Fueled by Community, Family and Fun!

Before joining our team at Silicon Valley Power, Ashley worked for the City of Santa Clara in the Municipal Services department where she handled customer accounts, billing and communication. Ashley’s skillset easily transfers to her current role as a Key Customer Representative. She is the utility’s primary point of contact for assisting with their needs related to electric service. For example, if a customer needs an electric service upgrade, Ashley will work with the customer to ensure its location is capable of handling the amount of power the facility requires.

Ashley finds pleasure in the dynamic nature of her job. “I love my work because every day is different and because of all the knowledge I have gained in the electric field. With all I have learned, I am better able to assist customers with their electric projects.” Ashley is also thankful for her colleagues. “Everyone is very supportive and encouraging.”

When she’s not working, Ashley spends time with her three young kids and takes them to sports practice. She enjoys being their team moms. When she has time outside of her kids, she also enjoys working on arts and crafts projects. “I love to craft. I make a lot of t-shirts and customized cups.”

Soaring through the skies toward a brighter future

Mary has worked for the City of Santa Clara for nearly 28 years, starting as a Customer Service Representative in the Municipal Services Division of the City’s Finance Department. While working for the City, she completed her both her bachelor’s degree and her Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from San Jose State University and wrote her thesis on electric deregulation. This was in 1998 as deregulation was just going into effect. Shortly after, Mary shifted into a Key Customer Representative position in the Electric Department, newly named Silicon Valley Power (SVP). She then worked her way up to her current role as a Public Benefits Program Manager.

In this role, Mary is responsible for the programs funded by the state-mandated Public Benefits Charge including energy efficiency, renewable energy, low-income and research and development programs and she has more recently expanded the programs to include building electrification. Mary oversees program design, implementation and evaluation, as well as state-mandated reporting. Mary also manages the utility’s social media accounts, promoting programs and communicating about power outages.

Mary appreciates the relationships she’s built with her customers and colleagues here at Silicon Valley Power. She enjoys using her problem-solving skills to create programs that make a real impact in our community. “I get excited about the opportunity to help customers, whether it be through designing programs to help customers save energy and reduce their electric bills or developing outreach and educational programs.”

In her free time, Mary enjoys flying small airplanes. She’s a private pilot and loves volunteering for Pilot N Paws, a nonprofit that assists in transporting animals from shelters to foster or forever homes. She also likes taking people up for their first flight in a small plane and introducing them to general aviation. “There is nothing like flying over the land at a few thousand feet and seeing it from a new perspective.” Mary recently completed seaplane training and now has her seaplane pilot certificate. “It was the most fun I’ve ever had training as a pilot, and I learned a lot of great new skills.”

Mapping the Future – Like Father Like Son

Jean-Paul Hill was first introduced to Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping through his father, who worked as a firefighter in a one-square-mile town that had no street addresses. Jean-Paul watched his father learn how to use GIS to build an addressing system and became interested in the technology behind it.

Jean-Paul began doing part-time GIS work while in college and worked his way up here at Silicon Valley Power, where is currently a Principal Engineering Aide. In this role, he oversees the maps and records department. His team helps maintain all the maps, drawings and data in our GIS system and supports various utility work groups.

The GIS system contains a model of the entire electrical system. Any work performed on the electric system, such as the addition of new housing developments, is created as an AutoCAD drawing. These drawings are sent to the field crew who builds the job. Once complete, the crew sends the “as-built” drawings back to the maps and records department. Jean Paul’s team updates the GIS system with information on the changes or additions to the electric system made by the field crew.

Jean-Paul appreciates the new skills and insights he’s gained through his job. “Once you start working for an electric utility, you never look at the world the same way. Everywhere I go, I’ll be driving or walking along, and I’ll think, ‘that’s interesting. I haven’t seen it constructed that way before’ or ‘that’s an interesting piece of equipment.’”

He also enjoys the challenges involved in working on so many different aspects of the utility. “No day is ever the same — there’s always something new to work on. It can become a treasure hunt figuring out where to find the information to answer a question.” He relies on his team who all bring different strengths to the group.

In his free time, Jean-Paul enjoys watching ice hockey. He’s a season ticket holder for the San Jose Sharks. He also loves the outdoors. His family is heavily involved in the Boy Scouts of America.

Wonder Ice Cream Invests in Efficient Lighting

Did you know that Wonder Ice Cream has been manufacturing frozen desserts and ice cream in Santa Clara for over 40 years? We bet you’ll be surprised to learn that some of your favorite treats are made right here in our city!   Wonder Ice Cream is not only committed to making quality frozen treats, but also to reducing energy consumption, which reduces the company’s carbon footprint and helps the environment. It recently implemented a comprehensive upgrade of its lighting system, replacing old, inefficient metal halide and high pressure sodium high bay fixtures fluorescent T8 and T12 fixtures with LED lighting.  Upgrades were made to the production and office areas, as well as the freezers.

Because LEDs last longer, the new lighting will reduce maintenance costs in addition to lowering energy bills. The improved color rendering of LED lighting helps to improve safety in the manufacturing facility, as well. We bet it makes the ice cream look even more tempting! The lighting upgrade saves Wonder Ice Cream approximately $9,000 in annual energy costs. After receiving a rebate of $8,100 through our lighting rebate program, the project will pay for itself in one year.

We offer a variety of rebate programs for businesses located in Santa Clara and are always looking at ways to help businesses reduce operating costs through energy efficient upgrades. Our energy engineers are available to assist in evaluating a project and ensuring equipment meets program eligibility requirements. If you own or run a business in the city of Santa Clara, contact us at 408-615-6650 to discuss opportunities where you can save energy!

Investing in the Future Energy Workforce

At the Santa Clara City Council meeting on Tuesday, June 7, we awarded $5,000 scholarships to two outstanding students to further their studies toward a career in the energy industry. For the past 17 years, we have offered scholarships for students attending college or technical school in pursuit of a career in the energy industry. To date, the utility has granted $257,000 in scholarships, benefiting 55 deserving students in the Santa Clara community.  

Osiriz del Rosario Durana is currently an undergraduate student at Mission College and is pursuing an Associates of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He will be attending the University of California, Los Angeles in the fall to continue his pursuit of a Mechanical Engineering degree. His hope is to work on developing efficient and sustainable power plants which will limit increasing climate change impacts. When asked about his goals, Osiriz says, “I want to contribute to making this planet as habitable and healthy as possible for people to live in.”

Surya Christopher Tallavarjula is graduating from Wilcox High School and will be pursuing a degree in Applied Physics at the University of California, Berkeley. An avid supporter of the scientific process, Surya says “I think about everything in life, not just my science projects, through a scientific lens. Any time I see a claim being made, I think ‘Could this claim be disproven? What evidence is there that could challenge this?’” With his passion for learning, Surya would like to use his degree to explore ways to reduce energy losses in the transmission of power, improve battery storage technologies and improve solar energy technology. Silicon Valley Power is committed to investing in the future workforce of the electric industry and we look forward to seeing what these students do with their careers!