MEET TIM MCCOLLOUGH
Feature
Chamber: What excites you about leading RPU? McCollough: As a transplant into Rochester, it has been very exciting to join the community and share with people that I meet that I work for Rochester Public Utilities. I have heard many stories from members of the community sharing their appreciation and respect for RPU. To join a team and an organization that has a strong reputation is an honor for me professionally and one of the primary reasons for my interest in moving to Rochester. I am a strong believer in the public power model of serving the community directly and having local control of decisions. As Rochester Public Utilities, we keep the focus on our primary mission to provide reliable
This multifaceted approach to power supply ensures reliability, affordable rates, and environmental responsibility in serving our valued customers and the growing business community within our region.
and responsible utility services with affordable rates without having a profit motive or external shareholders to answer to. I also love a challenge. There have been other times of significant change in the utility industry over the past
century. Currently, we are on the cusp of new investments in three major areas of our core business. Our power supply plan beyond 2030, our planned investments in the regional transmission infrastructure and implementing advanced metering infrastructure for our electric and water utilities. Chamber: Can you describe RPU’s current power supply plan and the energy mix that provides electricity to Rochester?
to meet the growing energy demands of Rochester. To understand our power
sourced from MISO directly from or indirectly through our contract with the Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (SMMPA). In short, our own generation doesn’t directly serve our own load. Electrical energy travels seamlessly from many generation facilities to end-users through a vast transmission and distribution network, following the laws of physics and system conditions at any given moment. The MISO energy mix that supplies our load fluctuates daily and hourly. As of a typical autumn
supply strategy, one must first recognize that we participate in a regional energy market. Each kilowatt-hour of energy generated by our resources is dispatched to serve the collective load in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) market, a vast regional energy market spanning 14 states. In return, each kilowatt- hour of electricity consumed within our RPU service area is
McCollough: At RPU, our pledge is to deliver a reliable power supply
6 | ROCHESTER AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ADVANTAGE MAGAZINE — NOVEMBER 2023
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