Investing in Tomorrow: New Krum facility
Just days after the official grand opening of the Krum Service Center, a devastating EF-3 tornado struck Valley View and Sanger, causing widespread damage, power outages and loss of life. More severe storms packing straight-line winds hit in the subsequent days.
The severe storms – some of the worst to hit CoServ’s territory in the co-op’s 87-year history – were a prime example of the strategic importance of the new facility, located off U.S. 380. The tornado-hardened control center, on-site fueling center and fleet maintenance center keep system operators, linemen and gas technicians safe and ready to respond to anything. It’s especially important for a storm that happens outside normal business hours, like the tornado that hit on Memorial Day weekend.
“This location gets us closer to job sites and reduces response time to outages on the West side of our system” said Cody Coulter, Director of Operations.
Three crews, two service trucks, and three Power Quality Troublemen report to the Krum Service Center daily. Eventually, they could have up to five crews reporting there. CoServ’s material supplier, Irby,
also moved into a new 42,466 square-foot warehouse next door where CoServ’s operations crews can
pick up poles, wire, transformers, and other crucial infrastructure.
“It cuts down on travel a lot,” Cody said. “Most of these guys live right around this office.”
It’s not just responding to outages – construction crews will stay busy installing new infrastructure to serve the growth that’s coming to this part of the service area while repair crews will be busy doing preventative maintenance.
“In addition to the outage response times, the day-to-day work with all the growth will keep our crews plenty busy,” said Mike Gray, a CoServ Operations Manager. “You can look right through the doors and see construction crews moving dirt for another subdivision.”
In addition to faster outage response and restoration times, CoServ built the 45,250 square-foot facility with several redundancies and efficiencies that will benefit Members for generations to come.
Chief among those is the new tornado-proof system operations center with separate electric and natural gas control rooms. Built to withstand the strongest tornado, the rooms are equipped with the newest technology that system operators use to keep an eye on electric and gas systems.
“This is the heartbeat of our system,” said Jeremy Stephens, CoServ’s System Operations Supervisor.
The smart grid technology CoServ has installed throughout its electric grid can be monitored and controlled here and at the headquarters in Corinth.
“We now have a backup system so if anything were to happen to the main headquarters in Corinth, the Krum location will become the central headquarters for as long as needed to ensure reliability for our Members and Customers,” said Joshua Lewis, CoServ’s Distribution Automation Manager.
The Krum facility also has redundant sources of electricity. There are two CoServ circuits feeding the facility, so if one goes down, they will have an alternate source. If both go down, there’s a backup generator on-site that can power the facility.
There’s also an expansive Fleet Center with repair bays, wash bays and a fueling center.
“The Krum facility is the realization of years of planning and a great example of how we’re Investing in Tomorrow,” Cody said. “Whether Members live in Justin, Frisco or Valley View, everyone will benefit from this investment because of faster response times, more preventative maintenance on the system and Employees being stationed closer to your neighborhood.”
Dedicated workspaces, breakrooms and meeting spaces fill out the new service center.
