A Sioux Center City Councilmember is taking on a national leadership role representing community-owned electric utilities.
Eric Moerman is the new chair of the American Public Power Association’s Policy Makers Council. The 45-member council includes elected and appointed officials who oversee public utilities in communities across the United States.
The American Public Power Association represents more than 2,000 community-owned utilities, including Sioux Center Municipal Utilities. Moerman joined the Policy Makers Council in 2018 and will serve a one-year term as chair.
Members travel to Washington, D.C., twice each year to advocate for federal legislative and regulatory policies affecting public power. The council also holds monthly meetings with association staff to discuss activity in Washington and potential effects on local utilities.
“So the role as chairman really is to help facilitate some of those meetings,” Moerman said. “Not a lot different than just being a member, but a little more work.”
Affordability and Reliability Lead Priorities
The council’s leading priorities include maintaining affordable electric service, protecting grid reliability and improving the federal permitting process for new electric generation and infrastructure.
“The two big ones are maintaining affordability and protecting reliability,” Moerman said. “And so we’re in an era right now where there’s increased demand, electrical demand on the grid. I think a lot of people are aware of that.”
Moerman said utilities are working to bring enough generation online to meet that growing demand. That includes advocating for quicker permitting and allowing existing generation facilities to continue operating through their intended service lives.
Sioux Center Project Illustrates Permitting Costs
Moerman pointed to Sioux Center’s new 12-megawatt diesel generation project as an example of how federal policies can affect local utility customers.
The generators will be used as a peaking resource and can provide backup electricity if Sioux Center’s primary power supply is disrupted by an ice storm, tornado, or other emergency.
“If we were to speed up permitting reform, we could have saved five months in the process on that, uh, on the, on the permitting side of that generation,” Moerman said.
He said the five-month delay resulted in additional project costs approaching $1 million.
Moerman also discussed a hydropower project at the existing Red Rock Dam near Pella. He said the permitting process for adding electric generation to the dam took longer than constructing the hydropower facility itself.
“The actual permitting to put that hydropower on that dam took longer than it took to construct that facility,” Moerman said.
Those local and regional examples are among the issues council members can take directly to federal lawmakers.
Hydropower Remains Important to Sioux Center
Moerman said Sioux Center’s access to federally generated hydropower is another issue he plans to emphasize.
Sioux Center receives an allocation of power generated by Missouri River dams through the Western Area Power Administration. Moerman said that hydropower once accounted for more than half of Sioux Center’s power supply.
As the community has grown, that share has fallen to approximately one-quarter. However, the hydropower that was once more expensive than other forms of generation has become Sioux Center’s lowest-cost power source.
“So it’s flipped,” Moerman said. “So it went from the most expensive over time to it’s our cheapest. So if we could sign up for all hydropower, we sure would.”
The Policy Makers Council advocates against selling federal power assets to private companies. Moerman said Sioux Center customers paid higher rates during the early years of the hydropower allocation and should continue receiving its long-term benefits.
He said privatization could result in higher electric rates for local customers.
Building New Relationships
Moerman said another priority during his term will be maintaining relationships with federal lawmakers and educating newly elected officials about public power.
Federal elections will bring changes to Iowa’s congressional delegation, making it important for public power representatives to establish connections with the people who take office.
Moerman said the goal is “building relationships with the new people that are elected in and educating them on the role that public power plays.”
The council also provides members with a larger, unified voice when legislation or regulations affect community-owned utilities.
