He may be new to SEH, but Doug, the electric utilities group leader, has hit the ground running, bringing a wealth of experience, expertise, and fresh ideas to lead the charge of this developing sector. We’re pleased to introduce you to Doug and let him share more about his background and plans for this service in his own words (which don’t include terrible electric puns).
To start, can you tell us a little about your background and how you came to SEH?
I have been working in the electric utility distribution industry for over 23 years. For 20 of those years, I worked for both an investor-owned (IOU) and cooperative (Co-op) utility. I started my career in mapping and GIS and worked my way up to becoming a distribution designer. During that time, I designed everything from new residential and commercial services to five-mile distribution system rebuilds.
In 2012, I became a distribution design supervisor, acting as a technical resource for the distribution design group and creating engineering strategies to support the corporate directions and goals. Then in 2022, I wanted to see how the other side of the utility business worked, so I decided to try a new career path and jumped into the consulting side of the utility world and distribution design.
I landed at SEH because I was excited about joining a company that was looking to start a new practice and the challenges that it would bring. The chance to build something from the ground up was incredibly appealing, and knowing that everyone’s hard work will contribute to SEH’s vision coming to fruition will make it even more rewarding.
How would you introduce the new distribution design service?
This new sector consists of a team of designers and engineers dedicated to helping utility clients deliver safe and reliable energy to their customers. Together, we plan overhead and underground distribution systems for primary and secondary delivery voltages ranging from 120V to 35 kV.
With a comprehensive range of electrical distribution design and engineering services, our offerings include: residential and commercial service design, strategic undergrounding, DOT highway design projects, reconductor designs, and more. This service can involve project scoping, system planning, detailed design, field staking, project management, and various other tasks for a utility power distribution system.
From a client perspective, what are the benefits of launching this new service at SEH?
Currently, SEH works with many municipalities that also support their own electric utility departments. In the past, when a city selected SEH to work on a road project or a new facility/building and needed the electric infrastructure relocated, the city often needed to go back to that electric utility and ask them to perform the work. But today, utilities are challenged with an aging workforce, rising workloads, and demanding timelines that can make meeting scheduled deadlines difficult, which often leads to needing third party help with the engineering and design. With the new distribution design service, we can work with any IOU, Co-op, privately owned or municipal utility and offer an all-in-one service.
With so many established options out there, what’s the advantage of partnering with SEH for distribution design services?
The SEH Advantage first and foremost lies in our people. As a 100% employee-owned company, we are personally invested in the satisfaction of each client. Another differentiator is our ability to provide multiple services in-house, which can serve as an extension to the design service team, offering better quality and better value to clients. Our capabilities extend to civil, structural, and electrical engineering, architecture, planning, surveying, drones, environmental permitting, GIS, outdoor lighting, and so much more.
SEH also has a national network of talent grounded by regional expertise, with employee presence across the United States. While we offer the benefits of a national company, we remain nimble, with the ability to scale services and meet the changing needs of our clients. Plus, our work-from-anywhere policy allows SEH to provide local resources in or close to an electric utilities service territory.
Looking back, can you describe a challenging project you overcame?
As the project engineer, I was responsible for fully designing and engineering a new 4.5-mile underground and overhead three-phase main line feeder project for a large electric utility company. The project involved removing the existing three-phase primary poles, equipment, and wire, and installing new mainline underground feeder cable, a new riser pole, three-phase double-circuit primary wire, poles, and equipment.
There were several elements to this project, including a river crossing, DNR permitting, and county road permitting. One challenging element was that the river crossing was 465 feet long, meaning we had to look closer at maintaining proper clearances between both circuits to avoid contact from galloping. Also, because it was a navigable waterway, we had to find the 100-year flood plain elevation to maintain proper height clearance from bottom wires to the 100-year flood water level. Lastly, we had to increase guying support because maintaining the proper wire clearances require the use of very tall and robust poles.
In the end, communication between the utility and the engineering firm was crucial to providing a quality design that the utility company could build and maintain in the future.
Looking forward, what excites you most about launching this service?
What I look forward to most is working with the vast number of employees at SEH who already have strong relationships with electric utility companies and their current clientele. This collaboration will help me get the word out about the new design service at SEH. I am also excited to build and foster relationships with new and existing utilities and see this team evolve to its full potential.
When you take a step out of the distribution design world, what are you up to?
I am married with three children, ages 21, 19, and 15. Now that my kids are older, I spend a lot of my free time at either the cabin, fishing, or hunting. Recently, my son and I took our annual fishing trip to Canada where I caught my first musky that was 45 inches, and my son caught a 30 ¾-inch walleye – putting him in a big fish category very few people have reached.
I’ve also worked as an assistant high school track and field coach, specifically with pole vaulting. Mentoring student athletes as they develop their talent and gain confidence is something I find extremely gratifying.
Any parting thoughts or insights you would like to share?
Absolutely! I would like to highlight what the new distribution design service will deliver:
Feeling Electrified?
That’s just a snapshot of Doug and everything this new service is ready to provide. If you’re ready to activate your next project or just curious about our distribution design services, Doug is energized to share more about what this new sector can offer.
Doug Cabak is a seasoned leader in electric distribution design, covering cooperatives and investor-owned utilities. He has managed operations for multiple teams within the utility services department, ensuring projects adhere to schedules and budgets. His expertise includes new developments, capital projects, reconstruction, overhead-to-underground conversions, and service design. Building strong relationships, Doug ensures project success with a focus on quality, efficiency, and client satisfaction.