Heating And Energy Saving Tips

Small space heaters are meant to do exactly as their name says – heat a small space. But unfortunately, many people use portable space heaters to heat their entire home, which can really take a toll on your energy bills. The truth is, whether you should use space heaters really depends on your home’s efficiency and energy needs. 

If you’re using a space heater to compensate for problems in your home, like inadequate insulation, drafty windows and exterior doors, or an inefficient heating system, space heaters are not a practical solution. Your best bet is to improve the overall efficiency of your home. If you’re on a tight budget, caulking and weather stripping around windows and exterior doors is a low-cost, easy way to save energy. Depending on the size of your home, adding insulation can be a great next step. Taking these proactive energy-saving steps rather than relying on space heaters for supplemental heat can reduce your heating and cooling bills for years to come. 

Maybe your home is energy efficient, but you’re cold-natured and want a specific room to be cozier than the rest. In this case, a space heater may work for your needs. A good comparison is ceiling fans – we use ceiling fans in the summer to cool people, not rooms. A space heater can be used in a similar way during winter months. But, use a space heater in small spaces that you’re occupying and, if possible, try to shut off other rooms to contain the warmth provided by the space heater. If you decide to use a space heater to heat a small area in your home, make sure the heater is properly sized for the space. 

A word about safety: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates more than 25,000 residential fires are caused by the use of space heaters every year, resulting in more than 300 deaths. If you need to use a space heater, buy a newer model that includes the most current safety features and make sure it has the Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL) label. Choose a thermostatically controlled heater to avoid energy waste and overheating and place the heater on a level surface away from foot traffic when in use. 

As an alternative, consider changing your furnace to an electric off-peak system. It’s one of the best energy values for home heating. The cost of electricity from Nodak Electric has been stable for a number of years and will remain stable this winter. With the cost of propane and natural gas rising, off-peak electric heating is an even better value today. 

In closing, this holiday season we want to say thank you to all our veterans and men and women who serve in the U.S. armed forces. It’s said that we are all warmed by fires we did not build and drink from wells we did not dig. Many of our fires and wells have been in large part provided by our servicemen and women. The freedom we live under is due to the sacrifices of these brave men and women and we can’t thank them enough. 

Giving thanks is also an important part of this holiday season and we would be remiss if we didn’t express how thankful we are for our members. Because of your connection and involvement in your electric cooperative, we are able to make our communities better places and enhance the lives of those we serve. Thank you all for what you do for Nodak Electric. 

Finally, from all of us at Nodak, we want to wish you Happy Holidays. May they be merry and bright!

ACE Hardware, State Farm, American Crystal Sugar, Land O’Lakes, and Nodak Electric all share something in common – we’re all cooperatives.

We may be in different industries, but we all share a passion for serving our members and helping our communities to thrive. In fact, all cooperatives adhere to the same set of seven principles that reflect our core values of honesty, transparency, equity, inclusiveness, and service to the greater community good. October is National Co-op Month, so this is the perfect time to reflect on these principles that have stood the test of time, but also provide a framework for the future. Let’s take a look at the cooperative principles.

Voluntary and Open Membership

Just like all co-ops, Nodak was created out of necessity – to meet a need that would have been otherwise unmet in our community. So, in 1940 a group of neighbors banded together and organized our electric co-op so everyone in our community could benefit. For a modest membership fee to the co-op, any farmer could get electricity brought to his farm. Neighbors came together to tackle a problem that they all had but couldn’t solve alone. They worked together for the benefit of the whole community, and the newly established electric lines helped power economic opportunity in our community.

Democratic Member Control

Our co-op is well suited to meet the needs of our members because we are locally governed. Each member gets a voice and a vote in how the co-op is run, and each voice and vote are equal. Nodak’s leadership team and employees are from right here. Our board of directors, which helps set long-term priorities for the co-op, also lives locally on co-op lines. These board members have been elected by neighbors just like you. We know our members have a valuable perspective, and that’s why we are continually seeking your input and encourage you to weigh in on important co-op issues and participate in co-op elections.

Members’ Economic Participation

As a utility, our mission is to provide safe, reliable and affordable energy to our members. But as a co-op, we are also motivated by service to the community, rather than profits. Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of Nodak Electric. At least part of that capital remains the common property of the cooperative. Because we are guided by seven cooperative principles, it’s not just about dollars – it’s about opportunity for all and being fair when engaging with our members. The cooperative way is a values-based business model.

Autonomy and Independence

The fourth principle, Autonomy and Independence, means that the co-op operates in an autonomous way that is solely directed and guided by its members, reflecting the values and needs of our local community. This means the co-op is not being influenced by leaders or shareholders several states away. Instead, the co-op is led by the local members it serves.

Education and Training

The fifth principle, Education and Training, focuses on enhancing the knowledge of co-op employees and board members, which enables them to contribute to the development of the co-op.

By investing in continuous learning for our employees and board members, our co-op is making a commitment not just to individual professional and personal growth, but to the future of the co-op and the high quality of service our members expect and deserve. It’s a win-win situation.

We also strive to inform our members (that’s you!) and the public about the mission and operations of the co-op. In fact, that’s why you receive this magazine, so we can share the latest co-op news and updates, as well as energy efficiency and safety tips.

Cooperation Among Cooperatives

Cooperation Among Cooperatives is the sixth principle and fosters the way that co-ops work together to address bigger challenges. While this principle applies to all types of cooperatives, it is especially relevant in the energy industry. In our case, we put this principle in action after major storms and disasters that cause widespread power outages. When this happens, we call on nearby co-ops to come to our aid and assist with restoration efforts, and we of course extend the same help to them when they need us. I can’t think of a better example of cooperation among cooperatives.

Concern for Community

The seventh principle, Concern for Community, is essential to who we are as cooperatives. We serve our community not only by being an essential service, but by helping to power our local economy. Whether through economic development, volunteerism or donations to local causes, we invest in our community because it’s our home too.I think you’ll find that most cooperatives bring good people together to make good things happen in the community. We hope you feel that way about us – your local electric co-op.

At Nodak Electric, we have a fairly straightforward mission of providing our membership with affordable, reliable electricity that provides the best energy value in the region. While affordability is still paramount, as our society continues to modernize, the reliability component is becoming increasingly important. Every day, more of life’s conveniences run on electronics that require a constant flow of power, more manufacturing processes depend on computers that demand a steady flow of power, and even many things that are needed for survival are dependent on electricity, like your home heating system. Regardless of the fuel source, your heating system most likely depends on thermostats and fans that are powered by electricity. In most cases, you can’t even pump fuel for the transport of goods and services without electricity, as the fuel delivery systems require electricity to run. As power systems fail, our society quickly becomes unmanageable. This February, many of the people in southwestern United States unfortunately experienced this firsthand. 

As a means of creating enhanced reliability as well as additional capacity in our highest growth region, the Berg substation was recently added to our system in south Grand Forks. This new addition provides redundancy for our members in the Grand Forks region in case something catastrophic happens to one of our other substations and provides additional capacity for growth in the areas in and around Grand Forks. 

The name Berg may sound familiar to some of our long-term members, as the substation is named after my predecessor – the former president and CEO of Nodak, George Berg. George served Nodak with dedication and distinction for 37 years as a Nodak employee, 24 years of them as the president and CEO. During George’s tenure he helped guide the merger with Sheyenne Valley Electric Cooperative, managed the downsizing of the military presence in the region when the Minutemen II missiles were removed from our service area, and helped bring our largest load online – the Keystone Pipeline. Reliability and affordability were two of the guiding principles that George believed in, so naming this important new piece of our system after him is well deserved and appropriate. 

Last year, our member-owners had power available an average of 99.97% of the time. That statistic is one to be proud of as it places us in the upper one-third of all cooperatives across the country. What makes it especially noteworthy is that our cooperative, with over 8,000 miles of distribution line, is over three times the size of the average cooperative across the United States, making it even more difficult to maintain that amount of reliability. What makes this level of reliability possible is partially the investment we make in our distribution system, partially the deployment of lineworker personnel throughout our distribution system, but mostly the commitment and dedication of our lineworkers to quickly respond and take care of any problem day or night. The power we have is in the people we serve and in the people we have in place to provide those services. 

We cannot tell you how disappointing it is that we are announcing, for the second year in a row, we will be holding a business-only annual meeting, with only mail-in ballots and no in-person gathering. The days when we can comfortably bring you all together in one room to celebrate the business of the cooperative are on the horizon, but without knowing how long it will take to do so safely, your board of directors made the difficult decision to wait until next year to hold an in-person meeting. We all sincerely hope that the annual meeting we have next year will be back to business as usual, with a bigger and better meeting than ever.

2020 was a year most of us would like to move on from. Between the global health pandemic that has affected us in so many ways, and the social, cultural and economic challenges facing us right now, I think we can safely say we are all looking forward to better years in front of us. In many ways, 2020 was not a great year for your cooperative, but there are certainly some bright spots to reflect on and be thankful for. We fought our way through the obstacles and eventually ended up with kWh sales down 5.5% from the previous year, but were able to end the year within our targeted financial metrics and post a net margin of $5.03 million. We met all our financial goals and exceeded all our fiscal obligations. Most importantly, we were able to deliver the power you needed in a safe and reliable manner.

We are happy to say that for 2020, we were able to hold the line on retail rates for the fourth year in a row. The importance of keeping rates down for our member-owners cannot be overstated. Our team works diligently to keep expenses in check so more of your hard-earned dollars stay in your pockets where they belong.

In March 2020, like you, we had to adapt due to the changes brought on by the pandemic. At a time of uncertainty, our focus was clear: keep our group healthy so the lights stayed on. We quickly and safely established new working practices to limit the potential health risks to our employees. It was clear, even in altered times, we had to be there to provide service to our members. We are happy to report it was mission accomplished.

We made adjustments to protect our employees when the pandemic hit and to ensure we were here to provide for the needs of the membership. Some of those measures have been a big success and will continue to be part of our regular offering of services. Early last summer, we developed additional online resources to help members sign up for services or make adjustments to their services. Those inclusions will continue to be a regular mainstay. To better serve our members after hours, we changed our dispatching service to a 24-hour service staffed with multiple stations. Now, when you call after regular business hours to report a problem, you will know right away if we have a previously reported problem in your area, saving you time on the phone and providing more detailed information about the situation.

Continuing our commitment to stay up to date on the modern uses of electricity, we installed the first Level 3 fast charging station for electric vehicles in our service area. Because of a grant from the state of North Dakota, we were able to install the station for a fraction of the total cost. As we plan for the future, we will continue to make investments in technology and reliability. We currently have an adequate source of wholesale power to meet the needs of our growing membership and more. However, future state and federal policies could impact the ability to stay the course with the diverse mix of generation we currently enjoy. Because of this, we stay intimately involved in our wholesale power provider’s generation resource planning and support their approach to utilizing all of North Dakota’s abundant natural resources to provide the power we need.

In a cooperative like Nodak Electric, you are a member-owner of the business. One of the major differences between a cooperative and an investor-owned utility is that you earn an ownership stake in the business through purchasing power from us called capital credits. Those dollars are used by the cooperative to operate the business and are eventually retired and returned to you in the form of a bill credit. In keeping with your board’s commitment to this business model, in 2020 your board of directors approved the retirement of $2,000,000 in capital credits. In all, that totals $7.75 million your cooperative has returned to current and past members in the last five years.

While there were many changes in 2020 and in early 2021, our commitment to you, our members, has not and will not change. It is obvious that working together is key to our success as a cooperative and that is why you are an important part of the cooperative business model. Without your support, your feedback and your appreciation, Nodak’s success would not be possible. Thank you for your participation in the cooperative and thank you for the opportunity to serve our membership over the last year. It has truly been a privilege to serve you and on behalf of the entire board and management team at Nodak, I am happy to say your cooperative is in a good position for the future.

Every co-op, whether it’s Nodak Electric Cooperative, your credit union or farm cooperative, follows the basic principle of democratic member control. Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members who actively participate in setting policy and making decisions. All these cooperatives work on the same system of one member, one vote. Most often, you are asked to vote and elect individuals who will represent you on the board of directors. These folks are your friends, neighbors and may even be you!

Any member in good standing of the co-op can run for the board. Of our nine board members, three are elected each year at our annual meeting, which means with – only a few exceptions – all members have the opportunity to run for the board each year. This year, we again have three director positions up for election; however, one of our incumbent directors has chosen not to seek reelection. That means we certainly will have at least one new board member when the election is finished. One of those few exceptions is that our bylaws restrict board positions in each district to no more than two from any county. Since we already have two board members in District 1 from Walsh County, members from Walsh County are not eligible to run for election in District 1 this time around. However, all other members in good standing are eligible to run for the board this year. Will it be you?

Being a member of the co-op’s board is an incredibly important position. A director’s decisions will impact issues such as service, rates, work plans and bylaws. These positions hold great responsibility and require men and women who understand our communities’ needs and serve the cooperative members’ best interests.

If you or someone you know are interested in hearing more about how to run for a seat on your cooperative’s board of directors, contact us at the headquarters in Grand Forks and we will help you through the process. Even if you choose not to have that level of participation, you should all feel empowered to reach out to current board members and candidates or encourage your friends and neighbors to participate. When our members are actively involved with the cooperative, we are all better off.

As a cooperative, we invite our members to take an active role. In fact, it is critically important to the survival of the cooperative business model that we use our voices to be heard on the issues that matter to us.

The cooperative business model is a great one – it fosters engagement and creates strong communities. More than 100 years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt recognized this value when he said, “The cooperative is the best plan of organization. Under this plan, every business is governed by a board, every person has one vote and only one vote. Everyone gets profits based on their use of the cooperative. It develops individual responsibility and has a moral, as well as financial value.” Those words are more true today than ever. Let your voice be heard and take the time to participate in your cooperative’s election and your cooperative’s board of directors.

In closing, I would like to thank Paul Sigurdson for his 30 years of dedicated service to our cooperative. Over his tenure on our board, Paul has helped shepherd the merger with Sheyenne Valley Electric Cooperative, represented us on Square Butte’s board of directors, served in various leadership roles on our board and shaped policy that has helped Nodak continue to grow. Paul’s contributions will have lasting effects on Nodak in the years to come. We wish him luck in his next adventure and extend our heartfelt thank you for his years of service on our board.

The holidays are a time of year that many of us eagerly anticipate. The season is marked by home-cooked meals, seasonal decorations and lots of festivities. In many of our local communities, we look forward to the annual gatherings, light parades and local religious or family traditions. We cherish carrying on old family traditions and enjoy creating new ones. For me personally, I look forward to more time spent with family and friends, and especially this year, ringing in the new year and the promise of new opportunities is something we all will be looking forward to. However, given the hustle and bustle of the season, the holidays can also offer an opportunity to slow down and reflect. For all of us at Nodak Electric, we are grateful for you, the members of the co-op. You see, one of our founding principles as a co-op is “Concern for Community.” While our main focus is providing safe, reliable and affordable energy, we want to give back. We want to help our communities thrive.

Reflection

In looking back at this past year, I’m grateful we were able to make a positive impact in our communities through programs such as Operation Round Up. Thanks to your contributions, we collected $42,646. As a result of your generosity, we were able to help many families, individuals and groups in our local area with the dollars they needed to fulfill critical needs they were unable to fund. We continue to work closely with Bismarck State College to award scholarships for future lineworkers, and with local Dollars for Scholars chapters to award college scholarships for deserving young students heading off to school. In 2020, we awarded $10,000 to students completing the classroom portion of their lineworker training program and $5,000 for incoming college freshmen. There are other ways we can help the community. Whether it’s providing information about our many rebate programs for heating, water heating or electric transportation, helping you find ways to save energy at home, or various options to make it easier to pay your power bill – we want you to know we’re here to help. The holiday season can be a magical time for many of us, but it can also be a difficult time. The added financial pressures that come from this time of year can be especially challenging for those with day-to-day struggles. For those without family or friends to share the holidays, it can be a very trying and lonely time. This holiday season, we think of those having struggles and encourage everyone to extend a helping hand whenever possible. In the end, it is this “Concern for Community” that makes us who we are.

Looking ahead

Looking ahead to 2021, we hope you will share your opinions with us. We recognize that our members have a valuable perspective, and that’s why we continually seek your input. Whether through community events, our social media channels or the annual meeting, we want to hear from you. We are led by you, the members of the co-op, and we depend on your feedback. As we prepare for next year, we look forward to the opportunity to serve you and the greater community. On behalf of the Nodak Electric family, we hope your holidays

When the latest issue of The Nodak Neighbor lands in your mailbox, I hope it finds you and your family safe and healthy. Since the last issue, we’ve been busy responding to the pandemic and issues related to COVID-19. The pandemic has changed how we interact with each other and how we conduct business but, rest assured, we are here to meet your needs.

Electric power providers are for obvious reasons considered critical infrastructure and, as such, our employees are essential workers. So, in some ways it’s been business as usual for us but in a not-so-usual kind of way. We have taken numerous steps to protect our employees and our members while doing what we need to do to keep your lights on.

In March, we closed the doors to the cooperative but kept the cooperative open for business. Almost any business our members need to do with us can be accomplished at www.nodakelectric.com, through SmartHub, or by calling our office at 701-746-4461 or 1-800-732-4373. We are here to help you transact your business electronically or over the phone and, if needed, we’ll schedule an in-person appointment when it’s safe to do so.

Throughout this crisis, we have found a way to keep all our full-time employees productive and working for you, while doing what we can to minimize any potential exposure to the COVID-19 virus. Some employees have been working remotely, some have been physically separated, while others have essentially been isolating in their offices. Our line crews have been separated into nine functional but physically separated groups to maximize our ability to accomplish our main priority: to safely keep the lights on for our member-owners. We encourage you to call us with questions or visit our website to conduct your business electronically. While the doors to the cooperative are temporarily closed, we are very much open for business and stand ready to provide the service you need.

As you already know, we made the decision early on to postpone our annual meeting. At the time, there weren’t any prohibitions on large gatherings, but we felt it wasn’t prudent to put that many of you all in one room. We are closely monitoring the current situation and have been working toward having an annual meeting sometime later this year. We will let you know when we feel the time is right. Until then, stay safe and healthy. I really look forward to the day when we can come together for a cup of coffee and a friendly handshake.