Electric Utilities

Successfully navigating an electric power project requires coordinating multiple disciplines, including environmental permitting, electrical engineering and strategic consulting. When electric utilities hire separate firms for each discipline, they risk miscommunication and siloed information, potentially leading to project delays, noncompliance and budget overruns.

Altamira eliminates the challenges of a fragmented approach by providing expert support under one roof. Our multidisciplinary team collaborates seamlessly, offering a holistic view of a project and ensuring a cohesive strategy from start to finish. This integrated approach allows us to identify risks that fragmented teams might miss, helping utilities achieve better project outcomes.

To maintain a reliable grid as the demand for more power surges, electric utilities require a partner that combines strategy with technical execution. Altamira delivers that balance through the following capabilities to ensure infrastructure remains resilient and compliant.

Strategic Consulting and Advisory

Emerging mandates from NERC, FERC and state regulators continually reshape project requirements. Utilities must make well-informed decisions at every project phase to maintain compliance, all while ensuring grid stability and hitting decarbonization targets.

Altamira’s consultants offer electric utilities the experience, market knowledge and technology to drive strategic, data-driven decisions throughout the project life cycle. We provide services like regulatory interpretation and gap assessments to help utilities simplify complex regulations and develop clear action plans to meet changing requirements. Typical outcomes include accelerated permitting, improved audit readiness and faster paths to connecting distributed energy resources.

Environmental Due Diligence

Before closing on an asset in a merger and acquisition (M&A), it’s crucial to assess the target property for environmental risks. Overlooking an air quality issue or soil contamination, for example, can lead to financial penalties, time-consuming remediation efforts or significant project delays. With Altamira’s due diligence services for M&As, utilities gain a clear picture of a property’s condition and potential risks in advance.

Our due diligence services involve collecting data in the field, inspecting the target property and thoroughly researching the land’s environmental and regulatory history. All findings are documented in a clear, defensible report to help clients address compliance or liability issues early, minimize operational delays and make confident investment decisions.

Air Quality Compliance and Permitting

Navigating complex, ever-changing air quality regulations is a significant undertaking, especially during the permitting process for a large capital project. Any misstep can lead to costly consequences like project delays and reputational damage.

Altamira’s air quality experts mitigate compliance risks with flexible, tailored support, from obtaining Title V and NSR permits for new projects to managing routine compliance reporting and auditing. Our goal is to ensure clients meet all state and federal requirements to avoid regulatory fines and shutdowns.

Environmental Site Assessments

Conducting an environmental site assessment (ESA) on a new property is critical to uncovering liabilities before they become costly problems. When electric utilities work with Altamira for ESAs, they can be confident that environmental hazards are identified and outlined in a comprehensive and defensible property assessment.

The Altamira team performs ESAs to ASTM E1527-21 and has extensive experience evaluating properties used for power plants, substations and long-distance transmission corridors.

ESAs are delivered in three phases depending on our clients’ needs:

• Phase I: The first phase offers a general overview of the site’s environmental history, including a review of past use records and results from a visual site inspection.
• Phase II: If Phase I uncovers an environmental concern, our team will investigate the property more deeply. Phase II may include sampling soil, groundwater and building materials to identify contaminants. We’ll provide tailored recommendations for further investigations or remediation based on our findings.
• Phase III: During the final phase, we help clients organize and implement site cleanup and remediation so they can use the property compliantly. Our team is experienced in utilizing the latest remediation technologies and will manage the entire process.

Electrical Engineering Services

When planning a new capital project, utilities need engineers who understand current regulations and leverage the latest technologies to create compliant and reliable systems. Projects must satisfy internal design standards and NERC criteria and be prepared to withstand scrutiny during interconnection and ongoing operational reviews.

Altamira provides specialized expertise in the front-end engineering and design (FEED) of complex power infrastructures, including power substations and relays. Our team delivers detailed design packages using advanced Computer-Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) tools and decades of electrical engineering experience. Altamira ensures projects are designed to regulatory and operational standards, supporting reliable, on-time commissioning of new assets.

Customized GIS Solutions

Accurately mapping a vast network of transmission lines, distribution lines and substations is key to effective asset management and route optimization. Altamira offers the geographic information systems (GIS) technology and experience to efficiently capture, visualize and analyze spatial data for accurate asset mapping.

We offer a range of GIS solutions to meet specific needs, including field data collection, LiDAR integration, ESRI ArcGIS customization and support and development of custom operational dashboards. With Altamira’s advanced GIS technology and expertise, clients can achieve faster project routing and maintain up-to-date geospatial records for regulatory reporting.

Environmental Compliance Support

Faced with rapidly growing demand for greater grid capacity, electric utilities must find innovative ways to meet consumers’ needs while remaining compliant. This requires knowing how to modernize systems while adhering to complex, evolving environmental regulations and various permitting requirements.

Altamira’s experts guide utilities through federal, state and local regulations to secure all necessary environmental permits, preventing project delays and mitigating risks. Our expertise spans the entire compliance spectrum, from wetlands permitting to tailored audit support. With a proactive approach, Altamira ensures capital projects stay on track and on schedule.