Coops in 14 States Receive USDA Loans
Posted on Aug 30, 2011 in Financing | Comments Off on Coops in 14 States Receive USDA Loans
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has indicated that coops will receive funding for smart grid technologies and improvements to generation and transmission facilities. This funding, in the form of loans, will total approximately $900 million. The loans are provided by the Rural Utilities Service to help electric utilities upgrade, expand, maintain and replace rural...
Pedernales Coop Commemorates Lyndon B. Johnson
Posted on Aug 30, 2011 in Land Use, Project Development | Comments Off on Pedernales Coop Commemorates Lyndon B. Johnson
On the day that would have been the former president’s 103rd birthday, the Pedernales Electric Coop unveiled an official Texas Historical Marker honoring Lyndon B. Johnson for bringing electricity to the Texas Hill Country. Johnson, who grew up in Johnson City Texas, contributed to the development of the first electric lines constructed in this area of Texas. The article can be found...
Tri-State Updates Its 20 Year Resource Plan
Posted on Aug 30, 2011 in Project Development | Comments Off on Tri-State Updates Its 20 Year Resource Plan
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc., a Colorado coop, may have to develop less renewable energy than originally expected thanks to the projects that its members are developing individually. These projects include wind, solar, small hydro and waste recovery projects and one project to recover methane from landfills. Given these projected new resources, Tri-State...
Nevada Coop May Join California Power Grid
Posted on Aug 29, 2011 in Environmental, Grid & Infrastructure, Renewable Energy | Comments Off on Nevada Coop May Join California Power Grid
Nevada-based Valley Electric Association has received approval to join the California Independent System Operator Corporation, a nonprofit power-management corporation. Valley Electric has 23,000 members along the Nevada-California state line, and coop officials say linking Valley Electric’s 360 miles of existing transmission lines to California’s grid would let it ship renewable...
Coops Battle the Effect of Hurricane Irene
Posted on Aug 29, 2011 in Environmental, Grid & Infrastructure | Comments Off on Coops Battle the Effect of Hurricane Irene
Electric cooperatives across the Northeast are dealing with the power disruptions caused by Hurricane Irene’s destruction. According to Touchstone Energy Group, North Carolina-based coops have restored power to nearly 90,000 households, reducing the 152,000 outages reported on Saturday. In Vermont, utility workers continued working Monday morning to restore electricity to the 4,400...
Construction Commences on Colorado Hydro Project
Posted on Aug 25, 2011 in Project Development, Renewable Energy | Comments Off on Construction Commences on Colorado Hydro Project
The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District recently began construction on the 2.6-MW Carter Lake Hydroelectric Project near Loveland, Colorado. Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association will buy the plant’s output under a power purchase agreement with the District. The project’s total costs are estimated at $6.2 million, and the facility should be in commercial operation next...
North Dakota Coop Forced to Replace Turbine Blade
Posted on Aug 23, 2011 in Project Development | Comments Off on North Dakota Coop Forced to Replace Turbine Blade
Basin Electric Coop recently replaced a blade on one of its wind turbines in Bismarck after it became damaged last spring. The coop originally planned to replace the blade in June, but the wet weather hindered the ability of heavy machinery to set the seven-ton blade into place. The failure of the blade is currently unknown, but the coop hopes to analyze the cause more closely now...
Montana Coop’s Highwood Station Comes On-Line
Posted on Aug 23, 2011 in Project Development | Comments Off on Montana Coop’s Highwood Station Comes On-Line
The Southern Montana Electric Generation & Transmission Coop’s Highwood Station came on-line last Saturday for the first time. Highwood Station is a natural gas-fired power plant east of Great Falls, Montana. The plant has not yet begun operating, although a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the site is currently scheduled for mid-September. The Great Falls Tribune has more about this...
Ravalli Electric Coop Opts for Fuses to Lower Fire Risk
Posted on Aug 22, 2011 in Environmental, Grid & Infrastructure | Comments Off on Ravalli Electric Coop Opts for Fuses to Lower Fire Risk
Montana-based Ravalli Electric Cooperative has announced that it will temporarily switch from breakers to fuses on its electrical system in fire-prone areas until later this fall when the high-risk part of the fire season has passed. The fuses eliminate the operation of re-energizing power lines, which can send a new surge of power through power lines near dry tree limbs and other...
Report Finds More Planning Needed to Deal with Weather-Related Outages
Posted on Aug 22, 2011 in Environmental, Grid & Infrastructure | Comments Off on Report Finds More Planning Needed to Deal with Weather-Related Outages
In a report released on August 16, 2011, staff members from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and North American Electric Reliability Corporation concluded that last February’s power outages in the Southwest may be related to a lack of preparation for bad weather. The power disruptions that occurred last February affected 4.4 million electricity consumers and 50,000 natural gas...
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