapathy Rural Electrification Excellence Award.  In presenting the award, Robert D. Saint, Chairman of the Award Selection Committee, said "The Seethapathy award recognizes exceptional power engineers who have worked, implemented or innovated better and cheaper electrification technologies for the rural sector.” Wayne Carr is the third recipient of this honor. In accepting his award, Carr said "I am humbled and honored by this award. I am also grateful to our employees, our customers, and the communities they serve."

After receiving a BS degree in electrical engineering at the University of Texas, Wayne Carr began his career using computer software to do planning and analysis for Houston Lighting & Power Company in Houston, Texas.  He left HL&P to accept an engineering position at Erath County Electric Cooperative in Stephenville, Texas.  Wayne then moved to Abilene, Texas, to work for Milford Engineering in Abilene, Texas where he provided engineering consulting services to electric cooperatives, public power systems and other utilities.  During his experience at Erath County and Milford, Wayne found that the electric distribution utilities lacked adequate software for planning and operations.  So, Wayne began to develop software for electric distribution network analysis, which over the years, has become an industry standard in the US for electric distribution utility modeling and analysis. He founded Milsoft in 1989 and since then has steadily led the company to provide several industry leading software solutions along with unparalleled customer service and support.

About Milsoft Utility Solutions, Inc.

Milsoft has served the electric utility industry for more than two decades.  Some 1,000 electric utilities, consultants, universities and others in the US and abroad use Milsoft software. To learn more, visit: www.milsoft.com.

About the IEEE PES

To learn more about the IEEE, the PES and the Seethapathy Award go to:  

http://www.ieee-pes.org/iaspes-ap-seethapathy-rural-electrification-excellence-award