North Dakota Public Service Commission

The North Dakota Public Service Commission wants to be able to take a look at the “integrated resource plans” filed by investor owned utilities.

Those outline what plans they have for their mix of power generation.

The utilities submit their plans to the PSC, but the Commission has never had the authority to charge the utilities a fee for a more thorough look.

MDU electric customers will see a rate increase on their monthly bills, beginning in November.

It’s part of what’s called the “Transmission Cost Adjustment Rider.”  It’s due to new transmission projects, and a drop in transmission related revenue received from two regional power grid operators.

The Public Service Commission has fined two pipeline companies a total of $30,000 over a pipeline conversion project in McKenzie County.

The issue concerns the approximately 20 mile long Wilson-Bowline. It had been converted from a crude oil gathering line to a transmission line. Commissioner Julie Fedorchak said the companies – Belle Fourche Pipeline and Bridger Pipeline – had other lines they wanted to convert. She said they went ahead and did so, and then, after the fact, filed the required paperwork to do that conversion.

The Public Service Commission will hold an informal hearing with the three investor-owned utilities that serve North Dakota to see what effects the COVID-19 pandemic have had on their incomes and expenditures.

The three are Montana Dakota Utilities, Xcel Energy and Otter Tail.

"Utilities are experiencing unanticipated costs due to COVID-19," said PSC Chairman Brian Kroshus. "They could range rom an increase in bad debt, uncollectable amounts from businesses and induviduals, as a result of the pandemic."

The Burgum Administration has made some modifications to a “travel quarantine” order, after Minnesota was named a “hot spot” for COVID-19 by the Centers for Disease Control.

The order says anyone traveling to North Dakota from a “hot spot” would have to to be quarantined for 14 days. That order was expanded to include all states. But Gov. Doug Burgum said some exceptions have been created, especially for border states.