Hayes PMC

Hayes PMC (PMC) has been in business since 1995, established as a joint venture between Hayes Mechanical, McCartin Mechanical and Egizii Electric. PMC’s Chicago-based parent corporation, Hayes Mechanical, has been in business since 1918.

PMC employs approximately 100 full-time employees in the field, as well as an office staff of 15 people. The business specializes in maintenance work for coal-fired power plants in Illinois and the Midwest.

Jeremy McKinney serves as president of PMC and vice president of Hayes Mechanical. He has worked with the company since 2010 and oversees the specialty contracting business from an office in Belleville, Illinois. With more than 20 years of experience in the industry, McKinney is proud to lead a team of union laborers representing several specialties. One component that sets the business apart from other mechanical contractors is a broad range of in-house capabilities. PMC performs pipefitting, electrical, boilermaker, millwright and carpentry work in-house.

A history of building relationships

Since the very beginning, PMC has built relationships to last. In 1995, the former independent companies came together to tackle a large maintenance contract for a coal-fired power plant owned by Illinois Power, now known as Dynegy. PMC still serves Dynegy’s coal plants in Illinois and has since added another large client to the roster: Prairie State Generating Company.

McKinney and his team work out long-term contracts with plant operators, typically in the form of day-to-day maintenance. “Dynegy is one of our primary clients,” McKinney clarifies. “We work with them on a daily basis and we handle a bulk of work during planned or scheduled outages. The crafts involved include our boilermakers, pipefitters, electricians, millwrights and carpenters. When there is an issue with one of the boilers and the owner has to bring a unit offline, we are responsible for making repairs and getting the unit back online, which allows the owner to begin putting power back out on the grid. We have a nearly identical contract with Prairie State Generating Company. We have been the client’s contractor of choice since their business went commercial.”

PMC also completed a consent decree program for Dynegy, bringing the business up to environmental compliance. “We put in eight scrubbers and 11 bag houses across eight units,” McKinney elaborates. “The State of Illinois required these particular plants to clean up emissions to the atmosphere. In order to do that, we installed air quality control systems to eliminate particulate matter coming out of the stack. Now, pretty much the only thing that comes out is water vapor. While we do a lot of work on these systems for other plants, this was a unique situation. We built emissions controls from the ground up for Dynegy.”

Looking ahead at 2015, McKinney and his crew have a strong backlog of work. With clients in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Kentucky, the company has a busy year coming up. These customers include private plants and energy companies as well as municipalities throughout the Midwest.

Holding steady

With a strong set of continuing maintenance contracts and a few larger initiatives thrown into the mix, PMC did not feel the impact of the recession until around 2012, when McKinney says work started to drop off. “2012 and 2013 were slow years for us,” he explains. “2014 began to pick up and 2015 looks good. Right now, our greatest challenge is finding qualified project managers and supervisors.”

While the economic downturn removed many seasoned professionals from the industry, either through early retirement or career changes, not many of these people have returned. On top of that, McKinney has noticed that fewer young people are getting into the industry. “We have been actively pursuing these qualified professionals,” he explains. “We do have a lot of help from the union. In the coming years, we hope to move some of our talented tradespeople into leadership roles to fill those positions.”

In 2015, PMC will celebrate 20 years in business. McKinney is looking forward to new opportunities and steady growth. “I like what I do -this work is fun for me,” he explains. “It’s like a competitive sport. We work really hard to get these contracts and once we get them, we want to have success and exceed our client’s expectations.”

McKinney takes great pride in the dedication of his team, not only for the quality of work delivered consistently, but also for a strong safety record.

Over the coming years, McKinney plans to keep building on existing relationships while reaching out to new clients in new markets. He has no plans for any major expansion, instead focusing on serving customers with the resources and talent pool available. As Hayes PMC continues to deliver efficient, safe and consistent results, relationships with customers grow.