2009 MRES Annual Meeting

Monday, May 11, 2008 - Recently I had the opportunity to attend the 2009 Annual Meeting for Missouri River Energy Systems (MRES) in Sioux Falls, SD. MRES is one of Moorhead’s two major electric power suppliers. The overall theme was “Balancing Our Energy Future”. Over the course of the two day conference I heard from various speakers regarding our energy balance, energy efficiency, environmental impacts, legislation, the smart grid and power delivery issues.

Speakers included:

• Tom Heller, General Manager, MRES
• Susan Stratton, Executive Director, Energy Center of Wisconsin Cost-Effective Energy Efficiency
• Tim Meeks, Administrator, Western Area Power Administration Perspectives on Energy Priorities
• Paul Boyd, Regional Technical Specialist, US Army Corp of Engineers Sedimentation Actions and Impacts in the Missouri River Basin
• Marty Kanner, Kanner & Associates, LLC Federal Legislative Outlook
• Carl Mycoff, Mycoff, Fry & Prouse LLC The Aging Workforce and Public Power’s Competitive Position
• Mike Beehler, Associate VP Transmission and Distribution, Burns & McDonnell Defining the Smart Grid for Electric Utilities
• Ray Wahle, Director of Power Supply and Operations, MRES MRES Generation and Transmission Update
• Harold Schiebout, Sioux Center Municipal Utilities and MRES Chairman of the Board.

I would like to single out the presentation from Ms. Stratton to give you a glimpse of the information presented by these top-quality speakers.

As mentioned above, Stratton’s presentation was titled: Cost-Effective Energy Efficiency. Stratton’s position is that when it comes to using energy more wisely the very first thing we should consider is to implement energy efficient measures if possible. You’ve heard it before, “Reduce, reuse, recycle.” Efficiency is the “reduce” part.

Stratton also reminded us that incandescent bulbs will start to be phased out in 2012. When only compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL) are available she humorously noted that utilities might want to reconsider their CFL bulb give-away programs!

Another reminder from Stratton was the deadline for federal stimulus applications, June 25, 2009. Moorhead Public Service (MPS) is looking into some possibilities here so keep posted for further updates on this topic.

An interesting concept that Stratton brought up was that of “Blitz” programs, that is to say implementing community-wide energy efficient programs. I take blitzing to mean more than just a marketing campaign, but something more concrete where people and businesses engage in some measureable energy efficient activity. This is a great idea that I believe MPS should give some thought to.

Finally, Stratton summarized energy efficiency tools utilities should be familiar with:

• Energy Efficiency measures. Remember the “reduce” part?
• Consider increase use of renewable energy supplies.
• Energy from waste materials.
• Infrastructure improvements.
• Continued/increased use of load management strategies.
• Combined heat and power applications.

In short, it was a great conference with a lot of great ideas presented!
Posted by: MPS Energy Services Manager, Dennis Eisenbraun