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The purchase of the old North Branch Water & Light electric distribution network by East Central Energy two and a half years ago has been a learning experience.

According to two ECE representatives COO and Vice President Andy Olson and Broadband Project Manager Dennis Rice, the condition of the old (legacy) North Branch power equipment has kept ECE crews hopping,  responding to outages while replacing and repairing components.  

“We have come a long way,” Rice remarked in a presentation last week to city officials.  

There have been 400 equipment worksites since January 2024, where ‘restoration’ aesthetics have been addressed.  Simultaneously ECE is using a Border-to-Border broadband grant to expand and enhance North Branch internet.  

The grant carries deadlines for spending funds and it’s been a little hectic to meet schedules.  But, Rice said ECE is on task and anybody considering subscribing to or upgrading internet services in the North Branch area is certainly welcome to see ECEfiber.com for details.

Equipment install sites have been the cooperative’s focus.  There were complaints and concerns about the state of some work zones opened up earlier, and Rice says by using new technology and structuring the customer feedback process  related to field issues, ECE has its contractor ITG on top of things.  Complaints now arrive directly and get addressed efficiently.  Fiber  is 95 complete, he stated.

Chief Operating Officer/ Vice President Olson added that what ECE purchased from the municipal electric utility was more of a challenge than anticipated. The legacy components’ mapping and equipment were “less than stellar.”  Work to create an accurate inventory of the legacy system is still 50 percent incomplete.

ECE also undertook extensive inter-connection tasks to build redundancy into the legacy portion of the distribution system. Three phase operations had to be reconfigured because the legacy portion proved to not be synchronized with the rest of the cooperative’s operations. A substation also was not connected for a time.  “Reliability issues” were a problem,  but the bugs have  been worked out, Olson explained.

The rate freeze that was part of the municipal utility sale to ECE expires in a few months, Olson cautioned the council. Customers should be prepared for a hefty electric bill increase in February or March.

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