6.1a ERMUSR 10-10-2017 Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO: FROM:
ERMU Commission Troy Adams, P.E.—General Manager
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
October 10, 2017 6.1a
SUBJECT:
Staff Update
ACTION REQUESTED:
None
DISCUSSION:
• The Board of Directors of the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency(MMPA) met on
September 26, 2017 at the offices of Shakopee Public Utilities in Shakopee, Minnesota. I
attended, but Commissioner Al Nadeau was not able to attend as ERMU's alternative
representative.
Customer penetration of MMPA's Clean Energy Choice program for residential
customers increased to 2.2%,with a range of market penetration by member of 5.6%to
0.7%.
The Clean Energy Choice for Business program rollout is about to begin.
The Board also discussed the status of the renewable projects that the Agency is
pursuing.
• I am continuing to invest significant time into the details of our wholesale power provider
migration. Multiple conference calls and communications regarding transmission,
interconnection, MISO registration, Landfill Gas Plant, and substation metering. This will
continue to be a major focus of time over the next year. We are now one year away from
the transition from Great River Energy(GRE)to MMPA.
• As reported last month, the City of Otsego council has approved the terms the transfer of
street lighting as approved by the Commission in July. We are continuing to work with
legal counsel to draft the agreements.
• The September 19 electric service territory acquisition successfully transferred nearly 500
customers from Connexus Energy to ERMU. The success of this transfer goes far beyond
the negotiation of the agreement. This is the third year of acquisition from this March
2015 electric service territory transfer agreement; however, being the third transfer did
not make this transfer easier. In fact,this was the most complex transfer to date.
Page 1 of 3
90
The office staff invested much time into analyzing customer data to determine services
and rates that the customer would be set up with in ERMU's system. Many multi-
department meetings were held to coordinate efforts and improve upon past practice to
make the transfer of customers more efficient.Notably,the office and technical services
groups developed a plan to have office employees accompany field employees during the
meter change out. This change improved the accuracy of data associated with the new
customer setup.Following the meter change-outs, office staff worked to manually add all
the new customers into our billing system in a small window of time before the next
billing cycle. Our managers Jennie Nelson and Mike Tietz did an outstanding job
overseeing this coordination of departments. And more importantly,they facilitated these
multi-department efforts encouraging and allowing their staff to develop ideas for
improving the process.
The operational efforts relating to this service territory acquisition date back almost as far
back as the agreement approval. The addition of this Waco 2 substation is directly related
to this transfer and the transfers yet to come. Also,the electric department has been
working on the interconnection and system reintegration to facilitate this transfer for over
one year. The actually transfer took little time compared to all of the prep work. Mark
Fuchs worked to develop an overall plan for the service territory transfers related to this
March 2015 transfer agreement. And this transfer of Areas 3 &4 was another step in the
overall plan. Mark and his staff have done an outstanding job planning and implementing
these transfers operationally.
I am very proud to see the dedication of the ERMU employees towards this major
initiative. It's wonderful to see employees that care so much to make sure everything
works smoothly and we improve in our processes. It's also wonderful to see ERMU's
leadership team plan and implement such a complex project so successfully. And it is
rewarding to see the ERMU leadership help develop their employees who have all
stepped up to contribute to the great cause.
• I held a quarterly meeting with Greg Ridderbusch, Connexus CEO/President, on
September 25. We had discussed the service territory transfer, mutual aid, CIP, new
technologies, legislative advocacy, and industry trends. As always, our quarterly
meetings produce great discussion and bring to light opportunities.
• On October 4, I met with Jim Horan, Minnesota Rural Electric Association (MREA)
Director of Government Affairs and Counsel. This meeting was the result of and follow
up to a conversation we'd had at the GRE Annual Meeting in June. We talked CIP and
coordination of legislative advocacy for the upcoming legislative session.
• Gary Connett, Great River Energy's Director of Member Service,had scheduled a
meeting with me for October 9 to discuss wholesale power provider transition,
technology and industry trends, and future opportunities. This was also a meeting which
was the result of conversations during the GRE Annual Meeting and the Connexus
Annual Meeting. Unfortunately, Gary had to cancel. We have not rescheduled at this
time.
Page 2 of 3
91
• Per direction of the Wage & Benefits Committee (W&BC), much time has been spent
working on salary benchmarking and data collection. This work will be reviewed by the
W&BC who will make recommendations on cost of living adjustments (COLA) and/or
market adjustments to the Commission for consideration with the 2018 budget. It is
anticipated that recommendations with be made with an update from the W&BC at the
November ERMU Commission meeting.
Page 3 of 3
92