Keeping America Powered: Meet Utility Workers Essential To Their Communities (Part 2)
See how Theodric, Somer, Libby, and Jesse are keeping the lights on for their communities.
Theodric Arline
Underground Networking Cable Working Foreman
JEA | Jacksonville, FL
“Things are growing in Jacksonville, and our central role is to help keep construction projects going.”
If you’re constructing a new building of structure in Jacksonville, Florida, there’s a good chance you’ll run into essential utility worker Theodric Arline. As a highly skilled Underground Cable Networking Foreman, Theodric is JEA’s boots on the ground. He makes sure that transformers are set, cable is pooled, and electrical devices are in place, keeping construction powered throughout the city. As the pandemic impacted Jacksonville, Theodric and his team remained out in the community, working to ensure JEA’s 50,000 commercial and industrial customers, which includes life-saving local institutions like hospitals, continued to receive reliable electric power.
Somer Mese
Power Plant Manager
Colorado Springs Utilities | Colorado Springs, CO
“My family, friends, and neighbors all have reliable electricity because of what my team and I do every day.”
As a Power Plant Manager, Somer Mese is essential to ensuring reliable electricity powers her community of Colorado Springs. No day is ever the same for Somer. In her role as manager, she oversees a team of highly-trained workers who are responsible for keeping the lights on for their family, friends, and neighbors. Any maintenance or operations issues have to be dealt with swiftly to keep units online and power flowing. Looking to the future, Somer will be front and center as Colorado Springs Utilities retires their coal generation fleet and expands their renewable portfolio and storage capabilities.
Libby Clark
Director of Human Resources and Safety
Platte River | Fort Collins, CO
“It’s essential that our workforce be considered indispensable.”
As the Director of Human Resources and Safety, no one was more involved in Platte River Power Authority’s (PRPA) efforts to help keep employees safe during the pandemic than Libby Clark. As the utility providing electricity to communities across Northern Colorado, many PRPA workers were deemed essential at the beginning of the pandemic and had to remain on-site or out in the field. To keep them safe, Libby implemented new health and safety procedures, redesigned workspaces, and engineered safe work schedules. PRPA’s essential workers are doing everything they can to keep the lights on in Colorado, just as Libby did everything she can to keep the utility’s workers safe throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jesse Brantley
Winyah Generating Station Unit Operator
Santee Cooper | Georgetown, SC
“Hospitals couldn’t operate, businesses couldn’t operate, without power. That’s step one.”
Jesse Brantley is a vital part of South Carolina’s electric system. As a Unit Operator at Santee Cooper’s Winyah Generating Station, he’s responsible for everything from the coal yard to the electric grid. Jesse is one of a handful of highly trained essential utility workers who makes sure that electricity is generated at Winyah and transmitted to the electric grid, where it is then delivered to homes, businesses, and communities. A husband and father, Jesse made the tough call during the pandemic to work 12-hour long shifts seven days a week so that the lights stayed on for 2 million South Carolinians served by Santee Cooper.
Meet more of our essential workers and learn how they keep your community powered.
