Annual Joint Report from the Board President and General Manager
Matt Klein - General Manager / Don Schurdevin - Board President
Union County Electric Cooperative was formed in 1937 when farmers in the region pooled their resources together in order to receive reliable electric service to their homes and farms. As we enter our 87th year in operation, we continue to strive to work with our members to help meet their needs. In this report, we want to touch on major projects that we have completed in the prior year and what we are working on in the coming years.
2023 Accomplishments
In May of 2023, we finished moving into our new Headquarters building. This is a long-term investment that has improved our efficiency, safety and ability to house and stage material. The 17,500 square foot building with 5.33 acres came in at an impressive $191/square foot.
In the fall of 2023, we started converting nearly 3 miles of 3 phase overhead line on 480th Ave to underground. We continue making investments in our infrastructure to replace aging line and improve our reliability. We will wrap this project up in the coming months.
Throughout the year, the Cooperative has been working to deploy new Outage Management Software. This system provides real-time data to iPads that our line crew have in the field. This provides more information for our employees who are responding to the outages. By utilizing this program, we improve our outage response time, as well as our reporting and tracking capabilities.
This year we joined the South Dakota Renewable Energy Association and Matt was seated on the Board of Directors of the Association. Our goal with this partnership is to remain informed regarding renewable energy development in South Dakota and help drive responsible renewable energy investments and policies within the state.
2024 Projects
In addition to finishing up the job on 480th Ave, we will be replacing over 2 miles of underground cable on the east circuit from the Union Creek substation this spring. In the fall, we plan to replace approximately 2 miles of underground cable on the Union Creek south circuit. With the completion of these projects, we will finish our existing work plan.
Late in 2023, we began working with our engineers to develop our next 4 year work plan, which will run from 2025 – 2029. With this, we are also updating our long-term load forecast. With this new work plan, we will continue focusing on undergrounding our main three phase circuits. These projects provide the greatest opportunity for improved reliability.
We continue to see a steady 1% - 1.5% growth in our system, primarily driven by residential growth. In 2024 will also see some nice commercial load growth. Three existing commercial or industrial members will be making major expansions resulting in a combined projected load of around 3MW in capacity.
Over the past few years, we have been monitoring several grant opportunities. In 2024, we are submitting two applications and will be considering a third. The first application is partnering with a large group of utilities in the upper Midwest, from several states. If awarded, this project will focus on hardening our substation infrastructure and providing improved operations and reliability for all our members. The second application will be for a solar array to be located on the north side of our headquarters. If awarded this grant, we will be able to decrease the demand on our system resulting in savings for all cooperative members. This will also be an opportunity for our staff to get more hands-on experience with solar, so we are able to better educate our members when that have questions on these systems.
Employees
Finally, we want to thank our employee group. We have been very fortunate to have 10 highly skilled and dedicated employees. Whether it’s material procurement, billing, or the crews out in the field, everyone plays a part and has a role in our success. Our employee group is hard-working and does what they need to get the job done. Often they are working in harsh conditions, all while keeping safety in mind and ensuring that our members have the reliable service that they have come to expect.