Corporate Services Office

Congress, Native American power customers, special interest groups and offices within Western are just a few entities served by Western Area Power Administration's Corporate Services Office. Whether we are submitting budget requests, helping regional offices administer contracts or conducting public meetings, we recognize the importance of providing excellent service to our internal and external customers.

Western annually markets and transmits more than 10,000 megawatts of power from 56 hydropower plants and one coal-fired plant in the central and western half of the United States. We sell about 40 percent of regional hydroelectric generation in a service area that covers 1.3 million square miles in 15 states. We sell power to 730 wholesale customers, including cities and towns, Native American tribes, rural electric cooperatives, public utility and irrigation districts, Federal and state agencies, investor-owned utilities, power marketers and the Bureau of Reclamation.

CSO functions
At the Corporate Services Office, we carry out Western's mission by serving many diverse customers. Both Federal and contractor staff serve internal and external customers.

CSO functions and their assigned responsibilities include:

• Administrator's Office: Establishes policies and objectives for managing programs related to Western's mission. Within the Administrator's Office are:

  General Counsel: Provides advice to Western management on all legal issues and represents Western in administrative hearings and in Federal court.

  Economic Impact and Diversity: Develops and administers policy and programs related to civil rights, equal employment, affirmative employment and diversity matters.

  Power Marketing Liaison: Represents Western on issues at the Department of Energy and other Federal agencies and helps formulate Western's policies and programs.

  Corporate Communications: Directs programs and activities to satisfy the public's need for information concerning Western.

• Power Marketing Advising Office: Manages Western's Power Marketing Support function and provides support to the power marketing community. 
• Chief Operating Office: Manages the administrative, engineering planning, environment, lands, technical services, safety and security, aviation and design functions, as well as the Electric Power Training Center.
• Chief Financial Office: Manages Western's financial activities, including budget and analysis, fiscal accounting, systems management, cost accounting and compliance and audit liaison functions.
• Chief Information Office: Oversees the overall direction of our information technology resources and sets the direction for acquiring new information technology.

Within these functions, we accomplish the "behind-the-scenes" work to ensure we fulfill customer needs. This work includes representing Western in Washington, D.C.; conducting public meetings and developing publications such as the Annual Report; managing finances and Western's annual budget; focusing on employee safety and system security; designing and maintaining facilities for our power system; supporting renewable resources and environmental protection; providing technical assistance with energy services; and supporting the power marketing community.

Changing for the better
As the electric utility industry continues to restructure, we will continue to seek ways to better serve our internal and external customers.

We continue to examine how we can share services with other Western offices or external customers to reduce costs and streamline our activities.

The key to our continued success is relentlessly pursuing the best customer service possible. We continue to reinvent what we do and how we do it. We work hard to understand what our customers want and seek creative ways to fulfill those needs. Staying connected to customer needs means listening more, building upon our existing relationships and forging new ones.