5.3 ERMUSR 02-09-2021 - Laserfiche WebLink

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______________________________________________________________________________ Page 4 of 8 Theme 3: Strategic Thinking – Create a culture of strategic thinking and ensure line of sight from mission to vision. • Landfill Gas Plant – As the current Landfill Gas Plant contracts expire in 2022, the future of this project is being evaluated with this initiative. Staff has worked with Waste Management and other stakeholders to determine the possibilities of future operations of the facility past 2022 and has had positive feedback. Staff is currently working with legal counsel on new contracts and the transition process. • Volt/VAR Control – This initiative was created to investigate methods to identify and predict peak usage times and implement Volt/Volt-Amps Reactive (VAR) control strategies to reduce peak usage. Information gathering started in 2020 and will continue into 2021. • Conservation Improvement Program (CIP) Redevelopment – This was an initiative started in 2019 with the legislative efforts to modernize CIP and stalled due to misalignment of goals between the Senate, House, and the Executive branch. For 2020, the focus shifted to the Governor’s Clean Energy First and then the Energy Conservation and Optimization Act which also stalled and has now been reintroduced in 2021. We will continue to work with MMUA and other organizations to advocate for effective conservation efforts and energy policy. Theme 4: Technology – Implement the prudent use of technology to improve efficiency and increase customer choice, communication, and value. • ESRI GIS Mapping – Work continued on the transition from paper maps to electronic mapping for all ERMU field staff. The original thought was to utilize ESRI’s Portal platform to accomplish this, however the decision to add on mPower Innovations Integrator software was made in an effort to streamline and simplify the user interface with training and implementation to follow early in 2021. This project will integrate the GIS models with NISC software databases to provide additional map functionality and efficiencies as well as make GIS data available to all ERMU employees. The future roadmap will include transitioning from a geometric network to ArcGIS Utility Network which is the next evolution of GIS. • Cyber & Physical Security – With the hiring of our IT/OT Technician, this initiative is back on track, after stalling last year due to lack of IT resources. The goal of this initiative is to evaluate all cyber and physical security and then develop comprehensive policy as needed, working with a joint committee. ERMU IT and the City of Elk River IT have reviewed the individual policies that came out of the analysis from a third-party consultant and will be meeting with the full committee in June 2021 to review. • ERMU Fiber Backbone Buildout Plan – This initiative seeks to plan for having a fiber network to all our facilities. In 2021 we have budgeted for extensions to the North and Waco substations. 64