Small Change Makes A Big Difference

Operation Round Up® is a program that rounds up members’ monthly electric bills to the next whole dollar amount. The resulting funds are put into a special account to assist others in need. The funds collected through Operation Round Up are used for a variety of projects, programs and items throughout the Nodak service area.

The Round Up board meets quarterly and considers each application that has been received since the previous meeting. It awards funds to the applicants based on how well the application fits the original funding guidelines: 1) Individuals or families in crisis; 2) Services – ambulance and fire; 3) Community youth needs with emphasis on permanent benefit; 4) Scholarships with emphasis on re-education of displaced agricultural people; 5) Senior needs with emphasis on permanent benefit; and 6) No requests for funding of utility and space heating energy will be accepted.

Operation Round Up is a voluntary program with roughly 60% of the 14,962 members participating. Since the program started, a total of $985,466 has been distributed to individuals and organizations throughout the Nodak Electric service area.

Dirty air filters cause a heating and cooling system to work harder and break down faster. That’s because unfiltered dust and grime works into parts, creating friction that causes unnecessary wear and eventually failure.

How much does a dirty air filter cost you?

• Reduced air flow in the home, leading to up to 15% higher operating costs
• Leads to costly duct cleaning or replacement
• Lowers system efficiency

To avoid these expenses, change filters monthly when your heating and cooling system’s in regular use. Discuss cleaning the unit and ductwork with your heating and cooling service professional.

Source: High Performance HVAC, U.S. Department of Energy

Operation Round Up® is a program that rounds up members’ monthly electric bills to the next whole dollar amount. The resulting funds are put into a special account to assist others in need. The funds collected through Operation Round Up are used for a variety of projects, programs and items throughout the Nodak service area. The Round Up board meets quarterly and considers each application that has been received since the previous meeting. It awards funds to the applicants based on how well the application fits the original funding guidelines: 1) Individuals or families in crisis; 2) Services – ambulance and fire; 3) Community youth needs with emphasis on permanent benefit; 4) Scholarships with emphasis on reeducation of displaced agricultural people; 5) Senior needs with emphasis on permanent benefit; and 6) No requests for funding of utility and space heating energy will be accepted.

Operation Round Up is a voluntary program with roughly 60% of the 14,961 members participating. Since the program started, a total of $985,446 has been distributed to individuals and organizations throughout the Nodak Electric service area.

2020 Recipient Summary of Operation Round Up

• Briton Coppdege – funds will assist with the purchase of medical equipment.
• Michael Dorsher – funds will assist with the purchase of a hospital-type bed.
• Fayme Stringer Henry – funds will help create a community garden and orchard space where people can come together from all walks of life to socialize, garden and learn self-sufficiency skills.
• Alverna LaPorte – funds will help offset the cost of handicap renovations to her home.
• Pembina County Backpack program – funds will help supply hungry youths with easy-to-prepare meals and snacks for the weekend. The program is solely funded on monetary donations.
• Alzheimer’s Association Minnesota-North Dakota – funds will help the program offer information/resources and gain community engagement and insight to address the needs of local community members who have Alzheimer’s or dementia.
• Collin LaVallie – funds will assist with the cost of a handicap lift for his family vehicle.
• Clara Beaton – funds will assist with the cost of an interactive whiteboard to help Clara interact virtually and participate in classroom group activities.
• Farm Rescue – funds will support the Farm Rescue mission of helping family farms and ranches continue to operate after experiencing major injury, illness or natural disaster.
• Kennedy Thorsgard – funds will assist with the cost of physical therapy sessions.
• Valley Senior Living Foundation – funds will help purchase an Eversound group listening system.

Minnkota, your cooperative’s wholesale power supplier, works to enhance demand response system

There was a lot of buzz in 2020 around Minnkota Power Cooperative’s ripple injection system – the set of equipment that drives the demand response/off-peak program that Nodak Electric is a part of. Two ripple injectors were replaced with new equipment, custom communication technologies were deployed and a full 17-injector system sync was performed for the first time.

Ripple injectors send tens of thousands of electronic signals throughout the entire transmission system and into the distribution system. Receivers in homes and businesses can read the signals, and when the appropriate message is sent, the receivers interrupt the power flowing to an electric heating system, water heater or other controllable load. When control is no longer needed, a signal is sent to turn the electric system back on.

All injectors need to work together and fire at the same time to ensure the signal reaches across the entire 35,000-square-mile system. The process of tuning and syncing the injectors is a combination of art and science.

“Tuning an injector is like tightening the strings of a musical instrument to make sure it vibrates at a certain frequency,” said Nick Gellerman, Minnkota’s lead engineer on the project. “Syncing all the injectors together is like coordinating an orchestra.”

Since Minnkota’s ripple injection system was built in the 1970s, the program has become one of the most successful in the country with more than 55,000 consumers participating, including 5,568 Nodak member accounts. By reducing the demand for electricity during peak usage times, Minnkota and Nodak are able to avoid purchasing costly excess power from the wholesale market, saving money for the membership.

Minnkota has installed two-way ripple monitoring devices at 50 substation sites and, over the next few years, plans to have the devices at nearly all 255 substations. Having this consistent data from the field will help ensure the system is performing reliably. Over the last five years, Minnkota has replaced 10 of the 17 injectors with new equipment. Plans are to have all injectors replaced by the end of 2024.

The cooperative recently welcomed Kacie Tretter as the new receptionist. She will be greeting members, answering phones and assisting with billing questions. Kacie is excited about her role at the cooperative and is looking forward to working with and getting to know the members.

An East Grand Forks, Minn., native, Kacie and her husband, Troy, are busy with their two young boys, Hayes and Wesley. In her free time, she enjoys biking with her family on the Greenway bike path and spending time at the lake.

Nominating committee members appointed

The board of directors has appointed the committee on nominations. At its meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021, at the Nodak headquarters building, 4000 32nd Ave. S., Grand Forks, the committee shall prepare and post a list of nominations for the director positions slated for election.

Committee members are: Doug Mohr, Devils Lake; Daniel Flanagan, Edinburg; Richard Hanson, Grand Forks; Shannon Johnson,
Park River; Neal Klamm, Thompson; Jared Peterka, Forest River; Glenn Rethemeier, Larimore; Paul Retzlaff, Aneta; and Linda Stromstad, Hatton.

Three director positions open

Three director positions will be open at the annual meeting on April 6, 2021. The directors whose terms expire in 2021 are:

• District 1 – Open
  * Due to Bylaw restriction, members residing in Walsh County may not be nominated for this election.
• District 2 – David Hagert (incumbent seeking reelection)
• District 3 – David Brag (incumbent seeking reelection)

Nomination by committee

If you are interested in being nominated or would like to nominate an individual, you may contact a committee on nominations member.

Nomination by petition

Nominations may also be made by petition signed by at least 15 cooperative members. The signed petition must be received at Nodak’s headquarters by Saturday, Feb. 20, to verify nominee qualifications and allow sufficient time for voting by mail.

Amundson retires

After 29 years of dedicated service to the cooperative, Becky Amundson will retire this month from her position as a Nodak member services representative. Becky began her cooperative career in 1991 at Sheyenne Valley Electric Cooperative (Finley, N.D.) as file clerk and receptionist. In 2001, Sheyenne Valley Electric merged with Nodak Electric and Becky transitioned to the role of member services representative in Grand Forks. She quickly became a go-to source for helping members with billing questions and other general inquiries. Becky is excited for retirement and plans to enjoy spending free time with her family and doing some traveling. Thank you, Becky, for all of your hard work and commitment to our members and the cooperative. You will surely be missed at the office.

Crooks promoted

Rebecca Crooks was promoted to member services representative on September 1. She began her career with Nodak in 2017 as receptionist and her new role will include answering and directing phone calls, assisting with member related issues, account changes, resolving concerns, and processing transactions. Rebecca has strong member services skills and enjoys working with people. Congratulations, Rebecca.

Slightly cooler temperatures are settling in and now is a perfect time to make sure that your furnace is ready to go for the long winter ahead. Before you fire it up for the season, it is a good idea to make sure that things are in order. Here are a few tips to get your furnace ready for winter:

Change your air filters

Your air filters are the first line of defense to stop small particles from making their way into your ductwork where they can get trapped and recirculate around your home. The key to saving your furnace from dirt and debris is to change your air filters every few months. Or, if your furnace uses an electrostatic filter, now is a good time to wash it and reuse it. Not only will changing your air filters increase the air quality of your environment, it will reduce wear and tear on your HVAC units to extend their lifespan.

Clean the heat exchanger

If your comment is “what is a heat exchanger?,” then it is time to call a professional. A heat exchanger is the part of your furnace that needs to be cleaned and checked for cracks. If there is something wrong with it or it is dirty, it could unwittingly be leaking carbon monoxide, which is dangerous and can be fatal.

Cover your AC condenser

When you start to use your furnace, you no longer need your air conditioning. Make sure to cover your AC condenser to keep it safe for the months ahead. If you cover it, then it won’t be damaged by anything surrounding it. Just make sure that whatever you cover it with won’t trap in moisture, or you could end up with mold or mildew growth that can do a whole lot of damage.

Inspect your carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors

Make sure to inspect your carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors to ensure that they are working. Since carbon monoxide is an odorless, fatal gas, it is imperative to know that your sensors are working to protect your home and your family. And it’s a good idea to change the batteries in the smoke detectors to ensure they are ready for another year.

Uncertainty has been the name of the game for much of 2020. But as we slip into the last few weeks of the year, Nodak Electric Cooperative feels certain about one thing – your continued warmth and comfort throughout the winter.

The energy planners at Minnkota Power Cooperative (power provider for Nodak Electric) expect a standard season for members with electric heat on demand response. The voluntary program allows the cooperative to temporarily interrupt service to a member’s off-peak loads, like electric heating and large-capacity water heaters, in exchange for a lower electric rate. For technologies like air-source heat pumps and plenum heaters, the system automatically switches to a backup fuel source such as propane, so there is no break in comfort.

Todd Sailer, Minnkota senior manager of power supply and resource planning, says he expects the level of winter demand response to be comparable to the past 4-5 years – less than 100 hours. Members should always be prepared for up to 200-250 hours of management, but have historically encountered much less. Last winter, Minnkota only logged 10 hours of interruption due mild weather and low wholesale energy prices.

“The only things that are really going to drive that up are a shift in the energy market, which is typically going to be weather related,” Sailer explained. “If you get a polar vortex or a wind event where there’s simply no wind during high loads, that’s where that number suddenly goes from 70 to 250 hours really quick.”

Demand response doesn’t just happen during extreme cold. A planned generator outage or extended lack of intermittent resources across the region can push the program into action. “When we see there’s no wind in North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and those areas where there’s often a lot of wind, that’s when we start to see high markets, and that’s when you’ll see more demand response.” Sailer said.

Although Minnkota expects a typical level of demand response this year, COVID-19 may change when it activates. When more people are working and learning from home, times of peak energy usage shift, which impacts the availability of excess resources to cover energy demand.

“Instead of demand response from 7-9 a.m., it might be from 8-11 a.m.,” Sailer said. “The load curve changes, so it might change how we actually implement our load management.”

Nodak Electric will run a demand response test sometime in early December. During that time, make sure your system is working properly and that you have adequate backup fuel before the coldest days arrive. If you are not a participant in the program but are interested in how to save money with an all season air-source heat pump, a cost-effective plenum heater or zero-maintenance underfloor storage heat, call your energy experts at Nodak Electric.

The demand response program began as a way to manage power during peak seasonal need without building additional generation resources – a costly solution for only a few days a year. But the electric heating technologies that have evolved within the program are helping our members enhance their comfort and safety, things we could all use a little more of in 2020.