6.1d ERMUSR 03-09-2021UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO:FROM:
ERMU CommissionJennie Nelson – Customer Service Manager
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
March 9, 20216.1d
SUBJECT:
Staff Update
ACTION REQUESTED:
None.
DISCUSSION:
The Executive Administrative Manager worked with the Customer Service, Electric, and
Water departments to gather feedback and then formulate guidelines regarding outage
communications. As technologies change, customer expectations do as well, so it was
important to get all departments on the same page. Our Administrationdepartment
does a great job of collaborating and finding common ground.
Significant effort was put into a custom National Information Solutions Cooperative
Clean Energy Choice report that will give the Conservation department the information
needed to create certificates for the Clean Energy Choice participants. After being
thoroughly tested, the report is complete.
Our Credit & Collections Specialist puts a lot of effort into keeping up with the ever-
changing energy assistance guidelines and offerings. The Minnesota Department of
Commerce recently increased the maximum annual crisis benefit from an annual
amount of $600/household to $1,200/household. Applications will be accepted through
May 31. This is great news for our customers! Communications staff will be adding this
information to our website.
Legislation is being proposed to extend the Cold Weather Rule permanently. The
proposed dates would be October 1 – April 30 instead of the current October 15 – April
15. Momentum appears to be gaining in favor of this change.
Our Customer Service Representatives have been working on various side projects for
other departments including scanning, verifying we have electronic copies of safety data
sheets, etc. I am always proud of how well our departments collaborate and work
together towards our common goal of serving our customers well.
Our Billing Specialist runs high/low reports from our billing software to find extra high,
or extra low usage, which can help identify meter failures or problems within
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customer’s home. She has notified many customers this winter of leaky toilets or
faucets, water softeners that become stuck on the regenerate setting, and other
miscellaneous issues.
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