5.2. ERMUSR 01-13-2009 - Laserfiche WebLink

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participate in Excelsior they could account for as much as 75% of the plant's capacity. A variety of other public power entities have also expressed some level of interest in Excelsior. It is possible, although by no means assured, that public power could take most or even all of the output of the project. MCMU has signed a nonbinding agreement with Excelsior to work with them to explore the municipals' level of interest in participating in the project. Excelsior will be compensating MCMU for its efforts, and since MMUA staff also provide staffing to MCMU, MMUA will be receiving some revenue through the MCMU-Excelsior agreement. We anticipate that the process will begin with a pair of informational meetings in January. One will be held in Grand Rapids and will be geared toward the Minnesota Power customer group. The other will be held in the Metro azea and will be geazed toward other potentially interested participants. Service Territory Negotiations. For many years the right of municipal utilities to grow with their cities has been a source of tension between municipals and co-ops. In the last 5 years or so the stakes have become higher for municipal utilities because of a series of decisions by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission providing much higher compensation awards to the co-ops than had been seen in previous yeazs. In recent yeazs the tide has begun to turn back toward the municipals as our systems began taking service territory cases through the eminent domain process rather than proceeding to the MPUC. Decisions by the eminent domain commissioners have been much more reasonable and more in line with earlier awards. About a year ago Mark Glaess of the Minnesota Rural Electric Association approached Greg Oxley at a meeting and suggested that it might be time for the two sides to sit down at see if we could find a mutually acceptable solution to the service territory issue. After some further discussions it was agreed that we would sit down with the co-ops and attempt to resolve the issue. Each side appointed a seven member team for the negotiations, I and staff also participated. The two teams met several times over the course of several months. I think it's fair to say that both teams were committed to finding a solution and the meetings generally went well. At the conclusion of our last meeting on July 21, we had established a framework for a comprehensive service territory agreement that could be enacted into law. Only a few outstanding issues remained. MMUA staff began preparing a bill draft that would incorporate the agreement into iaw. Unfortunately, that turned out to be the last time the two sides would meet. ' MMUA's team consisted of Arlo Rude, Thief River Falls; Brad Roos, Marshall; Gary Gleisner, New Ulm; Steve Shurts, Owatonna; Al Crowser, Alexandria; Bill Schwandt, Moorhead; and Walt Lorber, Rochester. Scott Hain of Worthington was added to the group shortly after the process began, and several other municipal personnel participated in various discussions and meetings.