February 2024 Editorial

The 2023 year in review

Marshal Albright, president/CEO Cass County Electric Cooperative

When I was thinking about one of the highlights for 2023, I was planning to report on our best-ever year for service reliability through Dec. 24. As many of you know, especially in the rural areas, Mother Nature had a different plan that turned our dream of greatness into a nightmare. We ended 2023 with an ice storm for the records; more on this later.

First, I will review the positive outcomes for the year.

Affordability
For the sixth straight year, the cooperative held our power cost stable despite the impacts of inflation. Wholesale power from Minnkota Power Cooperative is the main driver of stable prices, as wholesale electricity makes up about 75% of your bill. The cooperative held operating expenses below budget, mainly because we had significantly fewer storm-related outages last summer.

Growth
Despite rising interest rates, new account growth continued at a modest pace. In 2023, the cooperative added 1,590 new accounts. That includes over 550 apartment units and 715 homes. Kilowatt-hour sales will likely end the year under budget because of a mild heating season and several days of lost sales due to the ice storm.

Reliability
The cooperative tracks outage minutes throughout the year in different categories, including weather, dig-ins, cable faults, power supply, and many other factors that cause power outages. As mentioned, the cooperative was on track to have record reliability through Dec. 24, 2023. Mother Nature sent us a present on Christmas Day, and it wasn’t a box of coal but rather a sky full of ICE.

Ice Storm 2023
As I sat in my living room on Christmas Day, watching it rain, knowing the temperature was colder on the western side of our service territory by Valley City, my greatest fear became a reality: ice was starting to build up on the power lines. The rain was relentless in the Fargo area but mostly remained liquid. That was not the case just west of Fargo, extending from Hunter, N.D., down to the Lisbon area, where ice continued to build.

By Tuesday, Dec. 26th, the linemen restoring power came across more and more downed poles and, in some cases, watched more fall from the Ice buildup and high winds as they worked on restoral. Additional CCEC employees were dispatched to assess damage and a request for mutual aid was sent.

By Wednesday morning, Dec. 27, an estimated 250-300 poles were down; our response team realized the event was much more severe than originally anticipated, with lines and poles dropping left and right. Mutual aid crews began arriving to assist with restoration.

Throughout the day, more poles and lines fell, now reaching an estimated 500-600 poles on the ground and around 4,700 members without power — partially because we lost power to many of our rural substations because of transmission line outages. More mutual aid was called in. CCEC employees were sent out to assess over 2,500 miles of line to determine the extent of the damage.

The weather forecast on Thursday, Dec. 28, was encouraging, with light winds and 35-degree temperatures, allowing some ice to melt off the lines. As employees continued to assess the damage, the downed pole numbers continued to climb. Our line crews worked long hours to restore power to as many members as possible.

By Friday, Dec. 29, most ice melted off the lines, which was a HUGE relief knowing no more poles would fall because of ice. The work began to replace poles toppled by ice that was 2-3” thick on some power lines. We continued to assess the damage, and by Monday, Jan. 1, 1,100, poles had been toppled by the storm, along with hundreds of line breaks.

For another week, CCEC crews and employees, along with help from 100 lineworkers from 15 electric cooperatives from across North Dakota, Minnesota, and South Dakota, worked tirelessly to restore power. Final numbers will likely be at least 1,200 poles, in need of replacement, and over 100 miles of line were repaired or replaced. The storm also damaged transformers, OCRs, and regulators. On Friday, Jan. 5, power was restored to all active accounts.

The storm will go down as a historic event for the cooperative. Damage estimates will likely exceed $4 million. Fortunately, the cooperative’s board had the foresight to set aside funds for an event like this after the 1997 ice storm/flood decimated our system. The storm repairs should have no impact on rates.

I am grateful for the dedication of all CCEC employees involved in the restoration effort and the 15 cooperatives that came to the rescue by helping another cooperative in need.

For the members impacted by the storm, we greatly appreciate your understanding and patience in allowing our crews to safely and methodically restore power to the membership.