So KELO kicked this off and said the city is actually saving money by using Heartland Consumer Power District, maybe they are?
$500,000 dollars seems like a lot of money and it is, but the City says it’s actually saving money.
The City worked out a five-year deal with Heartland Consumer Power District to keep the lights on at a lower cost. As part of its Energy One Incentive Plan, the City won’t have to pay the electrical demand charge which covers the cost of delivering power to the facility. That can sometimes be just as expensive as the gas and electric bills.
Did you know that the city runs it’s own municipal power? Did you also know that we pay these people regardless of who the clients are? So wouldn’t it make sense to use OUR OWN municipal power? Wouldn’t that save us $$$? Or is this political? Why not use the largest power supplier in the city, Xcel Energy?
Well according to this campaign finance report (DOC: CFR_100511Â ) we may have the answer to that question.
So why did Heartland give money to the BIN campaign, not only BEFORE they started construction OR awarding the bids, but BEFORE we even voted on the facility. Funny how these things work? Huh?
At one time SF’s municipal electricity actually generated power (Falls overlook building). Long gone are those days. Now they do like most other utilities – buy from a producer, build and maintain transmission lines and resell what they buy. Get into the financial details, and demonstrate that SF municipal can purchase and supply power for LESS actual dollars than can heartland. Then you might have a case. Otherwise – just more philosophical whining.
I would agree Ruf, that is why I am ASKING the question? Are we saving money with Heartland? Or is this about a political contribution?
Heartland would probably be supplying the electricity if it had been built DT – or elsewhere – as well – no?
Are we saving money with heartland? WE is the wrong word in this question. Somebody might be saving money, but it ain’t Joe Sixpack.
http://madvilletimes.com/2013/11/heartland-offers-electric-bill-discount-to-big-new-customers/
So….while the city serves about 2000 residential customers and a size able number of commercial customers, who do you suppose pays the toll for the sweetheart deal with the EC?
http://www.siouxfalls.org/public-works/utility-billing/electric-rates.aspx
So does Heartland have a distribution line to the EC or is Heartland acting as a electricity broker and using the cities transmission line to power the EC?
If we are saving so much cash with Heartland, why are we not contracting all of the cities power needs?
If we had a real news organization in this city, these questions would have been asked. But no we get stories of a dead dog at a ski slope, an old bicyclers quest for glory, a dog that went to a dog show, state fair queen selling coffee mugs, a shit load of police reports and city press releases.
A free press is suppose to keep governments in check. A lazy press keeps corruption in business.
More to ponder.
http://madvilletimes.com/2011/10/are-heartland-cpds-contributions-to-sioux-falls-event-center-campaign-legal/
The city buys its power from two sources. Heartland and Western Area Power Associates. Pretty close to an even split between the two. The amount of kilowatt hours purchased has seen a decline since 2010 when it peaked. The reason for the decline has several factors involved. Energy conservation and advanced technologies the main reasons. Residents are starting to use the much more efficient CFL lamps and businesses are switching over to the similarly more efficient electronic ballasts for their lighting needs. So while actual kilowatt hours bought and sold have gone down, the revenue from those kwh’s has risen by over 25% since 2010. In fact this year alone revenue from kwh’s sold is expected to be $650,000 more than last year. Isn’t that about the same amount of money, maybe a little more, than what the EC savings will be a year?
So…..while the EC enjoys the savings of no energy demand charges, the rest of the city customers will be picking up the difference.