United Electric Cooperative Hazard Mitigation Plan Section 1: Introduction

United Electric Cooperative

Hazard Mitigation Plan
Section 1: Introduction
United Electric is a rural electric cooperative with more than 4,000 miles of distribution lines that provide power to about 10,000 customers in northwest Missouri and southwest Iowa.

United Electric was established in 1997 with the consolidation of Nodaway Worth Electric and Northwest Missouri Electric. The cooperative has offices in Maryville, Mo., and Savannah, Mo. The service territory includes portions of Andrew, Buchanan, Clinton, DeKalb, Gentry, Holt, Nodaway and Worth counties in Missouri. United also serves about 500 customers in the southern portions of three Iowa counties – Page, Ringgold and Taylor; however, this plan will focus only on Missouri operations.

The cooperative is a member of Touchstone Energy cooperatives, a nationwide alliance of not-for-profit electric cooperatives dedicated to the highest level of customer service and commitment. United is governed by a board of nine directors. They are President Gary Hull, Vice President John Redman, Secretary Jerry Fine, Treasurer John Killgore, and members Jerry Kerns, Norbert Schmitz, Pat Hardy, Phillip Jensen, Karl Noellsch, Frank Schieber, Allen Schneider and Joseph West.

The mission statement is:

“We, the Board and Employees of United Electric Cooperative, Inc., are committed to provide quality service. We pledge, through teamwork, to promote a healthy work environment, a good company image and a positive attitude by demonstrating mutual respect for ourselves and our members. We pledge to exceed the future needs of our customers.”

United Electric has 55 employees with staff based at both the Savannah and Maryville offices. An office is also located in Grant City, with one service person based there but no regular business hours. Figure 1 shows the cooperative’s service territory.

Figure 1
The cooperative buys all of its electricity from NW Electric Power Cooperative. United has 22 substations throughout the service territory with approximately 4,000 miles of electric distribution line and about 400 miles of buried line. The cooperative has about 1,400 miles of fiber and also provides wireless internet and satellite services. In addition, United has rural sewer in some subdivisions, but this plan will focus only on the electric portion of the business. About 99 % of United’s customers are residential users and about 1 % are commercial users. Table 1.1 shows the number of meters by county for United’s service territory.

Table 1.1	Meters by Missouri County
County		Number of Meters
Andrew		2,099
Buchanan		960
Clinton		386
DeKalb		1,825
Gentry		1,629
Holt		308
Nodaway		2,863
Worth		642
Total		10,712

The average monthly customer usage is 1,125 kilowatt hours. Annual total usage in 2009, the last year with figures available, was 155 million kilowatt hours, with about 118 million kilowatt hours for residential use. Figure 2 shows the population density for the Missouri service area, based on the U.S. Census 2010.

Figure 2 – Population Density

Section 2: Planning Process
Mo-Kan Regional Council was contracted to facilitate a hazard mitigation planning process with United Electric and prepare a portion of the plan to be included in the statewide mitigation plan for electric cooperatives through a partnership with the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives and Missouri Association of Councils of Government.

United Electric and Mo-Kan representatives had their first meeting on January 26, 2011, at NW Electric as part of regional kick-off meeting for the statewide plan. This informational meeting provided the basic responsibilities for each agency and allowed for initial discussion concerning the project timelines, data collection and other pertinent topics.

The next meeting was held March 10, 2011, at United’s office in Savannah. The final meeting was Sept. 16, 2011, also at United’s Savannah office. Table 1.2 summarizes the attendees and topics of each meeting. Meeting minutes are available in the chapter appendix.

Table 1.2	Planning Meeting Synopsis
Date		Attendees	Topics of Discussion
March 10, 2011		Mike Chellew, Operations Manager Ashley Schildknecht, IT Specialist Carla Daniels, Energy Management Dispatch Bruce Baker, Safety and Compliance Director Susan Mires, Mo-Kan Matt Schoenfelder, Mo-Kan	UEC service territory Asset inventory GIS Hazards of concern Data collection Assignments
Sept. 16, 2011		Mike Chellew, Operations Manager Ashley Schildknecht, IT Specialist Carla Daniels, Energy Management Dispatch David Girvan, IT Specialist Pat Walter, Member Service Susan Mires, Mo-Kan Matt Schoenfelder, Mo-Kan	Asset inventory Hazards Outages associated with hazards Ongoing mitigation actions Potential mitigation actions

Public Involvement

Public involvement in creating United Electric’s hazard mitigation plan was encouraged throughout a variety of methods. The local chapter was posted on the cooperative’s web site, inviting members and the general public to comment. Print copies were also made available upon request through the local office. Comments from neighboring jurisdictions and those jurisdictions where the cooperative operates were solicited through the standard AMEC letter. The letter was mailed to the appropriate contacts, including:

Andrew County Commission

Buchanan County Commission

Clinton County Commission

DeKalb County Commission

Gentry County Commission

Holt County Commission

Nodaway County Commission

Worth County Commission

Midland Empire Red Cross Chapter
United Electric serves a number of facilities that play important roles in the community and, for various functions, may be considered critical facilities. These facilities are listed in Table 1.3

Table 1.3	Critical Facilities Served by United Electric
Schools		Location
Savannah High School		Savannah, Mo.
Savannah Middle School		Savannah, Mo.
West Nodaway R-I School		Burlington Junction, Mo.
East Buchanan Middle School		Easton, Mo.
Worth County R-III School		Grant City, Mo.
Jefferson C-123 School		Conception Junction, Mo.
Nursing Homes		Location
Nodaway Nursing Home		Maryville, Mo.
Shady Lawn Nursing Home		Savannah, Mo.
Pine View Manor		Stanberry, Mo.
Water Facilities		Location
Savannah Water Treatment		Savannah, Mo.
Fillmore Water Facility		Fillmore, Mo.
Clearmont Wastewater		Clearmont, Mo.
Middle Fork Water Co.		Gentry, Mo.
Hopkins Rural Water		Hopkins, Mo.
Missouri American Water Pressure Tower		DeKalb, Mo.
Easton Water Tower		Easton, Mo.
DeKalb County Rural Water Pumping Station		Maysville, Mo
Cameron Water Treatment Plant and Reservoir		Cameron, Mo
Other Facilities		Location
Evona Fire Department		Evona, Mo.
Maryville Airport and Community Building		Maryville, Mo.
Rankin Airport		Maryville, Mo.
Nodaway Generating Plant		Conception Junction, Mo.
Easton Fire Department		Easton, Mo.
Source: United Electric Internal Records

Section 3: Asset Inventory

United Electric has a wide variety of assets, including real estate and buildings, vehicles, transmission lines, fiber, and related equipment. Real estate includes office buildings in Maryville, Savannah and Grant City and warehouses, garages and other outbuildings throughout the service area. There are 20 vehicles stationed in Savannah, 16 in Maryville and one in Grant City. Table 1.4 shows the asset inventory.

Table 1.4	United Electric Asset Inventory Valuation Summary
Asset	Total Replacement Cost	Cost breakdown
Total UEC Assets	$386,103,200	Buildings, Vehicles, other – Overhead assets – $352,667,600 Underground assets - $33,435,600
Distribution Lines	$230,435,700 OH $55,666,500 UG	OH Single-phase lines – $174,769,200 UG Single-phase lines – $21,243,600 OH Three-phase lines – $55,666,500 UG Three-phase lines - $ ---
Supporting Infrastructure	$122,231,900 OH $ 12,192,000 UG	Meters – $2,410,200 Poles – $110,258,200 OH Transformers (all phases) – $8,853,600 UG Transformers (all phases) – $12,192,000 Capacitors – $70,000 Regulators – $639,900
Office Buildings	$10,000,000	Savannah, MO – Maryville, MO – Grant City, MO-
Vehicles	$3,700,000	37
Source: Internal United Electric Accounting and Insurance records, 2011

Table 1.5 lists assets by type, emergency replacement cost per unit or mile, the asset inventory by county and total infrastructure numbers.

Table 1.5	United Electric Asset Inventory by Service County
Asset	Emergency Replacement Cost per unit or mile	# of units: ANDREW	# of units: BUCHANAN	# of units: CLINTON	# of units: DEKALB	# of units: GENTRY	# of units: HOLT	# of units: NODAWAY	# of units: WORTH	Total # of units or miles
Meters	$225/unit	2099	960	386	1825	1629	308	2863	642	10,712
Poles	$1300/unit	12650	6061	2935	13326	14636	2576	25407	7223	84,814
SP* Distribution Line	$51,600/mile OH² $84,300/mile UG³	474 65	251 34	117 8	530 53	581 30	98 6	1039 51	297 5	3,387 252
TP** Distribution Line	$88,500/mile OH $123,580/mi UG	125	36	22	101	112	24	164	45	629
Transformers	$1,050 OH $12,000 UG	1548 243	728 98	308 31	1423 149	1317 130	238 26	2313 303	557 36	8,432 1,016
Guys/Anchors	$99/unit
Cross Arms	$100/unit
Regulators	$8,100/unit	9	9	4	11	14	0	23	9	79
Oil circuit Reclosures	$1,500 SP $19,000 TP
Capacitors	$1,750/unit	6	4	2	5	8	1	11	3	40
Sewer Line
Fiber
Other
Total Replacement Value by County	Overhead Underground	$54,146,975 OH $8,395,500 UG	$25,077,200 $4,042,200	$12,245,850 $1,046,400	$55,612,925 $6,255,900	$60,795,175 $4,089,000	$10,850,550 $817,800	$104,433,875 $7,935,300	$29,505,050 $853,500	$352,667,600 OH $33,435,600 UG
*SP = Single-phase **TP = Three-phase ² OH = Overhead ³ UG = Underground Source: Internal United Electric Accounting and Maintenance records