The economic downturn has resulted in an alarming trend for nonprofits: need is increasing and funding is decreasing. The generosity of Great River Energy employees has bucked that trend – the annual community giving campaign reaches new heights every year.

A group of our employees volunteering their time and labor at a Habitat for Humanity project.

The community giving campaign offers employees the opportunity to have their financial contributions matched by company dollars each fall. This year’s effort raised approximately $80,000 for nonprofit organizations in Minnesota and North Dakota.

Three Minnesota nonprofits – Sherburne County Area United Way, Greater Twin Cities United Way and Community Health Charities Minnesota – and five North Dakota charities – McLean Family Resource Center, Mercer County Women’s Action & Resource Center, Missouri Slope Areawide United Way, Jamestown United Way and Carrie’s Kids – benefited from this outpouring of financial support.

This is just one way that Great River Energy exemplifies that cooperative principle of “concern for community.” Beyond providing reliable electric service, an electric cooperative must strive for the development of sustainable communities.

By the numbers
In 2011, Great River Energy made a difference in the communities it serves in many ways. Here are just a few of our community giving stats:
• $80,000 raised during the employee community giving campaign
• 2,400 paid volunteer hours used by employees
• 48 scholarships awarded to Minnesota and North Dakota students
• 276 lives impacted by company blood drives
• 48 turkeys donated to families in need the week of Thanksgiving

Connexus Energy scored the highest reliability rating by its members compared to other electric utilities and cooperatives in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The survey is produced under license with the University of Michigan.

Connexus scored a reliability rating of 90, compared to the ACSI national electric industry’s average of 86 in the third quarter of 2011. “Our members took part in the survey and gave us the high ranking. I am very proud of the fact no other cooperative or utility in the country ranked higher,” said Connexus CEO Mike Rajala.

By definition electric reliability measures the consistency of electric service on demand as provided by utility companies to their customers. But according to Rajala, it means much more. “It means when you’re a Connexus member, and you flip a switch or push a button, your electric appliance or gadget will work, because electricity is there. Electricity is a crucial product that we scarcely think about, unless we don’t have it. Judging by the high ACSI rating of Connexus reliability, our members don’t think of us often and, that’s a darn good thing. I hope our members see value in getting electricity from a company that is reliable.”

Connexus Energy is the largest customer-owned utility in Minnesota providing electricity and related products and services to over 126,000 homes and businesses in portions of Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Isanti, Ramsey, Sherburne, and Washington counties.  Additional information about Connexus Energy is available online at connexusenergy.com.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) in Minnesota recognized Dakota Electric Association’s community involvement efforts by naming it the Outstanding Philanthropic Organization for 2011.

(L-R): Mike Ferber, president, Fundraising Solutions; Dakota Electric board member Janet Lekson; Dakota Electric president & CEO Greg Miller; AFP president Heidi Droegemueller; Dakota Electric board chair Jim Sheldon.

Professionals in the community who recognized the cooperative’s generosity over the years nominated Dakota Electric for this award. While the cooperative doesn’t have a large budget for donations, it stretches donations around its service territory, providing support for youth clubs, sporting activities, school districts, nonprofit organizations, health and human services, emergency responders, special fundraising activities and more.

Employees and board members spend time serving chambers of commerce, rotary clubs and various nonprofits and community organizations.

Each year, through the company’s internal “Dakota Cares” campaign, employees donate approximately $20,000 to local charities through the United Way, Community Health Charities and a local food shelf.

Dakota Electric’s community outreach touches individuals and groups throughout its service area.

“We do what we can to be involved in the community,” Dakota Electric President and CEO Greg Miller said. “While we are not a large company that donates a lot of money, we are happy to be recognized for our faithful support to local organizations.”

AFP gives this annual award to organizations that have demonstrated outstanding commitment through financial support and community involvement.

Great River Energy is not only a utility that generates electricity for its members, but is also a corporate citizen that can have an impact on the communities it serves beyond its business purpose.

Great River Energy sponsors events, such as the Mesabi Trail Tour, to demonstrate our commitment to the communities we serve through our member cooperatives.

To demonstrate this, each year Great River Energy partners with organizations and initiatives that have a positive impact on the community and member consumers through sponsorships.

Nothing builds a stronger connection to the environment than getting out in nature and getting your hands dirty. GreenTouch Day is a statewide partnership between Minnesota’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives and Minnesota State Parks and Trails. On the first Saturday of every May, electric cooperative employees, members and area residents pitch in to spruce up a Minnesota state park.

The Minnesota State Fair continues to highlight agriculture, as well as farm and show animals – a characteristic of many of our cooperative communities. As a sponsor of the Minnesota State Fair Milk Run and exhibit participant in the fair, Great River Energy is able to partner with its member cooperatives to educate fairgoers about electric co-ops.

In North Dakota, Great River Energy sponsors a number of events to support both local organizations and communities near its power plants and other business locations. Some examples include the Hazen concert series, Jamestown Chamber of Commerce Ag Days, Lewis and Clark Days in Washburn and Harvest Fest in Underwood.

These sponsorships present an opportunity for Great River Energy to cultivate community relationships by demonstrating care for the communities where it has employees and members.

Safe sidewalks are an important step toward safe routes to schools. A Great River Energy donation will make it possible for students in one North Dakota community to bike and walk to class without worry.

A donation of ash produced at Great River Energy power plants will help the Safe Routes to Schools program improve the health and well-being of children by enabling and encouraging them to choose active ways to get to school. The project will use Great River Energy ash for the replacement of an existing sidewalk in Washburn, N.D.

The new sidewalks will use bottom ash as a soil stabilizer to help build a firm foundation for concrete, which will incorporate fly ash, another byproduct of coal-fueled electricity generation.

When fly ash is used as a replacement for a portion of cement in sidewalk construction the concrete has been proven to be stronger and longer-lasting. Other community benefits include the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.

Approximately one ton of greenhouse gas emissions are prevented for every ton of fly ash used in place of cement.

Mille Lacs Energy Cooperative (MLEC) spread the word about electrical safety by offering safety truck demonstrations for students at Aitkin and McGregor schools.

The demo taught a variety of electrical safety habits and demonstrated the power of electricity. It showed the potential hazards associated with unsafe actions around power lines and household circuitry. The presentation vividly showed the effects of contacting 7,200 volts of electricity.

This creative program was designed by Connexus Energy personnel to teach the potential dangers of contacting a power line.

In the wake of a catastrophe, even simple things like a hot meal can make someone’s day. When a group of Great River Energy employees brought lunch to a school damaged by North Dakota flooding, the gesture represented much more than a free lunch.

Great River Energy employees set up a temporary lunch line and served food to students at Longfellow Elementary in Minot, N.D.

Longfellow Elementary School in Minot, N.D., was damaged by historic flooding and is currently under re-construction. To accommodate the school year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) helped put together a makeshift school with classrooms made of modular trailers connected by tin and plywood breezeway areas. The temporary school has no gym, lunchroom or any large common space area, so instead of a hot lunch program kids eat cold lunches every day.

When a Great River Energy employee became aware of these conditions, the company and its employees found a way to help. An employee contribution committee purchased a hot meal of comfort food – meatballs, mashed potatoes, corn, bread and cake – and employees traveled to Minot to serve.

“We set up in the breezeway with the roasters of food, dished them into individual containers and brought them to the classrooms,” said Great River Energy Communications Specialist Rachel Retterath. “The response from the kids and teachers was overwhelming. Kids couldn’t help themselves from giving hugs to our employees or hide their excitement for the hot food.”

Crews use a crane to attach wires to permanent metal structures near Glenwood, Minn., on Great River Energy’s direct current transmission line.

When a late summer storm caused major damage to a vital Great River Energy transmission line, crews quickly found a way to get the line back in service while a permanent solution was completed. Approximately three months after the damage, repairs to the 400-kilovolt (kV) direct current (DC) line were complete.

On Aug. 1, three towers on the transmission line, which connects Great River Energy’s Coal Creek Station power plant to Minnesota, were destroyed by straight-line winds up to 120 mph near Glenwood, Minn.

Immediately following the storm, transmission line engineers devised an innovative temporary solution to allow the line to be re-energized as quickly as possible. The solution used 18 wooden structures to keep the line in service and provided time to plan and build a permanent solution.

After the foundations were designed and poured and the new towers were constructed, the final steps in the restoration effort were to attach the wires to the new towers and remove the temporary structures. Construction crews lifted the wires using a crane and a helicopter to attach them to the new towers.

“A number of windy days caused some delays when we were lifting the wires, but overall, the effort went smoothly,” said Roger Kiefer, Great River Energy’s manager of transmission construction and maintenance. Kiefer said contract crews had to wait for winds to drop below 24 mph in order to be able to control the wires well enough to attach them.

Careful planning while building the temporary solution saved time at this stage by eliminating the need to splice the wires together. “When we built the temporary solution, we built in a loop to equalize the tension. This allowed us to keep the length of the wires the same from the temporary structures to the permanent ones. All we needed to do was remove the loop to bring it back to the original length and tension.”

Some of the work was done while the line was energized. A line technician hung from a helicopter to move the line using the “barehanding” method which allowed the technician to handle the energized wire while wearing a special metal fiber suit.

The Midwest ISO (MISO) board approved the Multi Value Project (MVP) classification for 16 transmission line projects in the region, and included the projects in the Midwest Transmission Expansion Plan 2011 report. The classification will assign costs for the transmission lines throughout the entire MISO footprint, a methodology that was proposed in 2010 and approved by FERC this year. The MVP classification will help ensure new transmission can be built in the region if the projects meet certain criteria, such as being required to meet a public policy mandate.

The decision enables the CapX2020 utilities to move forward with construction plans for the Brookings County-Hampton project, which will provide outlet for wind resources in southern and southwestern Minnesota, and the eastern Dakotas. The project has received all state regulatory approvals, and CapX2020 staff are working with landowners to secure easements, as well as doing the detailed design, engineering and preconstruction work.

Brookings County-Hampton is one of 17 projects analyzed by MISO and key stakeholders over the course of 2011. The analysis demonstrated that all MISO utilities and their customers will benefit from access to new generation resources, reduced system congestion and reduced need for operating reserves. The transmission lines will provide between $1.90 and $3.10 in benefits for each dollar spent on line construction.

“MISO’s analysis clearly demonstrates that MISO member utilities and their customers will benefit from the projects,” said Terry Grove, co-executive director of CapX2020 and director of regional transmission projects for Great River Energy. The five CapX2020 utilities developing the Brookings County-Hampton project plan to begin construction in April 2012, a necessary step to increasing electric reliability and enabling new renewable energy connections in the region, Grove said.

Other MVP portfolio projects in the Upper Midwest include 345-kV lines in North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Great River Energy and its 28 member cooperatives have promoted the use of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) for several years – it is one of the simplest energy saving measures homeowners can make. A single bulb amounts to relatively small energy savings, but if thousands of homeowners swap CFLs for standard incandescent light bulbs significant energy savings are achieved.

The success of a recent CFL promotion offered by Great River Energy and its member cooperatives will save 7,359,885 kilowatt-hours (kWh). One kilowatt-hour is the amount of electric energy required to operate a 100-watt bulb for ten hours. 

The 2011 CFL promotion offered member consumers discounts on specific Energy Star rated CFLs through dollars-off coupons and instant in-store markdowns at participating Minnesota WalMart locations. More than 188,000 blubs were sold during the three month promotion which ran Mar 1. – July 31. The most successful component of the promotion was the in-store markdowns which produced 88 percent of the kWh saved.

The realized savings in kWh will go toward meeting the state of Minnesota’s Conservation Improvement Program (CIP) goal. The CIP originated in the 2007 Next Generation Energy Act and requires every electric and gas utility in the state prove energy savings equivalent to 1.5 percent of their annual retail energy sales.