by Brad Dolinski

Good afternoon NIECI!

We’ve been having a splash of incredible weather lately!  Today is the 15th of November; it’s a lovely fifty-one degrees outside.  This weather may not be great for the deer hunters, but it’s nice not going toe to toe with old man winter yet.  I was visiting with my friend and neighbor Linda last night about the weather and deer season, seems like a lot of us are down on our luck this year.  I’ve been fortunate enough to see the same group of does and fawns hanging out, nothing I can harvest yet.  I’m hunting in a bucks only zone, sooner or later one should present itself.

Monthly I attend a member manager meeting at Great River Energy.  This meeting is to update all the CEOs on the operations and finances at GRE.  We discuss rates, programs and needs back home with GRE and my CEO peers from across Minnesota.  I generally write my article after I’ve returned from GRE; often there are important things I want to share with you from this meeting. 

First item, there has been some talk about reliability concerns this winter on the system we share.  Several power plants have shut down throughout the MISO footprint and in other independent system operators’ territories.  These plant closures reduce the total amount of power that is available to be shared between systems.  You can learn more about MISO by visiting their website at www.MISOENERGY.org. MISO is the air traffic control for the grid we are part of. 

The warnings came from an organization called NERC.  The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) is a not-for-profit international regulatory authority whose mission is to assure the effective and efficient reduction of risks to the reliability and security of the grid. NERC develops and enforces Reliability Standards; annually

assesses seasonal and long-term reliability; monitors the bulk power system through system awareness; and educates, trains and certifies industry personnel. NERC’s area of responsibility spans the continental United States, Canada, and the northern portion of Baja California, Mexico. NERC is the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) for North America, subject to oversight by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and governmental authorities in Canada. NERC’s jurisdiction includes users, owners, and operators of the bulk power system, which serves nearly 400 million people.  This information was cited from www.nerc.com.

What are we doing about this?  GRE has assured me we have plenty of power in our region to carry the winter peak.  MISO requires us to have resource adequacy to 107% of our peak load to be a participant in MISO.  Recently the Public Utilities Commission approved our need to install diesel capability at one of our peaking plants.  This plant would only burn on diesel if natural gas was not available.  This change improves the reliability of the system in extreme situations.  These peaking plants are necessary to maintain the flow of power to your homes.  The peaking plants are resources that are normally not run, they are called on in times of need.  This could be due to load needs, or it could be because of events like transmission outages.  Installing another source of fuel improves the resource adequacy of a power plant. 

We are also working on transmission lines to our region.  There has been significant work to improve the transmission system where congestion issues were causing problems.  Congestion is like getting a cold, you can’t breathe through your nose.  Similarly, if there is too much power in one region, it cannot flow to where it is needed, the lines just aren’t big enough.  Southern Minnesota has been the focus of this congestion.  A lot of wind development has been happening in these areas.  The system wasn’t designed to carry power from all these wind farms back when it was built.  We need to make improvements to correct this issue; these improvements ultimately cost money.  This year I expect a 2.4% rate increase from GRE to North Itasca Electric.  These increases will need to be passed to our Member-Owners.

Thanksgiving is next week; I want to wish all of you Happy Thanksgiving.  Here’s to eating too much with friends and family, safe travels, and soon great ice fishing.

By your side! Miigwech

Brad