 
July 15, 2010
Harold Schiebout earns APPA Harold Kramer-John Preston Personal Service Award
Harold Schiebout, director of government relations and special projects for Sioux Center, Iowa, Municipal Utilities, received the American Public Power Association’s (APPA) Harold Kramer-John Preston Personal Service Award at the Association’s national conference in Orlando, Fla. This award recognizes service to APPA through substantial contributions toward Association goals.
Schiebout began his career with the City of Sioux Center in 1959 as line foreman. Over the next 46 years, he served the city in various capacities including 32 years as utilities manager and 11 years as city manager. Since his retirement in 2005, he has assisted the City of Sioux Center with a variety of special projects and continues to serve as the City’s member representative to MRES.
Nationally, his work includes more than 30 years as an active representative to APPA on behalf of Sioux Center. That service includes terms on the APPA Board of Directors, the APPA Executive Committee, and the DEED Board of Directors. In 1991 he won APPA’s James D. Donovan Individual Achievement Award.
While Schiebout was in the beginning stages of his long public power career, the organization that is, today, Missouri River Energy Services (MRES), was formed in Sioux Center. Since 1975, he has served on the MRES Board of Directors, and since 1986, he has served as that Board’s chairman. His contributions have helped lead MRES to become one of the nation’s leading, most well-respected joint-action agencies. He also continues to be an active participant in APPA’s Legislative Rally, and other advocacy efforts. He is a long-time member of the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities’ Legislative and Regulatory Committee and currently serves as that committee’s chair. In addition, he maintains his long association with the Mid-West Electric Consumers Association, a regional coalition of consumer-owned utilities that purchase power from federal projects in the Missouri River Basin.
June 15, 2010
MRES members gain improved access to utility products and services
MRES and its member communities are now part of Hometown Connections, a network of public power systems from across the U.S., that have access to a wide range of state-of-the-art technologies, utility operations products and services. The MRES Board of Directors voted to join Hometown Connections at its May 13 meeting.
Hometown Connections offers national discount pricing for utility-related products and services including SCADA systems, smart metering, engineering analysis, software, cyber security, customer and employee research, online energy audits, and property and casualty/information security insurance. It also offers consulting in the areas of broadband smart grid communications and business strategy development. It is a utilities service subsidiary of the American Public Power Association, the national trade organization serving locally owned, locally controlled electric utilities.
“MRES and Hometown Connections share the same fundamental values,” said MRES CEO Tom Heller. “The mission of both organizations is to provide the highest quality utility operations products and services that add value to public power systems. We are pleased to work with the Hometown Connections team because they share our commitment to excellence and the success of public power managers and citizens.”
Tim Blodgett, president and CEO of Hometown Connections, said, “By joining the Hometown Connections network of affiliated organizations, MRES is helping its members purchase leading products and national discount pricing and to access our deep knowledge of utility management best practices gathered through our work with more than 700 public power systems across the U.S. The marketing alliance with MRES helps us to target our products and services in ways that meet the needs of local markets and customers.”
May 18, 2010
Hutchinson Utilities Commission agrees to long-term power sale agreement with MRES
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Missouri River Energy Services (MRES) will begin supplying Hutchinson with 15 megawatts of baseload power 24 hours a day starting in September, which amounts to more than 40 percent of Hutchinson’s annual energy needs.
The Hutchinson Utilities Commission (HUC) and MRES signed a long-term power sale agreement Thursday that will extend through Jan. 1, 2046. The 15-megawatt level will remain steady through 2012. Beginning in January 2013, it will rise to 25 megawatts, which will amount to about 70 percent of Hutchinson’s current annual energy needs.
“We’ve been working with HUC since 2005 to find a solution to the city’s baseload power needs in a way that provides value to both Hutchinson and MRES,” said Jeff Peters, director of Marketing and Development for MRES. “This agreement is a reflection of the efforts we’ve put into those discussions.”
MRES, headquartered in Sioux Falls, S.D., is made up of 60 member communities in the states of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. It is a not-for-profit joint-action agency that already has long-term power sale agreements with 58 of its members. Hutchinson has been a member of the organization since March 2006.
The other long-term MRES customers receive an average of almost half of their power needs from the federal government’s Western Area Power Administration (WAPA), which sells renewable hydroelectricity generated at dams along the Missouri River. Hutchinson is the first long-term customer of MRES that does not have a contract with WAPA.
However, there is a renewable component in the new agreement. Peters said one of its unique features is that, with the power it sells to HUC, MRES will provide the same level of non-hydro renewable energy toward meeting the State of Minnesota’s renewable energy requirements as it does for its other long-term power supply members in the state. MRES derives its electricity from facilities that use a variety of fuels including coal, natural gas, and wind. In 2010, about 12 percent of its energy is expected to come from wind generation.
MRES is entitled to 82.4 megawatts of wind power from facilities located in Minnesota and North Dakota. The Minnesota wind farms, which account for 42.4 megawatts, include community-based projects near Odin and Marshall, as well as a project near Worthington.
“We are glad to have this arrangement with MRES in place,” said Mike Kumm, general manager of HUC. “The agreement will supply us with a reliable, reasonably priced supply of electricity for many years to come. MRES has been a power supply organization for more than 30 years and has built a solid reputation for high-quality, low-cost service to its members.”
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For more information, contact MRES Marketing and Development Director Jeff Peters, phone: 605-929-6691.
December 11, 2009
Rugby Wind Project begins commercial operation
Sioux Falls, S.D. -- MRES added 40 megawatts of renewable energy to its portfolio as the Rugby Wind Project began commercial operation Dec. 1.
The facility is located north of Rugby in north central North Dakota. In all, the project includes 71 wind generators with a total capacity of 149 megawatts. MRES contracted for 40 megawatts of power from the facility, which was developed by Iberdrola Renewables, Inc., the world’s largest provider of wind energy.
“With the addition of the Rugby project, MRES now has 82.4 megawatts of wind power capacity,” said MRES Marketing and Development Director Jeff Peters. “That means about 12 percent of the energy we supply to our members is derived from non-hydroelectric renewable resources.” MRES also gets wind energy from facilities located at Worthington, Marshall, and Odin, all in the State of Minnesota.
Wanzek Construction of Fargo, N.D., began erecting the 2.1-megawatt Suzlon turbines in the spring of 2009. Each tower has a total height of 407 feet with a rotor diameter of about 289 feet. The project also includes eight miles of transmission line that connects the generators to the power grid.
“The 40-megawatt purchase from the Rugby Wind Project is the largest wind purchase in the MRES wind resource portfolio,” Peters said. “It will be a critical resource to help MRES meet future renewable standards or objectives.”
December 11, 2009
Fitch reaffirms WMMPA/MRES bond rating
Sioux Falls, S.D. -- Fitch Ratings, a New York-based financial rating agency, has affirmed its 'AA-' rating on the outstanding power supply revenue bonds of Western Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (WMMPA)/Missouri River Energy Services (MRES). Fitch also reaffirmed its stable outlook for WMMPA/MRES.
Bonds included in the rating are $203.7 million power supply revenue bonds, series 1996A, 2003A&B and 2006A. Fitch said its rating is supported by a range of factors including:
• Low cost power resources;
• Strong, long-term power sales contracts that extend to 2046;
• Financial strength provided by 57 member systems across four states that are obligated to purchase wholesale power from MRES;
• Solid management and a supportive board of directors;
• Recent rate increase designed to restore financial performance in fiscal 2009;
• Reasonable plan and adopted rate increases to replenish the discretionary funds by 2012;
• Recent cancellation of the Big Stone II coal-fired unit, which gives the company the opportunity to explore alternative (less carbon-emitting) generation options.
Fitch also reported that it incorporated credit concerns into its rating. A particular concern was the use over the past few years of reserve funds, mainly to cover the impact of external factors including a 2006 ice storm that destroyed hundreds of miles of key transmission facilities and a significant increase in rail rates that occurred for its principal generating facility, the Laramie River Station (LRS) from 2004 to 2009. Fitch noted that the use of reserves allowed MRES to remain in compliance with its rate covenant and that the organization implemented an 18.5-percent rate increase in January 2009, which was necessary to restore its financial performance.
MRES has adopted a detailed plan to restore its debt service coverage and its reserve funds. The plan assumes that the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) ruling against BNSF Railway Co., which has resulted in a $19.1 reparation payment to MRES is not overturned. BNSF is appealing the STB ruling to the United States Court of Appeals and, during that appeal process, the reparations payment will remain in a separate fund.
MRES, in early November, announced the cancellation of the proposed 580-megawatt Big Stone II coal-fired power plant due to an inability of the four regional utilities participating in the project to replace Otter Tail Power Co., which had withdrawn from the project two months earlier. The current generating resource mix of MRES is heavily dependent upon carbon emitting resources and, “given the likelihood of new federal carbon legislation, Fitch believes that the Big Stone II cancellation should provide MRES the opportunity to explore alternative generation options,” a Fitch news release said.
“We are pleased that Fitch continues to show confidence in MRES, WMMPA, and the membership by affirming the AA- rating,” said MRES Director of Finance and CFO Merlin Sawyer. “While we have not met our financial targets the last couple of years, we are confident that we will meet or exceed those targets through the next few years. We believe that the affirmation of the AA- rating reflects the fiscally prudent policies of MRES and WMMPA, that the MRES membership has not been significantly affected by the economic slowdown that has severely stressed many other parts of the country, and that the MRES and WMMPA Boards do not shy away from or delay making difficult decisions.”
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