5.6 ERMUSR 09-13-2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

______________________________________________________________________________ Page 1 of 2 UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING TO: ERMU Commission FROM: Theresa Slominski - General Manager MEETING DATE: September 13, 2022 AGENDA ITEM NUMBER: 5.6 SUBJECT: Central Municipal Power Agency Services Transmission Opportunity ACTION REQUESTED: None, unless opposed to participation DISCUSSION: In 2006 Elk River Municipal Utilities (ERMU) first identified and submitted our transmission assets for revenue return through Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO). These assets are part of our substations. In 2008 we became transmission owners with the building of the Brookings Line through the “CAPX” transmission project. ERMU participated in the CAPX transmission project with other utilities in Minnesota and Iowa with Central Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (CMMPA) coordinating all the participating utilities’ bonding pledges. There were no cash resources required for investment as CMMPA secured bonds with the utilities’ pledges and those bond proceeds were the investment. In 2010 we received our first revenue payment and since that time we have received over $3 million. CMMPA has since become Central Municipal Power Agency Services (CMPAS, pronounced “compass”), although CMMPA is still the bonding entity for projects. Also, the CAPX partners are now called Grid North Partners as they seek to build more transmission for grid resiliency and to reduce transmission constraints in the north. CMPAS hosted a webinar August 30 to discuss another transmission opportunity CMMPA will be embarking on. They are adding a second circuit (no poles, just wires) to the Brookings line and anticipate the cost to be $1.2 million. With the funding of the original Brookings line there is approximately $2.5 million in reserves that will be used to fund this project, so no additional bonding or pledging is necessary. Currently those reserves are in savings and earn less than 1% so this would bring additional return to the partners on existing funds. It is too early in the process to know the exact return but is estimated to be 5-6%. CMPAS doesn’t need any approval to move forward with these reserve funds to fund this project, however, to be completely transparent they wanted their partners to be made aware and give any partner the opportunity to say no. We need to let CMPAS know by September 15 that we have made our Commission aware and if there is a no. The CMPAS board will be voting on this project at their September 21 meeting. The talking points that CMPAS shared with us are attached for your review. 98