MEUW - Live Lines

The Island Street Peaking Plant, located at Kaukauna Utilities’ Central Substation, was officially dedicated in a rain-soaked ceremony on May 13. Providing electricity during peak demand periods, the $25.5 million facility will be officially open for business in June.

Kaukauna and the other 36 WPPI member utilities will benefit from a cost effective option to meet the demand for electricity when wholesale prices spike, according to WPPI CEO and President, Roy Thilly.

The 150 people present for the dedication heard congratulatory remarks from PSC Commissioner Bert Garvin, Senate Energy and Utilities Chair Rob Cowles (R-Green Bay), and State Representative Becky Weber (R-Green Bay).

The gas-fired combustion-turbines will crank out 52 megawatts of electricity and replace 7 megawatts of diesel electric generation at the same location. Construction work began on the generation unit just 11 months ago, with much of the labor being provided locally.

Back to the top

APPA Washington Report
The Broadband Fight
by Robert Varela, Editor, APPA’s Public Power Weekly

The Supreme Court’s recent decision on pre-emption of state laws barring or restricting municipal provision of telecommunications services was disheartening. (It’s hard to believe that Supreme Court justices don’t share the same meaning of “any” as virtually all English speakers, but they are lawyers after all.)

But, moving beyond the disappointment, the decision should serve as a wake-up call for all public power utilities (and municipalities).

First, to put the Supreme Court ruling in some context, the court’s order did not prohibit or even restrict public power utilities or municipalities from offering telecommunications services. The court simply decided the narrow issue of whether states have the power to restrict municipal governments from providing telecommunications services. The court’s ruling interpreted the meaning of the phrase “any entity” as used in Section 253 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Section 253 authorizes federal pre-emption of state and local laws and regulations expressly or effectively “prohibiting the ability of any entity” to provide telecommunications services.

“The question is whether the class of entities includes the state’s own subdivisions, so as to affect the power of states and localities to restrict their own (or their political inferiors’) delivery of such services,” the court said. “We hold it does not.”

It’s also worth noting that the decision deals with telecommunications services, as opposed to information services. The federal government currently defines telecommunications as voice service, not cable TV or Internet. The Federal Communications Commission has determined that Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service is an information service in one case, but the commission has asked for comments on how it should classify VoIP.

To date 13 states have created anticompetitive barriers to entry for public power utilities that want to offer broadband infrastructure and services to wholesale and retail customers. It’s a very safe bet that private cable TV and telecom companies—who are generally viewed as considerably more cutthroat than investor-owned utilities—will be knocking on many more statehouse doors peddling legislation to prohibit, either expressly or effectively, public power utilities and municipalities from getting into the broadband business.

Get ready for a rough fight with the telecom companies. In Florida, public power is battling legislative proposals to impose new taxes on all municipal utilities that expand their service areas and to place a one-year moratorium on signing up new customers for telecommunications services offered by existing city and county utilities. One sponsor of the legislation is not only a former mayor of a public power city but also served on the board of the municipal utility.

One good resource for countering the companies’ arguments is APPA’s recent report, Community Broadband: Separating Fact from Fiction, which can be downloaded or ordered at http://www.appanet.org/legislativeregulatory/ broadband/fact/fact.cfm. That report refutes assertions commonly used to argue against municipal utilities offering broadband services. Many of these assertions will look familiar, as they are the same tired, unfounded charges used by opponents of public power.

That’s one reason all public power utilities—even if they have no plans or interest in offering broadband in the foreseeable future—should get involved in the fight over the right of local governments to provide broadband services. Like electricity, broadband is a basic infrastructure service with implications for the economic well-being or even survival of communities. Just as opponents’ arguments are the same, the principles involved are the same.

(A short digression. Having recently tried in vain to get an estimate, let alone a reasonable estimate, from a contractor on replacing some railroad ties around a patio, I am particularly unsympathetic to the whining of these monopolistic cable and phone companies about how unfair it is that communities don’t pay income taxes and can issue tax-exempt financing. This is analogous to local contractors complaining that do-it-yourself-ers are unfair competitors because they don’t pay payroll and Social Security taxes on their labor. The local city council would laugh (or boot) them out of the room; Congress and state legislatures should do the same to the telecom companies seeking restrictions on municipalities offering broadband.)

All public power utilities should join the fight over broadband because the future is rarely foreseeable, so sitting by while your options are foreclosed is never a good idea.

Restrictions on municipalities sought by the telecom companies may—either intentionally or unintentionally—affect all sorts of municipal communications systems, such as SCADA systems or local government networks.

Congress is expected to begin work soon on another telecommunications bill, offering an opportunity for lawmakers to confirm that “any entity” means exactly that. It won’t be easy. The big cable and telecom companies will blanket Capitol Hill with lobbyists and campaign contributions, but members of Congress are revisiting the Telecommunications Act of 1996 because it has not produced the level of competition (and benefits) that were promised.

That means it’s a real opportunity. Perhaps the last one.

Back to the top

1,451 Trees Given Away to Customers on May 15!
New London Utilities’ Successful Tree Giveaway Program

Over the course of the last 12 years, New London Utilities has given away 6,147 trees to its customers. The utility is well on its way to reaching its goal of giving away enough trees to equal the population of New London (7,162), according to New London Utilities Manager Steve Thompson.

Here’s how the program works. They schedule the tree giveaway in the late Spring every four years. Earlier in the Spring, they ask for bids from local tree nurseries for a given assortment of trees. Then the utility sends a promotional announce-ment to their customers asking that they pay their April electric bill in full and in person at the utility office. In exchange, each customer who does so receives a numbered coupon for one of six different types of trees. The customer gets to choose the type of tree, while the supply lasts for each type of tree. Then, customers are asked to pick their tree up between 8 a.m and 12 noon on a Saturday in mid-May.

This year, New London Utilities offered customers a choice of the following six trees, all healthy saplings (actual heights shown) that will grow to heights of between 25 and 60 feet when mature: Snowdrift Flowering Crab (7-10 ft.); Cardinal Flowering Crab (7-10 ft.); October Glory Maple (5-7 ft.); Cimmaron Ash (9-12 ft.); Autumn Purple Ash (9-12 ft.); and Marmo Maple (6-8 ft.). All of the trees were purchased this year from Wolfrath’s Nursery in nearby Hortonville, the final bill for all 1,451 trees being $25,200.

Customers are reminded not to plant the trees near power lines, and that if they plan to plant them on the street terrace, that they will need a permit from the New London Public Works Department.

On Saturday, May 15, customers started to line their cars up at the utility at 6:10 a.m.! By 9 a.m., the line of cars snaked out of the utility parking lot and well down nearby streets. “People have come with anything they can think of to pick up their trees, some even putting the tall saplings in boats that they tow into the utility parking lots” reports Thompson. Last year, there were even five customers who picked up their trees using boats on the nearby Wolf River, which borders the utility property. Convertibles, cars with sunroofs, and even motorcycles have also been used. New London Utilities employees and Commissioners were present to greet the customers throughout the morning. And this year, Thompson arranged for some assistance in loading the trees (a bit heavier than normal because of a heavy rainfall the day before) from members of the New London Merchants baseball team.

Back to the top

Rescue Training: An Insurance Policy You Hope is Never Used!
By MEUW Safety Director Dean Larson

Rescue training. It’s a core portion of the MEUW Safety and Job Training program. We offer two sessions annually at 25 locations -- “Session A” covering bucket rescue/ self rescue and “Session B” covering pole top rescue (see photo).

Please think of this training as an insurance policy that you hope your coworkers never have to use on your behalf! But if they do have to perform a rescue and you are the victim, wouldn’t you want them as well trained as possible? What it boils down to is these two sessions are probably the most important of the entire year.

The purpose of these sessions is to get the lineworkers experienced in getting a coworker safely and quickly off the pole or out of the bucket if they have an accident or illness. How confident are you in your coworkers’ abilities? Would you want them on the ground if you are on the pole? Time is critical but is not our main focus. We should be able to get that person on the ground in four minutes without causing any further injuries. Once we get them down we can assess their condition and begin with first aid until help arrives.

The first step to a successful rescue actually begins before the person is even in trouble. That means having a hand held radio or cell phone so you can call for help without having to go back to the truck. The next step is to have your climbing gear or rescue blocks ready before something happens, this will save you time.

By practicing rescue procedures annually, if an accident does occur we will know what to do to get that person safely to the ground. Hopefully nobody will ever have to use these skills, but if it helps one person we have accomplished our mission.

Back to the top