6.1a ERMUSR 11-14-2017 Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO: FROM:
ERMU Commission Troy Adams, P.E.—General Manager
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
November 14, 2017 6.1a
SUBJECT:
Staff Update
ACTION REQUESTED:
None
DISCUSSION:
• Commissioner Al Nadeau and I attended the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency
(MMPA)Board of Directors meeting on October 24,2017 at the offices of Shakopee
Public Utilities in Shakopee, Minnesota.
Customer penetration of MMPA's Clean Energy Choice program for residential
customers is 2.2%, with a range of market penetration by member of 0.7%to 5.5%.
Rollout of the Clean Energy Choice for Business program has begun, with customer
signups underway.
The Board discussed the status of the renewable projects that the Agency is pursuing.
Commitments from all twelve member communities have been secured for the Agency's
Energy Education program for the 2017-2018 school year,which includes either an
Faribault Energy Park(FEP)tour event or an in-school energy education assembly.
Hometown Solar grant application signups will open for educational facilities in Chaska
and Shakopee next month.
• The Midwest Municipal Transmission Group (MMTG)held their 2017 Annual Meeting
of the Membership and as well as a board meeting on October 19 at Austin Utilities new
building in Austin, MN. ERMU is one of 51 municipal utility members of MMTG.
Through this group, ERMU secured the right to own transmission and receive a
guaranteed rate of return on equity with a 50%hypothetical equity ratio. ERMU currently
receives $125,000 annually from our investments in transmission.
During the business portion of these meetings, I was nominated and elected to another 3-
year term on their board of directors. Ken Kegy of Cedar Falls Utilities was elected Chair
and Chris Kopel of Central Minnesota Power Agency and Services was elected Vice-
Chair. I had been MMTG Chair in 2014 and have been a board member since 2009.
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The board approved the 2018 budget and dues. ERMU's 2018 MMTG annual dues will
be $6,549 which is calculated based on 2016 peak demand. ERMU's 2016 peak demand
was 64MW, or 8.2%of the 783MW MMTG demand total.
MMTG has six transmission zonal funds which accumulated through zonal fees over the
past years. Like in 2017, there are no zonal fees in the 2018 MMTG budget. ERMU and
Willmar Utilities are the only two of the 51 members who fall into the Great River
Energy(GRE)zonal "bucket." The MMTG GRE zonal bucket is currently funded at
$108,230. Our zonal bucket accounts for 26%of the total zonal funds. The GRE zonal
load accounts for 15.6% of the total MMTG load. These funds are reserved for
transmission or MISO related litigation/regulatory costs. ERMU is well positioned
through MMTG to address transmission and MISO issues.
Bob Jablon and Steve Pearson of Spiegel &McDiarmid were the guest speakers for the
MMTG meeting. Bob and Steve provided updates on EPA, transmission rate of return,
behind the meter verse transmission node issues, and natural gas issues which may
impact the transmission system.
• While attending the MMTG 2017 Annual Meeting in Austin, I had the opportunity to
tour their recently constructed Austin Utilities (AU)building. AU provides electric,
water, and natural gas services to Austin and the surrounding area.
With the exception of the natural gas utility, AU is very similar to ERMU in size. AU
serves approximately 12,000 customers in a community with a population of 23,000
people. Their new 104,000 square foot building is home to all operations, 80 employees,
and 63 vehicles. The building is set on 23 acres and had a total construction cost of$16
million. I was able to take lots of pictures and ask lots of questions. When ERMU is
closer to building a new field services building, it would be beneficial to tour the AU
building with our field services building committee.
• I held a quarterly meeting with Ryan Hentges, Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative
(MVEC) CEO/President, on November 1. We had discussed National Information
Systems Cooperative (NISC), CIP, new technologies, legislative advocacy, and industry
trends. We also discussed pre-paid electric meters. We had started having these meetings
last year which have produced great discussion on our areas of alignment.
• The Wage &Benefits Committee (W&BC) met on November 3 to review benchmarking
data and employee requests submitted for consideration during the October 10 W&BC
meeting. The W&BC will meet again on November 27 to have follow up discussion on
these topics and determine recommendations for the Commission. During the November
27 meeting, the W&BC will also review cost of living adjustment(COLA) and consumer
price index data(CPI). The W&BC will make recommendations on these topics to the
Commission on December 12 for consideration in the 2018 budget.
• I attended my first American Public Power Association(APPA)Reliable Public Power
Provider(RP3) Panel grading session as an official panel member. This grading session
was held in Fort Collins, CO. As you may recall, I had been nominated and elected to
serve a 2-year term on this panel earlier this year and am one of 18 panelists servicing
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from the more than 2,000 public power providers nationally. The RP3 designation is a
national certification of public power best practices grading metrics in the following
categories: Reliability, Safety, Workforce Development, and System Improvement. My
seat on the Panel is for reliability. Through the grading process I was able to review the
best practices, policies, and procedures from the top run publicly owned utilities in the
nation.Needless to say, I took notes and have many ideas to implement for ERMU.
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