6.2. ERMUSR 09-09-2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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i Elk River Municipal Utilities 322 King Avenue phone: 763.441.2020 Elk River,MN 55330 Fax:763.441.8099 September 4, 2003 To: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission John Dietz Jerry Takle James Tralle From: Bryan C. Adams Subject: Electric & Water Production The production report in the financial section, reflects monthly electric and water statistics. In August, we established new consumption peaks for this year The electric peak occurred on August 18, with an approximate non coincident peak of 40,432 kw. Monthly sales will pushing 18,000,000 kwh. We are still awaiting the final numbers from Great River Energy. Our electric system responded very well. The landfill generator was producing at capacity as usual. The wind generation was barely producing at 46 kw also as usual. Attached is an article from August 31, 2003, Star Tribune toting the 1,000 mw of power in Minnesota. Articles like this, lead people to believe that wind power is the solution to power shortages. Our 660 kw unit only produced 46 kw when we needed it. I wonder what the 1,000 mw produced at the monthly system peak. On August 18th, we pumped 4,477,000 gallons of water which is our yearly high. Total August pumpage was a little under 120,000,000 gallons. Our all time system peak occurred in July of 2001 with a peak day of 5,323,000 gallons and monthly pumpage of 122,249,000 gallons. It would appear our sprinkling restrictions are effective to some degree. When we pump our wells hard, as we did in August, we get concerned about the ground water levels and long term ground water depletion. In 2002, your staff on a monthly basis, started measuring static and pumping levels in our well. We are looking for short term and long term trends in ground water levels. The attached spread sheet and graph reflects the results to date. We do drop the static and pumping water levels in some of the wells by as much as 10 to 20 feet during periods of high pumping, but the water level appears to recover during off peak season. We do not want to lower the water level to the point where the ground water does not recover, or expose the pump to air instead of the pump being submerged.