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Cass County Electric details reliability tech, demand‑response and renewables plans, including Flickertail wind and storage pilots
Summary
A Cass County Electric representative summarized the cooperative's grid‑management tools, demand‑response programs, community solar and storage pilots, and said a planned Flickertail wind project will boost the region's carbon‑free generation share when it comes online in the late 2020s.
A representative from Cass County Electric Cooperative briefed Fargo’s Sustainability and Resiliency Committee on the cooperative’s reliability systems, demand‑response programs, renewable projects and early storage experiments.
The presenter (Chad), introduced himself as a Cass County Electric representative and described technology and program highlights: a SCADA system and automated outage restoration (FLSR), advanced metering infrastructure, an outage‑management/dispatch system and drone/thermal inspections to reduce outages. He said the cooperative served about 59,000 members in 2024 and sold just over 1.3 billion kilowatt‑hours that year.
On generation, the presenter summarized Minnkota Power Cooperative’s current mix (his description: roughly 57% coal, 34% wind, 7% hydro and 2% other market purchases) and noted Minnkota plans to add a 370‑megawatt Flickertail wind project near New Rockford; the presenter said the project is expected to start in 2027 and be online by 2028 and that, when in service, it will increase the cooperative’s share of renewable or carbon‑free energy to about half of generation.
The representative discussed demand‑response and off‑peak programs that reduce peak purchases on the wholesale market by controlling certain flexible loads. Programs include firm electric heat, heat pumps, water‑heater controls, EV charging options and commercial generator enrollments; the presenter said the cooperative offers rebates tied to those programs (examples given: $25 per kilowatt for traditional electric heat, $45 per kilowatt for storage heat, $150 per ton for air‑source heat pumps and $250 per ton for ground‑source heat pumps).
On electric vehicles, the cooperative has a time‑of‑day rate (board approved in January) that charges 5.2¢ per kilowatt‑hour off‑peak and about 22¢ per kilowatt‑hour during peak hours (the presenter gave the 4–8 p.m. and 6–9 a.m. windows as peak periods); the cooperative also installed three DC fast chargers in 2020 (62.5 kW each) and sponsors other level‑2 chargers in the metro area.
Responding to committee questions about large new loads such as data centers, the presenter said such projects require due diligence and investment in infrastructure and that the cooperative would not place the cost burden on legacy members without appropriate arrangements.
The presenter discussed Project Tundra, a carbon‑capture and sequestration option under evaluation for regional coal plants; he emphasized no final decision has been made and that future power supply could include multiple options such as natural gas, storage, or, over the longer term, technologies like nuclear.
On storage, the cooperative described a small pilot with a Tesla Powerwall 3 to study backup and time‑of‑use behavior and noted lithium‑ion batteries are currently best suited to short (2–4 hour) peak periods while multi‑day winter storage remains more challenging.
Committee members asked several technical questions about wind lockouts in extreme cold, coal plant investments in emissions controls and the role of storage. The presentation was informational; no formal action was taken by the committee.
