High-tech security protects Portland utility

Oct 1, 2001 12:00 PM, By RANDY SOUTHERLAND

More than a century has passed since power generated at Willamette Falls was first sent 14 miles to the City of Portland, Ore., in 1889. That feat by the small upstart Portland General Electric (PGE) marked the first time the country had seen long-distance transmission.

Today, eight hydroelectric plants and four thermal generating plants provide power to nearly half of the state's population throughout a territory covering more than 3,000 square miles. Hanging from massive steel towers, power lines crisscross the state. Electrical sub stations — more than 725,000 in all — dot the landscape.

PGE has more than 3,000 employees — many of whom are housed in the towering downtown Portland World Trade Center (PWTC) — and millions of dollars worth of equipment and facilities.

Protecting both employees and assets in order to keep the lights on and the local economy humming is a formidable undertaking.

For security manager Joe Goodale and his staff, the task of making sure this utility keeps running smoothly is a continuous job. In addition to protecting power plants and transmission sites, he and his crew are also charged with providing security for the PWTC itself — an increasingly difficult task, since the complex has recently become a focus of anti-globalization protests. To answer these security dilemmas, PGE turned to technology.

“Our headquarters is [located in] Portland's World Trade Center, which really has us on our toes,” says Goodale. “We have shared office space in one of the high-rises that includes offices for one of our U.S. Senators, foreign consulates, and different offices that occasionally draw protests.”

The company shares two of the three buildings in the downtown complex, which has become the prime address for a large number of international tenants. In addition, it hosts numerous special events and meetings, and provides short-term office space for other companies.

“[The customer] had just spent a pile of money with a consulting firm to put together a Y2K plan for the [Portland] World Trade Center and to get a new integrated system for access control, building management and fire,” recalls Tim Lowndes, a consultant with Portland-based Entrance Controls Inc. “We bid on that as a sub-contractor to Siemens Corp. Simplex-Grinnell was the company that got the contract. We then continued to talk, knowing that we had access control systems in the field that were AMAG dial-up systems [by Group 4 Securities Technology]. I continued to pound on the corporate security director and say ‘if you give us an opportunity we can come in and engineer the security, the access control and CCTV of this master contract that you're working on with Simplex.”

PGE decided to give the security company the opportunity to handle that aspect of the contract, and over the next two years, Entrance Controls set about installing the new access control system in the facility.

“This is an 18-story high-rise and there's a lot of PGE (offices and personnel) in here, but there are also other tenants,” he says. “We have a division of the company that is involved with the leasing here and runs the [Portland] World Trade Center.”

To protect those assets, they must provide around-the-clock guard staff. The nerve center of the building's defense is found at strategically located security consoles and a central control room.

“We have installed access control in three buildings at the PWTC,” according to security chief Goodale. “We have about 160 surveillance cameras and alarms. The access control is probably the biggest thing we have done in locking down our office spaces.”

PGE uses an AMAG 550 access control system with full prox card badging, coupled with 120 readers manufactured by Motorola. Although many tenants are still using key access, PGE has hooked others into the system to provide them with access control.

“It's redundantly monitored at two guard stations in two of the buildings at the PWTC,” says Lowndes. “All of their remote sites dial-up into this. They not only have their three buildings in the PWTC, but now upwards of 14 sites are also monitored remotely. These are the line crew centers that have access control and CCTV.”

“We have a check-in, check-out procedure for after hours, for folks — our folks or the tenant folks — who need to come in on weekends and nights,” adds Goodale.

The building is also equipped with a CCTV system provided by Vicon, which features matrix switches, and nearly 76 cameras including fixed and pan-tilt-zoom high-speed domes.

Security has become more of a concern recently, as protests have flared up outside — and sometimes inside — the buildings.

“We have had several incidents very recently,” he explains. “We're working with the Portland Police Bureau to put a new action plan into place here because this facility draws protests. We have had four in the last five weeks. Quite frankly, none of them have been directed against this company. It's the other users here. We have a protocol in place. We work that with our guard staff and the small staff we have here in corporate security. We protect everyone who is here, whether it's a tenant or the PGE folks.”

While the Portland World Trade Center may be a high-profile target for protests, PGE still devotes a great deal of resources to protecting its valuable infrastructure, including power plants, sub-stations and line crew camps.

“After a lock-down here, the CEO/President Peggy Fowler made a statement when she agreed to locking the doors to protect our assets and people,” says Goodale. “Her mandate was to make it as safe for our people out in the field as it is here. We're in the process — and it's still evolving — of locking down our service centers, our customer offices in different locations. We're doing that with fiber-optic intrusion systems, access controlled gates, access controlled doors, surveillance systems, and patrols. Technology is a big consideration.”

The company is installing new access control systems, new alarms, and, where needed, new surveillance systems. There are systems that will be implemented company-wide and will interface with the PWTC system.

While the PWTC has it own monitoring station, a central monitoring station is used to cover other locations.

PGE's security system was developed by Entrance Controls — suppliers of intrusion alarms and small CCTV systems.

“I used to work for another company — a burglar alarm company — and PGE was my account with them,” says Lowndes. “We monitored and installed all the burglar alarm systems that were in the field. They had no access control per se. They had a 10-year-old access control system on Portland's World Trade Center complex, but nothing outside. When I left that company, they shut down their commercial division. I went and talked to PGE and said ‘hey, I'm working with Entrance Controls, an access control company.’”

It's only been in the last couple of years that PGE has made the move to completely secure these facilities downtown and they are now moving out into the field as budgets allow them to update the line crew service centers and other locations, says Goodale.

Although the company still maintains guard patrols at many locations, its goal is to use technology to provide more complete coverage at lower costs.

Out in the field, line crew centers and sub stations are guarded by fiber-optic intrusion sensors supplied by Beaverton, Ore.-based Fiber Sensys.

Some dangers to the company, however, can't be avoided by technology alone. Many of Goodale's concerns relate to dangers to employee safety. Security issues range from an irate customer incensed over a power bill to a meter reader being attacked by a dog. Power lines, especially those in rural areas, have been vandalized and even used for target practice.

Goodale spends a great deal of time trying to deal with these threats. On one recent weekday, he met with sheriffs from two local counties along with Federal Bureau of Land Management rangers and Tribal Police agents.

“One nice thing is, if you do vandalism against a utility — in our case the transmission of electricity — it's a felony in Oregon,” he explains. “It enhances the crime so that helps us deter the amount of vandalism.”

While following up on problems is a high priority, PGE has invested many of its security resources into preventing them. Thanks to a commitment to technology, this trend-setting utility is continuing to move ahead in protecting both assets and people.

FOR THE RECORD

ABOUT THE COMPANIES

For information, please circle the appropriate Reader Service number (listed below) on one of the Reader Service cards in the issue or visit infoLINK at www.securitysolutions.com.

Entrance Controls	21
Fiber Sensys	22
Group 4 Securitas Tech.	23
Motorola	24
Siemens	25
Simplex-Grinnell	26
Vicon	27

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Randy Southerland is an Atlanta-based writer and regular contributor to Access Control & Security Systems.

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© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

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