Community & News

Touchstone Energy® Residential Energy Use Workshops Held –Week of May 17, 2010

Member System staff were in attendance this week to participate in MSRPro Energy Workshops facilitated by Jim Herritage, CEM®.  Mr. Herritage is president of Energy Auditors, Inc. and is an Accredited Residential and Commercial HVAC System Design Instructor with the Air Conditioning Contractors of America.  He also developed and teaches the Touchstone Energy® Residential Energy Auditing, Commercial Energy Auditing and Lighting Auditing workshops.
 

This interactive workshop provided staff with the communication tools to respond to member-owner questions about energy usage concerns and to offer tips on how to take control over their energy purchases. 

Topics discussed were:

Base Load Factors
• Family Characteristics
• Usage Style and Habits
• Appliance Maintenance and Appliance Operating Cost Estimator

Weather Load Factors
• Lifestyle
• Why homes get hot and cold (Convective, Conductive and Radiant Heat Transfer)
• HVAC Equipment Efficiency
• HVAC Contractors’ Service
 

---

 

Member Appreciation Days – Southwest Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative

The offices of Southwest Iowa REC held member appreciation events in April. The first event held April 8th in Staton, was hosted by the Corning and Stanton staffs. The Mount Ayr staff hosted the members on April 15th. Both events were well attended with Mount Ayr having 20 children and 164 adults in attendance and Stanton’s event brought 15 children and 132 adults. The events included a meal, several prize drawings, blood pressure checks, bucket truck rides, and entertainment by Roger Burger in Stanton and The Midwesterners in Mount Ayr.  Mother Nature was good to all, as it was beautiful on both days.
 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

---

 

Crews Help Historic Church Find a New Home
 

Crews work to allow the South Bethel Church to make its turn onto the Tipton Historical Society property.

The 150-year-old South Bethel Church was moved to a new location during a 48-hour period in early December. Line crews from the CIPCO, Wilton facility and from cooperative member Eastern Iowa Light & Power assisted the Patterson Structural Movers of Washington, Iowa in this relocation project. The 40x82 foot church building was moved over 12 miles of winding rural Cedar County roads to its new location at the Cedar County Historical Society Museum just north of Tipton, Iowa.
 

It is believed that this church is the oldest continuously operating rural United Methodist Church west of the Mississippi River. The congregation began meeting in local homes in 1837. The church building was built in 1854 and then rebuilt in the 1920’s after being damaged by a tornado.
 

A recap of this project will also air later this year on the Learning Channel’s “Heavy Haulers” cable TV show. 

 

 

 

---

Consumers Energy to Take Part in National Smart Grid Demonstration Project

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  Deb Borton, Public Relations Manager
Consumers Energy
Office: 641-752-1593
Email: dborton@consumersenergy.coop

Marshalltown, Iowa. (December 17, 2009) Consumers Energy will participate in a national demonstration project of Smart Grid technologies with the help of a grant recently awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Working with 16 other rural electric cooperatives across ten states, Consumers Energy will install and operate a suite of new technologies to gather data to determine overall benefits and cost-effectiveness of the technologies.

“This is an opportunity for Consumers Energy to strengthen our commitment to energy efficiency using the latest Smart Grid technology available,” said Brian Heithoff, CEO and General Manager of Consumers Energy.  “The information we gather through this project will tell us what works best to deliver energy efficiency results; and, increased energy efficiency translates into energy savings for the members we serve.”

Consumers Energy applied for funding through a partnership grant with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association to the DOE.  A total of $33.9 million was awarded for this nationwide demonstration project from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The DOE funding, which accounts for half of the project’s total cost, will be used to demonstrate advanced Smart Grid technologies and integrated systems to help build a more efficient and functional electrical grid.  This is the first nationwide pilot extending and testing technologies from power plant to end consumer.

Technologies will include over 130,000 meters, over 18,000 demand response switches, nearly 4,000 in-home displays or smart thermostats, and others. These technologies will allow communication between different parts of the grid in real time, help grid operators monitor and control the flow of electricity to improve reliability and empower consumers to make choices that lower energy use and save money.  The demonstration data will be centralized for all sites and include studies on total demand, distributed energy resources, peak pricing, customer appliance control, and self-healing technologies for improved reliability.

Consumers Energy is a local, member-owned energy solutions cooperative specializing in energy delivery and energy management. The cooperative serves over 5,000 members and customers in six counties throughout Central Iowa: Marshall, Jasper, Polk, Tama, Story, and Hardin. 

---

 

Showing 1 - 12 of 12

Showing 1 - 12 of 12