6.1h ERMUSR 02-14-2023Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO:
FROM:
ERMU Commission
Mike Tietz —Technical Services Superintendent
MEETING DATE:
AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
February 14, 2023
6.1h
SUBJECT:
Staff Update
ACTION REQUESTED:
None
DISCUSSION:
• In January, the locators processed 74 locate tickets. These consisted of 2 emergency
tickets, 45 normal tickets, 11 updated tickets, 4 cancellations, 6 meets, 2 non -
excavation, and 4 boundary surveys. This resulted in a 28.8% decrease in tickets from
the previous month and is a 30.8% decrease from the prior January.
• I would like to recognize Locator Devin Ruprecht for his 3rd place award in the 2023
Minnesota Common Ground Alliance (MNCGA) Virtual Locate Rodeo Competition held
at the CenterPoint Energy River Building in Minneapolis on January 18. Devin was one of
35 locators from around the state that participated in the event this year. Please join me
in congratulating Devin on his outstanding performance! (See attached photo)
• Electrical technicians completed 192 service order tasks, updated the power bill,
addressed customer meter issues, and any off-peak concerns.
• On January 19, staff ran generators #1 & #2 without incident. Staff alerted me to an
issue with engine #4 running poorly. They did some further investigation and found that
there was water present in one of the air inlet tubes. We did some testing and
determined a hole in the aftercooler was where the water was coming from. I am
working on getting estimates for the repair of both aftercoolers on engine #4.
• Great River Energy (GRE) removed a potential transformer off the bus and removed the
controls for their motor operated device (MOD) switch at the west substation on
January 11-12. They also had transmission line work that required us to do some
switching of the subs. GRE notified us that they need to come back again to replace the
MOD with a switching handle on February 1.
• We hosted our annual operations meeting with Connexus at our new field services
building on Monday, January 23. It was a very productive meeting with discussions
about electric vehicle chargers, mutual aid bird dogs, communication practices,
Advanced Metering Infrastructure lessons learned, and updates about their GIS and
SCADA systems.
ATTACHMENTS:
• Photo — Locator Devin Ruprecht at MNCGA Virtual Locate Rodeo
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