MID Board Report Archive

Modesto Irrigation District (MID) Board Meeting of Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Contact: MID Public Affairs Department, Kate Hora, 209 526-7454
The next MID Board meetings will be April 24, May 8 and 22, and June 12 and 26.

 Water report

Assistant General Manager Walter Ward, Water Operations, indicated that 2007 continues to be a below-normal water year. Snowpack in the Central Sierra is at 37 percent of normal. Rainfall in Modesto is still lagging at 7.13 inches for the season, well below the average for this time of year. Don Pedro Reservoir may have reached its maximum level for the year at 796.62 feet, since elevation is expected to decline from now on.

Interim General Counsel hired

The Board unanimously approved an agreement for legal services with O’Laughlin & Paris LLC of Chico, California. Tim O’Laughlin will serve as MID’s Interim General Counsel on a part-time contract basis. O'Laughlin has extensive experience as general counsel to public agencies and expertise in California water law and issues involving land use and the environment.

Other actions today

By unanimous vote, the Board:

• Approved an agreement with Wood Group Field Services, Inc., for inspection and repair of the gas turbines at the McClure Generation Station.
• Directed staff to continue pursuing security options for MID’s downtown office building. 

Educational workshop:  Summer 2007 Readiness

Roger VanHoy, Assistant General Manager, Electric Resources, and Tom Kimball, Transmission & Distribution, reviewed MID’s preparations for the summer peak of 2007. Our capacity to deliver power is slightly lower than 2006, while our level of reliability has improved. The peak load forecast is 700 megawatts (MW), plus 49 MW of operating reserves, at a temperature of 106 degrees. Last summer’s record-setting heat wave underscores the importance of this annual planning process.

Each spring, MID updates our contingency plan and reviews it with the Stanislaus County Office of Emergency Services. Called the Electric Load Curtailment Plan, the document specifies when and how rotating outages (rolling blackouts) would be conducted in the event of a power emergency. All electric utilities in California are required to have such a contingency plan; MID’s has been in effect since the 1970s. A power emergency could be triggered by a problem in MID’s electric system or at a neighboring utility, or by a regional problem in northern California or the western United States.

In May MID customers will begin seeing outage block numbers on their monthly electric bills. This is becoming standard practice in the utility industry. A special bill insert will explain this new feature to customers. Additional information will be available online at MID’s web site.

MID encourages all electric customers to be prepared for power outages. Although MID service has historically been very reliable, power outages can happen to any customer, any time, with no advance warning. Common reasons include car-pole accidents; damage by birds, rodents or other animals; and stormy weather. Customers who depend on life-saving medical equipment at home are advised to provide their own backup power supplies