provide opportunities for increased
job satisfaction
Courtesy APS Energy Services.
The computer screens, computer setpoint alarms and live video streams from each individual plant
are all displayed back at the Central Operations Center in Phoenix from each remote plant location.
however, as one operator took the place of
the six operators that would otherwise have
been needed to provide each remote plant the
same 24/7 operations support it now has
from the Central Operations Center.
Integrating the Tucson plant into the
downtown Phoenix network gave the company the experience it needed to add more
plants elsewhere. Figure 2 illustrates the
growth of the company’s total installed cooling capacity, including existing and future
plants, from 2001 to 2011.
customer calls
monitor plants continuously to
ensure reliability
Employees
provide career growth opportunities
promote from within
diversify operators’ responsibilities to
broaden their skills and challenges
hire on attitude and credentials (
experience in operations and maintenance)
Suppliers
develop partnerships vs. traditional
vendor relationships
utilize a small core of suppliers on a
regular basis
utilize same equipment whenever possible
to provide more interchangeability
Employees who are committed to and
believe in these core values create the culture at APS Energy Services. By sharing in
these values, they enable the company to
maintain and operate a network of multiple
plants in a high-quality, customer-driven
manner. Putting these values into practice
also helps create a highly educated and
experienced operations and maintenance
staff that can operate and maintain plants
with various technologies because of their
increased understanding of the equipment
they operate. Reliability is improved, equipment downtime is decreased and costs are
minimized by having staff capable of responding to equipment problems. Equipment repair
and maintenance is further supported by the
company’s partnerships with various engineering, equipment supplier and contractor
companies. This overall approach has substantially increased productivity and drives
continued system growth.
Drivers Influencing
Approach to Operations
APS Energy Systems’ commitment to
customer service guides the company’s
management of its operations and maintenance of multiple plants and systems, many
of which are geographically dispersed. The
company demonstrates this commitment by
first ensuring all requirements such as safety,
reliability and compliance with state and city
regulations are achieved. In addition, the
company is guided by its core values in how
it continuously operates and monitors all
plants and how it integrates operations and
maintenance support. Those core values, as
they apply to company stakeholders, include:
Figure 2. Total Installed Chilled-Water Capacity All Plants, 2001-2011.
80,000
70,000
Total Installed Chilled-Water Capacity (tons)
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
Customers
provide instant, direct customer access to
operator 24/7
respond immediately to plant alarms and
0
Source: APS Energy Services.
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Completed Projects Forecasted Capacity Year
