6.1f ERMUSR 11-12-2019 Elk River
Municipal Utilities TO:
ERMU Commission
UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
FROM:
Tom Sagstetter—Conservation & Key Accounts Manager
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
November 12, 2019 6.1f
SUBJECT:
Staff Update
ACTION REQUESTED:
None
DISCUSSION:
• In the last 30 days, the level two charger located downtown had 11 sessions, and
provided customers with 122 kWh of green energy.The charger in the ERMU/City Hall
parking lot had 17 sessions and provided customers with 189 kWh of green energy. The
DC fast charger at the Coborn's fuel station has had 15 sessions and provided 248 kWh
of green energy to customers. There was a total of 43 charging sessions and 559 kWh of
energy provided over the last 30 days.
• This week the landfill gas plant will receive top-end rebuilds on three of the four engines
as part of routine maintenance. The Technical Services department will conduct relay
testing at the same time as the engine maintenance. This will be the first time ERMU
staff has done the relay testing. For past relay tests ERMU had a third party engineering
firm perform the maintenance.
• Participated in a policy work group meeting that is evaluating options for improving
building and/or energy codes that will allow the State of Minnesota to meet the climate
action goal of an 80% reduction in Greenhouse Gases (GHG) by 2050.The initiative is
trying to identify a different approach to achieving the goals as the current approach is
not on track to achieve the goals as outlined in the Energy Policy Act of 2007.
• Staff is continuing to work with a number of commercial customers closely on energy
efficiency rebates.
• Presented with the City of Elk River at the 2019 Data Center Energy Summit. This annual
event is an opportunity for the City and ERMU to present to commercial real estate
brokers and developers on the key elements that are available to data center clients in
Elk River. The panel discussion included representatives from the Minnesota
Department of Employment and Economic Development, Great River Energy, and an
engineering firm.
• Attended the annual meeting for Central Municipal Power Agency/Services (CMPAS) in
Mankato. ERMU is one of the 15 public power utilities in Minnesota and Iowa that took
part in a precedent-setting initiative that allowed public power utilities to make
transmission investments on the same basis as investor-owned utilities. As a result of
the transmission ownership, ERMU received revenue of$274,426 in 2018 and $278,374
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YTD in 2019.The keynote speaker, Peter Kelly Detwiler, delivered an interesting
perspective how electric utilities will be greatly impacted by the digitalization of the
electric grid. Digitalization is the ability for supply and demand-side resources to
communicate almost instantaneously to balance the grid on a local (micro-grid) level.
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