PCCA Journal|4
th
Quarter 2012
22
decided our best hope for the future would be in the substa-
tion business,” he said. “Up until then, we had been skipping
around, doing what was available. We finally drew a line in
the sand and went with substation work. We’ve been there
ever since.”
From seven employees and one crew, Silvey’s Substation
Construction Division now has approximately 260 employees,
15 completely equipped substation crews, and six specialty
crews. Silvey has been a major force in providing substation
construction services to public and private utilities, munici-
palities, co-generation companies, and industrial customers.
The company facilities have grown similarly. “The com-
pany was started on Mr. Silvey’s dining room table, and after
about two years his wife said, ‘That’s enough. I want my din-
ing table back.’ So we moved into a 1,200-square-foot metal
building that we constructed on Mr. Silvey’s farm,” Tommy
said. “Later the company was able to purchase the office/
warehouse, and we continued to operate the business from
there until we built our present office in 1981 and have added
to it several times.”
The current facility consists of a 9,200-square-foot brick
office building, a 6,400-square-foot warehouse with two
offices, a 2,000-square-foot maintenance shop with four
full-time mechanics on duty, a 2,000-square-foot equipment
storage building, and a 2,000-square-foot staging warehouse.
The company owns more than 150 pieces of rolling stock
construction equipment specifically designed for utility and
power construction.
Expanding Capabilities
While narrowing the company’s focus on substations back
in 1980 led Tommy toward realizing he was in this for the
long haul, it is the expanding of Silvey’s business focus that
Tommy enjoys most today.
“The thing I like most about the business is that we
have expanded to other markets other than just construc-
tion,” he said. “This includes the engineering and design of
substations, manufacturing electrical connectors, building
wind farms, relay testing and startup, hot oil processing of
transformers and breakers, computer services, and our most
recent venture, the gutter business, which is totally unrelated
to any of our other businesses.”
While Silvey’s primary work is substation-related business,
the wind farm business has also been a large part of its op-
eration for the past five years. The company’s very first wind
project—in Hawaii—was a memorable one. “This was a new
venture for us, halfway around the world, with a new client,
a new general manager who we hadn’t built a job with, and
a short timetable with a severe penalty,” he said. “If it was a
substation, I could have finished it myself. There were a lot
of restless nights.”
The good news is that they built it on time, within budget,
and without any penalties, and a new market was launched
for Aubrey Silvey Enterprises. Tommy said that despite uncer-
tainty surrounding the extension of the federal wind energy
Production Tax Credit, the company has wind jobs going on
and is chasing three or four others not affected by the PTC.
Silvey’s primary geographic area is in the Southeast, but
they have gone as far south as Trinidad and St. Thomas and
they ship connectors and substation material out of the coun-
try through agents. They also just booked a job in Africa with
an agent. Aside from the one in Hawaii, the wind projects
have primarily been in Idaho and Oregon.
Silvey’s Affiliated Companies
• Associated Substation Engineering, Inc.
is a rec-
ognized leader and principal provider for the engi-
neering, design, and material packaging of electrical
high-voltage substations to the power industry.
• SEFCOR
is a supplier of quality power connectors to
the electric power industry.
• Testing Services Group
offers several different field
services, including start-up services, preventative
maintenance, switchgear start-up, and many others.
• Silvey Information Systems, Inc.
provides informa-
tion technology needs to customers throughout the
Southeast, including network design and maintenance,
wide area wireless networking, local area wireless
networking, custom software, hardware solutions, and
website design and maintenance.
• Roof Drainage Equipment Systems, Inc.
manufac-
tures and distributes gutter coil, gutter system compo-
nents, wand accessories.
Tommy Muse
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