The Board of Public Utilities discusses the DPU’s FY2025 Strategic Plan during a special meeting Aug. 28.  Screenshot/LADP

By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

Sustainability and preparing for utilities that are carbon-free were common themes in the Board of Public Utilities (BPU)’s discussions on the proposed FY2025 Strategic Plan for the Department of Public Utilities (DPU).

Work on the strategic plan occurred during a special BPU meeting Aug. 28 during which the board addressed the plan’s focus areas and corresponding goals.

The goals listed in the proposed FY2025 remain the same as the ones in the FY2024 strategic plans.

These objectives are:

• Provide safe and reliable utility services.
• Achieve and maintain excellence in financial performance.
• Be a customer service-oriented organization that is communicative, efficient, and transparent.
• Sustain a capable, satisfied, engaged, ethical and safe workforce focused on customer service.
• Continuously, conscientiously, work toward environmental sustainability.
• Develop and strengthen partnerships with stakeholders.

While the major goals remain intact, the BPU did make edits to the goals’ subsequent objectives.

These include some changes to the board’s goals regarding carbon free emissions and sustainability.

For instance, the board agreed with BPU member Charles Nakhleh’s suggestion to continue to support phasing out natural gas by 2070 rather than 2040 and to minimize investment in new gas consuming units by working with other County departments.

Additionally, the BPU agreed to add an additional objective to partner with other County departments on implementation of approved Los Alamos Resiliency, Energy & Sustainability goals.

Finally, BPU agreed to member Robert Gibson’s suggestion to add a new goal to upgrade electric supply and distribution systems to meet the needs of all-electric buildings and electric vehicles and maximize benefit of distributed generation.

Gibson explained he felt this was important because “If we are going to meet some of these other goals, a job that we have as a utility is to upgrade the electric supply and distribution system to accommodate these.  And that’s a big undertaking and it’s going to take decades.”

Member Cornell Wright agreed and stated that “And to some extent, that is addressed by the IRP (Integrated Resource Plan). From what I’ve seen … on the distribution side we see upgrades going on … there’s already work in that direction so I think it is very appropriate as objective …”

While BPU agreed to work on achieving sustainability and carbon-free utilities board member Eric Stomberg pointed out that not all DPU customers are on board with going green.

Stomberg reported that according to a survey for the FY2025 Strategic Plan, 66 percent of the community has stated that they want more green energy but that still leaves 34 percent of the community thinking otherwise. Stromberg asked where this leaves this 34 percent. He added he is also concerned about the cost of green energy. It was pointed out during the meeting that green energy is cheaper than fossil fuel, but Stromberg replied that fossil fuel is more reliable.

“It is a balancing act that we got to do the best we can at,” he said.

Addressing carbon-free emissions was a common theme throughout the meeting but there are other issues DPU needs consider as well.

DPU Deputy Manager Karen Kendall pointed out that workforce retention is a major issue for the department.

While customer service is identified as one of DPU’s top strengths, she noted that this is tied to the department’s ability to attract and keep workers.

“The harder workforce retention is, the harder it is to provide good customer service,” Kendall said. “The fact that customer service has improved, I think says a lot about the personnel we do have right now. But those two things really pull on each other and I think that will continue to be an issue for us.”

Gibson further noted that the County’s aging infrastructure needs to be addressed, too.

It is better than when he initially served on BPU, Gibson said, but it is an ongoing problem.

“We have to make it young, not just middle aged,” he said.

Updating DPU’s strategic plan is something that occurs annually, DPU Manager Philo Shelton said.

The plan serves an important role, he added.

“This is important for our department as we develop our budgets, our workplans … what are the board’s priorities that is good for our team.”

The strategic plan has several focus areas, Shelton said.  One is having safe, reliable and efficient utilities. This includes having good water quality, staying in compliance and renewing permits. Another focus area is financial performance. The board is updated quarterly on the finances and DPU builds actions plans and works to stay within its budgets. Transparency and communication also are focus areas.

Shelton said the public outreach is done through press releases, Facebook and X posts. Another focus area is the workforce. Shelton said there is a lot of turn-over, but DPU negotiates with unions and increases salaries across the board for non-union workers as well as install fair compensation. The final focus is on sustainability; the department has a goal to convert to carbon-free resources and promoting conservation in electric, gas and water.

The final strategic plan for FY2025 will be presented for BPU’s consideration during its Sept. 20 meeting.