6.1a ERMUSR 07-10-2018 Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO: FROM:
ERMU Commission Troy Adams, P.E.—General Manager
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
July 10, 2018 6.1a
SUBJECT:
Staff Update
ACTION REQUESTED:
None
DISCUSSION:
• The Board of Directors of the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency(MMPA) met on June
28, 2018 at the offices of Shakopee Public Utilities. Commissioner Al Nadeau was not
able to attend this meeting.
The Board received an update on the Agency's Integrated Resource Plan, which is
scheduled to be filed with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on August 1.
MMPA's Hometown Solar installations in Arlington and Shakopee are installed and
operating at educational facilities.
The Agency gave a presentation about its energy education program at the American
Public Power Association's National Conference on June 19. The presentation was well
attended and sparked much discussion with municipal utilities and joint action agencies
across the country.
Participation in MMPA's residential Clean Energy Choice program increased over May,
with four different MMPA members having new customer signups during the month.
Customer penetration of MMPA's Clean Energy Choice program for residential
customers is at 2.8%.
A representative from MMPA will be presenting to the Elk River Rotary on July 12
regarding the Clean Energy Choice program. Staff has met with representatives of
MMPA regarding the implementation of this program.
• The small workgroup of the joint ERMU/city Information Security Committee continues
to work weekly with our cyber security consultant, FRSecure, conducting weekly
webinar meetings to develop physical and cyber security policy. This policy development
prep work is almost complete. The full committee will reconvene to review this work
product and bring back a report to the commission in the next few months.
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• I attended the American Public Power Association (APPA) 2018 National Conference
from Saturday June 16 through Wednesday June 20. I presented in a pre-conference
session on governance policy with John Miner,the consultant who helped ERMU
develop our updated governance polices. The session went well and I am going to do a
similar presentation with John Miner during the MMUA Summer Meeting in August. I
also presented with APPA staff for a session on initiative measurement and
"benchmarking for excellence." This session also went well.
As always,there were many great session and great speakers. I attended a session on the
High Cost of Low Wages which addressed the cost of turnover of key positions and the
effects of salary compression on an organizations future. I attended a session where
MMPA and Shakopee Public Utilities presented the on the MMPA Education Program.
This is the program where MMPA works directly with the 4th grade classes in all member
cities including Elk River. Former Cybersecurity Advisor to President Barack Obama
presented during a general session on cybersecurity. APPA CEO Sue Kelly spoke during
the opening general session on the future of public power. I attended an extremely
informative keynote speaker panel of top municipal utilities regarding challenges,
opportunities, and the future of public power. The highlight of this presentation was the
contributions to the discussion from Arlen Orchard, CEO&GM of Sacramento Municipal
Utility District (SMUD), and their initiatives to position SMUD for quick response to
rapid change. The conference closed with keynote speaker Joe Theismann talking about
overcoming obstacles. Aside from the conference sessions, I spent time working on
legislative advocacy issues and power agency discussions.
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