SDMEA Hometown Power – Beresford

By Chris Hill, SDMEA Director of Municipal Electric Services

HOMETOWN - Beresford

We all know that change is upon us. Every year, every month, every day. Whether we like it or not, change is going to happen, although, at times it is just tough to accept. The Beresford Electrical Department is embracing those changes to make their jobs more efficient.

Electrical Superintendent Jay Nordquist was eager to discuss the changes they have made that included purchasing a Boring Machine in 2000 to begin installing underground electrical services. They also purchased another Boring

Utilismart Health Map Load Profile Transformers.

Meter Readings. Meters in Utilismart-Click on meter to get readings or load the graphs.

Google Earth GPS Tags.

Machine in 2013. They have also purchased a Directional Drill, and a Hydro-Vac with a hydraulic boom. The four electrical employees started working on their underground infrastructure in 2005 and complete approximately two blocks per year. They also began installing an AMI system that same year. ES Nordquist also mentioned that they have about “two dozen overhead services left and the system loop feeder is still overhead”.

In 2014 they started using Utilismart as a host for reading the meters. The Beresford Electrical Department also marked their meters using GPS on Google Earth. A 60” monitor is mounted on the wall of their office to view the

meter reading system along with the GPS tags of their transformers and meters.

I encourage any of our municipalities who are interested in installing an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) to give Jay a call and visit Beresford for any information regarding a new system.

When I arrived in Beresford, I decided to take a quick trip around the city. It doesn’t take long to see that Beresford is a proactive and forward thinking community. Beresford has around 280 commercial meters and 17 industrial meters. Their newest industrial meter is Dakota Metals which recycles metals from landfills that have been a disposal for demolished cars.

The City of Beresford also has 24 new residential lots around their golf course with a few still for sale. The City also owns a beautiful Event Center/Clubhouse which hosts wedding receptions, family reunions, and other special occasions. Superintendent Nordquist informed me that the event center has “185-220 events held there each year”.

A special thanks to Jay and the crew of the Light Department at Beresford for taking time to show me what makes their HOMETOWN great!

Questions? Comments? Email Chris@sdmunicipalleague.org or call 605-770-6299 Pictured from left to right: Mike Antonson, Jay Nordquist, Joe Knutson, Danny Goeden.

Beresford Electric Department Office.