6.1. ERMUSR 06-14-2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Elk River~:~ .. Municipal Utilities 1306) Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 430 Elk River, MN 55330-0430 UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING Phone: 763.441.2020 Fax: 763.441.5099 TO: FROM: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Troy Adams, P.E. -Director of Operations John Dietz, Chair Daryl Thompson, Vice Chair Al Nadeau, Trustee MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER: June 14, 2011 6.1 SUBJECT: Staff Updates -Director of Operations DISCUSSION: 1 attended Great River Energy's (GRE) annual meeting on June 15` as a special guest of Connexus Energy. The general tone of the meeting was that despite the economic downturn, GRE is financially positioned well for the future. They will continue to have modest single digit rate increases during the foreseeable future. Their forecasting of modest rate increases is dependent upon many factors outside of GRE's area of direct influence. The GRE CFO explained that their willingness to raise rates and pass along power cost adjustments (PCAs) have allowed them to achieve a better financial rate which should help reduce their cost of money for capital projects. There have been many organization changes within GRE in an effort to lower costs which have included an early retirement program and also organization restructuring. In generation operations, GRE has been very proactive maintaining and updating their facilities. They have also worked towards creating local partnerships to more efficiently utilize resources and byproducts. Although GRE chose to recently build an estimated $42,000,000 headquarters in Maple Grove (and not in Elk River), at the staff level it appeazs that they understand what it is to be public power. Enclosed for your reading: • The recent MMUA Capitol Tattlers. • Star Tribune article "When water becomes the new oil, he'll be ready"