From Site Selection magazine, September 2000
T O P 1 0 U T I L I T I E S |
|
1999 Top 10 Utility Companies b y T R A C Y H E A T H
Taking a slight twist on Bacon's phrase, in today's world it is ironically the power companies that are providing the knowledge many site seekers need -- when they need it. Utility companies nationwide are taking the reigns in terms of providing information about sites, facilities, labor markets, education, or whatever a company may want to know without bogging the company's search down in state or local procedures. Many utilities in fact are preparing the information before customers even request it, putting it on their Web sites, building ongoing relationships with site selection consulting firms and a plethora of other marketing efforts. At least that's what Site Selection's 1999 top 10 utility companies (see chart) are doing.
Good relationships are essential to making any business deal successful, and many of the expanding firms have found a genuine partner in Cinergy/PSI (www.cinergy.com/indiana/partners). In fact, the company established several new programs in 1999 to make site searches and permitting much easier for companies coming into the state of Indiana.
First off, Cinergy/PSI helped establish the Virtual Building Site, or Permits to Projects, program. This program is an effort to minimize delays in zoning and permitting and to help with construction plans for companies interested in expanding in the area.
Another program started by Cinergy/PSI last year was the Site Consultant Call Strategy, which is expected to create long-term relationships with site consultants. This program will align specific Cinergy/PSI staff with specific site consultants so that the site consultant will always have a point of contact within the state and within the organization. "That way the site consultant can call his specific rep, and he knows the individual he's working with, and he knows that he can trust that person and that individual will be responsive to him," says Fulford.
Such efforts have made Cinergy/PSI a success in helping its service area land deals. Last year, the utility's 69-county service area in Indiana saw some 8,061 jobs created, with capital investments upwards of US$806 million.
"We were brought in to be an integral part of the process, and we put our own team together for this project," explains Fulford. "We had four people that contributed in different ways -- gathering information and data, working with local folks in coming up with all the different parameters that they wanted. We worked with local property owners and local real estate firms, getting terms, dates, prices. So we were very involved in that project."
The utility formerly known as Virginia Power partied like it was 1999 ... well, actually it was 1999, and its successes were sweet. Dominion Virginia's (www.vapower.com/econdev) 4 million-population service area saw some 4,047 jobs created last year, with an estimated investment of $739 million. Some of the largest job-producing announcements included Rehrig International's shopping cart manufacturing plant in Richmond, Va. (450 jobs), Hewlett Packard's laser printing facility in Henrico County (700), First Data Resources plastic cards operation in South Hampton Roads (500) and Intel Online Services Corp.'s Internet data center in Fairfax (250).
Dominion Virginia Regional Economic Development Manager Thomas Hogg attributes its success in helping land these deals to the utility's commitment to helping its communities better meet the needs of site-searching companies. "More than half of our program budget is directed at providing tools to local and regional organizations that help them attract prospects and close deals," he explains. Among some of those tools are community profile brochures, videos and CD-rom presentations. Dominion Virginia even goes so far as to offer helicopter flyovers for short-listed projects.
The remaining economic development budget is directed at bringing needed energy and services to customers, says Hogg, who adds, "We take responsibility for delivering what our customers need to get a new project up and running on schedule."
Dominion Virginia has recently completed a merger with Consolidated Natural Gas of Pittsburgh, Penn., creating the nation's largest fully integrated natural gas and electric utility. Since the merger with CNG, the utility has been challenged to become more efficient and improve quality service.
"Our response has been to focus on the services that have the most impact on our partners -- our communities and prospective customers," Hogg says. "We have developed more in-house technology to showcase community and site information customized to each project we encounter. We take pride in being flexible, knowing what information prospects want and being fast."
More is better in the minds of the Georgia Power (www.georgiapower.com/grc) staff. More services, more programs and more people in the field means more jobs for the state of Georgia. In fact, Georgia Power has 131 offices throughout the state, and last year it added three more programs to its arsenal.
Two of the programs deal with helping communities and local economic development groups provide the information and services needed by a company in search of a site. One program included the development of a CD-rom, called Building a Community, that was sent out to communities throughout the state. The CD allows the communities to "fill in the blanks" and give a complete, professional presentation to site seekers.
Georgia Power also set up a governance program to further assists communities in dealing with potential investors by training elected officials and community leaders to better conduct business with site seekers.
"This program brings together all the key individuals in addressing other kinds of issues that they might come up against in terms of locating a project," says Becky Blaylock, vice president of Georgia Power's community and economic development department.
The third program established a call center/back office study, which is a target industry for the state. This study provides site seekers in this industry with information about the kinds of infrastructure available in Georgia, the type of labor force and the type of training available for call center companies.
One of Georgia's biggest issues today is an extremely tight labor market, and Georgia Power is playing a role in both work-force development and education in the state. "We have a huge [education] reform going on right now, and we have an individual in our organization who has played a key role in driving that," says Blaylock. "And even at the CEO level, our CEO is the incoming president of the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, which is a public-private partnership to address educational issues in the state."
These efforts are definitely paying off. Last year, there were 12,002 new jobs created in Georgia Power's service area, with more than $1.2 billion in investments. Those investments came from a variety of industries, including manufacturing, services, food processing, electronics and more.
One of the top growth industries in the state is Internet-based operations. Last year, MCI Worldcom located a major switching station in Alpharetta, a northern suburb of Atlanta, and PSInet began operations in the northern part of Atlanta.
"Companies like PSInet that are putting in Web hosting centers are looking for a site where fiber optic networks converge with highly reliable electrical services," says Lynn Pitts, general manager, business development. "That's critical, and we can provide that, so that's why we had a number of those projects last year."
Flexibility is important nowadays -- be it flexible space, flexible schedules or flexible workers. And flexibility is the one word that Becky Wingenroth, director of business development with GPU Energy (www.gpu.com), uses to describe GPU's efforts.
To help provide that flexibility, GPU puts an emphasis on local representation throughout its service area, which covers portions of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. "That local representation means there are people out in the field that live in those communities and absolutely know the sites that are available," Wingenroth explains. "And they know the local representatives who are responsible for giving out permits and zoning. Our local representation is where we add value and where we make the whole process quicker for our clients."
The strategy must be working, because last year GPU helped create 7,962 new jobs for the area and more than $476 million in investments. Among some of the top investments was a $350 million expansion by Proctor & Gamble. The project will create 350 new jobs in north central Pennsylvania.
"We took a major role in this because of our existing customer relationship with Proctor & Gamble," Wingenroth says. "But we were also able to start a new program because of that project, which is going to impact future growth."
Talk about flexibility: GPU's new program, in fact, created a Business Development Tariff Rider for Pennsylvania. This tariff rider encourages GPU's large business customers to expand by waiving the competitive transition charge for their electrical expansion loads. Electric costs for these customers could be cut by 20 percent to 30 percent.
In another effort to save its customers money on utility costs, GPU worked with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) on a pilot program to enhance distribution, utilization and profitability. GPU's distribution system was evaluated for available capacity, which allowed them to specifically target growth areas for faster and more cost-effective placement of plant locations for its customers.
"So instead of making our customers build electric lines, creating a major cost for us and for them, we were able to focus in on sites that make sense for everybody, and make costs go down," says Wingenroth.
Although Louisville, Ky., may be better know for its baseball bats, its utility services can also hit 'em out of the ballpark. In 1999, LG&E Energy Corp. (www.lgeenergy.com) helped bring home some 10,091 jobs and more than $1.1 billion in investments.
Based in Louisville, LG&E provides utility services to the state of Kentucky and western Virginia, representing a population of 4 million people. Its success in helping land these deals, says Alan McGinnis, manager of economic development and major accounts with the utility, can be attributed to its relationships with Kentucky's economic development cabinet and the various communities throughout its service territory.
Some of last year's success stories include Amazon.com's two distribution facilities, one in Campbellsville and one in Lexington, Ky. (1,000 and 500 jobs, respectively); Ford Motor Co.'s 1,100-job truck plant expansion in Louisville; and SHPS Inc.'s 3,000-job expansion, also in Louisville. First Select Corp. created 1,000 jobs with its service/support center expansion in Louisville.
"Our role is providing inexpensive power to those businesses, and more importantly for facilities like First Select's service center, providing reliable power," says McGinnis. "Most call centers and service centers want to be assured that the electricity and the service in that area is reliable, and guarantee that by upgrading facilities or by whatever other means are necessary."
Of course as times change, LG&E's role of simply providing reliable power is expanding. "We have historically been in a support role, but in the past few years, we have really started to step out to meet with consultants and call on companies on our own," McGinnis explains.
"We have a one-stop shop," says Sherry DuBose, manager with Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW at www.mlgw.com). "We will pull all the players together that need to be involved in a site location, which is particularly useful for those projects that have short time schedules. We will get all the right people together, and we will discuss among ourselves in front of the customers what we're going to do and how we're going to do it."
One example of this was Discover Financial Services' 350-job credit card processing center. Discover had a short time schedule and it needed to have good utility service quickly in a relatively new industrial park. "We used the one-stop-shop format," DuBose explains. "We gathered the engineers, the fire department, the codes, all of those people in the same room, worked out the details about how we could get service to Discover's new facility in a timely manner."
And that's not all MLGW has to offer. Last year, the utility spent a large amount of its time and money on updating its real estate inventory database. Now the utility can track available real estate in its service area of Shelby County, Tenn. (one of five counties that make up the Memphis MSA), by more than 40 different fields. The database now holds approximately 2,000 listings.
With more than 78 percent of new job growth coming from existing Memphis companies in 1999, MLGW is also attempting to better meet those needs with its Memphis Existing Business Team. Last year, MLGW participated in more than 215 calls on targeted customers to offer assistance in expansion plans. Recently, Business Retention an Expansion International, a national nonprofit organization, recognized this program as one of the nation's outstanding existing business programs.
What a difference a few years can make. A little over five years ago, Ontario had a monopoly utility, known as Ontario Hydro, with no economic development group in place. Today, Ontario is in the midst of opening up its electricity marketplace to competition, and Ontario Hydro has since split into three separate companies with Ontario Power Generation (OPG at www.ontariopowergeneration.com) becoming the power generator for the region. And believe it or not, even though OPG's economic development group has only been around five years, it has become one of the top 10 utilities in North America in terms of economic development achievements.
"We're a unique company in many ways," says Bruce Boland, executive vice president of commercial operations with OPG. "Ontario Power Generation was just formed in April of 1999, but we inherited a lot of the skills of the former Ontario Hydro. So we've got a lot of the strength of the past to draw on, yet we've got a lot of new talent and a lot of new ways of thinking."
One thing that has spawned from that new way of thinking is www.sitesontario.com. This Web site allows site seekers to search for available industrial land tracts of 4 acres (1.6 hectares) and up and buildings of 30,000 sq. ft. (2,787 sq. m.) and up. Visitors also can search community profiles that include population, services and major industries, or they can find other useful Ontario site selection and research links. Today, the database contains more than 1,000 properties.
"We're trying to facilitate the site consultants in the areas who are helping those making the decisions by getting the information right online," says Ahmed Mayeenuddin, program manager of economic development. "And there are a large number of options for investors to look at, plus all the community information is in standard format with maps, infrastructure and the like."
As Ontario moves forward on opening up its electric utility market, OPG continues to make strides in new services to better serve business coming to or expanding in Ontario. Among those services are rate analysis, audits to help with efficiency, pricing options, engineering services and site location assistance.
Sometimes we're put in a leadership role without even asking for it, and how we deal with it often shows exactly what we're made of. Luckily for southeastern Pennsylvania, PECO Energy Corp. (www.peco.com/economic) is made of the right stuff. PECO has taken the lead in economic development issues in the Greater Philadelphia region for a couple of reasons. First, earlier this year, Philadelphia inaugurated a new mayor, John Street, who has not yet put together his economic development team. Also, another large regional economic development group called Greater Philadelphia First has undergone some changes, including major job cuts.
"So we've had to step into that void," says Greg Byrnes, Director Economic Development with the utility. "We're truly a leader for marketing and promoting the region."
A leader indeed: Last year, PECO's 3.8 million population service area saw 16,662 new jobs created and $1.2 billion invested in the region.
Byrnes attributes this success to the utility's uniquely experienced staff. Having workers from various aspects of the real estate world helps PECO understand exactly what the clients need. "On our staff, we have city planners, we have had developers and commercial brokers, people who are really expert in the research area," he continues. "This is not true of other utilities. We don't try to shoehorn people from our rates department or from the operations and make them economic development people."
PECO's services and programs also help in landing deals. Last year, in fact, Byrnes worked with the commercial real estate community to create the Coalition of Commercial Real Estate Associations. The group of 16 professional commercial real estate associations helps facilitate coordination, effectiveness and cooperation. At the group's first black-tie event, Byrnes was named the most valuable player in the industry.
But the project that Byrnes is most proud of is the utility's participation in making Philadelphia a center for e-commerce. PECO partnered with the Philadelphia E-Commerce Commission to help develop telecommunications carrier hotels for e-commerce startups.
"We've worked with the commission and with developers, and one person who just left the company was on the Mayor's Task Force for E-commerce," says Byrnes. "So we play a vital role in providing them statistical information, in demographic information and introducing them to the players."
Information technology has impacted everything from the way we work to the way we purchase groceries. And corporate real estate is in the same boat, although it has been criticized for lagging behind in taking up new technologies. Tennessee Valley Industrial Development Assn. (TVIDA at www.tvida.com), however, is trying to help the industry along.
"As information technologies have been deployed and continue to impact us, we continue to focus on making information about the Tennessee Valley easy to access," says Chuck Shoopman, senior manager, Industrial Development, with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). "We make it easy and try to have the right information available."
Last year, TVIDA announced its www.tvida-siteselector.com. This Web site, which had been in use internally for a couple of years, debuted publicly last year, providing aerial photos, interior photos, and detailed building and site specifications, with maps and more. Interested visitors can also find demographics on labor and wage data.
"It's going to make us even easier to do business with," says Katie Rawls, vice President, Economic Development with TVA. "It's going to put information about available buildings and sites that people can look at from home if they want, and there are 1,800 buildings and sites profiled there."
"It also allows whoever is needing the information to get the preliminary stuff out of the way," adds Shoopman. "And when they call us directly to ask questions, they can get at the more detailed questions a lot quicker."
The new Web site, in fact, played a role in locating new facilities to the utility's service area last year. Among them were Stupp Brothers Bridge and Iron Co.'s new manufacturing facility in Bowling Green, Ky., and Waupaca Foundry's new 200-job facility in Etowah, Tenn.
TVIDA is reaping the awards of its efforts. The utility helped land 20,847 new jobs in its service territory with 357 projects. The estimated capital investment totaled approximately $1.9 billion.
While technology and new ways of thinking are extremely useful, experience still counts, especially when it comes to helping locate a new facility. And Site Selection's final top 10 utility entrant has plenty. In fact, TXU Electric & Gas (www.txu.com) has been in the economic development field for nearly 50 years, and that has allowed the utility's economic development staff to build strong relationships with the communities and with those making site selection decisions.
"We work very closely with siting consultants," says Mike McKinney, manager of economic development with TXU. "There are something like 56 different site selection consultants that work around our area, who've had different projects, and we try to work very closely with them. We also try to partner with the Texas Dept. of Economic Development and our local economic development organizations. That's our strong point, we deal in partnerships, because all of us are stronger than any one of us. We try to be the catalyst in the process, putting A and B together to make C."
That experience also helped land a whopping 27,692 jobs in the utility's service area, which includes 122 counties and 643 incorporated cities in north, central, east and west Texas. One project that stands out in McKinney's mind is Nucor Building Systems' 60-job, $1.5 billion investment in Terrell, just outside of Dallas. "We captained that project," McKinney explains.
"We provided Nucor with a list of towns that met their criteria, worked with them and the communities to help them in any way possible. Again, we were the catalysts, introducing them to the right people and keeping them interested throughout the process."
Another thing that experience has taught this group is that you have to keep up with the times. So last year, TXU completely reworked its Web site, providing complete demographics for all if its active communities. A search engine was also put in place to help site seekers search information based on various criteria.
"We also implemented a research group, which we've never had before," adds McKinney. "This is something that a lot of our consultants really appreciate is for us to be able to help them by doing some of the research for labor, sites, business climate and so on. We also worked diligently with our community development group to prepare new programs for our communities last year. In other words, last year we started from the ground up and built the department to begin the new millennium."
|
|
|
 | Site Selection Online | SiteNet | Feedback | Search SiteNet | ©2000 Conway Data, Inc. All rights reserved. SiteNet data is from many sources and is not warranted to be accurate or current.
|
Site Selection's 1999 top utilities help expanding businesses find the right sites at the right costs through innovative programs and cutting-edge technology.
To select the top 10 utilities of 1999 Site Selection used a two-pronged approach. First, we surveyed the utility companies about their facility location and economic development accomplishments for 1999. Then, to cover all our bases, we interviewed several leading site selection consultants, asking them essentially which utilities' economic development groups are most effective in serving corporate expansion needs. After sifting through all the results, we finally chose the top 10 groups. Here's a brief look at each of 1999's top utility companies.
One such success was the location of the Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO) -- a $60 million investment. MISO looked at several locations throughout the Midwest for three different sites: a temporary location, a permanent location and a site for a backup facility. And with the help of Cinergy/PSI, it chose Carmel, Ind., for the projects.
Georgia Power
"Sometimes we may actually get the lead for a new project, and other times the community may be the one, but they need our help on the technical part of the utility," she explains. "So you have to understand the situation and fill the voids, and flexibility is key to that, because everyone involved in the project will want something different from you."
LG&E Energy Corp.
PECO Energy Corp.
Tennessee Valley Industrial
Development Assn.
TXU Electric & Gas
