6.1a ERMUSR 09-10-2019 Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO: FROM:
ERMU Commission Troy Adams, P.E.—General Manager
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
September 10, 2019 6.1a
SUBJECT:
Staff Update
ACTION REQUESTED:
None
DISCUSSION:
• The Board of Directors of the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (MMPA) met on
August 27, 2019 at Shakopee Public Utilities in Shakopee, Minnesota. Both
Commissioner Al Nadeau and I were in attendance.
The Board discussed the status of the renewable projects the Agency is pursuing.
Participation in MMPA's residential Clean Energy Choice program increased over July,
with a market penetration that has grown to 3.3%.
• As treasurer and a member of the executive board, I was the MMPA board
representative at the agency's auditor interviews, September 3 and 4. The agency
interviewed two auditing firms.The interviews were conducted at the MMPA office in
Minneapolis.
• On August 28, Operations Director Mark Fuchs and I met with Eric Messerich, a
transmission planner at Great River Energy(GRE). The meeting focused on information
discovery and long term transmission system planning.
• I had my annual meeting on August 28 with Darrick Moe, the Executive Director of the
Minnesota Rural Electric Association (MREA). We discussed recent challenges with
cooperative leadership/governance ethical behavior that has been in the newspapers.
We also talked about the past legislative session including the conservation
improvement program (CIP)joint effort between the cooperatives and municipals.
• ERMU was featured in a sponsored article on the American Public Power Association's
(APPA) communication, the Public Power Daily. The article was sponsored by National
Information Systems Cooperative (NISC) regarding our use of their software and our
relationship with them to provide our customers with what they want before they know
they want it. APPA interviewed me and our Customer Service Manager,Jennie Nelson.
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The article, Elk River Municipal Utilities to grow with technology partner, can also be
found on the APPA website.
• APPA activated their Mutual Aid Working Group (MAWG) in anticipation of restoration
needs resulting from Hurricane Dorian. ERMU sent one crew along with 15 other crews
from Minnesota's public power utilities. These crews arrived in Kissimmee, Florida, on
Monday afternoon.
• In the wake of the Labor Day evening storms, ERMU provided one crew to Connexus
Energy to help with their storm restoration. ERMU only experienced minor damage from
this storm and all customers had power by mid-morning.
• IT/OT Manager position was posted on August 30 and will close on September 26.
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