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After nearly two years of meetings and negotiations, our CIP bill, the Conservation Improvement Program Modernization Act,
was introduced in the Senate (SF 1915) and House (HF 1839) the last week of February. Senator Rarick (R-11) and Representative Ecklund (R-03A) authored the bills with several bi-partisan co-authors.
HISTORY OF CIP
The current CIP program was enacted in 2007 as part of the Next Generation Energy Act and established annual goals for all utilities to reduce electricity sales by at least 1.5 percent, and spend at least 1.5 percent of their revenues on measures to reduce energy use every year. At that time, cost was a barrier for mass adoption of energy efficient appliances and lighting. Over the last 12 years, the program has helped to bring energy efficient technologies to market reducing kilowatt hours and carbon emissions.
PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
Since its inception, the objective of the CIP program has changed. Once a mechanism for curbing electricity use, Minnesota energy policy aims to reduce carbon emissions and incentivize the adoption of electric vehicles and other carbon neutral technologies. The CIP Modernization Act proposes to:
• Encourage innovation with future technologies by allowing for .5 percent of the 1.5 percent annual energy-savings goal to come from efficient electrification and conversion improvements;
• Eliminate the 1.5 percent spending requirement in its entirety;
• Provide for a multiple year plan, and flexibility in plan design and metrics, up to five years;
• Retain exemption for small cooperatives and municipals; and
• Improve administration of the program.
The Senate Energy and Utilities Finance and Policy Committee heard the bill March 5 with testimony from Connexus Energy CEO Greg Ridderbusch and Rochester Public Utilities General Manager Mark Kotschevar. It passed on a 7-2 vote and was re-referred to the Senate Finance Committee, marking standard procedure for advancement. Next steps in the House remain uncertain. Please encourage your senator(s) to support the bill and ask your representative(s) to sign on as an author.
March 2019
REPORT
GRATITUDEThe service MREA provides its membership is possible, in large part, through the enduring support of other member-
owned cooperatives. Federated Rural Electric Insurance Exchange, CoBank and National Rural Electric Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC) presented MREA with generous donations at the 2019 annual meeting. MREA and members in attendance shared our gratitude during their presentations.
MREA and its membership benefit from strong relationships with our vendor members. In addition to their participation in trade shows and gracious support of the annual Burn Center Golf Tournament, vendor members sponsor a variety of events throughout the year. A special thanks to our 2019 annual meeting sponsors!
T he power of your membership at work! MREA has two hands-on safety tools available for member use.
The driving simulator provides 10 short lessons to “drive” through as you review key driving skills. Employees are able to select a specific vehicle, such as a bucket truck and then, using a steering wheel and voice commands, actively complete a lesson.
The hazard hamlet is used to teach electrical safety to all ages using a tabletop display. Scenes are available showing substations, kites on lines, home systems and even a vehicle that has hit a pole; visual sounds and lighting simulate electrical contacts.
If you would like to reserve either of these tools for an employee meeting, community safety demonstration, your annual meeting or other events, please contact Lidia Dilley Jacobson.
SAFETY RESOURCES AVAILABLE
CIP REFORM LEGISLATION INTRODUCED
By Lidia Dilley Jacobson, Director, Safety and Loss Control
With the 2019 MREA annual meeting in the rearview mirror, I ask myself how I would I explain the value of it to an outsider
or a new director. The fact that we are required by law to have an annual meeting and report to the members the health of the organization is only a small part.
Interaction with the staff and board by the members is what gives the organization an identity instead of being just an acronym. Communications can be written and they can be read but there is no substitute for face to face dialogue to really understand an issue.
One of the most important parts of the annual meeting is the opportunity to listen to our legislators on issues that are important to us, but even more important is our presence in their offices where we can voice our concerns about the issues that affect our member owners. I think there were about 330 people registered this year, and if you multiply that times the number of members we each represent, we should, and do, have a very powerful voice.
All of the above are good reasons to attend the annual meeting but the single best reason is the interaction and bonding that occurs among a group of people with common goals. I enjoy watching at meals when complete strangers set at a table together and start talking. Before you know it, a new friendship is born. I certainly have made dozens of new friends among my peers this way. I am always so excited to spend a little time with them that I forget I am supposed to be there for a purpose. Why do I feel this is so important? This is what creates the unity that gives this organization the strength it has had in the past and what will make it a force to be reckoned with far into the future.
ANNUAL MEETING REPORTBy Wes Waller, MREA Board Chair
MREA GOVERNANCEElections for the MREA board were held Feb. 20 at our 78th annual meeting for districts 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7. Incumbents Rick Coe (D1), Warren Rau (D3), John Wells (D6) and Janet Lekson (D7) were re-elected for a three-year term from 2019 to 2021. In District 4, Jerry Tvedt from East Central Energy replaces Butch Lindenfelser.
MREA OFFICERSWes Waller, North Itasca Electric Cooperative (D2) – ChairTom Woinarowicz, PKM Electric Cooperative (D1) – First Vice Chair*Rick Coe, Beltrami Electric Cooperative (D1) – Second Vice ChairRon Stevens, MiEnergy Cooperative (D6) – SecretaryJanet Lekson, Dakota Electric Association (D7) – Treasurer*newly elected in 2019
The biennial NRECA director election was also held during the annual meeting. Tim Velde from Minnesota Valley Cooperative Light & Power Association will replace Ron Schwartau, Nobles Electric Cooperative, in 2020 at the time of the NRECA annual meeting.
Please join me in congratulating Jerry Tvedt and Tim Velde on their new positions, and thanking Butch Lindenfelser and Ron Schwartau for their long-standing service. Butch is a director with Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association and served on MREA’s board from 2013 and was elected as 2nd Vice Chair in 2015.
We appreciate everyone’s attendance and engagement in the annual meeting and look forward to seeing you at an upcoming MREA event!
MREA staff
MREA board of directors
Tim Velde and Ron Schwartau
Darrick Moe, Butch Lindenfelser and Wes Waller
MREA leadership team panel
BENCO Electric Cooperative has a new outpost called the Faribault County outpost. In 2015, BENCO had an outpost in
Frost with two linemen, a maintenance building in Winnebago with four linemen and a district manager at BENCO headquarters. As a member of Southern Minnesota Energy Cooperative (SMEC), BENCO acquired an Alliant outpost in Winnebago. After much discussion, the decision was made to sell the three existing properties and build a new facility in a central location to consolidate the crews and better serve members. BENCO broke ground on the Faribault County Outpost on May 17, 2018 and opened in November 2018. The outpost is located on the north side of Interstate 90 at Blue Earth and will cover all of Faribault County and the southern tier of Blue Earth County.
BENCO ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE HAS A NEW OUTPOST CALLED FARIBAULT COUNTY OUTPOST
Pictured left to right Blaine Hougen, Clay Hill, Len Dohm, Wade Groskreutz and Mark Kermes. Not pictured Duane Hagen
RUS LOAN AND GRANT RECIPIENTNONDISCRIMINATION AND BYLAW PUBLISHING REQUIREMENTS
During MREA’s fall Communicators Network, our members had questions about where the USDA nondiscrimination statement and co-op bylaws need to be published. We sent an email to Minnesota Cooperative CEOs and communicators, provided by Robyn Jensen, GFR, Rural Development, Rural Utilities Service with answers to these questions on October 12, 2018. As a reminder, we are providing another high-level summary of the requirements.
Nondiscrimination Statement publication requirements - All RUS loan and grant recipients are required, in accordance with USDA Departmental Regulation (DR) 4300-003, to post the nondiscrimination statement in all recipient offices and to include the statement on all print and non-print materials produced for public information, public education and public distribution. Such materials include pamphlets, brochures, newsletters, websites, news releases, advertisements and outreach letters. 1
Download DR 4300-003 Equal Opportunity Publication Notification.
Cooperative Bylaw publications requirements - Bulletin 1790-1 dated 1/29/2000 Section 10.2 is noted below. Robin Jensen said, “Since the Bulletin is dated 2000, it does not contain language regarding posting the Bylaws on the Cooperative’s website. Therefore, the section on the new Civil Rights Review Form – amended March 2018 is somewhat open regarding the Bylaws.”
10.2 Cooperative Bylaws: The bylaws constitute a contract between the customer and the cooperative or mutual-type corporation. A copy of the bylaws must be available at the cooperative’s office. Also, each new patron is to be provided with a copy of the bylaws.
The FIELD ACTIVITIES REPORT RUS FORM 9 (Civil Rights Compliance Review) asks these specific questions about the cooperative bylaws: BYLAWS (Cooperative-type organizations only):
a. Are copies of the bylaws given to each new member (Yes/No)? If ‘No’ above, explain:b. It is imperative that members be provided with a summary of the bylaws section on the election process prior to the
nomination of candidates for board positions. Explain below how co-op met this requirement, and list the notification dates for these actions in VIII.b below for each meeting.
c. Any age restrictions in the cooperative’s bylaws that prevent a bona fide member from nomination or election to serve on the board of directors is a civil rights violation. Are there any age restrictions in the cooperative bylaws for cooperative board service? (Yes/No)?
Most RUS regulations and bulletins can be found at https://www.rd.usda.gov/publications/regulations-guidelines. Contact your cooperative’s assigned GFR for a copy of the most recent Civil Rights Compliance Review Form.
For further information or questions, contact your cooperative’s assigned GFR: Robyn J. Jensen: [email protected] J. Bormann: [email protected] L. Jones: [email protected] Tim Bohan: [email protected] L. Schlaeppi: [email protected]
1McBride, Brandon. “Revised Guidance Regarding the Use of the Updated USDA Nondiscrimination Statement.” To Rural Utilities Service Loan and Grant Recipients, March 16, 2016.
By Shari Wormwood, Communication Specialist
visit: waterfurnace.com
call: (260) 442-5374
Considering using geothermal to heat and cool your home?
TRUST YOUR COMFORT WITH AN EXPERT.
Minnesota renewable energy policy continues to evolve. During the past year, the Minnesota Public Utilities
Commission (PUC) approved the new Minnesota Distributed Energy Resource Interconnection Process (MN DIP) and the accompanying Minnesota Interconnection Distributed Energy Resource Interconnection Process Agreement (MN DIA). These two documents will become active June 17, 2019 and replace the existing Minnesota Interconnection Process established in 2003. By statute, cooperatives have a choice to adopt the MN DIP and MN DIA or adopt their own interconnection process that addresses the issues in the PUC order.
MREA teamed up with Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association (MMUA) to create a consumer-friendly version of the MN DIP and MN DIA. These documents, referred to as the Cooperative Minnesota Distributed Energy Resource Interconnection Process (C-MIP), are available to review on MREA’s website. C-MIP introduces the concept of process tracks dependent on system size and technology that distributed energy resources would
follow during the interconnection process. C-MIP also includes; changes in application fees, timelines and forms to be used during the interconnection application process.
All cooperatives must adopt a new version of the interconnection process prior to June 2019 through a board resolution. With the adoption of C-MIP, the cooperative’s distribution generation policy and cogeneration rules are updated. Minor changes were made to the cooperative uniform contract, also known as the net metering contract, to address changes in the new interconnection process. Interconnection applications that are received prior to the cooperative board adopting C-MIP will continue to follow the existing interconnection process. A sample resolution, the updated policy and cogeneration rules can also be found on the MREA website.
Later this year we expect the PUC will also approve new technical requirements for distributed energy resources that utilities and installers must follow.
MREA, MMUA TEAM UP TO CREATECOOPERATIVE MINNESOTA DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCE INTERCONNECTION PROCESS (C-MIP)
