6.1a ERMUSR 05-08-2018 Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO: FROM:
ERMU Commission Troy Adams, P.E.—General Manager
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
May 8, 2018 6.1a
SUBJECT:
Staff Update
ACTION REQUESTED:
None
DISCUSSION:
• The Board of Directors of the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency(MMPA) met on
April 24, 2018 at the Faribault Energy Park Plant in Faribault,Minnesota. Both
Commissioner Al Nadeau and I attended this meeting.
At the meeting,the Board approved MMPA's 2017 audit report. The report can be found
on MMPA's website at http://www.mmpa.org/about/financials-reports/
The Board approved the expansion of the Energy Education high school pilot program to
all member communities for the 2018-2019 academic year. The Board also received an
update about the status of the Hometown Solar projects in Arlington, Shakopee, and
Chaska.
Participation in MMPA's residential Clean Energy Choice program increased over
March, with seven different MMPA members having new customer signups during the
month. Customer penetration of MMPA's Clean Energy Choice program for residential
customers increased to 2.7%.
• The Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association (MMUA)held their annual Legislative
Rally on April 11 — 12. The event was attended by over 50 municipal utility leaders from
35 different utilities. The key messages and talking points these utility leaders took to the
Capitol included: preserve the regulatory compact regarding the utility business model
and service territory rights,preserve local control for municipal utilities, develop
sustainable Conservation Improvement Program (CIP)reform, and benefits of the
municipal utility business model.
Commissioner Westgaard, Tom Sagstetter, and I were able to meet with both
Representative Zerwas and Senator Kiffmeyer. In addition to discussing the talking
points, gratitude was extended for Representative Zerwas' and Senator Kiffmeyer's roles
in passing legislation to expand the ERMU Commission from three members to five.
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In addition to the key messages delivered to the Capitol, MMUA hosted a legislative
reception. The rally also included conference sessions on: MMUA new financing
program; the Minnesota Chamber's 2018 Energy Policy; and updates from the Center for
Energy&Environment regarding the 2018 CIP potential study and strategic
electrification.
Following the rally and conference,the MMUA board of directors met. During this
meeting the board discussed and/or took action on the following items: the new MMUA
finance program; government relations items; PUC railroad crossing decision discussion;
the Municipal Utility Action Fund (MUAF)report;the American Public Power
Association (APPA)Public Power Forward initiative; MMUA strategic planning goals
updates; Safety&Training updates; Engineering and Policy updates; and upcoming
board planning session. I will finish my second term and roll off the board at the MMUA
summer meeting this August.
• ERMU, Great River Energy(GRE), and MMPA scheduled a conference call regarding
power provider migration for Monday May 7.
• On April 16 a joint MMUA and Minnesota Rural Electric Association(MREA)
workgroup meeting was held regarding the CIP. I am one of approximately one dozen
members of this workgroup. The work product from this group was used for talking
points for the MREA legislative rally and the MMUA legislative Rally. The group will
continue to develop work product over the coming year.
• Customer Service Manager Jennie Nelson and I have conducted interviews for the vacant
Customer Service Representative (CSR)position. An offer was made and accepted with a
May 21 start date. The new CSR will be introduced to the Commission in June if
schedules allow.
• I attended the 2018 APPA Lineworkers Rodeo and Engineering & Operations
Conference in Raleigh,NC. During this conference,the Reliable Public Power Provider
(RP3)Panel met. I am the reliability representative on this national panel of 18 members.
While at this conference I was also a speaker for one of the sessions. I made a
presentation on our electric vehicle initiative.
During the conference I also attended sessions on: Legislative and regulatory overview;
GIS mapping and automation; battery storage; information technology (IT)vs operational
technology (OT); generation interconnection to the grid; operational resilience;reliability
benchmarking; and a roundtable discussion on customer service vs employee safety. The
keynote speaker for the conference closing session was Army Ranger First Sergeant Matt
Eversmann. His inspiring story of resilience, survival, and leadership through adversity
became the story for the movie Black Hawk Down. He related his experiences to the
public power industry.
This conference creates a great opportunity to network and research issues. I intentionally
connected with utility leaders regarding issues that ERMU is facing. Much discussion
occurred around cyber security and IT,Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and
Automatic Meter Reading(AMR), succession planning, and disaster planning and drills.
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As usual, I've come home with a long list of items to research and best practices to
implement.
• Our cyber security consultant FRSecure is holding weekly webinar meeting with
members of the Information Security Committee to develop physical and cyber security
policy. The work done during the webinars will develop into draft policy that the full
Committee will review. Identical, or substantially similar,policy will then be considered
for formal adoption/implementation by the City and ERMU.
• Per the Governance Policy G.2g1 Wage &Benefits Committee Charter and consistent
with Governance Policy G.2g Commission Committees,the committee shall meet on a
quarterly basis. Staff will be coordinating a meeting for late April or early May. The
primary focus for this meeting will be routine review of staffing levels,personnel
projections, and succession planning. Additionally, we will discuss vacant budgeted
positions. This meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, May 30.
• Per the Governance Policy G.3e General Manager Performance Planning and
Evaluation and consistent with Governance Policy G.3d Monitoring Performance of the
General Manager,the Commission conducts a formal evolution of the General Manager
during the second quarter of each fiscal year. This is scheduled to be held during the June
Commission Meeting currently scheduled for June 12.
• I was asked by the Elk River Chamber of Commerce to be their key speaker for the
Leadership Elk River graduation lunch on Friday May 18. I will be speaking about
leadership.
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