6.1e ERMUSR 09-12-2023UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO:FROM:
ERMU Commission Mike Tietz –Technical Services Superintendent
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
September 12, 2023 6.1g
SUBJECT:
Staff Update
ACTION REQUESTED:
None
DISCUSSION:
• In August, the locators processed 575 locate tickets. These consisted of 464 normal
tickets, 2 emergency tickets, 63 updated tickets, 21 cancellations, 18 meets, 1 non-
excavation, 5 boundary surveys, and 1 correction. This resulted in a 3.5% decrease in
tickets from the previous month and is a 4.2% decrease from the prior August.
• Electrical technicians completed 257 service order tasks, updated the power bill,
addressed customer meter issues and any off-peak concerns.
• Electrical Technician Jeff Murray and I attended the Upper Midwest Metering
Association Summer Conference in Duluth, August 16-18. There were several good
roundtable discussions covering topics such as Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)
and Distributed Energy Resources. Also, Great River Energy representatives gave a
presentation about bridging the gap between metering and data analytics which will be
very useful with data that we will be receiving from our future AMI meters.
• On August 31, staff ran generators #1, #2 & #3 without incident. Engine #4 is still waiting
on plugs that have been on backorder for some time now which are needed to repair
the aftercooler tubes.
• Staff recently completed a couple of projects at the Waco substation. They installed an
electronic dehydrator on the load tap changer of the #1 transformer which removes
moisture from the oil. Staff also assisted Minnesota Municipal Power Agency’s
technician with replacement of their substation meter that had lost communications.
• Five candidates were interviewed for the recently vacated locator position. After careful
consideration, I am pleased to announce that on August 29 our newest locator Russ
Metzer began working with ERMU. Please join me in welcoming Russ to the ERMU
family.
he replacement for pickup #32 arrived after being on order with Ford for over a year.
• T
The second Ford that was ordered at the same time still had not been scheduled for
production, so I cancelled the order and purchased a pickup from a Chevrolet
dealership. This truck is to replace pickup #2 and was placed inservice on August 16.
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