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New York Coop Refinances with CFC, Changes Patronage Capital Distribution Policy

Otsego Electric Cooperative (OEC), based in Hartwick, New York, recently refinanced its outstanding debt owed to other lenders with the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC), becoming the first 100% CFC borrower in the state.  OEC, which serves about 4,500 members in the area between the Catskill and Adirondack mountain ranges, also worked with CFC to develop a...

Basin Electric Signs Deal to Add More Wind to Generation Portfolio

Basin Electric Power Cooperative (Basin Electric) announced on December 20 that it had signed a deal to add 98 MW of additional wind capacity to its generating portfolio.  The Campbell County Wind Farm is currently under development in South Dakota and is expected to be brought online in 2015.  Electric Co-op Today has the full story.

Iowa Appeals FEMA Decision

As last reported by the Sutherland Coop Team on October 2, 2013, the state of Iowa has appealed a decision by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to forego additional disaster relief funding for Iowa Lakes Electric Cooperative, Lyon Rural Electric Cooperative, Osceola Electric Cooperative and Sanborn Electric and Telecommunications Utility.  The rural coops requested an...

South Carolina’s First Solar Farm Online

South Carolina’s first solar farm is officially online as of Friday, December 20.  The 3-MW, $6 million Colleton County project will sell output to Santee Cooper.  South Carolina Electric and Gas is also planning a series of future solar farms that could generate up to 20 MW of power in the state.  Read more here.

Coop Sparks Ballot Fight Over Oregon RPS

Oregon’s Umatilla Electric Cooperative (Umatilla) is challenging the state’s renewable energy portfolio standard (RPS), hoping to revise the standards to allow hydropower to count towards meeting the requirements.  Without this revision, the coop plans to add an initiative on the ballot that could gut the law.  The challenge is raising debate about whether the coop is strong arming or...

NRECA: NIST Cyber Security Framework Should Consider Needs of Coops

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) is urging the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to keep in mind the varying organizations and structures of companies operating in the energy sector when developing its Cyber Security Framework (Framework), a project undertaken in response to a February 2013 executive order issued by President Obama.  The...

Public Power Council Continues to Voice Support for Adjustments to Hydro Power Treaty

Following up on recent regulatory filings, the Public Power Council, which represents cooperatives and other consumer-owned utilities, voiced its continued support for adjustments to the Columbia River Treaty.  The Public Power Council and others are seeking a more even distribution of hydro power benefits between the United States and Canada under the treaty.  Various interest groups...

Golden Spread Proposes New Transmission Line

Golden Spread Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Golden Spread) is planning a new transmission line that would connect the present divide between the power grid that covers the Texas Panhandle and the grid for the rest of Texas.  The coop, along with Sharyland Utilities, L.P. (Sharyland) will connect new and existing natural gas generation units north of Abernathy to the new transmission...

Dust Settles after Utility Fight with BNSF

The verdict is in: Coal shippers led by Arkansas Electric Cooperative will have to comply with BNSF Railway’s (BNSF) loading instructions aimed at suppressing coal dust emissions from Powder River Basin coal trains after the Surface Transportation Board (Board) ruled the requirements were permissible.  Since 2009, utilities have fought the requirement to apply surfactants to their coal...

GTC Extends $275 Million Syndication with CFC

Georgia Transmission Corporation (GTC), based in Tucker, Georgia, obtained an “amend and extend” transaction that extended the maturity date of a $275 million, five-year syndicated revolving credit facility with the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC) by two years.  The facility was originally arranged in November 2011.  GTC uses the facility primarily to...

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