Rochester Public Utilities | Blog

Archive for June, 2010

City Council directs RPU Board to consider Community Lighting Fee

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

The Rochester Public Utilities (RPU) Board, as directed by the Rochester City Council, was presented with a possible fee structure from staff for community lighting.

 

 

The community lighting fee will recover costs associated with installation, maintenance, service, and electricity for the community street lighting in Rochester. Preliminary fees for community lighting were discussed at the June Board Meeting.

 

Monthly Fee Outline

 

Residential

$1.82

 

General Service

$7.09

 

Medium General Service

$13.64

 

Large General Service

$92.40

 

Large Industrial

$190.23

 

 

A recommendation on the proposed community lighting fee will be considered by the Utility Board at the July 27 meeting. The recommendation on the proposal will then be forwarded to the City Council for approval on August 2.  If approved by the City Council, the fee will take effect on September 1. 

 

About Rochester Public Utilities

 

As the municipal utility of Rochester, Minn., for more than 110 years, RPU provides high-quality and reliable electricity to over 47,000 customers.  Water customers number more than 36,000.  RPU continually investigates innovative technologies to help customers realize the best value from the services they receive.  Current initiatives include fuel cell research, wind power, and photovoltaic offerings.

 

###

System maintenance scheduled for this weekend

Friday, June 25th, 2010

We will be doing system maintenance this weekend from Friday, June 25 at 5:00 p.m through the evening of Sunday, June 27. During this weekend there will be times that you will not be able to access your account or make payments online due to maintenance being done. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Come see us at the Think Green Fair this weekend!

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

We will have a booth at the Think Green Fair this weekend at the Olmsted County Fairgrounds on Saturday, June 26 from 10am- 9pm. Come by and get helpful information on how to be energy efficient and water wise in your home or business.

 

We will also have giveaways including compact fluorescent light bulbs, while supplies last. 

See you at the fair!

RPU recap of power outages and damage to electric infrastructure

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Rochester Public Utilities (RPU) was busy over the weekend restoring power and repairing damaged infrastructure caused by the tornado and storms that came through Rochester last Thursday evening.

 

Over 5,000 customers lost power due to the storm with interruption times ranging from less than an hour to over a 24 hour span. Much of the damage was seen in the north part of Rochester where the winds were the strongest, but outages occurred in all four quadrants of the city. The winds and rain knocked over trees and blew branches into power lines causing the interruptions in service and in some cases, completely knocked down the lines and poles.

 

As the damage was inspected by RPU line workers, the decision was made to reach out to other utilities for mutual aid response. Friday night, crews from Austin, Owatonna, and Elk River responded and were working with RPU crews on power restoration. By late Friday night, there were 1,500 customers still without power, by Saturday morning there were only 100 customers without power. The work continued throughout the day on Saturday until mid-afternoon when all of the known outages were repaired.

 

Over 20 RPU line workers and many others from RPU and other utilities worked tirelessly to restore power to the city of Rochester. In addition, other RPU staff were available to communicate with customers and to offer assistance over the duration of the past weekend.

 

“The hard work of RPU staff and the crews from Austin, Owatonna, and Elk River was invaluable in dealing with the recent storm damage. The most important thing over the course of the past few days is that no one was injured and that we were able to restore power to all of our customers,” said RPU General Manager Larry Koshire.

Customers that have trees or branches which are close to interfering with overhead power lines, should call RPU to have it inspected and trimmed if necessary.

 

About Rochester Public Utilities

 

As the municipal utility of Rochester, Minn., for more than 110 years, RPU provides high-quality and reliable electricity to over 47,000 customers.  Water customers number more than 36,000.  RPU continually investigates innovative technologies to help customers realize the best value from the services they receive.  Current initiatives include fuel cell research, wind power, and photovoltaic offerings.

 

###

RPU power restoration and tree removal

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Over the course of the past five days, Rochester Public Utilities (RPU) has responded to over 500 separate power outage calls caused by tree and wind damage.

 

 

The winds and rain from the storm Thursday evening knocked over trees and blew branches into power lines across the city causing the widespread outages. By mid Saturday afternoon all of the known power outages were addressed and repaired.

 

 

Trees and branches that came down in the storm or that had to be cut to ensure safety and reliability will not be removed from the property by RPU. It is the property owner’s responsibility to remove the cut branches and limbs. Customers can contact a private contractor to remove their tree debris or can remove it themselves and deliver it to the Hathaway Brush Disposal Site at 2564 50th Ave NW for a fee.

 

 

If there are still limbs or branches that are causing a safety or electric reliability problem, customers can call RPU to have the situation inspected.