OUR PEOPLE
Kevin Withrow
Manager
Academic Credentials
- B.S.E., Civil Engineering, California State University, Long Beach, 1979
Mr. Withrow has 43 years' experience in the gas and electric utility business, with a focus on electric power line construction, engineering and operations. This includes both transmission and distribution specialties. He also has expertise in electric construction contract management, including specification writing and interpretation, incident investigation and electric construction safety.
Since August of 2014, have been acting as Exponent Construction Manager for electric transmission projects involving interconnections to new solar facilities and projects requested by third party entities throughout Central and Northern California for which Exponent is facilitating the project management for Pacific Gas and Electric. This includes coordination of line clearances, transmission and distribution; scheduling of contractor resources to meet project schedules; material ordering and delivery; telecom/SCADA/SEECO switch testing coordination and engineering consulting. Since construction of these projects started in September 2014, dozens of these types of transmission line projects have been successfully completed. Presently, work continues on these types of project.
Project Manager of the following transmission line and station projects:
- Gilroy Foods Cogeneration — project consisted of transmission line tower reconductoring, new transmission wood pole line construction, new station breaker construction and testing for the interconnection of third party co-generation facility.
- Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) Morgan Hill facility interconnection — wood pole transmission line interconnection for third party facility.
Electric Line Construction Engineer for the restoration of 500kv line failure due to high winds in Chico, Ca wherein multiple towers were down for extended miles. (1996)
Line Construction Supervisor and Engineer for General Construction's storm assistance for Kauai Electric after Hurricane Iniki struck the island. (1992)
Project Civil Hydro Field Engineer during the construction of PG&E's Helms Pumped Storage Hydro-electric Plant, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, east of Fresno, Ca. (1981-1984)
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, 1979 - 2014
(Positions held)
Senior Operations Specialist, 2012 - 2014
Part of the management team in Contract and Construction Management, which was responsible for the administration of distribution line contracts within PG&E.
- Contract administration.
- Unit cost pricing development for wood pole replacement, cable replacement and new business.
- Change order and claim negotiation.
- Incident and work procedure error investigation.
- Process improvement.
- Master Service Agreement and specification development, general and specific.
- Partnered with Sourcing in development of a Performance Partnership which aligned contractors with a geographical area.
General Construction Electric Superintendent, 2009 - 2012
Management of electric personnel for the Central Valley Region of PG&E, which provided construction of distribution and transmission line projects. Acted as system lead superintendent for resource movement within General Construction, transmission work and resource coordination and contract administration.
Yosemite Division Gas and Electric Superintendent, 2008 - 2009
Management of division's gas and electric personnel in their performance of new business construction and maintenance of company gas and electric facilities; compliance with CPUC general orders; emergency and storm restoration.
Yosemite Division Compliance Supervisor, 2007
Compliance with Electric Maintenance Program for patrols and inspections of electric overhead and underground facilities; management of line equipment maintenance program.
Distribution Specialist, 2003 - 2006
Financial management of division T&D budget; unit cost analysis of work performed; line equipment maintenance facilitation; storm response coordination; Outage Review Team lead; equipment requiring repair coordination
Area Manager/Electric Distribution Construction Supervisor, Oakhurst 1997 - 2002
Management of area electric personnel, customer services and estimating.
Electric Line Construction Engineer 1988 - 1996
Technical support to area superintendent; contract administration; supervision of field engineering personnel during the performance of transmission and distribution project design.
General Construction Field Engineer, 1979 - 1987
Electric transmission and distribution line design; tower line sagging; field engineering technical support to crews and supervisors; civil hydro project engineer.