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.

Lake Country Power members will see a rebate on their electric bills this month, just in time for Christmas. Lake Country Power’s board of directors authorized a retirement of $1.5 Million in capital credits. Capital credits are a benefit and the cornerstone of co-op membership.

More than $1 million in capital credits will be retired to members who used electricity in 2010. Another $375,000 will be distributed to members from unretired capital credit allocations in 1983.

The refund for most members this month represents a 1.5 percent rebate, or an average of $25 per member, on the amount of electricity used last year. Active members will receive a credit on their December bill, and inactive members will receive a check after December 15. The individual member’s share of the refund is based on the volume and value of energy purchased during the years being retired.

“Allocating and retiring patronage to members helps distinguish cooperatives and makes our business model unique,” said General Manager Rick Lemonds. “The board recently took a major shift in how it retires capital credits, and we are retiring patronage from 2010. It’s been the board’s goal to reach a hybrid process which allows capital credit retirements to be paid to both current and former members.”

Member equity, or capital credits, is created when any earnings (revenues minus expenses) are left over at the end of each year. This creates a margin. At the end of each year, the co-op assigns each member’s account a share of the margin, known as an allocation. Capital credits are distributed when the board authorizes a retirement.

“Margins earned from electric revenues are a key source of equity for not-for-profit electric cooperatives,” said Lemonds. “Anytime we need to borrow money for capital improvements, lenders look to the underlying financial strength of the electric co-op. Strong and consistent equity levels are one key aspect of financial strength. It’s essential for a co-op to maintain the right balance between retiring capital credits to members and retaining sufficient equity on its balance sheet.”

Before returning these margins back to members, Lake Country Power uses this capital to help offset the cost of debt for equipment and materials used for the construction and maintenance of the electric distribution system. This helps lower financing needs.

More than $26 million in capital credits has been returned to cooperative members through the years. For more information about capital credits, visit Lake Country Power’s Web site at www.lakecountrypower.coop.

Lake Country Power is a Touchstone Energy® cooperative serving parts of eight counties in northeastern Minnesota. The rural electric cooperative provides services to nearly 43,000 members and has offices located in Grand Rapids, Kettle River and Mountain Iron.

Great River Energy has owned the Elk River Resource Processing Plant for more than a year now.  This facility processes the municipal solid waste used to make refuse-derived fuel for our Elk River Energy Recovery Station.

The plant has yet another reason to celebrate; 100 percent of the incoming municipal solid waste was turned into refuse derived fuel or recycled products in the month of October. This was the first time in the history of the project that the processing plant did not landfill any materials.

Learn more about  Great River Energy’s Elk River Resource Recovery Project:

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You don’t need to have the highest power bill in town to have the best holiday lighting display on the block. Before those dusty, old decorative lights come out of the box, our member cooperatives are asking their members to consider whether it’s time for an energy-efficient upgrade.

New LED (light emitting diode) technology offers more reliable and longer-lasting lights that use a fraction of the electricity of traditional bulbs. These high-quality lights can last up to 10 times longer than incandescent strands, are cool to the touch and aren’t sensitive to extreme temperature changes. They’re available in a wide variety of colors, shapes and lengths to fit your decorating style.

Although they cost a bit more, Great River Energy is helping make them more affordable with money-saving promotions. Through Dec. 24, members of Great River Energy member cooperatives can save $2 on LED light bulbs during the Make the Switch promotion.

As part of the Make the Switch promotion, cooperative members can also enter the sweepstakes for one grand prize of a $500 energy credit. Details and participation information for the sweepstakes are available at MNBrighterIdeas.com.

Recycle your old lights
Great River Energy has teamed up with the Recycling Association of Minnesota (RAM) to sponsor a holiday light recycling program. Cooperative members can drop off their old, incandescent lights at RAM recycling stations throughout the state.

Among the seven cooperative principles is one known as “concern for community,” which states that beyond providing service to members, cooperative businesses must work toward the development of sustainable communities.

Great River Energy works with each of our 28 member cooperatives to ensure that the communities they serve have economic activity, jobs and all of those things that make an area a great place to live. One of the most important components of livable communities is health care.

“In addition to providing reliable, affordable power, we’re out to increase the quality of life of our members,” said Great River Energy Economic Development Director Tom Lambrecht. “Health care is a vital component of community strength.”

The new Essentia Health St. Mary’s-Pelican Rapids Clinic opened in late October.

Great River Energy has helped enhance health care in greater Minnesota by helping its members earn funding from state, regional and national programs that offer grants and loans.

“Our members are tuned in to what’s going on in the community, so we help them get the financial boost that they may need to bring a project to reality,” added Lambrecht.

Great River Energy’s economic development efforts have generated $3.5 million in funding for hospitals and clinics that serve Minnesota’s cooperative members. This year alone, Great River Energy has helped three cooperatives secure financing for major expansions at medical facilities.

Through a program of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Lake Region Electric Cooperative received more than $680,000 in funding for Essentia Health St. Mary’s Clinic to build a new clinic in Pelican Rapids, Minn. According to the terms of the USDA Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant (REDLG) program, the loan will be made with a low interest rate.

In February, Great River Energy assisted North Itasca Electric Cooperative in securing a $740,000 loan that will be used to remodel and expand the Bigfork Valley Hospital. The project includes a new outpatient pharmacy, 24-hour wellness area, dietary kitchen and conference rooms.

A $740,000 USDA loan was recently awarded to Lake Country Power to re-lend to the Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet, Minn., for an expansion project. Although Lake Country Power doesn’t provide electric service to the hospital, the residents in the surrounding townships will benefit from the hospital expansion.

The economic development efforts of Great River Energy and its member cooperatives are another way that electric cooperatives are improving the quality of life in communities they serve.

In 2007, Minnesota passed a law that required all the state’s electric utilities to fulfill a quarter of their energy needs with renewable resources by 2025. Although the final goal is more than a decade away, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission recently requested that utilities report requirement’s cost or benefit to consumers.

Great River Energy reported that in 2010 the estimated wholesale rate impact of the Renewable Energy Standard (RES) requirement to our members was $22 million. That amounts to $0.002 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), which means that a home using 1,000 kWh per month would pay an additional $24 every year as a result of the RES.

The report included costs associated with renewable generation from wind and biomass as well as administrative and transmission costs. Great River Energy’s primary reason for higher costs is that our cost of purchasing wind energy was higher than the value of that energy, on average, during the times of production.

Until energy market prices recover from the recent lows, renewable energy is expected to continue to be a cost to Great River Energy. However, if prices rebound renewable resources could become economical.

“At this point, the environmental benefits of wind energy are coming at a cost to our members,” said Great River Energy Member Services Vice President Jon Brekke. “The impacts could grow as we ramp up to the full 25 percent goal by 2025, but this depends on many complex factors including future market conditions.”

These costs are not unique to Great River Energy. Other utilities also reported on RES impacts using various calculation methods. As a result of the various methods and unique resource portfolios, there was wide variation in reported cost impacts.

Our existing renewable energy resources (including wind and biomass) will ensure that we remain compliant with Minnesota’s RES through at least 2020.

Great River Energy invested early in wind generation in an effort to claim the best sites for wind resources and transmission access. Existing projects have also benefited from federal tax incentives which are scheduled to expire at the end of 2012.

A recent survey of cooperative businesses showed that Great River Energy is among the biggest in the United States.

Each year, the cooperative bank NCB announces the top 100 cooperatives in America to demonstrate the business activity and economic power of member-owned businesses. In 2011, Great River Energy was listed 58th largest in terms of revenue.

Cooperative entities exist in many industries, including agriculture, grocery, hardware, finance and housing. According to NCB, cooperatives provide more than 850,000 jobs and create more than $74 billion in annual wages with combined revenue of nearly $500 billion.