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Dominion Energy employees' creative solutions amid supply chain challenges
When supply chain delays caused difficulties for consumers and businesses, Dominion Energy teams companywide experienced it firsthand. Meters were and continue to be in short supply nationwide. Dominion Energy employees have worked tirelessly to onboard new vendors, acquire refurbished and remanufactured meters, and test and reuse components.
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Dominion Energy's natural gas employees work collaboratively through challenges to serve customers.
Supply chain shortages affect meter and equipment supply but customers are unaffected thanks to creative solutions.
Rain or shine, Dominion Energy’s gas line systems, facilities and equipment quietly and reliably deliver natural gas to customers around the clock. A meter humbly works day in and day out to measure natural gas use while reducing and regulating pressure at every customer's premises. It also allows for the shut-off of natural gas in an emergency.
Natural gas utility workers are like that, too. In Gastonia, North Carolina, Eric Newton’s team at the “meter shop” also works inconspicuously day in and day out to supply natural gas meters and supporting equipment to over a million customers in the Carolinas.
When supply chain delays caused difficulties for consumers and businesses, Dominion Energy teams companywide experienced it firsthand. Meters were and continue to be in short supply nationwide.
Fred Hicklin, Customer Service Rep, Akron, Ohio.
Josh Haskett, Dwain Davis, Scott Burstrom, David Fox, Jamie King, Eric Newton and Terry Barber showing several of the different models of meters that are warehoused, repaired and shipped out of the Measurement Operations Center in Gastonia, NC.
Yvonne Doyle, Customer Service Rep, Ashtabula, Ohio.
“Overnight, we had to become creative with material procurement by sourcing meters and material from non-traditional suppliers,” Newton says.
That’s because every new home or new restaurant, for instance, depends on a meter and natural gas service can’t be “turned on” without one. Dominion Energy Teams in Utah and Ohio were in the same boat.
For example, Ohio teams experienced a similar shortage of a popular sized meter used on residential and small commercial buildings starting in mid-2021 and through mid-2022. In addition to meter shortages, additional components, like automated meter reading devices (ERTs) were in short supply.
Newton and his Dominion Energy counterparts worked tirelessly to onboard new vendors, acquire refurbished and remanufactured meters, and test and reuse components, like ERTs, that were still functional.
“We’ve worked along with our automated meter reading implementation group to refurbish thousands of used ERTs that were pulled off meters reaching the end of their service life and placed them in new meters being delivered without ERTs due to chip shortages across every industry,” said Salt Lake Meter Shop Supervisor Alan Blain.
Newton’s team even added a new type of meter to keep up with demand, but adding a new meter meant that new skills were needed to work, repair or prepare them for use by not only meter shop employees, but field employees as well, adding another layer of complexity.
AMR Implementation Team Liz Wood, Tim Plastow, Kelly Dawes and Lance Bagshaw in Utah.
Utah Meter Shop Technician Quinton Joyner repairing or refurbishing a residential meter.
Senior Meter Shop Technician Jerry Vigil building a prefabricated rotary meter set in Utah.
“Our core values challenge us to work together – we call it One Dominion Energy, which is what we did to ensure roughly 2,500 Ohio customers had the equipment they needed to start gas service,” said Mitch Rhodes, senior business process analyst at Dominion Energy Ohio.
In true One Dominion Energy fashion, Dominion Energy Utah gave their South Carolina colleagues a month of their new inventory in December so that their colleagues would not run out of meters to meet rapid demand.
Meter Shop Technician Christopher Gardner with a meter shipment in Gastonia, NC.
Because of this teamwork companywide, customers were unaffected.
Kristi Berthold, supervisor for Ohio’s large commercial and industrial customers added, “It truly was my pleasure to make sure these issues didn’t affect our customers. So many different Dominion Energy departments like operations and inventory came together to find solutions – a perfect example of One Dominion Energy for the benefit of our customers!”
“I am extremely proud of how my colleagues stepped up during some very challenging times. Most recently, my colleagues volunteered to work during the Christmas holidays instead of staying home with their families, but they understood their responsibility to our customers,” said Blain.
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