By Joel Johnson
Minnesota Director of Coalition for a Secure Energy Future
The idea is simple: Provide candidates to state and federal offices in Minnesota with a grounding in how the electric industry works and connect them to local energy experts at the utilities in their district.
To that end, the Coalition for a Secure Energy Future began conducting Energy 101 Sessions during the 2016 elections. Since then, the Coalition has conducted 18 sessions for 45 candidates, sitting legislators and key legislative staff at locations ranging from Tyler in the southwest corner of Minnesota to Bemidji and Grand Rapids in the north. At most presentations, we partnered with local distribution cooperatives, municipal utilities and Investor-Owned Utilities (IOUs) to give attendees a sense of the complexity of the electric industry and the wide impacts that proposed laws and regulations can have on affordability, reliability and safety.
The format includes a basic overview of how electricity is generated and transmitted to homes and businesses, with discussions about the different types of generation and the importance of a diverse All-of-the-Above energy portfolio to the region, the role the Mid-Continent Independent System Operator (MISO) plays in the industry, and the key challenges related to managing the electric grid.
We follow that with an overview of the different types of utilities in Minnesota (IOUs, municipal utilities and electric cooperatives), highlighting the many differences between them when it comes to business models, size, customer make-up, density and regulation.
From there, we turn to the rapid changes the industry is experiencing and the key drivers of that change, including the market pressures from natural gas and renewables, new technologies in how energy is generated and used and changes in federal and state regulations.
Finally, we wrap up the presentation with a discussion of specific policy proposals we expect to see over the next few years, including a possible increase in Minnesota’s Renewable Standard (RES) from 25 percent in 2025 to 50 percent in 2030, allowing third party electric generators to sell directly to consumers and various tax and regulatory proposals. The presentations are also designed to be non-partisan and to include local concerns and issues.
In the end, we hope to leave attendees with a few simple messages:
- That the electric industry is incredibly complex, but local utilities can provide honest evaluations of various policies and their impacts;
- One-size-fits-all policy doesn’t work in an industry in which various utilities differ greatly in terms of customers base, demand, infrastructure needs, business models and financial capabilities; and
- That an all-of-the-above energy policy has served the state well.
Probably the most important aspect of the presentations is the relationship building with local utility staff. Attendees are urged to lean on local utility staff to determine the impacts that various policy proposals would have on the cost and reliability of electricity in individual districts.
The effort will continue after the elections, as well, with a focus on educating new staff and elected officials on this amazing industry.