Henry: "Kyle, thanks for joining us at the Damage Prevention Solutions booth. How’s the show been going for you so far?"
Kyle: "The show's been great. I’m meeting a lot of good friends, I’m learning a lot about the industry. You know, I've been out of it for about two years, so it's nice to be back and just see all the changes that's been going on. So it's been really great so far."
Henry: "Well, I have to give CenterPoint a plug, the torch at the breakfast this morning was really cool."
Kyle: "It was. You know, it was a surprise as well, quite frankly because you know, I think we found out about it last week that we had an opportunity to do something different. So, when we heard we had the opportunity to do the torch, I mean, you couldn't pass it up."
Henry: "You jump on that one."
Kyle: "Yeah, we did. The team did a fantastic job. I got to give kudos to Tracey Bryant our Public Awareness Manager [and] CGA for creating the environment for us to do that, so it was a really special moment. I’m glad our team could participate in it."
Henry: "Well, before we get into the conversation. Do you mind just introducing yourself name, role, and tell me just a little bit more about CenterPoint Energy."
Kyle: "So, Kyle Coggins, of course I'm currently the Director of Damage Prevention Public Awareness. I oversee those programs, but based out of Houston, oversee Houston, Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. You know, we've got two functions. We have the damage prevention line locate activity, so, you know, a bunch of coordinators, they go out in the field do field engagement interdictions. We've got planning in our state, our managers oversight, oversee the line locates our locate vendor, some of our other damage prevention partners and really just drive a reduction of damages. So education, outreach, and then just performance, and then obviously our public awareness, you know, just educating our community on how to excavate, you know, calling 811 and making sure that, you know, we are doing what we're supposed to be doing as an organization. So that's kind of what we do, how our organization functions. You know, we have gosh, we oversee about 2.2 million locates across the organization, and, you know, lots of excavation activities going on. You've got all the fiber, the growth in Houston and our larger metropolitan areas. So we've got a lot on our plate."
Henry: "I was going to say that’s a lot."
Kyle: "Pretty small team, but we do a very good job. I'm proud of the team for doing such a great job, and, you know, it's very interesting because over the last several years we have reduced damage after damage. We have been successful. Last year, I believe we reduced almost 800 one call damages off the system, and that's just a direct result of the team being focused and really driving results and very proud of them. So yeah, we've been busy."
Henry: Yeah, I was going to say.
Kyle: "Busy team."
Henry: "Well the theme of our booth is “Preventing Damages by Design”. It's just bridging that gap between engineering and damage prevention, the teams and bringing everybody closer together, and I just kind of wanted to explore what that means to you and CenterPoint where you kind of are in that journey with design and damage prevention."
Kyle: "Yeah, I think that is probably the most fundamentally important part of a damage prevention program. You know, I remember when I was the manager in Texas, I and I still reference a slide deck that I put together years ago, and I actually dusted it off when I got into this role a few months back but, you know, the slide was “Engineering Damage Prevention”, you know, and if you can get that right from the beginning, you solve all the issues that you have you're eventually going to deal with. Right? So and I think of the simple thing as caution tape or the appropriate caution tape or, you know, how are we designing our line markers? Where should we be putting those up? And you know, I think if you look at those things and you call out specific details that are damage prevention, focused on these designs, from an engineering side, the excavators or contractors they execute. They've installed a preventative damage prevention program, and I really think that that is likely one of the things we as an industry, a damage prevention group, we miss that opportunity a lot. So I think it's extremely important and probably the most important if you get it right first, you save all the challenges down the road."
Henry: "Right, and if you know companies like CenterPoint or other providers are looking to kind of get on that journey between bridging the gap between engineering damage prevention, where do you suggest they start? What's a good starting point for that journey?"
Kyle: "Well, it's very cliche and I hate to be a cliche person, but I think it's true, and I'll just allude to my same conversation on the presentation. Is you’ve got to educate the engineering team on why that matters. You know, and I think there's so much and I'm not an engineer, I've never engineered any projects, but I can only imagine they've got permitting to have to go through. They have all of these designs, you know. Hey, do I go under the road? Over the road? Deconfliction. That's not one of the things that is thought about, right, is, hey, are we designing the appropriate continuity points from a damage prevention line locate standpoint? Are we putting the right caution tape? You know, are we having, you know, areas where we can continue the prevention efforts? I don't think that is an initial thought from an engineering forth. Not that that's by design of their purpose. So educating them, getting out in front early, letting them know, hey, this is what we recommend as an industry to reduce these damages goes a long way, and we've been successful. We've done some of that, you know, in our organization as of just several months ago, implemented caution tape as a standard, right. Hey, we are going to do that. You know, starting to design more of these line markers. You know, those are important because we had the conversation with the appropriate folks and the buy in."
Henry: "So. Gotcha. Well thank you for stopping by. I think this is great."
Kyle: "Yeah."
Henry: "Thank you. Enjoy the rest of the conference."
Kyle: "Awesome. Thanks. That was good. I could have kept going forever."
