It has been a grueling few years as electric utilities have dealt with the one-two punches from Enron and Wall Street, especially when it comes to vehicle and equipment assets—purchasing and utilization. Like other utilities, American Electric Power (AEP, Columbus, Ohio), one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, has taken a cost-cutting position in order to keep the company strong and financially healthy.

The Electric Utility Fleet Managers Conference (EUFMC), which invites manufacturers to Williamsburg, Virginia, each year to showcase their newest products and innovations, also has had a greater return on investments agenda.

In February, T&D World interviewed Kevin Dinan, AEP’s administrative fleet manager, who has served on the EUFMC board for the past six years and is the current president. Dinan discussed new vehicle and equipment innovations and buying decisions, and how they are impacting field operations at AEP.

T&D World: How has your year as president of EUFMC been?
Dinan: Jokingly, I keep hoping I will get impeached. No one tells you how much work is involved. I probably spend an hour or more each day managing aspects of the conference: responding to manufacturers, talking to retirees, writing letters to the press and sending out invitations. But it’s been worth every minute. It has kept my company on the cutting edge. I am looking forward to our 51st annual conference in Williamsburg, June 20 to 23.

T&D World: Is EUFMC a good thing?
Dinan: It has been incredible the amount of good information and networking that EUFMC facilitates. There is no place like it for guys like me who are making major asset decisions. It’s like “new model intro time” when we come together. My first meeting was in 1995. I was asked to join the board in 1997, and accepted because EUFMC gives us a good place to find the latest technologies and interact with both manufacturers and end users.

T&D World: Has your fleet grown with the AEP mergers and acquisitions?
Dinan: No. It is actually a lot smaller. In June of 2000, AEP and Central and Southwest Corp. merged. At that time, our combined fleet count was 12,500 vehicles. Today we stand at 10,700. That’s an 1,800-unit cut in vehicles in three and a half years. That decrease is due to several factors. A decline in employee count, a business decision to outsource our pool car operations and the disposal of older and under-utilized vehicles.

T&D World: How does this affect the crews?
Dinan: One of the first things to go when budget cuts came was spare trucks. We used to maintain an extra bucket truck and a digger derrick at each of our 68 garages. If a crew’s truck was in the shop, we could provide them with a back up. Now there are none. That’s 140 fewer vehicles in the fleet right there. Having no spares has affected everyone. Fleet Services realigned its workforce to work more second-shift hours. We try to fix the trucks when they are available; unfortunately, that is in the evenings. It also has made the line supervisors’ jobs more difficult, especially when unexpected breakdowns occur. Drivers, line mechanics, everyone is on their toes. Without the spares, it is even more critical that the fleet is operational when needed, which is normally during the first shift.

T&D World: Line mechanics “on their toes,” what does that mean?
Dinan: By government mandate, our drivers know that they need to do pre-trip and post-trip inspections to make sure they aren’t putting an AEP truck on the road today that is potentially unsafe. That’s a given. With fewer spares, post-trip checks and reporting have become more critical, because Fleet Services must make repairs in the evening to get the truck ready for the next day’s work. The line mechanics know there is no spare. But the person who really feels the stress is the supervisor who manages those line mechanics. Let’s say he has a 15-truck fleet and two of them are out of service today. How does he reassign this work to get all of his line mechanics out on the job?

T&D World: Are you able to buy new vehicles?
Dinan: We have never really stopped purchasing. We have actually been leasing fleet equipment since 1957. Management stuck behind our annual Fleet Blanket Program. Our blankets are merely annual lease replacements. From time to time, our replacement process has been slowed but never cancelled.

Fleet Services and our senior management believe that we must continue to evolve and purchase new equipment annually. New products are more technologically advanced and much more productive for the workforce. Since the assets are leased, large capital expenditures are avoided. Our annual lease expenses for equipment are reasonably stable with only moderate annual increases. Leasing makes it much easier to predict budgets and allows for continual improvement in equipment. If we would stop leasing new equipment for a period of time, our maintenance expenses would escalate exponentially, while our lease expense would remain essentially flat. In short, our annual cost of operations would increase.

T&D World: What’s new and different in equipment?
Dinan: Radio-controlled digger derricks are our latest technological advancement. Virtually every digger derrick we buy now has radio control. We first saw radio-control digger derricks five or six years ago at EUFMC. Each year, the board asks manufacturers to bring their latest and greatest. Often, this is the first time we get to see improvements and innovations. At AEP, we made radio controlled digger derricks our standard in 2001. To date, four of our five distribution regions are using the technology.

T&D World: How does this impact the field crews?
Dinan: Older-style trucks have a rider seat or “captain’s chair,” as we call it, which tie the operator to the truck. When they are in a working mode, egress and entry to the rider seat becomes a tiresome part of the operator’s routine and even in the best of situations, visibility from the chair is sometimes impaired. Radio-controlled technology frees the operator from the being confined to the truck. One of the operators can strap the controls around his neck, freeing him to work on the ground controlling the boom remotely within a 100-ft radius of the truck. This often allows him to be that second man on the ground doing what ever needs to be done and he doesn’t have to deal with getting on and off the truck all day long. Younger lineman—I call them the Nintendo Generation—especially like radio controls. They can do anything with those controls.

T&D World: Is there any resistance to new technology?
Dinan: No, they are pretty well received at AEP. The only downside to the electronic componentry and black boxes is learning how to fix them when they malfunction. We are still limited in the amount of troubleshooting we can perform without calling in for repairs. That is changing, as our technicians receive additional training, but it takes time to acquire new electronic circuitry skills. Secondly I would say, the radio controls are not inexpensive. They can add between $5,000 and $10,000 to the cost of the truck, depending upon the manufacturer and type of hydraulic system.

T&D World: What is the cost savings?
Dinan: With the radio-controlled digger derricks a crew can often work with one less worker. That’s a big savings. Secondly, productivity is increased because the crews are able to get the truck closer to the work, they can swing the boom to the rear with full visibility and, as I mentioned before, the operator doesn’t have to keep getting on and off the truck. There are also safety aspects to consider. The operator being able to see everything going on at all times is a major safety improvement.

T&D World: How much say-so does the line worker have on equipment decisions?
Dinan: In today’s environment of standardization, any one line mechanic has limited say-so on equipment decisions. In the old days, the line mechanics could literally tell their supervisor the type of equipment and maybe even the brand they wanted when it came time to buy.

As our company has grown, we have tried to combine a variety of operating companies in 11 different states into one company. At one time, we had at least 10 different standards for one equipment type. In the name of “standardization,” we implemented a new process for vehicle selection.

The Distribution Standards Team develops standards that meet the operational needs of the crews while managing the cost initiatives from senior management. In order to meet the geographical needs of our territory, as well as some different operating practices, several options are available with each equipment model. Feedback is gathered from everyone involved. We get input from the people running the equipment at tailgate meetings. Foreman feed that information to the division representatives who participate in the Distribution Standards Team, which meets several times a year. Not only does it include the one or two representatives from each of the five regions, the team also consists of Distribution Operations staff and Fleet Specification Specialists.

T&D World: What else is impacting field operations at AEP?
Dinan: Bucket elevators on our bucket trucks that give you an additional 18 to 24 inches of stroke at the end of the bucket. Two small cylinders at the end of the bucket mount move up and down allowing the bucket platform to elevate. This option gives the line mechanic additional positioning, especially around energized lines. I first saw that idea in 1995 at Williamsburg. We are taking delivery of several again this year. The option is especially popular in our eastern region distribution operations.

T&D World: Anything else impacting operations?
Dinan: Vehicles and equipment have become more reliable. There are only so many ways you can build a bucket truck or a digger derrick. That hasn’t changed so much, but the dependability of the equipment has really matured. When I hear someone say, “They don’t build ‘em like they use to,” my reply is, “Thank goodness. Because they are a whole lot better now than they use to be.” All of our light-duty OEMs offer at least a three-year, 36-mile warranty. Just a few years ago, it was one year, 12 months. What that tells me is equipment is getting built better and I know my cost of maintenance and operations is going down.

We now require as a part of our bid package a three-year complete warranty on our medium- and heavy-duty trucks, utility bodies, as well as all of our installed hydraulic equipment.

T&D World: Where are you on alternative fuels?
Dinan: AEP has taken a least-cost position on alternative fuels. During the early years of the Energy Policy Act (EPAct), we purchased a group of electric passenger cars and trucks. The trials were completed, and I’m sorry to say that we couldn’t make electric vehicles work in our utility vocations. The cold weather was especially difficult on the vehicles. Since 1998, when AEP needed to begin complying with the act, we have sought and received exemptions because of the unavailability of alternative fuel in our service territory or vehicles that meet our vocational needs.

To date, we have been successful in our dealings with the Department of Energy (DOE). We are currently under some pressure from the DOE to meet half of our EPAct requirements using biodiesel. Several utilities are getting into biodiesel alternatives but they seem to be suited more for warmer climates. The majority of our vehicles are located in cold weather climates like South Bend, Indiana, and Columbus, Ohio. We have also been in contact with our engine manufacturers and we have letters from them stating that they don’t recommend more than a 5% biodiesel mixture. The act requires the use of 20% to meet the mandate.

T&D World: How much equipment will you buy this year?
Dinan: I am buying about 120 medium-sized pieces of equipment this year. We will purchase another 70 to 75 small aerial devices that will perform the final installation steps in our Roanoke, Virginia, facility. We will purchase about 200 pieces of hydraulic equipment this year. Most of the products, 45-ft digger derricks; 50- to 55-ft material handling buckets; 50 to 55 manlifts; 40-ft articulating telescoping manlifts and material handlers; and 37-ft articulating tele- scoping manlifts are being purchased from Altec Industries. We are also purchasing 50-ft articulating tele-scoping manlifts and 37-ft material handlers from Terex Utilities.

Kevin Dinan is a graduate in mechanical engineering from Ohio State University and has worked for AEP as fleet engineer since 1984. He was appointed to his current position as administrative fleet manager in 1995 with various assignments. Currently, Dinan manages several departments with responsibilities for acquisition and disposal of all AEP fleet assets, training, inventory control, fleet services, billing and liaison to corporate on regulatory and compliance issues in the fleet vehicle industry. In addition to his position as president of the Electric Utility Fleet Managers Conference, Dinan participates on the Edison Electric Institute’s Fleet Policy Committee.