AT HOME IN THE DOME
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At Home in the Dome
Energy on Agenda as Lawmakers Return

Traditionally, the state budget dominates headlines emerging from the Wisconsin Legislature in odd-numbered years, but in 2007 other things, energy-related matters prominent among them, won’t be far off the radar.

And if the list of issues is familiar in some respects, it will be a conspicuously different Legislature debating them. Assembly Republicans returned to open the 2007–08 session last month with a dramatically shrunken 52–47 majority after having controlled the lower house 60–39 for the previous term. November’s elections also saw the Senate continue its remarkably competitive dynamics of recent years. Each of the two major parties has alternately won and lost control to flip the majority six times since 1993, and Democrats now lead by 18 seats to 15.

As the state’s current lawmaking corps settles in for the two-year term, Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News takes a look at some of the issues that could make a difference to co-op members in the near or more-distant future.

Revisiting Renewables

In the context of a world that’s overwhelmingly dependent on fossil fuels, Wisconsin is not exactly energy central: no domestic coal, oil, or natural gas. Even so, this state has managed to make itself a leader in one area of energy production. Still small by comparison with fossil fuels, renewable energy is where the fastest growth is happening and Wisconsin has taken up the challenge.

In areas served by Dairyland Power Cooperative, ethanol from home-grown corn is distilled and shipped nationwide to be blended with gasoline for automotive fuel. Nearby, animal wastes from dairying operations are a source of methane to power electric generating equipment. Solid-waste landfills scattered across the area capture more methane for the same purpose. The expanding use of these technologies takes its place beside the oldest renewable generation method of all—hydropower—a part of Wisconsin’s energy portfolio since the 1880s and of Dairyland’s since 1951.

Wind power, of course, is the fastest-growing energy source of all—worldwide—but Wisconsin doesn’t have vast numbers of the most suitable generating sites, so while this state’s capacity continues to increase, much of our wind-based electricity is still imported from Minnesota.

With this range of renewables under continuing development, the Wisconsin Legislature early last year reached agreement on a mandatory Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), calling for 10 percent of the state’s overall electricity mix to be obtained from renewable sources by 2015.

Even though the 10-percent RPS will more than double the share of electricity from renewables and more than quadruples what was required under prior law, as technologies develop the goal line tends to move. The RPS target date is still five two-year legislative sessions in the future, but there’s no doubt that coming months will bring proposals to nudge its percentage higher.

Wisconsin Electric Cooperative Association (WECA) Statewide Manager David Jenkins points out that the organization has embraced the existing RPS, actively supporting its enabling legislation and participating in development of the road map to achieve its goals.

“Reducing our dependence on energy imported from often hostile parts of the world is a laudable objective and one we all support,” Jenkins said. “If we intend to hold ourselves accountable for meeting those goals, we should stick to them rather than change them by setting new goals before the first ones have been accomplished.”

Prior to the opening of session, Senator Mark Miller (D–Monona) was preparing to introduce a 20-percent RPS. Last summer, Governor Doyle joined in promoting renewables to meet 25 percent of all energy needs—not just electric generation but transportation and all other energy usage as well—by 2025, the concept known as 25 by 25.

Wisconsin’s electric cooperatives have endorsed the 25 by 25 goal, while declining to support a government mandate that could force power providers to choose one technology when another might be more efficient.

As Senator Robert Cowles (R–Green Bay), a prime architect of the existing 10-percent RPS, told Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News last spring, “If we’d done this five years ago it would have been pretty problematic, but there’s so much you can do now because the technology has improved.”

Electrician Licensing

Statewide licensing of electricians has been a WECA legislative priority for several years.

Under existing law, individual municipalities have the option of requiring or not requiring people performing electrical work to prove their qualifications and obtain a license. Moreover, inspection of electrical work for safety code compliance can vary from one part of the state to another.

Protection of property values and the physical well-being of people and livestock take on especially high importance in electrical work, and WECA has concluded these needs would be better served by application of consistent standards statewide.

Recent legislative sessions have seen significant progress toward the goal, and talks during the 2005–06 session with various stakeholder groups appeared to hold strong promise for a workable compromise bill to be introduced in the 2007 Legislature.

It’s been a long-term effort. At its November 2000 annual meeting in La Crosse, WECA went on record with a resolution calling for state licensing or certification.

At that time, Bayfield Electric Cooperative Director James Kinzie carried the day in debating the question whether a statewide licensing requirement would be overly burdensome, telling how his experience as a local fire inspector convinced him of the need for better assurance that people doing electrical work are properly qualified.

“Plumbers have to be licensed by the State of Wisconsin and electricians don’t, but in 12 years on the fire department I’ve never seen a house burned down by bad plumbing,” Kinzie said.

Electric Home Heating

When the state laws and administrative rules that currently govern the use of electricity for home heating were adopted, nobody was thinking of electric heat as an energy-efficient alternative to more conventional space-heating methods.

But lots of things have changed over the past few decades. Modern electric heating might well include a system to take advantage of the differences between a constant temperature underground and whatever the air temperature may be. These ground-source heat pumps can be capable of heat-production to energy-consumption ratios as high as three to one.

Another typical component could be a 100-percent efficient electric thermal storage (ETS) unit. Using ceramic bricks to retain heat from electricity generated during off-peak hours, the ETS allows the homeowner to use electricity when it’s cheapest to provide heat when it’s needed, and adds nothing to the utility’s peak demand.

But state regulations written in the early 1980s don’t recognize things like this. Instead, they prohibit homeowners from using electric space heating unless they apply extra conservation measures not required of those using less efficient systems. Under the existing rules, superinsulation and enhanced energy efficiency mandates adding an estimated $2 per square foot to the cost of a new home are the penalty one pays for choosing what can easily be the most energy-frugal heating systems available.

Since 2005, WECA has been working on two fronts to bring outmoded state regulatory requirements in line with the vastly improved reality of today’s electric heating capabilities. Stakeholders including WECA have been working with the Wisconsin Department of Commerce in pursuit of administrative rule revisions, and legislation is being prepared to undo the 1983 state budget provision that directed the development of the current rules.

WECA Manager Jenkins is quick to credit the Commerce Department for its willingness to consider proposed revisions to the outdated rules, but the process is a lengthy one and pursuit of the objective on the twin paths of legislation as well as rule revision will continue this year.

Ironically, Jenkins notes that a policy choice made more than two decades ago fostered heavier dependency on natural gas. Amid ongoing efforts toward rule revision, he said homeowners are “smart enough to evaluate costs and benefits of various heating systems. We are not advocating any particular heating system; we simply want all heating systems to be treated fairly.”

In today’s world with gas demand continuing high and domestic production flat, the 1983 Legislature’s policy choice points away from, not toward, greater energy independence.

The New China Syndrome

The most remarkable thing about the Legislative Council Special Committee on Nuclear Power may be that there is one.

But the environmental community—for decades the on-call opposition to nuclear energy—is seriously divided, since the plants produce huge amounts of power from a relatively small footprint with no greenhouse emissions. There is talk of China building as many as 100 in the foreseeable future to power its rapidly expanding economy.

Since 1983, Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission has been forbidden by law to approve construction of a new nuclear power plant unless two conditions are met: The new plant must be more economically advantageous to ratepayers than the alternatives; and a federally licensed repository must be available to accept the waste from all the state’s nuclear plants.

The first point is arguably moot: In permitting construction by regulated utilities, the commission is supposed to try in any case for the least-cost alternative. But the lack of a national repository for spent power plant fuel has provided the statutory anvil upon which the political hammer of anti-nuclear sentiment has flattened any reviving interest in nuclear generation.

Early in their current session, state lawmakers will receive a report and recommendations from the Legislative Council committee. Created last year specifically to examine the question of whether the moratorium should end, along with the broader issue of nuclear power’s future as an energy source in Wisconsin, the panel is led by Assembly Energy and Utilities chairman Phil Montgomery (R–Ashwaubenon). An electric co-op member of the committee is Dairyland Power Co-op External Affairs Director Brian Rude, a former state senator.

Montgomery and the other 16 members, most from outside the Legislature, are not expected to recommend an outright repeal, the continuing lack of a federal repository being what it is.

However, a strong recommendation to look at expanded reliance on nuclear if the federal government should impose limits on carbon emissions is viewed by some observers as a high probability.

Ever-Present Issue

The Wisconsin Legislature will have its hands full in the coming weeks and months, presumably enacting a bipartisan ethics reform package in special session and trying to find ways of coping with the structural deficit of a billion-or-so dollars built into every biennial budget as the state struggles to meet prearranged spending commitments.

At least for the first half of this year, energy-related issues won’t occupy center stage. But in this era of insecure imports and volatile prices, they won’t be completely out of the picture at any time we’re likely to see.—Dave Hoopman

 

Smart Meters
Co-ops Lead Industry in New Technology’s Deployment

New technologies are sweeping across the utility landscape and in many cases, the nation’s electric co-ops are leading the way with innovative systems. Using the latest technology means that electric co-ops have put a high priority on helping co-op member-owners manage their energy use and control costs.

A recent assessment by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) found that electric co-ops have, by far, the highest deployment of automated meter-reading (AMR) technology of any group of utilities in the nation.

Wisconsin electric co-ops, in particular, were cited as leaders in advanced-metering use. Without differentiating between co-ops and other electricity providers, the FERC study showed Wisconsin as the second-highest state in terms of advanced metering market penetration. Pennsylvania ranked first, at 52.5 percent. Market penetration in Wisconsin was at 40.2 percent, with figures dropping off sharply for the remaining top 10 states. Connecticut, in third place, was at 21.4 percent.

Across the country, market penetration of advanced metering among co-ops averages 13 percent, the report said. The next highest penetration was among investor-owned utilities, at a little less than 6 percent, the FERC staff noted.

Digital Revolution

New digital “smart” meters are revolutionizing the utility business. Daily meter readings, or even 15-minute interval readings, provide the opportunity for innovative billing and rate options while making it easier for the co-op consumer to get involved in managing energy use in the workplace and at home.

With AMR smart-meter technology, for example, a co-op service representative can answer billing questions easily and accurately, as well as connect or disconnect a service without sending a serviceman to the property.

Automated meter reading saves more than just time and fuel for trucks. Bill Koch, technical editor for the national publication Rural Electric Magazine, says, “Most of the co-ops I talk to are discovering the Swiss-Army-knife usefulness of AMR.”

Koch says co-ops may start with AMR for meter readings, but quickly find how useful it is for helping members understand their bills and energy-use patterns. For the system reliability co-op members expect, Koch says another benefit of AMR is in outage detection, resolving power-quality issues, monitoring end-of-line voltage, and helping with engineering and system planning.

Robert Saint, principal engineer for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) of Arlington, VA, says co-ops are much more innovative than other sectors of the electric utility industry. “Small companies have to be innovative to stay competitive. The decision-making process can be much easier for cooperatives. They have fewer layers of management, and co-op employees take more responsibility for keeping costs low for members.”

The Turtle Races On

Innovative technologies like AMR are not perfected without a lot of research and field trials, Saint says. Through their Cooperative Research Network, electric cooperatives helped develop a unique AMR system created by Hunt Technologies. Called the “Turtle,” it uses the power line as a communications link to the customer’s meter.

Dan Jacobson, marketing communications manager for Hunt Technologies, says with the support of NRECA, the Turtle AMR system was first deployed at co-ops starting in 1994.

In the future, more information about electricity use will begin to flow directly to members, says Jacobson. “Time-based rates and automated load-control programs are benefits already in use by some co-ops,” he says. “Emphasis will increase on using these systems for demand response and energy-efficiency programs. Already you see pre-paid metering, in-home displays, and Internet portals that assist customers with tracking and adjusting electric use.”

“The age of cheap, abundant energy is over,” says John Brett, vice president of marketing and operations for Tantalus Systems Corp., a wireless AMR company. “The industry has a lot of educating to do about the true economic and environmental costs of energy. AMR bridges the communications divide between co-ops and the people they serve.”

Brett says co-ops have a “bootstrapping attitude.” Another key ingredient in this innovative culture is the co-ops’ focus on customer service, he says.

“Co-ops put member satisfaction before immediate profit,” says Brett. “They realize that AMR is a way to introduce new efficiencies in reading meters, identifying and resolving outages more quickly, and providing equal levels of service to remote rural members. When your customers are neighbors, friends, and community businesses, service and reliability are high priorities. You want to give them your best and create the greatest value.”

Pancaking Innovations

Co-ops are finding innovative ways to combine the power of AMR with other technologies such as geographic information systems, outage restoration, and even account management. Unfortunately, not all systems speak the same language and share data. To overcome this “language barrier,” electric co-ops have created a data-sharing specification called MultiSpeak® that is quickly becoming the industry standard.

According to NRECA’s Saint, “With MultiSpeak, different technologies can talk to each other. Interfacing is getting even easier with the latest version, which uses Web services.”

If you have checked the local temperature or booked an airline flight on the Internet, you have used a Web service. MultiSpeak has leveraged this popular technology to help solve business problems for electric co-ops and their consumers.

What’s next? Brett says electric system automation will provide an unprecedented level of operational efficiency and cost control.

“We see the advent of smart-energy homes where consumers can allow utilities to reduce consumption to particular devices during critical peak periods to avoid a blackout or simply to save money. Customer signaling via the Web or an in-home display will help consumers take advantage of cost-saving and conservation programs. They may choose to purchase power when it is most abundant and least expensive. Everybody wins,” he says.— John Lowrey, editor, Illinois Country Living

EDITORIAL
by Perry Baird

Mascot Milestone

NRECA ran this cartoon following Willie Wiredhand’s January 7, 1957, judicial knockout of Reddy Kilowatt, Inc.

Clyde Ellis, first general manager of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), called the 1950s legal challenge mounted by for-profit utilities “the most vicious thing that the rural electric systems have yet encountered.” That was saying a mouthful, since by that time electric co-ops had already weathered two decades of economic, political, and industry obstacles to staying in business.

People who knew him have told me that Ellis, who retired from NRECA 40 years ago, rarely passed an opportunity to rally his co-op members against any foe of cooperative rural electrification. If he had to embellish things a bit to whip up the troops, well, it was for a noble cause.

The lawsuit Ellis hyped in the above quote didn’t involve territorial takeovers, regulatory obstructionism, or discriminatory business practices—all of which had earlier prompted calls to action by Ellis and the national organization. No, it was the use of Willie Wiredhand, the co-ops’ cartoon mascot, that was in peril.

Court Contestants

A coalition of 109 private power companies who had their own mascot—Reddy Kilowatt—sued NRECA and Mid-Carolina Electric Co-op, alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition. Filed in 1953, the lawsuit spanned 3-1/2 years, ran up untold lawyer fees on its way through two federal courts, and was finally decided 50 years ago last month

The court noted the co-ops’ Willie—with his light-socket head, wire body, electrical-plug feet, and lineman’s gloves—was sufficiently distinguishable from the power companies’ lightning-bolt torsoed Reddy Kilowatt, though that wasn’t the core legal point in dispute. Rather, the investor-owned utilities (IOUs) had complained that Willie’s postures and situations—posing next to an array of appliances and engaging in other electricity uses—were so similar to the stances depicted by Reddy Kilowatt that the public was somehow being confused.

The judge pointed out the IOUs had used Reddy in “thousands of poses doing almost everything humanly possible,” and that an exclusive right to such portrayals would effectively preempt anybody from marketing electricity. In the interests of preventing such marketing monopolization, he brought the gavel down in favor of the co-ops, paving the way for Willie to be trademarked and put into broader use.

Popular Plug

Reddy Kilowatt, an icon of the IOUs since 1926, gradually faded in popularity among electric companies. He was resurrected in 1998 when Northern States Power Company (NSP) bought exclusive rights to the figure, a move to bolster its marketing at a time when U.S. electric utilities widely anticipated deregulation. Reddy Kilowatt soon found himself cast aside when deregulation fizzled, along with marketing strategies designed to promote retail competition among electricity vendors.

Willie, on the other hand, continues to be a popular spokesfigure among electric co-ops. Just last January, for instance, he adorned the cover of this magazine to help rally co-op members being disadvantaged by yet another monopoly action: discriminatory pricing and service by railroads that are utilities’ only shipping option.

Willie’s legal victory a half-century ago continues to inspire electric co-ops as they deal with entrenched businesses that stand in the way of affordable, quality services for rural areas.

Winter in Wisconsin is not for sissies, so why fight it? You could stay inside by the fire and be a couch potato, deep in the throes of winter doldrums. But wouldn’t you rather be in the crisp air, sunshine on your shoulders, swishing through the powdery snow? Instead of grumbling at the TV, you could be admiring the scenery—and your own prowess on skis or snowboard.

Fortunately, there are quite a few venues in our beautiful state where you can do just t

at. One that should fulfill all your winter desires is Cascade Mountain, just a bit south of Portage and conveniently near the interstate.

After a slow beginning in December due to lack of snow, Cascade Mountain was opened in time for the new year, with some 20 inches of man-made snow and most—but not all—areas of the mountain open. Early January also experienced higher-than-normal temperatures, and we’re hopeful that by the time you receive this issue of Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News, the conditions will be favorable for winter frolic.

In all, the ski area boasts four runs in the beginner area, 30 runs with various degrees of difficulty for more advanced skiers, and six terrain parks for snowboarders from beginners to pros. Many runs and parks are lighted for after-dark play. The popular ski area also offers lifts, rental equipment, a Cascade Sports Shop for purchasing gear and supplies, and spacious warming facilities for post-ski snacks and beverages around the fire.

Whether you’re a first-timer or a polished skier or snowboarder, you’ll find a lesson tailored for you. Instruction programs include the Cascade Kids’ Learning Program (for ages 4–12), the Learn to Ski package (for ages 10 and over), group lessons, and private lessons at every level. For the popular Cascade Kids’ program, reservations are recommended.

If you think you’d be hopeless on skis even after lessons, consider reveling in the snow at the snow tubing park. Tubes are provided, and no experience is needed to get the thrill of shooting down the 800-foot slide. The tubing park has been revamped this year, including indoor restrooms in the warming hut and a new magic carpet lift (like a moving sidewalk) to make your ascent effortless so you can shoot down again. (As of early January when this story was being readied, the snow tubing park was not in operation, but Cascade officials were optimistic it would open shortly. Check the web site or toll-free number to see the status.)

To have even more fun at Cascade Mountain, why not organize a party with your friends? Skiing and snow tubing parties qualify for special perks and make happy memories for all. Want to stay for several days? Cascade Mountain does not have lodging on site but offers several lodging packages in conjunction with nearby Wisconsin Dells hotels.

Now, off you go, for a day or a whole vacation…and don’t come back home until your winter outlook has improved and your cheeks are rosy!—Linda Hilton

Cascade Mountain is near Portage, just 15 minutes south of Wisconsin Dells and 30 minutes north of Madison. Take I-90/94 to exit 206; go west on Highway 33 for about 1/4 mile and turn left on Cascade Mountain Road. Hours for skiing and snowboarding are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekends. For holiday hours, snow tubing hours, snow conditions, rates, group packages, special events, and other information, visit www.cascademountain.com or call 800/922-2SKI (800/922-2754). Reservations for Cascade Kids’ learning program may be made online or by calling 888/SNOW-FUN. Closing day will be March 18.