5.4. ERMUSR 01-13-2009Elk River
Municipal Utilities
13069 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 430
Elk River, MN 55330-0430
January 5, 2009
To: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission
Jerry Takle
John Dietz
Jerry Gumphrey
Fr: Vance Zehringer
Subj: Integrity Testing Policy
Phone: 763.441.2020
Fax: 763.441.8099
New large demand customers or existing large demand customers that have installed new
production equipment will usually conduct tests to determine the integrity of their
production equipment and electrical system at some time during initial startup. This
testing can have a negative impact on their power bill and it should coincide with Elk
River Municipal Utilities billing peak resulting in a significant increase in our wholesale
power bill for that month. We propose to discourage the practice of performing integrity
tests during on-peak hours by offering an incentive to do those tests during off peak hours
instead. The attached proposed Policy authorizes ERMU to ignore peaks established
during off-peak hours for the purposes of billing if the customer agrees to shift integrity
testing to off peak hours only and follow the dictates of the proposed Policy. As
proposed, this Policy assures startup peaks will not contribute to ERMU's billing peaks.
ELECTRIC RULES
INTEGRITY TESTING
New large demand customers or existing large demand customers that have installed new
production equipment and conduct tests to determine the integrity of their production
equipment and/or electrical system or Elk River Municipal Utilities (ERMU) electric distribution
system can have a significant financial impact on their power bill especially if all equipment is
energized simultaneously. It can also have a significant financial impact on ERMU's wholesale
power bill if such testing coincides with the hour the monthly billing peak is established. To
discourage the practice of performing integrity testing during on-peak hours, ERMU will offer
new large demand customers or existing large demand customers that have installed new
production equipment an incentive to conduct all integrity testing during off-peak hours. That
incentive will come in the form of an agreement to waive the demand charge associated with
the additional peak created by integrity testing providing the following are observed:
1. The term large demand customer applies to any business or facility that places a demand
of one megawatt (1000 kW) or more on Elk River Municipal Utilities distribution system.
Multiple facilities under a common name or ownership cannot aggregate to meet the
minimum demand required to qualify for this offer.
2. The term off-peak hours refers to the six hours from midnight to 6 AM any weekday, or
the ten hours from midnight to 10 AM any weekend day.
3. 24 hour notice that integrity testing will be conducted will be forwarded to ERMU by
contacting 763-441-2020 to assure there are no extenuating circumstances that such tests
should not be performed on that day. Such permission shall not unreasonably be
withheld.
4. Initial startup refers to equipment and/or facility testing that is typically performed to test
the integrity of the electrical system serving the equipment or facility prior to the business
opening their doors for business to the general public. It also refers to equipment and/or
facility testing that may be performed to test the integrity of the electrical system serving
equipment that has been added to an existing business.
If all integrity testing is performed within the parameters described in items 1 through 4 above,
ERMU will ignore all demand peaks established during those off-peak hours for the purposes of
establishing the customer's monthly billing demand. However, should integrity testing occur
during both on-peak and off-peak hours, no demand peaks and/or resultant billing demand will
be waived for that month.