MID Board Report Archive

Modesto Irrigation District (MID) Board Meeting of Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Contact: MID Public Affairs Department, Kate Hora, 209 526-7454
The next MID Board meetings will be July 17 and 31, and Aug. 14 and 28.

Note: The July 17 Board meeting will be a tour of MID electric facilities beginning at 9:00 a.m.

Staff reports

Water report
So far this July, California has avoided a repeat of last year’s record-setting heat wave, noted Walt Ward, Assistant General Manager of Water Operations. A cooling period is predicted for the next 10 days with temperatures reaching only the mid- to upper 90s. Irrigation demands are at or near peak for the season. Elevation in Don Pedro Reservoir is 45 feet lower than this time a year ago, reflecting the poor water year. Water inflow at the reservoir is 837 cubic feet per second (cfs), while outflow is 2,772 cfs. This equates to a drawdown of half a foot in water level each day. When the water year ends this Sept. 30, the reservoir will probably have dropped to about 740 feet. Ward noted that yesterday, July 9, was the 120th anniversary of MID’s founding.

Power update
Roger VanHoy, Assistant General Manager for Electric Resources, and Ed Jeffers, Electric Engineering Manager, Transmission & Distribution, presented a report on MID electric system operations during last week’s high temperatures. The highest load so far this year occurred on July 5. System load was less than 300 megawatts (MW) at midnight but more than doubled to 658 MW as the mercury soared to 107 by late afternoon. All MID generation performed well, as did the distribution system—only four distribution transformers failed that day out of more than 18,000. MID used 17 different power resources on July 5 with three—McClure Generation, STEP and interruptibles—remaining in reserve. VanHoy noted that renewable wind power met almost one-tenth of customers’ needs.

Natural gas prepays
Scott Van Vuren, Pricing/Risk Management Administrator, presented two options for structuring natural gas prepay transactions and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each.

General Manager travel
General Manager Allen Short distributed a list of trips he made outside MID during Jan. and Feb. 2007.

Approved by unanimous vote

Enabling agreements with future counterparties Credit Suisse Energy LLC and Deutsche Bank AG, relating to MID’s natural gas hedging program.

Approved by majority vote

With one nay vote, an agreement with the City of Modesto, related to relocation of electric utility poles at the City’s sole expense.

With one vote to abstain, a resolution scheduling a public hearing to consider a Resolution of Necessity to acquire property associated with access to an easement for the Westley-Rosemore Transmission Line Project.