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Le Sueur City Council wants more time to consider power agency contract- Le Sueur M... Page 1 of 2 Le Sueur City Council wants more time to consider power agency contract By CJ SIEWERT csiewert @lesueurnews-herald.com I Posted: Tuesday, February 25, 2014 9:00 am Predicting the electrical needs of Le Sueur nearly three decades from now is a tough task and the City Council decided it needs more time to consider its power sales contract. The council Monday unanimously approved a motion asking for a 90-day extension to its contract-signing deadline with Minnesota Municipal Power Agency. MMPA is asking the city for a decision by March 31 on extending its power supply contact from 2040 to 2050. Discussion of the topic continued from the Feb. 10 meeting when conversations turned heated. Monday night's discussion proved to be more constructive with insight from the utility general manager of MMPA's newest member city. Troy Adams, general manager of Elk River Utilities, spoke to the City Council on how the city of Elk River went through the process of choosing MMPA as its wholesale power supplier. Elk River officials approached several power suppliers to discuss options for their city. A few items they considered with each supplier were business model, power supply, membership, governance, contract relationship, generation, transmission and carbon footprint. After weighing the pros and cons of six different power suppliers, Elk River officials saw MMPA as the power supplier that best fit their needs, Adams said, adding that the closest comparison to MMPA was Great River Energy. "In comparison the Great River Energy, MMPA has better rates, but in my opinion, [MMPA] seems to be positioned and staffed to maintain a competitive advantage," Adams said. Another positive for Le Sueur to extend its contract with MMPA, in Adams' opinion, is a favorable credit rating. "We ended up with a AA3 rating, which for a municipal load is very good," Adams said. "One of things that [bond rating agency] Moody's put in the report was because we had signed up with MMPA, we were helping protect ourselves against future risk, especially related to carbon." Many questions were brought forward about the details of MMPA's proposed contract extension. A major negative in one councilor's opinion is MMPA's power to prohibit independent purchasing of power from other facilities. htup://www.southernminn.com/le sueur news herald/news/article 3c162e8b-39f8-595e-8... 2/26/2014