The Crow Wing Power Community Trust Board donated $47,700 to local community programs during their third quarter meeting held in July. Operation Round Up is funded by participating members of Crow Wing Power who allow the cooperative to round up their electric bills to the nearest whole dollar. The additional change is pooled and distributed quarterly. Since the program’s inception in late 1996, Round Up has donated more than $1,865,000 to community projects and programs in Cass, Crow Wing and Morrison counties.

News from the Minnesota Rural Electric Association:

Win a Polaris Sportsman 500 All Terrain Vehicle

MREA Raffle to benefit NRECA International Program

Tickets $10 each

Drawing to be held Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010 11:30 a.m. at the Minneapolis Hilton Hotel. Need not be present to win.  Your donation will help electrify developing countries

Led by the Minnesota Rural Electric Association, Minnesotas electric cooperatives are organizing a charity raffle with the objective of raising $50,000 to help expand the electrification of developing countries.
Grand prize is a Polaris Sportsman 500. All proceeds will be donated to the NRECA International Foundation.

Winner is responsible for all taxes, registration fees and delivery.

Minnesota’s role in the International Program
Volunteers from electric cooperatives across the nation have assisted in bringing reliable electrical power to developing countries around the world. During the past year, 34 of Minnesotas 44 electric cooperatives have donated money or equipment to the International Program. In the past 10 years, 68 Minnesota volunteers have traveled to Haiti, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Philippines and Sudan.

• Since 2005, Kandiyohi Cooperative in Minnesota has been sharing knowledge and sending much needed equipment to various electric utility partners in Guatemala so they can succeed in providing safe and reliable electricity.

• For the last five years, Minnesota volunteer line workers have traveled to Pignon, Haiti, a small town of 36,000 people, where they made it possible for 600 more families to be connected. Now 100 percent of the village has access to electricity. Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative employees have
hosted annual fundraising dinners to help support this project.

How to purchase tickets
MREA members and friends are encouraged to sell tickets to their coworkers, family and friends within Minnesota. Tickets may be purchased in Minnesota only. If you live in Minnesota, we will mail you the tickets at your request.

You may order as many tickets as you think you can sell. Tickets, money and unsold tickets must be received by MREA by Sept 9, 2010.

To purchase raffle tickets, please call Aleia Yue at 763.424.7242 or e-mail aleia@mrea.org.

* Tickets will also be sold at the NRECA Region 5 and 6 Meeting. If you live outside Minnesota, but plan to attend the NRECA Region 5 and 6 Meeting, you and your traveling companions may purchase tickets there.

This article from Stateline discusses that consumers (and utilities) in some states are wary of using smart meters, part of an overall ’smart grid’ for the nation’s electric system.

Great River Energy and its member co-ops can empathize with some of the points in the piece, particularly ensuring that members are protected against bill impacts from installing new technologies. There was one key point, though, that we wholeheartedly agree with: providing electric users with information about their energy use is great, but users must take action to reduce their energy use.

Electric cooperatives provide members with many tools, rebates and advice to reduce their energy use. And smart meters can tell a customer how much energy is being used at any one time, let them know when prices spike (usually in the early evening hours on days like today—hot and humid ones), electric users are the ones who can help themselves the most. By delaying that dishwasher or laundry load until after 9:00 pm (when prices usually come down), installing a programmable thermostat (that can help reduce bills by not cooling or heating a home when people are at work), installing insulation and, of course, simply turning things off when they aren’t being used (like the bedroom light when you’re in the living room).

Here’s some more information on energy efficiency programs from Great River Energy and Minnesota cooperatives.

For the second year, Great River Energy is offering $420 scholarships for K-12 teachers to attend Energy Education in the Classroom at our Maple Grove headquarters. We have a number of teachers already enrolled, but there is room for more and the registration deadline has been extended to July 26.

Energy Education in the Classroom is a teacher training course taught by the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Through hands-on activities, class discussions and peer teaching, teachers get the tools and information they need to easily integrate energy education into their curriculum. They get:
• 400-page activity guide full of course outlines and adaptations
• Other tools and materials, such as classroom handouts
• One graduate credit

To receive the $420 GRE scholarship, teachers must live OR teach in an area served by one of GRE’s members. NOTE: If the school includes students whose parents are served by one of GRE’s members, the teacher will receive the scholarship. There is a $75 teacher fee due the first day of class.

More information is here

You can also contact Lori Buffington at 763-445-5714 or lbuffington@grenergy.com

Because we work in energy and think stuff like this is cool…we’re sharing it with you!

A writer visited a control center for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and shared thoughts and photos. There’s also an article to a great link about the variability of wind energy. As the Great River Energy transmission people will tell you, days like today (hot, humid, stormy) are the days when they earn their paychecks. There are people in control rooms around the Midwest (both at utilities and the Midwest ISO ) making sure that all the power customers need is being delivered, and if there are outages, they’re identified immediately and repaired as soon as possible.

Most Minnesota electric cooperatives participate in Operation Round Up. Great job, Stearns Electric!

From the St. Cloud Times

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud recently presented its annual Good Samaritan Award to Stearns Electric Association. The Stearns Electric Association Trust Operation Round Up Program was honored for a simple concept that makes a huge difference to Catholic Charities and other local charitable and civic organizations. Stearns Electric Association encourages its members to roundup their monthly electric bill to the next dollar. To each member, that means less than $12 per year. But collectively, with 71 percent of the association’s members participating, that little bit of change does incredible things.

To Catholic Charities Senior Dining, the funds received from Operation Round Up allow it to do the special things that it normally wouldn’t be able to afford — birthday celebrations, volunteer appreciation parties and special speakers on topics relevant to seniors. The unique part of this program is its local dollars going to local causes. The program has provided more than $50,000 in the last decade to Catholic Charities Senior Dining, Catholic Charities St. Cloud Children’s Home, and Catholic Charities Emergency Services Food Shelf, Toys for Tots, and Back to School programs.

NRECA President Glenn English spoke at a conference advocating for new transmission lines. Read about his remarks here .

As English notes, additional transmission lines are needed to increase the amount of renewable energy on the country’s electric system. “There are lots of good ideas, but a shortage of good plans,” English said June 30 at the National 25x’25 Summit in Arlington, Va. “Transmission is a huge impediment, and one that might prohibit reaching the goals that have been laid out for renewable energy.”

Great River Energy is involved in a variety of large transmission line projects, including CapX2020, as well as focused load-serving projects that help ensure reliable service for our members. You can read about planned transmission projects across Minnesota here .

The National Rural Electric Association is in the running for a $250,000 donation from Chase Community Giving to send volunteers to developing countries to help them set up their own electric cooperatives. Please click here to vote.

The EPA today announced new regulations that will reduce the amount of sulfur dioxide and nitorgen oxide that can be emitted form power plants in the United States.

As the news release linked above notes, much of the emissions reductions can be accomplished by “will be accomplished by proven and readily available pollution control technologies already in place at many power plants across the country.”

Great River Energy’s DryFining technology can currently help reduce some emissions, such as SO2 up to 40 percent and NOX by 20 percent. DryFining can also reduce carbon emissions by four percent. The technology is currently in operation at the Coal Creek Facility. For more information DryFining, click here.