SDMEA Hometown Power - Brookings

By Chris Hill, SDMEA Director of Municipal Electric Services

HOMETOWN - Brookings

Paul Melby

This month we are celebrating a retirement as well as giving you a little insight into Brookings Municipal Utilities. First off, I want to discuss a man who I thought was a great person from the first time I met him. Having said that, the first time I met Paul Melby was at my interview for the position of the Director of Electric ServicesfortheSDMEA.Iwalkedinfifteenminutesearly to my interview and expected to see my interviewers within minutes. When Paul and Todd Chambers (Watertown) walked in 45 minutes later, Mr. Melby said, and I quote, “Sorry we are late, I had to bail my wife out of jail” . Now, like I said, this was the first time that I had met Paul and I wasn’t 100% sure how to read him at this point. I know now he was checking his wife out of the hotel in Pierre which caused the delay.

I have had several conversations with Paul since then and I hope to contact him with questions that I will have even afterheretires.However,Iwillrespecthistimeandlethim travel and enjoy his retirement rather than hassling him with my lack of experience. Paul has assembled a close knitteamofDaleHenderschiedt,ConstructionSupervisor, and Tim Reuter, Maintenance Supervisor, that have implemented several great things in his 16-year career at BMU, including an upgrade of the transmission system to 115KV, converting from overhead distribution to total underground, looping substations, transitioning from hand read meters toAMR (which will be 75% completed at the end of this year). Paul’s team also organized a joint construction crew which took over the construction of the telecommunicationcircuitsaswellaselectricunderground conductors which were previously two separate departments.BMUusesvoltagereductionratherthanload management for load control. BMU uses their SCADAto

guide how much they can regulate, which takes extensive time to know your customers’ requirements and being aware of which loads to regulate at what times.

Paul’s team makes sure to research all equipment and productsbeforeintegratingthemintotheelectricsystemin Brookings. They are currently in a 4-year investigation of LEDlighting and are transition to make the conversion. Theyalsotakeprideinanalyzingeveryaspectofaproduct before making any purchases for the utility. They emphasizehavingreliableequipmentthathasbeenutilized byotherutilitycompaniesandinmakingsurethattheyare gettingthebestequipmentthatbeentimetestedandshown to be the best. Brookings is not the leading edge, but they makesurethatwhattheypurchaseisgoingtobenefittheir utilitytoensurethattheiremployeeshavegoodequipment and to make sure it is of sufficient quality to get the job done when they need it.

Inaddition,Paulstartedaneducationprograminwhichhe visited the Brookings Middle School 8th grade science classes to educate the class on how electricity is generated and gets to Brookings.

Brookings has been lucky to have a person as forward thinking and progressive as Paul Melby in their communityandworkingforBMU.Hisknowledgemaybe tough to replace, not only at Brookings Municipal Utilities, but also from the SDMEAboard as well. I personally cannot thank Paul enough for giving me this opportunity to learn from him this past year and I am sure thattherearemanyotherswhoowehimadebtofgratitude for sharing his knowledge throughout the years. L to R: Mike Collins-Journeyman, Curtis HaakinsonJourneyman, Isaac Kruse-Apprentice, Doug EidsnessJourneyman. Not pictured: Todd Swanson-Foreman, Tim Reuter-Supervisor.

Back Row L to R: Doug Mahanke-Foreman, Todd VanderWal-Lead lineman, Vance Vogel-Apprentice, Morgan Vrchota - Apprentice, Lance Dickey - Journeyman, Joshua Millard-Journeyman, Aaron EgebergConstruction, Dale Henderscheidt - Supervisor, Front Row L to R: Scott Hinricher-Construction, Bryce SteffenApprentice, Nic Axtell-Journeyman, Brian HalvorsonConstruction. Not pictured is Jason Volkers - Journeyman.

Brookings Municipal Utilities has around 165 full time employees throughout the water, wastewater, electric, and telephone departments. BMU has had up to 30-40 part timesummeremployeestohelpoutaswell. Theelectrical department consists of 13 maintenance employees and 13 construction employees.

Some major projects include a plan to expand to 8 substations. The6thwascompletedlastyearandthefinal two will be completed in the next two years. All of the substations are new since 1990 and are looped together. Each substation is set up the same so that any crew can work on any substation and be familiar with the system. The 15/25MVArated substations are connected by looped transmission and distribution lines to neighboring substations. Thisdesignmakestherecoveryofthesystem fairly quick and productive process if a service interruption occurs.

Brookingsisalsointheprocessofrepairing6thStreetand has created a deep sewer system which will open up more of the town to gravity sewer and elnate some lift stations. Another project is the changing out of street light poles. Brookings has about 3000 total street lights and about 2000 wood streetlight poles that will be replaced with aluminum poles. They are also converting from high pressure sodium to LED lights.

Wood street light pole that was replaced, sliced to show how the pole deteriorates.