The latest issue of IAMU Connection Magazine has been mailed and should be arriving soon, if you haven’t received it already. This issue contains various news and feature articles, many centered on the topic of security and preparedness. If you don’t receive your copy, contact Jen Cronin at [email protected].

In related news, IAMU is happy to announce that starting in 2018, we will be publishing our Connection magazine more frequently. We are increasing the number of issues from two to four. You can expect to receive issues in March, June, September, and December. Also, we are always looking for article ideas for the magazine so send any you may have to Jen Cronin at [email protected].

Want to let IAMU members know about what your company has to offer them? IAMU’s quarterly magazine, IAMU Connection, provides the perfect advertising opportunity to reach IAMU members. IAMU publishes a 28-page, full-color magazine for its 755 utility members (water, wastewater, gas, electric, and broadband) four times each year (March, June, September, and December) to keep them updated on news and issues they need and want to know about.

Due to publishing changes for the upcoming year, IAMU has been able to lower our ad rates to make it more affordable than ever to get the word out about your products and services.

To learn more about ad sizes and rates, click here.

To reserve your ad space, click here.  Fill out the form and return it to [email protected].

Act Now – Before Rates Increase

Thank you to all of our 2017 Associate Members. We truly enjoyed working with you over the past 12 months. Just a reminder: The March 1 renewal date for Associate Membership is fast approaching.
IAMU will be offering a special incentive to associate members who use our online registration system to renew their memberships early.

The annual membership rate will increase starting February 1, so renew now and lock in last year’s rates. The rate will be increasing from $539 to $565.

• Visit http://www.iamu.org and sign into your IAMU membership account.
• Please note: You will need to use your organization’s main account and not a contact account assigned to you personally.
• Under “My Profile,” select “Membership Info.”
• Take a moment to look over your profile information and make any necessary changes.
• Submit your 2018 member dues and lock in last year’s rate for this year’s dues.
• Your membership to IAMU is now extended until February 28, 2019.

Don’t wait. This offer ends Jan. 31, so take advantage of early registration discounts now!

If you are unsure of your organization’s sign-in information, please contact Josh Trout at 800.810.4268 or [email protected].

Registration is now open for the OSHA 10-Hour Construction Outreach Course to be held at IAMU on January 24th & 25th.

This course will explain OSHA’s role in worker safety and health, jobsite hazard recognition, correction and prevention methods and how to read the OSHA standards. Participants will receive a completion card from the U.S. Department of Labor OSHA certifying successful completion of this OSHA 10-Hour course. 29 CFR 1926 CFR Book & course material furnished.

Topics Covered:

• Introduction to OSHA
  
• Electrical Hazards
• Fall Protection
• Caught-In and Struck-by Hazards
• Personal Protective Equipment
• Health Hazards in Construction
  

Who Should Attend:
This basic safety course is recommended for workers and supervisors, or those who have been given the task of developing and managing their employer’s safety program.

A Certificate of Attendance will be provided to attendees.

If you hire Contractors: Many cities also require their contractors to maintain a safety program to be eligible to work for them. The OSHA 10-Hour course will help those owners, managers, and employees develop a solid safety foundation at their company to hopefully avoid incidents while working for the city or utility. Hiring a contractor to perform work for the city/utility does not eliminate all liabilities to the city.

For more information, and to register click here.

Registration is now open for the OSHA 10-Hour General Industry Outreach Course to be held at IAMU on January 29th & 30th.

This course will explain OSHA’s role in worker safety and health, job-site hazard recognition, correction and prevention methods and how to read the OSHA standards.  Participants will receive a completion card from the U.S. Department of Labor OSHA certifying successful completion of this OSHA 10-Hour course. 29 CFR 1910 CFR Book & course material furnished.

Topics Covered

• Introduction to OSHA - 2 hours
• Walking & Working Surfaces & Fall Protection - 1 hour
• Emergency Action Plans - 1 hour
• Electrical - 1 hour
• Personal Protective Equipment - 1 hour
• Hazard Communication -1 hour
• Machine Guarding - 1 hour
• Lockout / Tagout - 1 hour
• Permit Required Confined Space - 1 hour

Who Should Attend
This basic safety course is recommended for workers and supervisors or those who have been given the task of developing and managing their employer’s safety program.

If you hire contractors: Many cities also require their contractors to maintain a safety    program to be eligible to work for them.  The OSHA 10-Hour course will help those owners, managers, and employees develop a solid safety foundation at their company to hopefully avoid incidents while working for the city or utility.  Hiring a contractor to perform work for the city/utility does not eliminate all liabilities to the city.

For more information, and to register click here.

Greenfield Municipal Utilities and Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO) today presented a check for $33,507 to Nodaway Valley School District for energy-efficient design and implementation at the new elementary school. The check represents the payback in incentives used to install energy efficient products and practices, and was presented to Nodaway Valley Superintendent Casey Berlau.
 
“In a rapidly changing energy market, implementing energy efficiency programs provide significant benefits and cost-savings,” indicated Scott Tonderum, GMU General Manager. “Additionally, geothermal provides an environmentally-friendly heating and cooling option for the benefit of the community.”
 
The elementary school building is heated and cooled with a highly-efficient 112-ton geothermal system. The kitchen includes energy-efficient equipment and LED lighting throughout. Project architect, Jerry Purdy, president and founder of Design Alliance, provided the school with energy analysis on three types of heating and cooling systems. School district leaders chose the geothermal system for its efficiency and reasonable payback period.
 
Jeremy Lang, director of the Iowa Geothermal Association, said modern geothermal systems are far and away the most superior method of saving energy when compared to “old school” boilers and a chiller/cooling tower. 
 
“Geothermal can provide heating and cooling with or without burning fossil fuels, but while fossil fuel systems are limited to efficiencies under 100 percent, geothermal systems can achieve an efficiency range of 300 to 500 percent,” Lang said. 
 
Greenfield Municipal Utilities and CIPCO offer energy-efficiency incentives for residential, commercial and agriculture projects that occur within their service territories.
 
About Greenfield Municipal Utilities
Greenfield Municipal Utilities, a member of SIMECA (Southern Iowa Municipal Electric Cooperative Association), provides electricity and water to approximately 2,000 citizens in the city of Greenfield. They offer a full suite of incentives for commercial and residential energy efficient products.  Visit www.gmu-ia.com for more information.
 
About CIPCO
Central Iowa Power Cooperative is a member-owned, not-for-profit, generation and transmission (G&T) cooperative serving 13 rural electric cooperatives and associations, which includes SIMECA. As Iowa’s largest cooperative energy provider, CIPCO serves approximately 316,500 Iowans in 58 counties. For more information, visit www.cipco.net.

Mark your calendars for the 2018 Complete Watt-Hour Metering Workshop.  The workshop will take place February 5 – February 9, 2018 at the IAMU Training & Office Complex.  This workshop will once again be conducted by Larry Chapman of Chapman Metering.  A strong supporter of IAMU and Iowa’s municipal utilities, Larry is a highly regarded expert on watt-hour meters.

There will once again be three paths that registrants may take.

The “Basic” portion of the workshop will take place at the beginning of the week (Feb. 5 – Feb. 7) with topics including:

• The Electric Meter
• Basic Meter Application Theory
• Self-Contained Metering
  
• Instrument Transformers
• C.T. & P.T. Rated Metering
• Multiplier
• Sockets

The “Advanced” portion of the workshop will take place towards the end of the week (Feb. 7 – 9) with topics including:

• Wiring and Application Error Analysis
• Polyphase Metering
• Solid State vs. Mechanical Demand vs. Thermal Demand
• Solid State Meters

Or…
Come for the Whole Week and get the Complete Watt-Hour Metering Workshop experience!  The annual vendor show and dinner also returns this year, giving attendees a chance to socialize and checkout the latest in metering products and technologies.

The registration deadline for this workshop is February 2nd, 2018.  A minimum of 20 registrations are required to hold this workshop; a maximum of 30 registrations will be accepted for the Basic; 20 Advanced (waitlist available).  Bring your wiring diagrams and pocket calculators!

For additional information, including registration and hotel information, please click HERE.

Each year, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Forestry Division cooperates with numerous agencies to protect Iowa’s forests from insects, diseases, and other damaging agents. To view a copy of this year’s Forest Health Highlights Report, click here.

The winner of the Economic Impact Survey gift card is Pam Peton from Graettinger Municipal Light Plant!  Congratulations Pam, and thank you to all survey participants.

Benjamin Franklin, often considered the Father of Electricity, gave sage investment advice, “Drive thy business or It Will Drive Thee.” This advice especially rings true for public power utilities as they seek to get in the driver’s seat as transmission owners to mitigate related rising prices. According to CMPAS analyses and that of others, transmission ownership is the only long-term hedge against increasing transmission rates. To demonstrate this point, CMPAS recently hosted a CAPX Brookings Project overview for 15 Minnesota and Iowa public power participants that invested in the Agency-sponsored project.

With the completion of 2016 MISO Attachment O regulatory filings and an outside financial audit, CMPAS provided a comprehensive overview that made a strong case for continued investment. As the project aggregator, CMPAS serves as the fiduciary advisor for the group’s 3.9-percent investment in the CAPX Brookings Project. Public power utilities in the group include four Iowa utilities in Independence, Indianola, Montezuma and Waverly; an d11 Minnesota utilities in Blue Earth, Elk River, Fairfax, Granite Falls, Janesville, Kenyon, Mountain Lake, Sleepy Eye, Springfield, Windom, and Willmar.

Although most of the “heavy lifting” for the CAPX project is completed, bond covenants require CMPAS to monitor and maintain numberous funds over the 30-year life of the investment. Prior to the distribution of revenue to participants, bond requirements must be satisfied including higher debt principal payments in the first five years. The project’s debt obligation will be completely paid in the year 2041 as represented in the chart below.

CMPAS utilities are learning first hand that transmission ownership brings a rate of return and other financial benefits that mitigate transmission cost increases. Over the 40-year life of the CAPX Brookings project, participants are projected to earn a return of $17.8 million dollars in excess of expenses in the form of distributions and savings from their $32 million investment. CMPAS also recovers a portion of the expenses attributable to its transmission function that the Agency uses to reduce A&G cost by nearly $1/MWh.

At the meeting, Chris Kopel, Chief Operating Officer, discussed the Agency’s long-term plan to help utilities increase their load ratio share of transmission. He reminded attendees that failure to adequately invest in the still young MISO marketplace could expose their customers to substantially higher transmission rates. 

Waverly Utilities CEO Darrel Wenzel welcomes the opportunity to work with CMPAS in the future. “The August presentation was a continuation of the transparent process that CMPAS consistently follows. Waverly looks forward to collaborating with CMPAS as transmission opportunities occur in the future,” he said.

Within days of the Agency’s CAPX update, a report, “2017 MISO Transmission Investment Analysis,” validated CMPAS’s assessments of transmission investment benefits. The MCR Performance Solutions report also shows how municipal utility and generation and transmission cooperatives have not invested at a rate consistent with their load ratio share and have not produced enough transmission revenue to offset transmission tariff costs. In fact, only 11 of 31 MISO municipals are investing at a level sufficient to replace annual depreciation.

To prepare for future transmission purchases, CMPAS recommends that municipal utilities educate local commission and city council members about the financial and risk management benefits of transmission ownership. Local leaders should understand the process and necessary commitments so they are ready to participate in and approve CMMPA transmission opportunities when they occur.

Each year, Iowa One Call travels the state to update excavators, locators, and facility operators on one-call requirements. The Excavation Safety Awareness Program meetings are free, and lunch is provided. Registration is required. The first meeting is scheduled for Jan. 9 in Johnston. For a schedule of dates and locations, and to register for a meeting, click here.
 
This year, Iowa One Call will provide an overview of its protocol, educate on private facilities, discuss best practices for communication between contractor and locate firms, and teach how to effectively use NextGen for accurate, timely locates.