Deborah Le Vine, ISO’s director of system operations, checks monitors at the agency’s control center in Folsom. The center tracks nearly 100 energy companies.
Critics of America’s corporate culture insist that a glass ceiling still exists, but at the California Independent System Operator Corp. in Folsom, women wield considerable power in more ways than one.
The person in charge of the ISO power grid, which meets the energy needs of 30 million Californians and draws electricity from resources throughout western North America, is a woman.
Half the executive-level ISO staff is female.
That puts the ISO in the minority of employers with women in their top ranks. In November, a study released by the University of California, Davis, concluded that progress for women at the 400 largest public companies headquartered in California has improved little since the first UCD survey in 2005.
Among the study’s key findings: Women hold just 10.6 percent of board seats and executive positions among the companies, and 118 out of the 400 firms have no female directors on their boards and no female executive officers.
That’s no surprise to Deborah Le Vine, ISO’s director of system operations, who recalled that not everyone was “tolerant of a woman in a man’s field” when she was working her way up.
When she was getting her undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from San Diego State University in 1981, Le Vine was one of five women in a group of 125. In her first job at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, she was the only female engineer among 130.
Le Vine recalled that an instructor once told her that she couldn’t possibly know the answer to a thermodynamics question because she was female.
Since then, Le Vine has spent nearly 30 years in the utility industry, including manager of power resources for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. She has been with ISO since its inception in 1997.
Since October, Le Vine has overseen the ISO power grid and market operations, with primary responsibility “to keep the lights on” and garner affordable power for California’s considerable energy needs.
According to the ISO, Le Vine is the only woman in the nation to run an open market power grid.
Federal and state utility and power associations contacted by The Bee could not provide current demographic statistics on ISOs nationwide. But anecdotally, numerous power industry experts said the industry has moved away from the male-dominated domain of a generation ago.
“Generally, because of retirements and turnover, there’s a real focus on diversity, more recruitment of women and minorities,” said Janice Beecher, director of the Institute of Public Utilities at Michigan State University.
The focus of Le Vine’s work world is the 17,000-square-foot ISO control center, stuffed with computers, digital information boards, large video screens and a map board as long as a city block. The map board displays the complex connection of electricity sources and power lines in the western United States, Canada and Mexico.
The control room – there’s a second one in Southern California – is every bit as imposing as anything devised by NASA or the Pentagon, befitting a nerve center delivering more than 200 billion kilowatt hours of power annually and constantly monitoring nearly 100 energy companies on the wholesale transmission grid.
Le Vine said the qualifications for her job are gender-blind.
“This is a high-stress environment. Not everyone can do it,” she said. ” … And you have to think fast. You have to make decisions in minutes. Things change quickly, and you can miss out if you’re not paying attention. … It’s not just me. You have to work well with people. … Patience and perseverance help.”
Le Vine said the job’s most stressful times come in summer, when peak demand on hot days requires constant monitoring of operations, including power acquired outside California. Also, fires can create havoc with power lines and grid operations.
Because electric power is not a 9-to-5 business, the control center operates 24/7. Control center workers must check energy markets and constantly assess the power transmission system. With so much automation, information technology experts work in the control center night and day.
Le Vine said the daily routine involves six 10-person shifts.
In 2011, ISO is scheduled to move from its headquarters on Blue Ravine Road to a new $160 million office building on Iron Point Road. The move is expected to add perhaps 350 jobs. ISO currently employs 580.
The control center at the new ISO site will be larger and more complex than the current one.
Le Vine credits ISO President and CEO Yakout Mansour with creating an environment that fosters the advancement of talent, regardless of gender or cultural background.
Mansour doesn’t see the big deal, saying an equal mix of genders and cultures in a workplace is “only natural … any other way is unnatural. How can you ignore half the population?”
Mansour added that “we’re really not targeting anything. We simply want the best people for the job.”
Mansour said that his early education in Egypt included significant participation by female students. He said he continued to advance in work environments where women played major roles in daily operations.
Brenda Thomas, named ISO’s human resources vice president in October, said Mansour’s management style has made her job easier.
Thomas holds multiple degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a human resources officer for Bank of America in San Francisco. Later, she began her own consulting business, where she established a working relationship with ISO.
As a consultant, Thomas said she saw all manner of business environments.
“I’ve seen both sides, frankly,” she said. “I’ve seen organizations that have changed considerably and those that have just stood still in time.”
When she looked at the ISO, she said, “I saw that it was focused on developing a world-class workplace environment … with core values of respect, teamwork and openness … and a focus on people.”
“How can you ignore half the population? … We’re really not targeting anything. We simply want the best people for the job.” – YAKOUT MANSOUR ISO president and CEO
