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6.1. ERMUSR 12-15-2009Elk River --~ Municipal Utilities 13069 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 430 Elk River, MN 55330-0430 December 10, 2009 To: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission John Dietz Jerry Gumphrey Daryl Thompson From: Troy Adams Subject: Staff Updates -Director of Operations Phone: 763.441.2020 Fax: 763.441.8099 In October the City submitted their numbers for the state diesel and gas bids. The result of the bids may be available by the Utilities Commission meeting on Dec 15. An update will be provided at that time. As directed by the commission, a letter had been sent to the commercial customer who had the billing issue which was discussed two months ago. The letter extended the Commission's offer to discount the past due amount by 20% if paid in full within 30 days. The discounted amount was still too much for the customer to pay at one time. The customer has worked out payment arrangement to repay the full amount with an approximate 1 `/2 year timeline. At the November Utilities Commission meeting, the Commission approved a new low load factor adjustment clause to be implemented in 2010. At that time there was a question of metering cost. I believed that all 12 meters in question were already capable of collecting the data required. This would have also involved a meter technician to physically visit and download the data monthly. In actuality, six of the meters are still an older style because they have not been upgraded through our meter change out efforts. We have these in inventory, but do have a value of approximately $350. The other six would need a software upgrade at a cost of $250 per meter. These upgrades will also enable the meter readers to collect the addition data through a radio read as they do their monthly meter reading and would not require a meter technician to physically visit and download the data monthly. The upgrades are in process to be ready for Jan 1, 2010. Also at the November Utilities Commission meeting, the Commission was informed about the sale of tax forfeited land and a lot of possible interest to the Utilities. After further analysis, the lot doesn't fit the future needs of the Utilities well. The lot does not currently have road access, it is located under Xcel transmission lines, and is not located in an area projected for substantial load growth. A meter failure resulting in an over billing was discovered during data preparation for a third party energy consultation being performed for a local business. The meter was older with a manual demand reset. The demand reset stopped working resulting in a seasonal high demand being carried through during off season months.. The meter has been replaced with a new electronic meter with an automatic electronic demand reset. The customer was refunded $7,144.89. Anew report is being created to check for occurrences where a customer's demand is identical for two months. This new report will help to catch these types of meter failure in the future. Also, enclosed for your reading is the current issue of the MMUA Resource. managed the city audit for a number of years, (Steve actually transitioned the city audit over to Andy and he has been doing it ever since.) Anew set of eyes is always a good thing, and this will be an opportunity to have a new review without having to change audit firms (which is the still an amount of increased work, but not as much, and not as expensive.) We have a new Cash Register program our utility software company introduced this fall that was implemented here in November. It is working out well. On a related note, we are looking at more efficient ways to process payments that utilize less manual data entry on the part of the staff. There is only so much we can automate for this, and we are researching the pieces we think we can. One additional suggestion was to accept credit cards. It may, or may not, have an impact on the number of payments mailed in for processing, and yet there is certainly a segment of our customer base that wants to have this available. This has been suggested and started before and has, unfortunately, always managed to get shoved to the back burner. There is a renewed focus on this to implement it in 2010. Elk River Municipal Utilities Memorandum To: Elk River Utilities Commission .Tabu Died ~~ Prepared By: David Berg Reviewed By: Terry Maurer Date: 12/11/2009 Subject: Brenteson Tax Assessment (Main Street Service Repair) At last months meeting, the commission was updated on a homeowner asking for assistance on her payment to Brenteson. Brenteson repaired a water service and wanted the customer's balance to be assessed to the property taxes. The customer has submitted the necessary signed waver and last week the city council assessed the cost to her property over a three year timeline. We recommend that the commission request the assessment amount to be forwarded to Brenteson by the City as the assessment is paid. Elk River -~-~ Municipal Utilities Memorandum To: Elk River Utilities Commission Jahn Dielz J~+r n~,+~ Prepared By: David Berg Date: 12/9/2009 Subject: Water Tower Antenna Lease Update Further discussions with a Sprint representative have shown that Sprint is indeed interested in leasing tower antenna space. Gary Street Tower is the primary location for future development. The Sprint representative will schedule a walk through appointment by the end of December and follow up with ERMU when further details have been established. Elk River ,~.,, Municipal Utilities Memorandum To: Elk River Utilities Commission Jabn Diets .~'~' ~~~ Prepared By: David Berg Date: 12/10/2009 Subject: Meter Billing Errors Questions have arisen about why water misplacement issues occur. Examples of ERT heads will be provided for commissioners to view at the monthly meeting. It is a rare occurrence that a meter head is improperly placed onto a water meter, but this is an item that brings concern. All ERT heads fit every Badger water meter, no matter the size or type of meter, this can cause the problem. The only noted difference in the ERT's look is the presence of small numerical text on the head. Anything from an ERT's misplacement into a shipped box of heads, to an incorrect storage action can cause such a mix up. The initial reading of a new head is in proper range and varies in duration until the numbers do not add up to a legitimate read and the error is found. The exercise of caution toward preventing errors is being practiced. ** Less than ahalf-dozen ERT's have been incorrectly placed onto meters since the start of the ERT technology. ERMU began using ERT's in 2002. 7820.3800 Subpart 1. When a customer has been over or undercharged as a result of incorrect reading of the meter, incorrect application of rate schedule, incorrect connection of the meter, application of an incorrect multiplier or other similar reason, the amount of the overcharge shall be refunded to the customer or the amount of the undercharge may be billed to the customer. Subpart 2. Remedy for overcharge. When a Utility has overcharged a customer, the utility shall calculate the difference between the amount collected for service rendered and the amount the utility should have collected for service rendered, plus interest, for the period beginning three years before the date of discovery. Interest must be calculated as prescribed by Minnesota Statutes 325E.02(b). Elk River -M Municipal Utilities 13069 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 430 Elk River, MN 55330-0430 December 8, 2009 TO: Elk River Utilities Commission John Dietz Jerry Gumphrey Daryl Thompson FROM: Mark Fuchs SUBJECT: Staff Update -Electric Department Phone: ?63.441.2020 Fax: 763.441.8099 The following is a summary of projects and / or updates over the past several weeks: 1. Installed three new street lights for the City of Otsego. 2. Goodwill's permanent service has been hooked up. 3. Changed out a rusted 3-phase junction box and removed one that was no longer needed on Evans Street by Menard's. 4. Installed two new secondary services. 5. Continued working on Xenia Avenue rebuild. 6. Continued working on Area 23 taps. 7. I went to the Technical and Operations Conference last week which was put on by MMUA. Topics discussed were: A. Communication strategies for handling difficult people B. Injury prevention and how injuries affect insurance premiums C. Moorhead Utilities discussed their 2009 flood issues D. Industry products E. MMUA gave a short presentation on the government side of the industry Elk River Municipal Utilities 13069 Orono Pazkway . P.O. Box 430 Elk River, MN 55330-0430 TO: Elk River Utilities Commission John Dietz Jerry Gumphrey Daryl Thompson FROM: Wade Lovelette Phone: 763.441.2020 Fax: 763.441.8099 SUBJ: Staff Update -Technical Services Department The following is a summary of projects and/or updates over the past several weeks: 1. The Locating Department had a total of 1621ocate tickets for November. Some of them are meets which require several trips back to the same area as needed to mark utilities. Three of the tickets were emergency locates. 2. The Metering Department continues with weekly and monthly substation checks, changing out meters to the radio read meters, and doing the monthly power bill. 3. The Security Systems Department had a total of 69 phone contacts, 14 personal visits, 14 systems quoted, 9 sales made, 13 installs completed, and 17 service calls for the month of November. 4. Map books continue to be updated daily as crews add or change items in them. We are getting ready for printing a new edition. Power Plant staff has performed the monthly run of the generators and everything looked good. Staff is also working on the spill containment project and on the written lock-out tag-out procedures for each piece of equipment in the power plant.