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Basin Electric Seeks Site in North Dakota for Potential Gas-Fired Generation Facility

Basin Electric Power Cooperative (Basin Electric) is looking for land and meeting with representatives in Emmons County, North Dakota, regarding a new gas-fired generation facility.  Basin Electric is in the early stages of considering both whether and where to build such a facility.  Click here for the full story.

Arizona Congressman Urges EPA to Meet with Coop on Clean Power Plan

U.S. Congressman Ron Barber of Arizona, along with his Arizona colleagues in Congress, has called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to meet with executives from Arizona Electric Power Cooperative to discuss the impact of the EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan.  Click here for more.

Texas Coop Finds Drought Solution on Barge

Brazos Electric Power Cooperative (Brazos Electric) is partnering with Walnut Creek Special Utility District (Walnut Creek) to ensure access to decreasing water levels at Lake Bridgeport, northwest of Fort Worth, Texas.  At the suggestion of an engineering firm, Brazos Electric and Walnut Creek have placed a barge on the lake capable of pulling up to 15 million gallons of water per...

CFC Joins NRECA’s Solar Initiative

The National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC) has formally joined the Solar Utility Network Deployment Acceleration (SUNDA) project led by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA).  The SUNDA project is supported by a $3.6 million grant to NRECA from the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative and will provide a knowledge base for...

Florida Coop Faces Theft of Power by Marijuana Farms

Florida’s Glades Electric Cooperative may be losing as much as $1 million worth of electricity to marijuana farms whose operators do not pay for the power they use, according to Paul McGehee, director of business development for Glades.  While the theft of power allows marijuana farmers to profit at the coop’s expense, the resulting system overloads and subsequent outages often tip off...

Portion of FERC Order 1000 Challenged by NRECA and Others Upheld in Court

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against an industry group, including National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), which was challenging certain provisions of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order 1000.  Click here for full story and details on the challenge.

NRECA Argues Cooperatives Should Qualify for FCC Broadband Funds

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) has provided comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Phase II of the national competitive bid process for the Connect America Fund.  In those comments, NRECA has argued that electric cooperatives that are already exploring providing broadband service to rural areas should be able to qualify for available...

Minnesota Cooperative Completes Major Transmission Line

Minnkota Power Cooperative recently completed a 250-mile transmission line from Center, North Dakota to Grand Forks, North Dakota.  The 345-kV line, which has been lauded by U.S. Senator John Hoeven, is the largest transmission project in the state’s history.  For more information, click here.

Minnesota Utilities Embrace Solar

Minnesota’s electric utilities have significantly increased their investments in solar projects recently.  Investor-owned utilities’ increased interest in solar may be driven by a 2013 state law requiring investor-owned utilities to get 1.5 percent of their electricity from solar power by 2020, while cooperatives’ increased interest seems to be driven in large part by increased demand...

Coops Challenge FERC’s New ROE Calculation

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has signaled that it intends to change the methodology with which it calculates utilities’ return on equity (ROE), eliciting concern from the electric cooperative community.  In a June 19 order involving New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, FERC used a new “two-step” method to calculate the ROE for oil and gas pipelines, and the commission has...

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