Power to the people: NIPCO turns 60

Six decades from NIPCO's beginning, the electric cooperative delivering about four times the power as its early days. NIPCO's technology has changed, too. Pictured here, a man prepares to throw the switch on NIPCO's first substation. Today, breakers can be switched remotely from computers in the company's secure control center. [Click to enlarge]

From powering black and white TVs and record players to computers and ethanol plants, Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative has a history of delivering the electricity people want.

This year NIPCO is celebrating 60 years of serving the electric needs of rural western Iowans.

Before the cooperative was born, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act of 1939 to provide federal dollars to build electrical distribution systems for rural America.

"He saw the need for electric in more rural areas," said Kent Pauling, NIPCO's executive vice president. "Back then there was not a real good transmission system (wires) to get power from the Missouri River dams to our customers."

The money was allocated through the early Rural Electric Cooperatives (RECs).

Some of those cooperatives wanted to get power from the dams to western Iowa.

"It wasn't an easy decision," Pauling said. "It involved a $7 million or $8 million dollar loan. That's like our trillions today."

And this, he said, was the genesis of NIPCO.

In 1949, those RECs came together and formed the larger cooperative -- a company owned entirely by its members.

"It's like having 30,000 bosses," Pauling said.

NIPCO's service region stretches from Pottawattamie County in the south to Sioux and O'Brien Counties in the north.

More power

Not even a decade into NIPCO's existence, the cooperative began to feel growing pains.

"Our forefathers knew in the late 1950s that the power that came from the dams was not enough to meet growing needs," Pauling said.

In 1961, NIPCO joined other cooperatives from several states and formed Basin Electric Power Cooperative, based in Bismark, N.D.

Basin now serves cooperatives in nine states.

Basin is like the producer, NIPCO is like the wholesaler and the RECs are the retailers, Pauling explained.

Today, about 77 percent of NIPCO's electricity comes from Basin and about 23 percent from the Missouri River dams.

Basin's sources include coal (about 80 percent), natural gas (about 10 percent), wind (about 5 percent), oil (about 3 percent) and waste heat (about 1 percent).

Enter the computer

Locally, NIPCO has changed in more than size in the past 60 years.

"Our equipment has gotten better, and computers make things so much quicker," said Pauling. "We could absolutely not do what we can now with the number of people we had in 1974."

Pauling began working at NIPCO that year, and about five years later he led the cooperative's switch to computers.

"I brought in a computer program and modified it to fit our needs," he said.

Today computers are at the hub of NIPCO's operation.

In the control center at the main office, employees monitor computers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Most of what happens to the electric grid -- including 899 miles of transmission wires -- happens from the control center.

"We monitor alarms, watch the flows of electricity from generation sources to our substations, respond to outages caused by storms, and communicate to our outside crews," said Rick Harpenau, sitting at a panel of computers in front of a giant grid on the wall.

Lights on the grid alert control center workers of any situations that need their attention.

"Years ago a lot of things were manual. You'd have to send a crew to open or close a breaker," Harpenau said.

People behind the power

Still, NIPCO, directed by a seven-member board, employs 45 people including linemen to operate and maintain the system and build substations.

In 60 years, one thing that hasn't changed is the quality of NIPCO's employees, Pauling said.

Nick Nemmers, who has worked at NIPCO longer than anyone else on staff, agreed.

"We're like a big happy family," he said.

Nemmers came on staff 43 years ago, an 18 year old right out of high school, mowing lawns at NIPCO.

His job transformed to include inventory and then maintenance.

NIPCOs equipment is better than when he started, he said. With forklifts and other machines, a truck that used to take one-half day to unload now takes about one-half hour.

Nemmers also contributed woodworking skills to NIPCO.

"I think I remodeled the building like three times," he said. "We built a lot of stuff with a skill saw and a hammer."

Nemmers talked about using scrap wood to make something out of nothing.

"Lots of things out here are created out of leftovers," public relations manager Cathie Shively chimed in. "We're very thrifty."

The future of rural electricity

Demand for electricity has steadily risen since NIPCO was formed.

In the early years, demand hovered around 400,000 megawatt-hours.

Today demand is quadrupled -- 1.6 million megawatt-hours.

Of that, commercial demand for electricity grew from a sliver of the overall demand to about half.

"We've had lots of growth in value-added agriculture," Pauling said. "We've gone through a spurt in the number of ethanol plants added -- Sioux Center, Hartley, Galva, Arthur and Dennison. And dairies are coming in the northern part of our area."

Hog confinements and industrial growth, like a food processing plant expanding in Oakland, have also contributed to the rising demand.

"We're going through testing times here," Pauling added. "With the load growth we've had, Basin (NIPCO's main supplier) is needing to consider new generation."

Basin officials are looking at adding 300 megawatts of wind power to their current 134 megawatts in the next few years, Pauling said.

But a baseload plant, one that produces energy around the clock, is going to be needed, he said. The baseload plant would likely be coal.

"We're certainly looking at renewables, but the wind doesn't blow all the time," Pauling said.

He's also watching legislation involving energy efficiency and environmental impact.

Pauling said he sees the importance of these areas but cautions that changes can impact the price of energy.

"Are we environmentally responsible, absolutely. But we also have to look at cost effectiveness," Pauling said. NIPCO's main goal, he said, is to keep serving the members it's been serving for 60 years.

"We're just hoping to do another 60," Pauling smiled.

NIPCO by the numbers

60 years

8 member cooperatives

45 employees

899 miles of transmission line

30,000 members

106,000 pounds -- weight of NIPCO's mobile substation

1,600,000 megawatt-hours sold

$75,000,000 total assets

Electricity's path

* Coal, wind, or other plants generate electricity. Plants that run 24/7 are known as "baseload' plants.

* Electricity is transmitted from those plants to different regions by high-voltage wire. High-voltage electricity travels more efficiently.

* High voltage electricity is brought down to lower-voltage electricity at local substations.

* The lower voltage electricity is routed to industries, farms and other places, where transformers decrease the voltage again to a usable level.