Minnesota Power
30 West Superior Street Duluth, Minnesota 55802
www.mnpower.com
Kelley Eldien, Editor
Summer 2007
MP boosts renewable energy resources
At Minnesota Power, we’re working to add significant sources of renewable generation to our energy portfolio. MP is harnessing the wind by purchasing all electricity generated at a 48-megawatt wind farm to be built near Center, N.D.—enough to power about 15,000 homes. It will be adjacent to another 50.6-megawatt wind farm that began operating in 2006, and MP purchases all power produced by that facility, as well.
We will build, own and operate the first commercial wind facility in northeastern Minnesota on property owned by U.S. Steel Corp. in Mountain Iron. The approximately $50 million Minnesota Power Taconite Ridge Energy Center will produce 25 megawatts, and its entire output will be used to serve our customers’ energy needs. MP will also buy the 32-megawatt output from two Community Based Energy Development (C-bed) wind
Sign up for a free in-home energy audit— electric use analysis Find out how to get the most from your energy dollar by learning how you and your home use electricity. A representative of Minnesota Power will visit your home and analyze how you use electricity, determine your electric energy use per appliance and recommend efficiency improvements. You’ll learn how to optimize your electric usage by changing the way you use appliances. Call Minnesota Power toll free at 1-800-228-4966 (Minnesota only), extension 2909, to request an In-Home Electric Use Analysis. Please have your account number available. Low income customers interested in audit services should contact their local Community Action Agency. Participants must be MP customers served on a retail basis.
facilities proposed in the western part of our service territory near Hewitt. The projects will utilize 2.5-megawatt turbines—the largest ever erected in Minnesota. This initiative represents the first C-bed projects undertaken by MP. Passed by the Minnesota Legislature in 2005, C-bed is a statewide directive intended to encourage investment in community wind energy projects. Through our Biomass Initiative, we’re analyzing several projects to generate electricity from the combustion of biomass—plants and plant-derived materials such as wood waste and forest residue. They include building a new 40- to 50-megawatt biomass-fueled unit at our Laskin Energy Center in Hoyt Lakes, using biomass fuel at existing MP facilities and developing projects at industrial customer sites which provide process improvements and generation additions. MP will submit final plans regarding biomass and other renewable options under study as part of its Integrated Resource Plan filing with the State of Minnesota later this year.
ON THE WEB www.mnpower.com Growing a business? Contact MP’s Economic Development staff
They have the resources, connections and experience to help you locate sites and secure capital for expansion or relocation: www.mnpower.com/econdev or call 218-723-3913, option 3. Air conditioner, ECM furnace combo special
Get a $375 rebate from Minnesota Power. Visit www.mnpower.com/combo or call 1-800-677-8423 for a list of participating contractors. (Save $125 over individual A/C and ECM furnace installations.) Good Aug. 1 through Sept. 30. 2007-08 Community Involvement Scholars
Congratulations to the 25 Minnesota Power Community Involvement Scholarship winners. They're listed at: www.mnpower.com/community/ funds_grants/scholarship.
MP teams up with libraries to help patrons Kill-A-Watt Minnesota Power has teamed up with 30 service territory libraries (Kitchigami Regional Library System, Great River Regional Library System and Arrowhead Regional Library System) to make available to their patrons the Kill-A-Watt electric consumption meter. Participating libraries are making the meters available for checkout—just like a library book. These devices—about five inches by two-and-a-half inches in size—can monitor the electrical consumption of any 120-volt appliance, such as refrigerators, microwave ovens and televisions, and give the user an idea of how much energy the appliance is using. Included in the meter’s carrying case is a worksheet to help you convert your energy usage into dollars. The goal is to provide a good idea of where your electric energy dollars are being spent, so you can make informed decisions when purchasing or upgrading appliances—and help conserve energy. To meter an electrical appliance, simply plug the Kill-A-Watt meter into a regular 120-volt electrical outlet and then plug the appliance into the front of the meter. At the press of a button, the meter displays alternating readouts of total time the appliance has been plugged in and total energy used in kilowatt-hours. Instructions are included with the meter on how to determine an appliance’s monthly cost of operation. For a complete listing of appliance operating costs and energy and money-saving recommendations, visit www.mnpower.com and click on Your Business>Energy & Cost Savings or go to www.energystar.gov.
Change one light bulb—make a world of difference We encourage you to participate in the national “Change a Light, Change the World” campaign Oct. 1–Nov. 30, 2007. ENERGY STAR® lighting products will be available at major retailers, local hardware and some grocery stores. You’ll receive an instant $2 rebate on each compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) you purchase. Changing one bulb can make a world of difference. FACTS: If every household served by Minnesota Power installed one CFL, we could save 6,732,000 kWh in one year. This is equivalent to: · Powering 600 homes for one year · Saving $500,000+ in one year and over $2 million dollars for the life of the products ENTER TO WIN! Visit www.mnpower.com/cfl, take a short quiz and be eligible to win 20 CFLs of your choice ($75–$125 value). Entries must be submitted by Sept. 1, 2007. Three winners will be drawn. Listen for planned outage information When Minnesota Power plans maintenance work scheduled to interrupt electric service for more than four hours, affected customers will now receive advance notification conveniently via their home telephone. The company has invested in an automated telephone service that can contact individual customers by phone instead of having them rely on seeing a newspaper advertisement or hearing information on the radio.
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