Join other CLP and Arrowhead Electric members on September 30th – October 3rd for a bus tour to North Da- kota, including stops at Coal Creek Power Station, Falkirk Mine, Garrison Dam, and a day at the Minot Hostfest. e cost of the tour is $375 for a double occupancy reservation or $275 for a single occupancy reservation. is modest fee includes transportation (in an air-conditioned coach bus) and three nights lodging at the Ramkota Hotel Inn Bismarck, North Dakota. *You will get behind-the-scenes power plant tours including Coal Creek Station, Falkirk Mine and possibly the impressive Garrison Dam. Follow- ing the power plant tours you will enjoy a relaxing stop at the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site and learn how the Northern Plains Indians lived on the upper Missouri. You will also spend a day at the Minot Hostfest, where you can take in great entertainment and discover your Scandinavian heritage. *Schedule is subject to change. Member account number six hundred eighty six thousand three hundred sixty six. e tour will depart from CLP’s office at 7:00 a.m., Tues- day, September 30th, and will return around 6:00 p.m. Fri- day, October 3rd. Space is limited to the first eleven couples registered (or 22 individuals) with money paid and prefer- ence will be given to first time travelers. To register, send a check for the cost of the tour along with the “Reservation Form” to the CLP office. travel to coal creek, pg 1 learn about your smart meter, pg 2 know about your rates, pg 3 read the board meeting summary, pg 4 june 2014 www.clpower.com Join us on a Member’s Only Trip to Tour the Coal Creek Power Plant 2014 Coal Creek Tour Reservation Form Enclosed is a check for: ______ $375/couple reservation ______ $275/single reservation Name(s) First & Last: ______________________________________ ______________________________________ Address: _____________________________ ______________________________________ Phone: _______________________________ Email: _______________________________
Transcript
Join other CLP and Arrowhead Electric members on September 30th – October 3rd for a bus tour to North Da-kota, including stops at Coal Creek Power Station, Falkirk Mine, Garrison Dam, and a day at the Minot Hostfest. The cost of the tour is $375 for a double occupancy reservation or $275 for a single occupancy reservation. This modest fee includes transportation (in an air-conditioned coach bus) and three nights lodging at the Ramkota Hotel Inn Bismarck, North Dakota. *You will get behind-the-scenes power plant tours including Coal Creek Station, Falkirk Mine and possibly the impressive Garrison Dam. Follow-ing the power plant tours you will enjoy a relaxing stop at the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site and learn how the Northern Plains Indians lived on the upper Missouri. You will also spend a day at the Minot Hostfest, where you can take in great entertainment and discover your Scandinavian heritage. *Schedule is subject to change. Member account number six hundred eighty six thousand three hundred sixty six. The tour will depart from CLP’s office at 7:00 a.m., Tues-day, September 30th, and will return around 6:00 p.m. Fri-day, October 3rd. Space is limited to the first eleven couples registered (or 22 individuals) with money paid and prefer-ence will be given to first time travelers. To register, send a check for the cost of the tour along with the “Reservation Form” to the CLP office.
travel to coal creek, pg 1
learn about your smart meter, pg 2
know about your rates, pg 3
read the board meeting summary, pg 4
june 2014 www.clpower.com
Join us on a Member’s Only Trip to Tour the Coal Creek Power Plant
2014 Coal Creek Tour Reservation Form
Enclosed is a check for:______ $375/couple reservation______ $275/single reservation
Name(s) First & Last:____________________________________________________________________________Address: ___________________________________________________________________Phone: _______________________________
Email: _______________________________
Dear Member: Your electric cooperative is about to make a very important investment that will significantly change how we do business. Beginning this summer, CLP will contract with Elster Solutions (formerly Westinghouse) to install new, solid state, smart meters at all CLP loca-tions. A change is necessary because the antiquated meter system currently in place is no longer being manufactured or supported. Much like the meter system currently in use at each home or business, the new meters will automatically record electricity consumption, and send the information back to CLP for billing purposes. The smart meter system does much more than collect billing data, it literally brings the electric delivery sys-tem into the 21st Century. So what’s so smart about that meter? Much like your smart phone, e-reader or vehicle navigation system, a smart meter has a tiny computer inside that provides both CLP and our members two-way communication with the electric grid. This system has the ability to strengthen the grid, improve customer service, reduce operational costs and help our
members control their energy bills. Smart meters can greatly reduce the number of truck rolls needed each month. Typically, line crews head into the field to disconnect and reconnect services, measure line voltage, look for broken equipment, patrol lines and ensure that transformers are properly sized for the location. Smart meters are the connections that allow utility personnel to perform these tasks directly from their desktop computer so crews can spend time on routine maintenance, fixing problems before they even start. Member account number six hundred ninety two thou-sand one hundred twenty two. Smart meters are tied to a computer-
ized system that can pinpoint the loca-tion of an outage, often times before the consumer even realizes they are out of power. The needle-in-a-haystack approach of locating the source of a power outage will soon be replaced with a system of blinking lights on a map that indicate precisely where the outage is, and how many members are without power, getting your lights back on a lot sooner after a power outage. Smart meters allow CLP the flexibility to program a whole new rate structure that could accommodate time of use billing, seasonal rates, even pre-paid metering, ensuring our members are educated about energy consumption, and empowered to reduce their con-sumption by modifying their behaviors. Member account number six hundred twenty three thousand three hundred seventy six. Smart meters are the conduit to web portals, in-home energy displays, programmable communicating thermo-stats, smart appliances and smart phone applications that allow our members near-real-time access to their individual energy consumption data.
Continued on page 3
Watts News
What’s So Smart About That Meter? Steve Wattnem, General Manager
June 2014 - Vol. 16, Issue 6
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OFCooperative Light & Power Association of Lake County
1554 Highway 2 • P. O. Box 69Two Harbors, MN 55616
www.clpower.com
Summer Business Hours:Monday - Thursday 7:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Friday 7:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Call Before You Dig PowerLines Important Contacts800.252.1166
it’s the law!Call 800.252.1166 to locate underground wires.
You must call at least 48-hours in advance before any excavations (this notice does not include weekends, holidays or emergencies.)
CLP will only locate the underground wiresthat are owned by CLP. We do not locateor take responsibility for locating wires
beyond the meter location.
OFFICERS AND DIRECTORSRobert Nikolai, President, District 5
Jim Anderson, Vice President, District 3Peggy Kuettel, Secretary, District 1
Stanley Nelson, Treasurer, District 2Robert Strand, Director, District 4
Easy Peanut Butter FudgeFrom the Kitchen of: Roberta Peterson
3
1 tub Pillsbury Vanilla Frosting1 jar creamy peanut butter
Line a 9x9 inch pan with foil. Add frosting and peanut butter to a microwave safe bowl but do not stir. Microwave one minute and stir until combined and smooth. Pour into the lined pan and spread. Refrigerate until firm. Remove fudge from pan using foil and cut into squares. Makes approximately 12 squares.
Submit your favorite recipe. If it is printed in an issue of “Powerlines” you will receive a $5 credit on your electric bill.
Continued from page 2Detailed charts and graphs show unexplained and dramatic increases in electric usage, even helping to identify faulty appliances. Smart meters are the form of technology your CLP staff has chosen to help your cooperative run more efficient, restore power quicker, and provide you tools to manage your energy bills. Please continue to watch this space, CLP’s website and CLP’s Facebook page for more information on this exciting new technology.
Co-op Connections Corner
Featured Business:Moose-cellaneous Gifts
603 7th Ave., Two Harbors
15% off your entire purchase
To find participating businesses, please visitwww.connections.coop for full details!
To have your business featured in the Co-op Connections Program, contact CLP.
CLP Rates Stable This Year CLP is happy to announce that we will not have a cost per kWh adjustment for 2014; however, we will implement a slight adjustment to the base rate begin-ning with September’s usage, as reflected in your October billing. At the May Board Meeting, CLP’s Board of Directors voted to raise the monthly base rate by $2 each month. As you may recall, the base rate is designed to help CLP recover monthly costs up and beyond the cost of wholesale power such as fleet, transformers, meters, line maintenance, right-of-way clearing, member service support, member accounting, taxes, administra-tive responsibilities, etc. In short, CLP has monthly fixed costs associated with standing ready to provide service, whether or not a consumer uses any energy.
The last time CLP raised your base rate was in 2012. At that time, we indi-cated that we did not need a revenue increase; we needed a rate re-alignment. The rate re-alignment would help to
accommodate the percentage of our membership that used a very low number (and in many cases no) kWhs in a month. CLP implemented a Rate Study with Power Systems Engineering (PSE). PSE indicated that the true cost
of standing ready to provide service was actually $30 per general service meter per month; yet, in 2012, we only raised the base rate to $25. This year, we are adding an additional $2 per general ser-
vice meter, per month to get closer to recoup-ing our cost of doing business. Next year, we are considering closing that gap further. In 2012, we predicted that any member using 300 kWhs per month would not see an in-crease in their total en-ergy bill, and member’s using more than 300 kWhs per month would actually see a decrease
in their total energy bill. Looking at our 2013 year-end numbers, we are happy to say that our predictions came true. Member account number six hundred two thousand two hundred seventy one. The graphic above shows you exactly where every dollar you send CLP goes. With 66.5¢ of each dollar going directly to Great River Energy for wholesale power costs, we are left with little wiggle room to cover our fixed costs. Know that with every decision we make, we consider power reliability, electrical safety and financial equity for all our members.
A regular meeting of the Board of Directors was held on April 17, 2014. All Directors were present at the time the meeting was called to order at 9:36 a.m. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of the board meeting held March 20, 2014. The mo-tion was approved with minor correc-tions noted. A motion was made and seconded to accept the Financial Statements for the month of February, after explanation and discussion. Motion carried. A motion was made and seconded to accept the Outage Report for the month of March 2014. Motion carried. Manager Wattnem updated the board on his attendance at “A Day on the Hill” with the Cooperative Network, where they discussed legislative issues. Wireless internet has been busy with the new 700 MHz offering. Installation of the new 700 MHz systems should begin within the next week or two. A motion was made and seconded to approve the monthly payments as pre-sented and recommended by the audit committee. Motion carried. Jeff Dobberpuhl was on hand to discuss with the board of directors the proposed contract that Elster was for-
warded to Cooperative Light & Power that covers the new automated meter-ing infrastructure CLP is anticipating installing this next summer. Contained in the board packet was a map of the United States that showed all of the coal plant retirements that are planned over the next ten-year period and they are quite extensive. The plan seems counter to what’s happened this last winter when just about every coal-fired power plant in the United States was operating just to keep the system up and functioning. A copy of the Great River Energy 2013 Transmission Reliability Annual Report was presented to the board of directors. Overall, Great River Energy had a good year with their transmission system. Staff prepared a map that showed probable locations of a 20 kW solar system on CLP’s property. GRE is placing a 20 kW solar unit at each of its distribution member’s headquarters buildings and it was decided to place the 20 kW unit between the coopera-tive’s headquarters building and High-way #2. There being no further business to come before said meeting, adjournment was called for at 5:07 p.m.
TO REPORT AN OUTAGE:Call CLP at 834.2226 or 800.580.5881
during business hours or800.927.5550 after hours.
BEFORE calling, please check yourbreakers. If an outage is found to be on
your side of the meter, you will be billed for a service call.
SPOT YOUR NUMBER:A $10 electric credit is awarded each month to
our faithful readers. Four account numbers are spelled out in each newsletter. If you find yours, notify CLP by the 25th of that month
and a credit will be applied to your bill. Credits claimed for April: Harry & Penny
Heil, Lorrie Kinn and Roberta PetersonCredits not claimed: Loren Gardner
OPERATION ROUND UP TOTALS:April Donations: $1,580.11
Year-to-date donations: $6,033.84Thank you to all the participants! If you have
questions about Operation Round Up, or would like to apply for a grant from the Fund, please
contact CLP at 218.834.2226 or 800.580.5881, or visit our website at www.clpower.com.
Dates to Know...
June 25: CLP bills due
June 26: CLP Board Meeting
July 3: CLPOfficesCLOSED@ noon for Independence Day
Cost of Purchased Power 1,196,576$ 2,020,472$ 2,457,257$ Other Operating Expenses 784,959$ 931,985$ 1,003,102$ Total Cost of Electric Service 1,981,535$ 2,952,457$ 3,460,359$
Operating Margin (Loss) 225,440$ 144,184$ 235,706$ Interest Income 8,494$ 14,870$ 24,313$ Other Margins 60,759$ (2,447)$ (15,553)$ Capital Credits 4,392$ 9,618$ 15,589$ Total Margins 299,085$ 166,225$ 260,055$
