Paul Melby/Brookings

Volume 7Issue 7June, 2017

Paul Melby/Brookings

Volume 7Issue 7June, 2017

This month we are celebrating a retirement as well as giving you a little insight into Brookings Municipal Utilities. First off, I want to discuss a man who I thought was a great person from the first time I met him. Having said that, the first time I met Paul Melby was at my interview for the position of the Director of Electric Services for the SDMEA. I walked in fifteen minutes early to my interview and expected to see my interviewers within minutes. When Paul and Todd Chambers (Watertown) walked in 45 minutes later, Mr. Melby said, and I quote, “Sorry we are late, I had to bail my wife out of jail”. Now, like I said, this was the first time that I had met Paul and I wasn’t 100% sure how to read him at this point. I know now he was checking his wife out of the hotel in Pierre which caused the delay.

I have had several conversations with Paul since then and I hope to contact him with questions that I will have even after he retires. However, I will respect his time and let him travel and enjoy his retirement rather than hassling him with my lack of experience. Paul has assembled a close knit team of Dale Henderschiedt, Construction Supervisor, and Tim Reuter, Maintenance Supervisor, that have implemented several great things in his 16-year career at BMU, including an upgrade of the transmission system to 115KV, converting from overhead distribution to total underground, looping substations, transitioning from hand read meters to AMR (which will be 75% completed at the end of this year). Paul’s team also organized a joint construction crew which took over the construction of the telecommunication circuits as well as electric underground conductors which were previously two separate departments. BMU uses voltage reduction rather than load management for load control. BMU uses their SCADA to guide how much they can regulate, which takes extensive time to know your customers’ requirements and being aware of which loads to regulate at what times.

Paul’s team makes sure to research all equipment and products before integrating them into the electric system in Brookings. They are currently in a 4-year investigation of LED lightingand are transitioning to make the conversion. They also take pride in analyzing every aspect of a product before making any purchases for the utility. They emphasize having reliable equipment that has been utilized by other utility companies and in making sure that they are getting the best equipment that has been time tested and shown to be the best. Brookings is not the leading edge, but they make sure that what they purchase is going to benefit their utility to ensure that their employees have good equipment and to make sure it is of sufficient quality to get the job done when they need it done.

Paul also started an educational program in which he visited the Brookings Middle School 8th grade science classes to educate the class on how electricity is generated and gets to Brookings.
Brookings has been lucky to have a person as forward thinking and progressive as Paul Melby in their community and working at BMU. His knowledge may be tough to replace, not only from Brookings Municipal Utilities, but from the SDMEA board as well. I personally cannot thank Paul enough for giving me this opportunity to learn from him this past year and I’m sure that there are many others who owe him a debt of gratitude for sharing his knowledge throughout the years.

Brookings Municipal Utilities has around 165 full time employees throughout the water, wastewater, electric, and telephone departments. BMU has had up to 30-40part time summer employees to help out as well. The electrical department consists of 13 maintenance employees and 13 construction employees.

Some major projects include a plan to expand to 8 substations. The 6th was completed last year and the final two will be completed in the next two years. All of the substations are new since 1990 and are looped together. Each substation is set up the same so that any crew can work on any substation and be familiar with the system. The 15/25MVA rated substations are connected by looped transmission and distribution lines to neighboring substations. This design makes the recovery of the system fairly quick and productive process if a service interruption occurs.

Picture: Wood streetlight pole that was replaced, sliced to show how the pole deteriorates.

Brookings is also in the process of repairing 6tihStreet and has created a deep sewer system which will open up more of the town to gravity sewer and eliminate some lift stations.

Another project is the changing out of street light poles. Brookings has about 3000 total street lights and about 2000 wood streetlight poles that will be replaced with aluminum poles. They are also converting from high pressure sodium to LED lights.

Back Row Left to Right: Doug Mahanke-Foreman, Todd VanderWal-Lead lineman, Vance Vogel-Apprentice, Morgan Vrchota-Apprentice, Lance Dickey-Journeyman, Joshua Millard-Journeyman, Aaron Egeberg-Construction, Dale Henderschiedt-Supervisor, Front Row Left to Right: Scott Hinricher-Construction, Bryce Steffen-Apprentice, Nic Axtell-Journeyman, Brian Halvorson-Construction., Not pictured Jason Volkers-Journeyman.

Left to Right: Mike Collins, Journeyman, Curtis Haakinson-Journeyman, Isaac Kruse-Apprentice, Doug Eidsness-Journeyman. Not pictured Todd Swanson-Foreman, Tim Reuter-Supervisor.

34th Avenue substation-Energized in 2001

Mr. Paul Melby

Questions? Comments? Email me at all Chris: 605-770-6299

Volume 7Issue 7June, 2017