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Construction budget helps Capital plan for future

The past 12months have been extremely busy for

In an effort to widen East Century Avenue and build a bridge over the railroad tracks, the city of Bismarck asked Capital Electric Co-op to relocate a 115-kilovolt (kv) transmission line this past summer.

your electric cooperative. Over the course of 2007, we signed a service area agreement with Montana-Dakota Utilities. The N.D. Supreme Court granted our co-op the right to serve the Boulder Ridge subdivision north of town. And last but not least, we didn’t experience any snowstorms, floods or fires. Overall, we consider ourselves fortunate and thank you, our member-owners. It’s because of you that we exist, and we appreciate your continued support and economic contributions to our local communities.

In order to continue providing you with the reliable and affordable electric service you expect and deserve, Capital Electric maintains existing lines and substations while planning for future growth. To do this, we create and follow an annual construction budget. This past year, our board of directors set a budget of $5.7million. This money comes from several sources including loans from the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), CoBank and Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC), as well as our general funds. In following that RUS-approved budget, Capital Electric enhanced services in both rural and urban areas.

Some of those enhancements included:
• Moving and burying an overhead double-circuit line on Highway 1804 by the University of Mary. This project was requested by the N.D. Department of Transportation in order to widen Highway 1804 into a four-lane road.
• Moving transmission line and burying distribution line on East Century Avenue. This project was requested by the city in order to widen the road and build a bridge over the railroad tracks.
• Adding 529 new residential and business consumers to co-op lines through the end of November 2007.
• Installing a new three-phase underground rural distribution circuit out of the Circle K Substation north of Bismarck. The new eastbound circuit along 71st Ave. N.E. will provide better reliability and will help balance the loads.
• Inserting poles to alleviate longer spans between existing poles.
• Rebuilding 20miles of single-phase line in rural areas, with the help of JB Construction.

Ron Lipp, manager of engineering and operations for Capital Electric, says the board of directors budgeted $6.1million for the 2008 work plan. Planned projects for the coming year include:
• Evaluating Capital Electric’s transmission system and possibly converting all transmission lines from41.6 to 115 kilovolts.
• Adding a circuit out of the Horizon Substation down to the river bottoms which will help balance the load and increase reliability.
• Looking to purchase land to build a substation in Lincoln.
• Rebuilding another 20miles of single-phase overhead line in rural areas.
• Replacing underground cable in the Grand Prairie and Imperial Valley subdivisions.
• Planning for new consumers.
• Finishing the building addition at co-op headquarters.

While the lists seem long, they show we CAN and DO accomplish a lot over the span of a year. And we can do all these things because we have a competent board of directors who offer their vision and guidance. We have managers and staff who work hard every day to ensure our consumers have affordable and reliable electric service. And we have you, the member-owner, whose service requires maintenance or growth. Thank you for helping us plan for the future!