Published August 3, 2021 After several years of study and analysis, Minnesota Power has received approval to transition residential customers to a new electric rate called a time-of-day (TOD) rate. The cost per kWh to customers would vary based on the time of day the energy is consumed. This transition will not happen immediately but instead…
July 15, 2021 Star Tribune Brooks Johnson DULUTH – Minnesota Power is poised to be the first utility in the state to fully switch to “time of day” electricity rates for residential customers, meaning power is more expensive during certain hours and discounted when it is more readily available. The move is prompted by an…
Published July 6, 2021 Minnesota Power, the electric utility serving much of northeastern Minnesota, filed its latest Integrated Resource Plan (“IRP”) in February 2021. CUB continues to participate in the review process and intends to file comments on the IRP this fall. An IRP is a roadmap that public utilities use to analyze and model…
Published April 5, 2021 Back in January, I wrote a blog about Minnesota Power’s efforts to take a procedural step towards recovering revenue losses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a nutshell, the Company sought the Public Utilities Commission’s (PUC) permission to calculate the amount of revenue it lost when two of its large industrial…
Published January 13, 2021 Minnesota Power plans to deliver 100% carbon-free electricity to northern Minnesota by 2050. In an announcement yesterday, the Duluth-based utility promised 70% renewable electricity by 2030. It will reduce coal plant operations immediately and close all of its coal generation by 2035. And it will do so while maintaining the reliability…
Published January 12, 2021 The economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact Minnesotans in multiple ways. Among those impacts, the pandemic (and related restrictions issued globally to help slow its spread) has contributed to fluctuating demand for steel and declining demand for paper. This, in turn, has recently caused several of Minnesota’s large…
Published December 7, 2020 This month, CUB and Minnesota Power released the findings of joint research evaluating how real customers’ electricity bills would change under four new rate designs that are under consideration. Over the past several years, Minnesota Power (“MP”) has engaged in a pilot program, stakeholder discussions, and regulatory processes to assess whether…
Published October 7, 2020 In 2015, the Minnesota Legislature passed a law designed to allow certain energy-intensive, trade-exposed (EITE) industrial entities to lower their energy costs. The law permits Minnesota Power and Otter Tail Power – electric companies serving parts of northern, central, and western Minnesota – to propose rate discounts to EITE customers operating within…
Published August 4, 2020 Last month I wrote about CUB’s comments filed with the Public Utilities Commission (the “Commission”) in Docket 16-664 recommending that the Commission deny Minnesota Power’s (the “Company”) request to extend the deadline for its Integrated Resource Plan (“IRP”). As noted in our comments, the Company’s IRP filing deadline had been extended twice…
Published July 20, 2020 Minnesota law requires public utilities to periodically file an Integrated Resource Plan (“IRP”) with the Public Utilities Commission (the “Commission”). An IRP is a roadmap that public utilities use to analyze and model various strategies for meeting electricity demand over the next 15 year time horizon. Ideally, the IRP planning process…
