Photo: UWT Logistics

Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty along with UWT Logistics announced plans to expand the company’s facilities in Memphis, TN. The expansion represents a $4.8 million investment by UWT Logistics and will create 81 new full-time jobs.

“Tennessee’s global transportation systems provide unsurpassed efficiency and proximity to customers throughout the U.S. and around the world,” Hagerty said. “Companies like UWT Logistics understand the competitive edge that our solid infrastructure and pro-business environment offer. I appreciate the continued investment UWT Logistics is making in Shelby County and its citizens.”

From left to right: Chris Williams, CEO of UWT Logistics, A C Wharton, Jr. Mayor of Memphis, David Ozier, CFO of UWT Logistics, Joann Massey, Business Development Consultant, TN Department of Economic & Community Development, Mark Herbison, Sr. VP of Economic Development, Greater Memphis Chamber

“At UWT Logistics, we are committed to making a difference in Memphis though our core values of family, excellence and growth. We have a team in place that does the family thing well, both internally and in our community. We continue to strive for excellence both in service to our customers and in being diligent with our resources. With those values in place, the table is set for growth,” UWT Chief Financial Officer David Ozier said.  “We are focused on expanding our footprint in the city of Memphis by bringing in new customers, offering more services and adding the right people to our family. We are grateful for the state of Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, the Greater Memphis Chamber, the Economic Development Growth Engine for Memphis and Shelby County, and other local economic development agencies for their support in reaching our goals.”

“This is another significant step forward in our efforts to provide jobs and strengthen our local economy,” Memphis Mayor AC Wharton said.

“UWT Logistics personifies what it means to be great corporate citizens. In everything they do, you can see that they have a great passion for Memphis and its people,” Senior Vice President of the Memphis Chamber Mark Herbison said.  “The jobs they are creating in some of the poorest neighborhoods of the city are making a real difference in the lives for some of the people in our community that need it most.”

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“I want to thank HP Pelzer for its investment in Tennessee and the new jobs created in McMinn County,” Haslam said. “Our Jobs4TN strategy recognizes the auto sector as a key industry cluster where Tennessee has a distinct advantage with more than 900 auto suppliers and manufacturers, and today’s announcement helps us toward our goal of becoming the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs.”

“Tennessee offers the automotive industry unparalleled logistical advantages and a strong manufacturing base with a quality workforce,” Hagerty said. “I appreciate HP Pelzer recognizing our state’s inherent strengths in the auto sector and the competitive edge that Tennessee’s business friendly environment provides.”

“Athens, TN is the perfect location for us to manufacture and supply parts to our automotive partners. We are quite pleased to make it our new home,” HP Pelzer Chief Operating Officer Steve Paladino said.

“TVA congratulates HP Pelzer on its decision to locate a facility in Athens, Tennessee,” said TVA Senior Vice President of Economic Development John Bradley. “TVA and Athens Utilities Board are privileged to partner with the state of Tennessee, the McMinn County Economic Development Authority, the Southeast Industrial Development Association and other community leaders to facilitate HP Pelzer’s location and growth in McMinn County.”

“We are delighted to have HP Pelzer join our community,” Athens City Mayor Hal Buttram said.  “This will bring much-needed jobs to our citizens.”

Headquarterd in Witten, Germany, the HP Pelzer Group operates 37 manufacturing sites and five technical centers employing more than 5,000 people in 18 countries. In the U.S., the McMinn County site will join other HP Pelzer facilities in Michigan, Georgia and Kansas.

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“I want to congratulate GGL on this great announcement and say ‘thank you’ for their investment in Hamilton County and Tennessee,” Gov. Haslam said.

“GGL is an excellent example of how innovation drives economic development,” Hagerty said. “We are focused on supporting innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives, which will help grow Tennessee’s economy and give our state a distinct competitive advantage. Thank you to GGL for bringing these jobs to Hamilton County and for creating the technologies that have translated into economic opportunities for our citizens.”

Chattanooga is the first U.S. test city for Global Green Lighting.

GGL recently acquired a 180,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Chattanooga and has set up production lines to assemble its flagship product, a light emitting diode (LED) street lamp combined with the latest AMI (automated metering infrastructure) smart grid metering technology.

“By marrying our locally designed and manufactured LED and Induction light fixtures with our innovative wireless radio control technology, we have created the world’s most advanced lighting and energy monitoring system,” said Lepard.  “In addition to certified, measured energy savings, and carbon credits, the GGL system offers countless improvements over traditional street lights – improved lighting quality and color, wireless monitoring to track exact energy usage, and situational functionality such as scheduled or manual override dimming or flashing. The adjustable ‘up light filters’ offer an optional elimination of light pollution. The system also self-reports the location and diagnostics for malfunctions within 15 seconds of the occurrence, and the expected life of these lights is five times longer than the old, traditional lights.”

GGL’s expansion will create 40 new jobs immediately. By the end of 2013, GGL expects to hire 160 assembly workers. The company also expects to hire 50 people for sales, marketing, customer service and equipment maintenance.

Chattanooga City Mayor Ron Littlefield cites GGL as a leading example of how the city’s world-class technical infrastructure is sparking innovation and job creation. “Two years ago, Chattanooga introduced America’s first community-wide Gig fiber network offering every home and business Internet service up to 200 times faster than the national average, and today we’re on our way to making all of our streets brighter, safer and more energy efficient thanks to Global Green Lighting’s unique wireless radio controlled street lamps,” Mayor Littlefield said. “We are excited to partner with a forward thinking company like GGL to enhance efficiency while supporting job creation, and we are proud that this kind of innovation is happening in the heart of Chattanooga.”

Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger applauded GGL, emphasizing the region’s global competitiveness. “GGL’s investment shows how our local companies and workers are competing in the worldwide economy,” Mayor Coppinger said. “This is another example of how our region has come to the forefront of the resurgence in American manufacturing.”

“GGL has been designing and marketing lighting solutions from Chattanooga for many years,” said Charles Wood, vice president of economic development for the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. “We were pleased to deploy our existing industry team to support him in growing his operations to include assembly and gear up for a major marketing push.”

Chattanooga’s deployment of America’s first community-wide “Gig” fiber network offering up to 1 gigabit-per-second Internet service inspired Lepard to pair his energy efficient (LED) street lamps with a wireless radio controlled, smart grid-based lighting system that allows the city operators and officers complete and measured control of every light to maximize both energy savings and public safety.

After a very successful pilot project in one of Chattanooga’s premiere public parks, the City of Chattanooga contracted with GGL to replace all 27,000 street lights with the innovative new technology. Upon completion of the project at the end of 2013, Chattanooga officials expect to cut lighting bills up to 75 percent per year.

While many cities have already embraced LED lights as a way to reduce energy costs, Chattanooga is the first American city to combine LED lighting with a smart grid metering, wireless radio controlled and utility certified energy management system that will also slash maintenance expenses by as much as 75 percent.

“We are thrilled to execute our first community-wide street lighting project in our home city of Chattanooga,” Lepard said.  “Following Chattanooga’s introduction of America’s first community-wide fiber optic network, the city has continued to raise its stature as a smart grid city and haven for innovation. Our state-of-the-art wireless radio controlled street lighting system offers an unparalleled combination of energy savings and functionality.”

Other cities are also taking notice of GGL’s sustainable, low energy lighting system. The company is in active communications with 26 cities, the first of 250 identified in its target marketing strategy. In addition, GGL also plans to market the lighting technology to private developments and enterprises which can tie their outdoor lighting into the same infrastructure used by the public sector. “It’s the perfect example of the public and private sector benefiting together by sharing the advantages of a new technology,” Lepard said.

With GGL’s radio network lighting, the city can turn street lamps on and off in real time and tailor the brightness of each lamp based on a neighborhood’s lighting needs. The system records the GPS coordinates of each lamp post and correlates the location with dawn and dusk times, so the lights only come on only when they are needed. Each individual street lamp includes a residential grade meter and alerts maintenance workers via the wireless network when a bulb is out, power is lost, or if repairs are needed. Energy usage is automatically fed back to the local electric company billing system, eliminating the need for manual meter readers. In other words, each light auto meters and auto reports its status.

Clarification: An earlier version of this article included an inaccurate statement. EPB has not certified any products or services of Global Green Lighting (GGL) for energy efficiency, reliability or for any other purpose. EPB does not have a certification program for any products. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

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The designation of Corridor Park as a primary data center site will be a useful recruiting tool for the area.

The Tennessee Valley Authority and Deloitte Consulting have approved TVA’s first metro-area primary data center site in the Corridor Park in Knoxville. To be considered a metro site, the location must have at least 10 acres, a minimum of 5 megawatts of power capacity and diverse fiber optic feeds available.

The selection process is part of TVA’s Economic Development target industry recruitment efforts. Knoxville is one of only 20 available data center sites designated as “primary ready for development” in the TVA service area.

“Having this site identified as a primary data center location gives the Knox County area an advantage in the highly competitive site selection process,” said John Bradley, TVA senior vice president for Economic Development. “We are glad to work with the Knoxville Chamber, local utilities and other community, state and regional leaders to actively market these sites to companies as part of our global economic development recruitment efforts.”

Doug Lawyer, vice president of economic development for the Knoxville Chamber, believes the designation will be a useful recruiting tool for the area.

“I look forward to touting the advantages of the Knoxville site to intensive capital investment and high wage prospective data center end users,” Lawyer said. “Thanks to TVA and my local utility and development partners for helping us along in this process.”

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McCallum Sweeney Consulting, a leading site selection firm that has certified successful megasite projects, identified the Jefferson County site, to be known as the East Tennessee Regional Megasite, as a prime candidate for certification.

Five certified megasites in the TVA service area have been sold to major corporations, including VW in Chattanooga, Toyota in Mississippi and Hemlock Semiconductor in Clarksville, Tennessee. All told, those five megasites have generated $5.5 billion in economic impact and more than 32,000 jobs. Industry analysts say nine major automotive manufacturers will need additional capacity and be looking for the best place to site a new facility within the next few years.

“This is a game changer for Jefferson County and the whole region in terms of the ability to attract high quality jobs to the area,” said George Gantte, Dandridge Mayor and chair of EDOC. “Jefferson County and the entire region must rally around this effort because it is important for our future and the future of our children and grandchildren. The certification process is not easy, and there are some significant questions we must answer, but the East Tennessee Regional Megasite has tremendous potential to help us create high quality jobs, a larger tax base and an enhanced educational system and quality of life.”

In a survey of East Tennesseans conducted in December 2012, respondents cited availability of jobs as the top issue affecting Jefferson County.

Gantte said a major manufacturer constructing a facility in the megasite, as well as ancillary suppliers that would locate near the main company, would draw employment from Jefferson County as well as from surrounding counties.

“This would have a positive economic impact on a wide area in the very same way that VW and Nissan have demonstrated in Chattanooga and Smyrna,” Gantte said. “It has the potential to be the largest economic development success story in the Northeast Corridor from Knoxville to the Tri-Cities. We plan to make it happen.”

An analysis by McCallum Sweeney studied many possible sites in East Tennessee for a new original equipment manufacturer (OEM) facility.

“We found that the East Tennessee Regional Megasite has the best potential to attract an OEM because of its 1,800-plus acres in size and its location next to the intersection of two strategically well-placed interstate highways,” said McCallum Sweeney Consulting Senior Principal Mark M. Sweeney. “As a result, McCallum Sweeney views the site as a candidate for certification as a megasite, and we look forward to working with Jefferson County through that certification process.”

The proposed site fits into a gap in the automotive manufacturing landscape across the Southeast and is ideally situated to benefit from surrounding suppliers but not close enough to directly compete for labor and resources with any manufacturers located at surrounding megasites.

“It takes up to two years to build a plant and even more time to plan,” Gantte added. “So, that capacity planning is happening now and over the next one to two years. It’s during this planning process that companies start looking for the appropriate place to construct. We want them to look at the East Tennessee Regional Megasite in Jefferson County.”

EDOC will now work with McCallum Sweeney to certify the site as a megasite. That work will take eight to 12 months and once complete serves to assure economic development prospects of the site’s shovel-readiness. To qualify for certification the land has to be immediately available; have all environmental and geological tests completed; be situated close to major highways, rail lines and auto suppliers; and have plenty of labor.

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Pinnacle flight attendant Kristi Morkert (she was not flying on this flight) greeting passanger Val Ward (sitting with fur hat on), from Syracuse, for a flight to Syracuse, NY at Metro Airport in Romulus on Thursday January 27, 2005. (Photo: The Detroit News/David Coates)

Pinnacle Airlines Corp. has announced that its headquarters will relocate to Minnesota. The decision came after an exhaustive evaluation of the most cost-effective option as the Company emerges from Chapter 11. The present headquarters location in Memphis, TN was also evaluated. Pinnacle’s operation will be located in vacant space leased by Delta Air Lines on Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport property.

“We had the responsibility to explore every aspect of our business to find opportunities to reduce costs, including evaluating our property leases, to find the most economical options for Pinnacle,” said John Spanjers, president and CEO of Pinnacle Airlines. “Our analysis covered everything from the available labor pool and operational alignment to economic incentives. Both Memphis and the State of Minnesota presented very strong cases. In the end, it was an economic decision.”

“We especially appreciate the efforts of Gov. Bill Haslam and the State of Tennessee, Mayor A.C. Wharton and the City of Memphis, the Downtown Memphis Commission, our landlord at One Commerce Square, Gov. Mark Dayton and the State of Minnesota, the Metropolitan Airports Commission in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Delta. They all were very aggressive in working with us and our decision was difficult to make.”

“This is a significant milestone in our restructuring and represents substantial progress that we expect will allow us to continue down a path toward successfully emerging from bankruptcy,” Spanjers said.

Pinnacle presently occupies 170,000 square feet at One Commerce Square in downtown Memphis, which houses approximately 500 employees. Tentative plans call for the move to Minnesota to be completed by May 2013.

Pinnacle Airlines Corp. an airline holding company with 5,100 employees, is the parent company of Pinnacle Airlines, Inc. Flying as Delta Connection, Pinnacle Airlines, Inc. operates 191 regional jets on 1,000 daily flights to more than 100 cities in the United States and Canada.

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Gov. Bill Haslam (Photo: Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development)

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty along with company officials announced Ceramica Del Conca will build its first North American manufacturing facility in Loudon, TN. The announcement by the Italian ceramic floor tile manufacturer represents a $70 million investment and will create 178 new manufacturing jobs in Loudon County.

“This announcement is great news for Loudon County, and I am excited to welcome Del Conca to Tennessee,” Haslam said. “We are very appreciative of the investment in our state as we work toward our goal of becoming the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs.”

“Congratulations to Del Conca on this announcement,” Hagerty said. “We are proud to add Del Conca ceramic tiles to the list of quality products made in Tennessee.”

The Italian ceramic tile maker was founded in 1979 and uses high-tech manufacturing processes to keep pace with the growing tile market. Del Conca’s porcelain ceramic tiles are exported worldwide for use in both residential and commercial facilities. Along with establishing a base for U.S. operations, the Loudon facility will allow Del Conca to serve major U.S. customers such as Lowe’s Arizona Tile, Mannington and Tile Shop more effectively.

“Loudon is geographically located close to the main U.S. highways and in close proximity to our sources of raw materials. We have found in Loudon a very cooperative team of people who are working hard in order to help us build a successful business that better serves our U.S. and Canadian customers,” said Paolo Mularoni, president of Del Conca USA.

The 178 new jobs will include managerial, technical/engineering, administrative, production and distribution positions. The Loudon facility is expected to begin operations by the end of 2013. The construction and hiring process will be completed in two phases; the first of which will include the hiring of 100 employees. The remaining 78 employees are expected to be retained within the next five – six years.

“Loudon County welcomes Del Conca to East Tennessee with this opportunity to bring a substantial volume of high-quality jobs and positive economic impact to this region,” Loudon County Economic Development Agency President Pat Phillips said.

“TVA and Loudon Utilities Board congratulate The Del Conca Group on their decision to locate a new manufacturing facility in Loudon County, Tenn.,” John Bradley, TVA Senior Vice President of Economic Development, said. “We are privileged to work with the State of Tennessee, the Loudon County Economic Development Agency and other community leaders to facility new jobs for area residents.”

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Photo: Spectrum Lubricants

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development and Spectrum Lubricants have announced plans for the company to expand its Selmer, TN facility. The expansion represents a $1.8 million investment and will create 26 new jobs in McNairy County. The announced jobs will be added to the company’s existing Selmer workforce of approximately 200.

“We’re grateful for Spectrum Lubricants’ continued confidence and investment in our state,” Allen Borden, ECD assistant commissioner, statewide operations, said. “Gov. Haslam’s leadership has continued to further Tennessee’s reputation as a business-friendly location for companies to build and grow in, and this decision by Spectrum Lubricants underscores that reputation.”

Spectrum Lubricants is an independent blender, compounder, packager and marketer of specialty lubricants including two-cycle engine oil, bar and chain oil, small engine oil and hydraulic oil. The company serves the outdoor power equipment, lawn and garden and agricultural markets, and the marine and automotive aftermarkets.

“We are thankful for the support and partnership given to us by the McNairy County Economic Development Commission and the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development,” Kent Farmer, president and CEO, Spectrum Lubricants, said. “We are fortunate to have such strong partnerships within our state. I’d like also to thank Dominus Capital Partners who provided support for the expansion. Everyone here at Spectrum Lubricants is excited to be able to provide additional employment opportunities for the residents of McNairy County as well as to broaden our service capabilities for our existing customers.”

“We are excited about the expansion plans of Spectrum,” Ted Moore, executive director, McNairy County Economic Development Commission, Inc., said. “Locally, they received the McNairy County Industry of the Year Award and continue to be an outstanding employer. Their continued growth during difficult economic conditions is a reflection of excellent management along with skilled and dedicated employees.  We appreciate the positive influence they have on our local economy and offer our continued support for a successful and profitable relationship.”

“We are very pleased that Spectrum Lubricants has committed to expand their business interests in Selmer and McNairy County,” said Robert Shackelford, chairman of the Selmer/McNairy County Industrial Development Board. “Our Board has worked very closely with Spectrum’s leadership team on this project, and we are excited to see it become a reality.  When industry prospers, our local economies are strengthened.”

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The growth of cloud computing is spurring increased demand for data center space in North America, according to a survey commissioned by Digital Realty and reported by Data Center Knowledge. The growing interest in cloud adoption, along with the resumption of planned expansions that were deferred due to the economy, points to robust growth ahead for the U.S. data center industry.

Ninety two percent of IT decision makers at large companies said they will “definitely or probably” expand their data center footprint in 2012, the highest number in the six-year history of the survey by Digital Realty, which is the largest operator of data center facilities. By comparison, 70 percent of respondents said they had expanded their data center operations over the past two years.

Ironically, the industry expansion comes at the same time the U.S. government is continuing its aggressive effort to consolidate its data centers, and has again increased its target for the number of facilities it expects to close, according to Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel.

The government now expects to shutter at least 1,200 data centers, or about 40 percent of the 3,133 IT facilities identified in the latest update on the consolidation. The government is on track to close 525 data centers by the end of 2012, including 215 that were shuttered in 2011. That marks an acceleration of the project, as the administration originally expected to close 137 data centers in 2011. A listing of facilities that have been closed or are targeted for closure is available at Data.gov. However, a new $500-million data center for the Social Security Administration is expected to be built near Frederick, MD in the coming months.

Wyoming Opens Window to Data Hub

The Microsoft Corporation’s announcement to construct a $112 million data center in Cheyenne, WY marks a notable milestone in Wyoming’s economic diversification efforts, and it’s a clear sign that our state’s emerging presence on the digital industry landscape is gaining ground.

Behind the lead of Governor Matt Mead who first stated his goal to recruit data centers during his campaign, Wyoming has aggressively pursued technology as a target industry that someday may be mentioned in the same breath as agriculture, energy and tourism when talking about our state’s signature industries.

This is only possible because of the close working partnerships developed during the past six years with the Wyoming State Legislature, the governor and local economic development organizations throughout the state, as well as our relationship building efforts with technology companies and site selectors.

The Wyoming Business Council has collaborated with local economic development leaders to showcase our state’s enviable assets such as a cool climate, robust fiber, low-cost and redundant electricity and access to available shovel-ready sites that lower the total cost of operation for digital business. In addition, this local and state economic development team has worked together with the governor and the legislature to create unique incentives that set us apart in this highly competitive market.

In the case of the Microsoft decision, the result of this group effort produced an incentive package comprising up to $5 million from Governor Mead’s Data Center Recruitment funds, used at the sole discretion of the governor to entice data centers, and $5 million from a Wyoming Business Council Business Ready Communities (BRC) Managed Data Center Cost Reduction grant through applicant Laramie County.

Through Cheyenne’s local economic development agency Cheyenne LEADS, Laramie County will use the $5 million from the governor’s fund to build infrastructure to include roads, water lines, sewer work and fiber installation to lower the upfront costs for Microsoft’s selected location; Laramie County will use the $5 million BRC grant to assist with utility and connectivity costs.

In addition to the above state incentives, Wyoming offers a data center sales tax exemption. Combined with our other benefits such as no corporate or personal state income tax, and workforce development training funds, Wyoming has a compelling cost reduction incentive package that is appealing to this industry by careful design. Without these incentives and our infrastructure investments, the Microsoft project – and future projects of this caliber – would not be possible, and we must give credit to the legislature and the governor’s office for having the foresight to work with the Business Council and the local economic development community on ensuring we’re ready to compete in the digital industries.

Although Cheyenne was the final location decision, Microsoft identified Evanston, Laramie and Rawlins as very real possibilities until just months before the final decision was made. Economic development officials and local leadership in those communities worked through the same process with Microsoft as did Cheyenne LEADS, and Microsoft officials made note of the pride displayed from each community during the 10-month site selection process. The professionalism, understanding and sincerity by all communities involved made the entire state look very good to the company and made it easier for Microsoft to select Wyoming over competing states. From a local economic development standpoint, this announcement illustrates how important it is to have shovel-ready property available for economic development.

With the successful recruitment of the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center to Cheyenne in 2007 and the presence of other data centers such as EchoStar, Ptolemy Data Systems, T3Media (formerly Thought Equity Motion) and Green House Data calling Wyoming home, the recent Microsoft decision punctuates this work; but now, it’s time to go to work on the next one.

TVA Identifies 20 Sites Ready for Data Center Development

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is undertaking a Data Center Ready-for-Development Sites Initiative as part of its Megasites program.

Twenty sites in the TVA region have been identified by Deloitte Consulting as being ready for development as data centers (see map below, with full information on the sites available at datacenters.tvasites.com).

The strategy behind this program is similar to the Megasites program in that it identifies what target companies are looking for and then finds sites where much of the due diligence on those attributes has already been done. The Megasites program is a multi-year economic development effort designed to make it easier for large industries to find an optimal location that is ready for use. A third-party consultant (McCallum Sweeney Consulting) has identified locations that offer large developable acreage, have access to utilities, are close to interstate highways and railways, and can supply a plentiful labor force. Megasites help companies save time and money and reduce their risks in locating in the region.

The TVA’s web pages for the potential data center sites feature a GIS presentation of the available property as well as demographic information about the labor force available to the location and a snapshot of consumer spending and businesses in the area.

For example, TVA and Deloitte identified a 92-acre site in an industrial park in Huntsville, AL as a prime location for a future data center. The TVAsites.com web page for the site indicates that a Phase I Environmental Report already has been completed for the site, which is a vacant parcel that can be purchased.

To assess the available labor force for the Huntsville site, visitors to TVAsites.com can enter in a specific geographic radius or an estimated drive time (in minutes) and be served up a workforce report according to the specs. The same coordinates/requirements can be entered to generate customized reports on consumer spending and related businesses in the target location.

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By Business Facilities Staff

In every project we cover on the pages of Business Facilities, there usually is tucked away in the middle of the article a reference to the role played by local or regional utility in nailing down the deal.

But we have always known that there are a select group of utilities that have made economic development a central part of their mission. This year, we have decided to give these standouts their own showcase.

We conducted a comprehensive survey of more than two dozen leading utilities. We requested that the finalists for our new Top Utilities designation send us a submission outlining the utility’s economic development program and resources. We asked them to highlight cooperative efforts between business, government and utilities that have had a regional impact on development and job creation; specific projects in which the utility played a key role in bringing the project to fruition and securing a new facility, relocation or expansion; and information regarding initiatives undertaken to develop alternative energy resources. The finalists were encouraged to submit a brief narrative, along with charts listing top projects and case histories.

After reviewing these submissions, we realized that we had two categories of contenders. Therefore, we are pleased to name two Regional Powerhouses (Tennessee Valley Authority and Entergy) along with our six selections as the Top Utilities for 2012. Without further ado, here are the designees who earned our spotlight.

TVA: Giant Among Giants

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is the nation’s largest public power provider, generating electricity that serves nine million people through local distribution utilities. Economic development is a core mission of TVA. TVA Economic Development partners with regional agencies, state governments, local power distributors, directly served customers and communities within its seven-state service region to promote economic development. TVA provides technical services, financial assistance and other incentives to help companies bring their operations to the region and succeed.

In fiscal 2011, 43,000 jobs were added or retained as a result of these efforts and total investment was $4.9 billion. TVA support has contributed to more than 300,000 new or retained jobs and $32 billion in business investment since 2005.

TVA’s Megasites program is a multi-year economic development effort designed to make it easier for large industries to find an optimal location that is ready for use. A third-party consultant (McCallum Sweeney Consulting) has identified locations that offer large developable acreage, have access to utilities, are close to interstate highways and railways, and can supply a plentiful labor force. Megasites help companies save time and money and reduce their risks in locating in the region.

Volkswagen opened a 2,000-employee, $1 billion Passat factory on a Megasite in Chattanooga, TN, in May 2011 and by September saw the 10,000th car roll off its assembly line. Employment at the VW plant by the end of this year is projected to be 3,500. Toyota, which in 2007 selected a Megasite near Tupelo, MS, for a plant to build Corollas, celebrated the first car off its production line in November 2011. Toyota and its suppliers are providing more than 2,500 jobs.

Tennessee Valley Authority 2011 Projects

The Valley Investment Initiative (VII) is another economic development partnership jointly offered by TVA and participating distributors of TVA power. VII offers financial incentives to qualifying customers who contribute to economic growth in the region and also complement TVA’s power system resources. VII contracts executed in 2011 captured more than 31,000 created and retained jobs and $2.9 billion in capital investment.

TVA reaches out to its partners in local communities to increase their economic competitiveness by providing training to community leaders, helping rural communities market themselves more effectively, and linking communities with retail business opportunities through the Retail Development Program. During fiscal 2011, the Community Development staff conducted a total of 107 training and development workshops in the TVA region.

The Regional TaP (Targeted and Prepared) Community Program helps communities find ways to assist existing businesses and recruit new jobs in targeted industries. TVA retained Boyette Strategic Advisors to study regional strengths and target industries for the nine-county West Tennessee area.

In 2011, more than 40 percent of TVA’s energy came from clean or carbon-free sources, including nuclear, hydro and renewable power.

Entergy Energizes Four States

Entergy Corp. is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with about 30,000 megawatts of electric generation capacity, and it is the second largest nuclear generator in the U. S. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in major portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and approximately 15,000 employees.

Through its operating subsidiaries, Entergy Arkansas, Inc., Entergy Louisiana, LLC, Entergy Mississippi, Inc., Entergy New Orleans, Inc., and Entergy Texas, Inc. Entergy economic development employees work closely with state, regional and local allies to attract new business investment and retain existing business. In 2011, Entergy economic development teams partnered with state and local allies to help attract 151 new projects generating $3.2 billion in new capital investment and creating approximately 10,732 new jobs. As a leading force for economic development, the Entergy Team streamlines the economic development process by providing businesses seeking to expand or locate in their service area access to the people and information they need to make the best possible business decision. Examples of cooperative efforts between communities, businesses, states and Entergy that have led to new business development and job creation include:

In August of 2011, Saint-Gobain announced a new $100 million, 100,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Saline County, AR. Saint-Gobain’s Proppants division is building a plant on a 68- acre site to produce innovative ceramic products.

GE Capital recently announced the creation of a major new corporate office in New Orleans with 300 new direct jobs to provide information technology and software development for the company’s financial services business. The 300 new jobs will have salaries ranging from $60,000 to $100,000 and will result in 600 direct and indirect jobs. This was a cooperative effort of the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, The Mayor’s Office, GNO, Inc. The New Orleans Business Alliance, Ochsner and Entergy New Orleans, Inc.

KiOR, a Houston-based pyrolysis company, has committed to constructing five plants in Mississippi with an investment in the state estimated at $500 million. The projects will create 1,000 direct and indirect jobs over a five-year period and will generate $85 million in incremental payroll for the state,

In May of 2011, Pandora Methanol reached financial closure for the purchase of an abandoned methanol and ammonia facility in Beaumont. The Entergy-Texas Economic Development team partnered with allies including the Texas office of Economic Development Group, Beaumont Chamber of Commerce, City of Beaumont and Jefferson County to assist in bringing the Pandora project to Beaumont and solidifying plans to operate the abandoned facility. Pandora has spent over $65 million in the rehabilitation of the facility.

Entergy was included in the 2011 Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index for sustainability leadership for the 10th consecutive year. Entergy also was named in 2011 to the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index for the seventh time in eight years. The index recognizes companies with good internal data management practices for understanding greenhouse gas emissions. Entergy also was honored by the National Wildlife Federation in 2011 for its environmental programs, and it was named one of the 500 “greenest” companies in the U.S. based on Newsweek magazine’s 2011 Green Rankings.

SMUD Raises The Green Bar

When it comes to setting the bar for partnerships, the Sacramento region and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) are definitely raising it—and setting a new standard for other regions and utilities in the development of the cleantech sector.

Companies like Intel, Siemens Mobility, Micron-Numonyx, and SynapSense call Sacramento home. New arrivals include Jadoo Power Systems, Altergy Systems, Bloo Solar, and Zeta Communities. Sacramento cleantech players are now nearly 100 strong (see map).

The Brookings Institution, together with the Battelle Memorial Institute, produced Sizing the Clean Economy: A Green Jobs Assessment, which concluded that the growth in the clean economy in the Sacramento region significantly outpaced the growth in the same sector in the U.S. overall. Among the 100 largest metropolitan regions, Sacramento ranked 12th in the total number of clean tech jobs, numbering 37,319 and representing 4.5% of all jobs in the region.

SMUD provides electricity to the 1.4 million residents of Sacramento County, a 900-square mile area in the center of the Sacramento region.

SMUD has consistently taken the lead in developing renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, all the while keeping rates well below those of surrounding utilities. In 2010, SMUD became the first large California utility to meet—and exceed—the state-mandated 20 percent renewable portfolio standard (RPS), or required percentage of renewable power in its energy supply. SMUD has set for itself a goal of achieving 37 percent renewable energy supply by 2020.

Through its Savings by Design program, SMUD provides design and construction help, as well as cash incentives for energy efficiency. Specialists can create customized energy management plans for local businesses. Currently, public and private sector leaders in the Sacramento region are developing a collaborative economic development strategy, the Next Economy. This is a broad-based effort to create effective strategies to drive new job creation and investment, and to build an innovation-based economy in the region. Clean and green technology features prominently in this plan.

SMUD is a prominent supporter of the Sacramento Regional Technology Alliance (SARTA), an organization which promotes the development of technology-led industry in the Sacramento region. CleanStart is an initiative of SARTA designed to accelerate the development of clean technology ventures within the Sacramento region.

According to the latest CleanStart Progress Report, in 2011 the Sacramento region’s clean tech companies generated revenue exceeding $1.5 billion—double any previous yearly number. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, the former NBA great, has called the Sacramento region “the Emerald Valley,” which aims to be “the greenest region in the country.”

Hoosier Grows Rural Indiana

Hoosier Energy is the generation and transmission utility for 17 member electric distribution cooperatives in central and southern Indiana. In 2011, it added a member cooperative in southeastern Illinois. This addition increased the population of our service area to 600,000. Because much of its service territory is rural Hoosier channels a great deal of its time and resources along with tailoring its programs to help local government develop their properties from undeveloped farm land to shovel ready sites. Members of Hoosier’s power network are on dozens of local development boards and many regional development groups.

In recognition of the ever increasing role of the Internet in the business location process Hoosier Energy continues to place a great deal of emphasis on its economic development website, Hoosiersites.com. Besides an extensive property search feature, called “Hoosier InSite,” and a cost of living calculator, the Hoosier site offers two unique tools—a property tax abatement estimator and a workers’ compensation estimator.

Hoosier Energy in 2011 facilitated the creation of 2,766 jobs and $630.5 million in investment of which 2,668 jobs and $602 million in investment were non-retail, non-government (see chart).

The 2011 announcement of the $37-million expansion at Honda provides another chapter in a long development process that started in the 1990s. Hoosier’s involvement first began with the fight to save the abandoned Conrail rail line that served the eventual Greensburg, IN Honda site. Over the intervening years Hoosier paid for engineering/ infrastructure cost studies on Interstate interchange property to help convince local development to get under control as much land as they could. In hindsight this turned out be fortuitous because Greensburg was able to offer 800 acres when land negotiations fell apart elsewhere. Hoosier led the fight to convince City government to establish a redevelopment commission, which offered TIF financed incentives to Honda. Finally, when Honda came looking Hoosier offered as an inducement an attractive economic development rate and promised to provide dual transmission service.

Also in 2011, Hoosier Energy furthered its sources of renewable energy with several projects. These include the purchase of a landfill generating plant in east central Illinois; a 20-year purchase power agreement from a northern Illinois hydroelectric plant; a 25-megawatt wind purchase power agreement; and the start of construction of a plant in western Indiana that will tap coal bed methane reserves to directly produce electric power.

GA Power: A Global Rep

Georgia Power, the largest subsidiary of Southern Company, is an investor-owned utility known around the world for its work in economic development. Georgia Power has been helping companies locate and expand in Georgia since 1927, and over the past decade alone has helped bring almost 100,000 jobs and $19 billion in capital investment to the state. The Community and Economic Development organization works in partnership with state and local partners on all economic development projects.

Georgia Power has one of the most experienced and knowledgeable teams of economic development professionals in the world, including five statewide project managers, four engineers, a five-person Metro Atlanta team, and a seven-person non-metro regional team.

Georgia Power offers a full range of products and services:

• Total project management, including coordination of site/ community tours
• Use of the Georgia Resource Center, the first multimedia, interactive facility for site selection in the world when it opened in 1992
• Online database of all available sites and buildings in Georgia, includes information such as population, income, workforce, taxes and incentives
• Custom city and state comparisons
• Custom maps, including labor sheds and drive-times
• Workforce analysis
• Engineering evaluation/site analysis
• Preliminary site plans and designs
• Site optimization earthwork analysis with cost estimates
• Infrastructure analysis: electrical, water, sewer, telecom
• Virtual 3-D building construction

Georgia Power’s online property search tool, found at www.SelectGeorgia.net, contains more than 500 data fields on each buildings and site, including surrounding population, workforce, taxes, incentives, wage and salary information, zoning and land use, fire insurance ratings and transportation infrastructure. Technical colleges and universities in the area, as well as the closest hospitals and trauma centers, also can be found.

Georgia Power’s community development teams work with local leaders to help their communities grow and prosper. Leadership development, strategic planning and implementing the services and infrastructure needed for business recruitment, expansion and retention are vital to a region’s long-term economic health.

Santee Cooper: No. 3 In U.S.

Santee Cooper (South Carolina Public Service Authority) is South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility and the state’s largest power producer. Based on generation, Santee Cooper is the nation’s third-largest publicly owned utility among state, municipal, and district systems based on megawatt-hour sales to ultimate customers. The source of power for more than 2 million South Carolinians, Santee Cooper provides direct service to more than 164,000 retail customers in Berkeley, Georgetown and Horry counties. Santee Cooper is the primary source of power distributed by the state’s 20 electric cooperatives to more than 700,000 customers located in the state’s 46 counties.

Santee Cooper also supplies power directly to 29 large industrial customers in 10 counties, the town of Bamberg, the city of Georgetown and the Charleston Air Force Base. Santee Cooper operates two regional water systems: the Santee Cooper Regional Water System on Lake Moultrie, and the Lake Marion Regional Water System. Santee Cooper was the first utility in the state to offer electricity generated by renewable resources such as solar, wind and landfill methane gas. The Green Power program recently notched its 10th anniversary.

Through the Santee Cooper Rural Economic Development fund and the Santee Cooper Economic Development Investment Fund, the utility partners with electric cooperatives, local governments and regional economic development corporations by providing funding for strategic planning, professional development, marketing, and infrastructure and site development. As a member of the South Carolina Power Team, Santee Cooper provides funding for certification of industrial sites through the SC Department of Commerce Industrial Site Certification Program. Since 2006, Santee Cooper has invested $945,201 in 24 site certifications. In 2011, the efforts of Santee Cooper and its partners resulted in more than 1,450 new jobs and capital investment exceeding $193,645,000.

Santee Cooper and SCANA Corp. are in a cooperative effort at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station to construct two nuclear reactors. Santee Cooper holds a 45 percent ownership in this effort, which will employ up to 3,000 construction workers and 600 to 800 permanent employees.

In 2011, Santee Cooper was pleased to be an integral partner in the expansion of Showa DenkoCarbon, Inc., one of the world’s premier manufacturers of ultra high-powered graphite electrodes. The expansion created over 100 new jobs.

Committed to product development, Santee Cooper is a key player in the Myrtle Beach International Technology and Aerospace Park (MBITAP). Santee Cooper has partnered with the Myrtle Beach International Airport, Horry County, Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation, the city of Myrtle Beach, the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base Redevelopment Authority, and the South Carolina Power Team to develop and certify this 420-acre industrial park adjacent to Myrtle Beach International Airport. Santee Cooper continues to help promote the MBITAP as a premier location for aerospace and aviation companies.

Santee Cooper is also engaged in the development of the Bucksport Marine Industrial Park in cooperation with Horry County and the Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority. Master planning and environmental permitting are underway to create this 200-acre industrial park with bulkhead for heavy-cargo loading and travel lift, supporting large boat manufacturing.

Green Power is available for purchase by customers in blocks of 100-200 kilowatt hours, and all revenues generated by these voluntary purchases are reinvested in new renewable generation. In January, Santee Cooper unveiled its Reduce the Use business campaign offering a suite of initiatives and rebates to substantially reduce the use of electricity and improve energy efficiency among its roughly 30,000 business customers.

In January, Santee Cooper introduced the Economic Development Incentive Rate Program offering significant reductions in power costs to new or expanding industrial customers. The rate has an eight-year commitment, workforce and capital investment requirements, and a four-year discount period.

National Grid: Smart Growth

National Grid’s economic development program promotes sustainable, “smart” growth in upstate NY by redeveloping vacant buildings, Brownfield sites, and urban centers. National Grid’s grant programs have helped to create or retain over 19,000 jobs since 2003; over 700 grant applications have been approved to date, representing $46 million in funding.

In May 2011, National Grid was the recipient of the New York State Economic Development Council’s Chairman’s Award for its role in creating economic development results.

GlobalFoundries Fab 8 commenced operations earlier this year. National Grid built electric and gas infrastructure, including three high voltage electric feeds to the GlobalFoundries site, in record time. The project will create 1,500 new high-tech jobs, with a $4 billion capital investment. The electric load will exceed 75 MW and the operation will consume 35 million therms per year by 2014.

The GE Battery project is an adaptive reuse of an industrial building in the GE complex in Schenectady, NY, the latest step in GE’s transformation from an old-line manufacturer to one embracing green technologies, such as wind power and batteries that can provide uninterrupted back-up electricity for 20 years to cell phone towers, data centers and other facilities. Last year GE opened its Global Renewable Energy headquarters on the Schenectady campus. When it is finished next year, the plant will be capable of initially producing 1 million advanced battery cells annually; it will employ 350 people.

National Grid approved its first application for the Renewable Energy and Economic Development program, a $750,000 grant that will assist in the development of a biomass generation project at an upstate NY paper mill. Several other large projects have been approved thus far, including what is expected to be New York State’s largest dairy farm digester project in WNY. Five Brownfield Redevelopment Assistance grants provided $850,000 in funding to aid in the clean up and redevelopment of sites in the Capital, Central and Western NY regions. Three ShovelReady Infrastructure grants were reimbursed during the year, including support for a $2 million infrastructure improvement project at the 46-acre Tech Meadows light industrial park in Glens Falls and a $1.5 million utility/road project at the 100-acre Woodbine

Business Park in the Town of Dewitt. Three grants were provided to customers through our Power Quality Enhancement program, including two health care service providers who used National Grid grant funds to install equipment that will help mitigate serious power quality disturbance issues and enable the continued growth of their operations. Our Manufacturing Productivity Program (MPP) provides matching grants for “lean manufacturing” and other productivity assistance, as well as growth-oriented initiatives that are designed to utilize excess manufacturing capacity. Fifteen MPP projects were completed providing over $206,000 in assistance to mostly small and medium sized manufacturing businesses across upstate New York. According to data from the annual survey of MPP grant recipients, $966,800 in cost savings and $19 million in new annual revenues were achieved through the program.

Northeast Utilities: Pooling The Resources Of Six States

Northeast Utilities’ “Discover New England for Business” initiative began formally in 1999 to help stimulate increased business investment in the company’s regulated service territories.

The New England program started with a partnership between the economic development operations of Connecticut Light & Power, Yankee Gas Services, Western Massachusetts Electric Company and Public Service of New Hampshire, all Northeast Utilities’ subsidiaries. NU then began to convene business recruiters who work for the region’s six state development agencies and state-level nonprofit business and real estate marketing arms. NU partners in this effort with The New England Council, which serves as the regional consortium’s “bank.”

The strategy was to enhance the business recruitment efforts of the six states by pooling their marketing resources and capitalizing on opportunities they were previously unable or unwilling to address. In 2002, NU hired a full-time economic development marketing veteran to coordinate marketing outreach and provide marketing training for the region’s state-level economic development representatives.

NU joined with Blue Cross, Liberty Mutual, The New England Council, Yankee magazine, the region’s six state tourism offices and various nonprofit groups to commission a university research survey of an estimated 400 domestic business executives, 100 international executives, 50 site selection consultants and 1,000 random adults from across the country to gauge their perceptions of New England.

The survey prompted the group to create a new trade show exhibit booth that emphasized New England as a whole and highlighted its business and educational assets. In addition, the group published the first six-state business development marketing brochure; produced a New England Developments newsletter to bring attention to policy issues affecting the region; designed a new web site to serve as a regional portal; and jump-started a comprehensive branding project.

Over the past 10 years, Northeast Utilities has invested $1.5 million in the “Discover New England for Business” initiative, leveraging more than $1 million from the six states’ economic development departments and allied non-profit organizations in support of marketing activities. The New England Council is working with NU on the branding initiative.

Economic and policy leaders throughout New England see NU as an important and neutral economic development partner and catalyst (a time-honored role for large utilities nationwide) in the region’s business development initiatives.

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