News And Events

Advanced Metering Infrastructure marks 10 years

This year marks the tenth anniversary of a fully commissioned Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system at Nodak Electric Cooperative. More commonly referred to as Automated Meter Reading (AMR) System, AMI is an integrated system of smart meters, communication networks and data management systems enabling two-way communication between Nodak and its members. What started out as a means to obtain monthly meter readings now plays a vital role in serving the member and Nodak in many ways.

Nodak uses a power line carrier-based solution called Two-Way Automated Communication System, through ACLARA Technologies LLC (TWACS). Commands are sent from Nodak’s office in Grand Forks through the internet and radio systems to various substations within the service area. Substation equipment passes information back and forth with the member’s meter through the power line. The Cooperative’s meters do not use radio frequency to communicate information and only transmit information for up to 20 seconds upon request.

Expecting two years to complete, the first meter was installed in July 2007 and the system fully commissioned in December 2008 after 17 months, and enlisted the help of Nodak’s line workers, technicians, engineers and member and energy services personnel.

Each day, the electric meters are read at or near midnight and three or more additional times for hourly or 15-minute kilowatt-hour (kWh) energy interval data. A meter can also be read real-time when needed, at any given time to check a reading or on a day when service is being transferred. Before AMI, meters were read by Nodak members (self-read), contract meter readers and line workers. Sending an accurate bill was a challenge if meter readings were read on different days each month, not read for extended periods of time or estimated. Invoices sent to members with self-read meters were billed at a 30-day delay causing more confusion. Now, Nodak sends a current bill for one month of usage, which has greatly reduced member confusion and, consequently, call volume and office visits. In addition, Nodak is no longer required to access the member’s property or inconvenience them for monthly meter readings.

Five years ago, a meter data management system (MDMS) was added to store meter data and create reports. MDMS stores hourly or 15-minute energy usage (kWh) values depending on the meter in service. Collection of interval data is important to Nodak for engineering studies, to verify off-peak electric heating systems are shed during control events and in assisting members with usage concerns. Nodak makes MDMS information available to members via SmartHub to track and manage electrical energy usage.

AMI has been a big help during outage restoration. As calls come in from members without power and entered into the outage management system, meters are “pinged” or asked to respond back to verify where power is present in the circuit, directing line workers to begin their work. When a line segment has been repaired and put back into service, meters are pinged again to look for other individual outages. Members can log onto Nodak’s website, www.nodakelectric.com, and click on “Outages” at the top of the page to view areas out of power during extended outages. What AMI cannot do is determine if a member has lost power past the meter, or in the secondary wiring circuit. Since meters cannot report back to the office during a power outage, it is still important for members to call in their outage to Nodak as soon as possible.

The greatest benefit of AMI, from the member perspective has been access to their own meter usage data anytime and anywhere. By logging onto SmartHub through personal computer or mobile device, members can view energy usage data in either hourly or 15-minute intervals (depending on type of meter installed). Members can view daily, weekly or monthly usage to better manage their energy consumption or track performance of energy conservation measures. In addition, current billing period usage can be viewed and compared to past billing periods for members to view how their usage is trending.

Don’t get burned!

Electricity usually makes life easier by powering kitchen appliances, gadgets and electronics we use for entertainment. However, that same electricity contains the potential to destroy homes and take lives. Electric fires are more destructive than any other type of fire, and they are twice as deadly. Safe Electricity has the following information to help you keep your electric system safe.

• Consider getting an electric inspection of your home, especially if it is an older home or you have never had an inspection.
• If an electrical fire starts in your home, do not use water to extinguish it. Water conducts electricity, and you could get an electric shock. Use an extinguisher that is approved for use on electrical fires.
• Flickering lights, warm, cracked or sparking outlets all indicate electrical problems.
• If circuits trip, fuses blow or someone gets a shock, your home has an electrical problem. Get an electric inspection.
• Do not overload outlets, use an extension cord as a permanent wiring solution, or use light bulbs that are not rated for the socket.
• Contact an electrician about installing an arc fault circuit interrupter (AFCI). An AFCI monitors the flow of electricity in your home. If the flow of electricity is irregular and could cause a fire, the AFCI shuts off electricity.
• Inspect electrical plugs and cords annually. If they are frayed or cracked, repair or replace them. Do not place cords under rugs, or staple or nail them to the wall.

Source: safeelectricity.org

Utilities are raising awareness about scams targeting consumers

By Tracy Warren, NRECA

When a scammer called Florida pet clinic operator Cindy Evers last year and demanded immediate payment on an overdue electric bill, it sounded real. “They knew my account number and gave me a figure that I owed that’s close to what I usually pay on my electric bill,” Evers said.

She paid, even though, in the back of her mind, she knew her payment wasn’t late. “I have pets under sedation, and I’m taking care of animals. I think I just panicked, thinking they were going to shut my electricity off. I did what they told me to do.” Evers lost $900 because the call was a scam.

The scam that duped Evers has plagued utility consumers across North America for several years, robbing them of millions. Now, utilities are fighting back. Recently, more than 80 utilities and energy industry organizations from across the U.S. and Canada joined forces to recognize the first-ever North American Utilities United Against Scams Day on Nov. 16, 2016. Electric cooperatives have increased their communication efforts, sending information directly to members and encouraging local TV stations and newspapers to warn citizens about the scam, how it works and what people should do and not do, if they are ever targeted.

Even the wariest consumers can be duped, however. The scammers are developing new tactics every day. The “past due” scam, similar to the one Florida customer Evers experienced, goes something like this: A customer gets a call from an 800 number that looks like a valid utility company phone number. Widely available spoofing software allows crooks to display what appears to be an official number on caller IDs. The caller threatens to cut off power if the customer doesn’t pay.

But here’s the giveaway: The crook will demand payment via a prepaid debit card or money order. And he’ll ask for it within a specified timeframe, often an hour or less. The scammer may even quote an amount that sounds like your typical monthly bill. That way, the threat has even more credibility.

Scammers might direct the customer to a specific store nearby that sells the prepaid cards and instruct the customer to put money on the card and provide the card number to the scammer. Some scammers have even been bold enough to contact potential victims in person, coming to the member’s house.

Here are some tips on how to protect yourself:

• Do not assume the name and number on your caller ID are legitimate. Caller IDs can be spoofed.
• Never share your personal information, including date of birth, Social Security number or banking account information.
• Never wire money to someone you don’t know.
• Do not click links or call numbers in unexpected emails or texts–especially those asking for your account information. Most utilities will NOT require their customers to purchase prepaid debit cards or money orders to avoid an immediate disconnection.
• If you receive a call that sounds like it may be a scam, or if you believe the call is a scam, hang up, call the police and report the incident to your local utility. You can alert your family members and friends. Share the scammers’ tactics de- scribed in this article or those you have heard about. You can also help raise awareness and warn others by reposting scam awareness information on social media; use the hashtag #stopscams.

Jacob Ihry joined the Grand Forks construction crew August 2017 as apprentice journeyman lineman. He had previously worked as a seasonal apprentice for the 2017 construction season.

Jacob grew up in Hope, N.D., and graduated from Hope High School and Bismarck State College’s line school.

After graduation, he worked for Vetsch Independent Power for a few years before moving to Arizona to work as a mechanic for a ready mix company.

Jacob is engaged to be married this summer to Nicole. They have a son, Daxton, and live in Grand Forks.

He loves spending time with family and going to the lake in the summer. Other hobbies include heading to the mountains for snowboarding and snowmobiling.

On Jan. 1, 2018, Brock Janikowski started full time with Nodak Electric’s Grafton crew as an apprentice journeyman lineman. During summer 2017, he worked as a seasonal apprentice.

Brock is a Grafton, N.D., native, graduating from Grafton High School and then Bismarck State College’s line school.

His hobbies include hunting and also hanging out with friends.

Nodak Electric welcomes Alex Schultz to the Grand Forks construction crew as apprentice journeyman lineman.

Alex started with Nodak as a seasonal apprentice for the 2017 construction season and became full time Jan. 1, 2018.  He previously worked for Rock’s Electric Construction and North-Holt Electric.

In his spare time, Alex enjoys spending time with family and friends, watching sports, playing golf and going to the lake.

Nodak Electric would like to congratulate Chuck Traiser on more than 35 years of service. Chuck retired on Jan. 19, 2018, after starting with Nodak as a temporary employee in 1982. He was hired full time in the spring of 1983 as senior dispatch technician, but held other positions throughout his career, such as working in the Engineering Department and as a cable locator and warehouseman.

Chuck’s retirement plans include relaxing, traveling and going to the lake to do some fishing. He will stay busy with his hobbies, home projects and spoiling their new baby grandsons, Calvin and Gavin.

We wish him all the happiness and freedom retirement has to offer.

At Nodak Electric, safety is the most important job we have. We have the awesome responsibility to do our best to keep each other safe at work and to educate our members on how to stay safe around electricity at home and work. As the holidays draw near, for many of us that means celebrations with friends and family, travel, decorations, cooking and shopping. All of us at Nodak Electric want you to be safe during the holidays, so here are a few tips to consider as you gear up for the season. We can’t guarantee that the hustle and bustle of the season won’t leave you with a few frayed nerves, but hopefully these reminders will help you avoid frayed wires.

Inspect your seasonal items
Many of us have treasured holiday mementos that we bring out of storage year after year. The holidays are also a time when we dust off specialized cooking gadgets that allow us to prepare our favorite seasonal treats. These items are often handed down through generations and might lack modern safety features.

Take a few moments to carefully inspect all your holiday items to ensure everything is in safe working order. A few things to look out for include:
• Brittle insulation on wires
• Rodent damage to wires
• Worn switches with the potential to short circuit
• Corroded metal parts
• Broken legs, unstable bases and other tip-over hazards

Extension cords are temporary
When you asked your school teacher for an extension on your homework, it was a one-time thing, right? The same holds true for extension cords. They are designed for temporary use and should never be used as a permanent or long-term solution.

Never bypass safety devices
There are reasons why some devices have fuses, some plugs have three prongs instead of two and one prong is wider than the other on two-prong outlets. When those safety features get in the way of your holiday decor plans, you might be tempted to tamper with those features. Don’t do it! If your plugs won’t fit together, that means they’re not designed to work together. Rather than tampering with a safety feature, find a safe solution.

Don’t forget to look up
When working outside with a ladder, be mindful of the location of overhead power lines. Always carry your ladder so that it is parallel to the ground. Before placing your ladder in an upright position, look around to ensure you are a safe distance from any power lines.

Stay away from  your service connection
An overhead wire that brings power from a pole to your house can be dangerous if not respected. You should treat this line the same way you’d treat any other power line on our system. Maintain a safe distance – even if that means a small gap in the perfect outline of lights. If you must perform work close to your service entrance, get the professionals involved so it can be done safely.

Read the fine print
If you take a few minutes to read and understand the limitations of your lights and other electrified holiday decorations, you can save yourself a great deal of work and frustration in the long run. For example, the tag at the end of an extension cord will tell you if it’s rated for outdoor use, whether it will remain flexible in cold temperatures and how much energy it can safely handle. Similarly, holiday lights will tell you how many strings can be safely linked together.

Don’t forget about the kids…and pets
If you have small children, you’ve probably spent a great deal of time making sure every square inch of your home is childproof – every cabinet is locked and every outlet is covered. But sometimes the joy of celebrating the holidays with our little ones makes us a little less vigilant about electrical safety. Make sure your holiday decor receives the same level of safety scrutiny you apply to all of the permanent items in your home. Curious and mischievous pets can present similar challenges. Make sure Fluffy isn’t nibbling on all those extra wires or using your tree as her personal back scratcher or jungle gym.

From all of us at Nodak, we want to wish you a happy, but more importantly a safe holiday season.

Homeowners decorate their homes for Christmas earlier and earlier – often before Thanksgiving. If you’re ready to start hanging lights, take safety precautions. Nearly three people per hour are treated in hospital emergency rooms for decorating-related injuries during every holiday season, according to the National Safety Council. Here are five ways to keep yourself safe if you have decorating duty this season.

1. Inspect last year’s lights before using them again this holiday season. Discard any with frayed or exposed wires, loose connections or broken sockets.
2. Decorate the tree with kids in mind. Place breakable ornaments and those with metal hooks near the top of the tree, where little ones can’t reach them.
3. Likewise, some holiday plants, including some varieties of poinsettias, can be harmful to children and pets. Keep them out of your home – or at least out of reach. And keep the number for the Poison Control Center handy: (800) 222-1222.
4. Use sturdy ladders when decorating outdoors. Indoors, climb stepladders instead of using chairs, which aren’t designed for someone in a standing position.
5. Don’t hide extension cords under rugs or furniture. They can overheat and catch on fire. And when you take the tree down, unplug extension cords. They’re not designed for permanent use.

Fun Facts About LEDs

• In 2012, about 49 million LEDs were installed in the United States, saving about $675 million in annual energy costs.
• Today’s LED bulbs can be six to seven times more energy efficient than conventional incandescent lights and can reduce energy use by more than 80 percent.
• Good-quality LED bulbs can last more than 25 times longer than traditional light bulbs. If the bulb is burned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it would last three years.
• From vehicle brake lights to TVs, LEDs are used for their compact size, ease of maintenance, resistance to breakage and ability to focus light in a single direction.
• LEDs contain no mercury, and a recent U.S. Department of Energy study determined that LEDs have a much smaller environmental impact than incandescent bulbs.
• By 2030, LEDs are expected to account for 75 percent of all lighting sales globally.
• Switching entirely to LED lights over the next 20 years could save $250 billion in U.S. energy costs.

Source: energy.gov

By Dave Smith, 21st Space Wing Public Affairs staff writer

Cavalier Air Force Station, N.D. – Once a major piece of U.S. nuclear defensesduring the Cold War, Cavalier Air Force Station continues to be a significant link in the nation’s missile warning and space defense scheme.

The 10th Space Warning Squadron is a geographically separated unit of the 21st

Space Wing at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo. Cavalier Air Force Station, N.D., is about 15 miles south of the Canadian border. The installation initially provided the first and only ballistic missile defense of ICBM fields in the northern U.S. Following the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty II, that mission was terminated. Soon after, new dual missions of providing missile warning and supporting space surveillance

began. The Perimeter Acquisition Radar Attack Characterization System (PARCS) at Cavalier AFS is the only Safeguard component that was not deactivated.

The most prominent structure at Cavalier AFS is the Perimeter Acquisition Radar building, a ground-based Integrated Tactical Warning/Attack Assessment sensor key to the National Military Command System. The building housing the PARCS radar system, often referred to as the second tallest building in North Dakota after the state capitol, is an electromagnetic pulse hardened structure built as part of the Army’s antiballistic missile Safeguard program.

“PARCS’ primary mission is Missile Warning; its secondary mission is Space Situational Awareness,” said Lt. Col. John Koehler, 10th SWS commander. “PARCS is uniquely positioned to view objects approaching the United States and Southern Canada from the north. It has a visibility range of 3,300 kilometers, which is approximately 2,000 miles.” This allows the world’s most capable radar to provide observations on thousands of earth-orbiting satellites.”

The PARCS provides around-the-clock missile warning data to North American Aerospace Defense Command and space surveillance data to United States Strategic Command. The system monitors and tracks more than half of all earth-orbiting objects to enable space situational awareness. The 10th SWS team provides real-time missile warning data to the secretary of defense and the president to assist in decision making.

“Cavalier AFS is a unique installation with unparalleled personnel,” said Koehler. “The opportunities here rival and exceed what I’ve experienced at previous bases over my 17 years of service. The missions have direct impact on capabilities provided globally, from the farmers in the local area to operations overseas. This is truly the nation’s most capable radar operated and maintained by the most capable team of airmen.”

There are about 130 people working at Cavalier, he said. Most are contractors performing a variety of services like maintenance, custodial services and firefighting. There are about 40 military and five government civilians in the mix. The installation is considered an isolated facility and too small to provide all the functions of a typical base, so some services are made available through other bases.

Grand Forks Air Force Base, 80 miles south, provides security forces personnel and support functions like finance and medical, for example. Emergency services like hazardous waste disposal and explosive ordinance disposal are provided by Minot Air Force Base about 200 miles west.

The site is remote, but Cavalier personnel stay active in the local community, participating in events ranging from parades to providing a color guard at various ceremonies. Volunteering is a big part of the military lifestyle, and there are many opportunities for 10th SWS members to participate. Extracurricular events like zip-lining in Canada, fishing and ice fishing at local lakes and rivers, camping and boating at Icelandic State Park in the summer, and skiing are available year-round. On-site activities like bowling, potlucks and karaoke are available all year at the Community Activity Center, lovingly called the Mangy Moose.

To bring the installation from the look associated with its time as a prominent Cold War site into the 21st century, a number of upgrades took place. A $4.8 million construction project added 14 new housing units for military families living on station, Koehler said. The project included a new community center and indoor play area aimed for use during cold winter months.

“The project represents a significant increase in the quality of life for base residents,” Koehler said.

A $20 million High-altitude Electromagnetic Pulse protection project is nearing completion, including 10 major subprojects at the station. Koehler said these projects should ensure Cavalier’s operational relevance far into the future.