Strong, Reliable Power Grid Keeps Iowa Economy Humming

A strong, reliable power grid helps keep the state’s businesses and economy humming, a fact many Iowans may take for granted. Behind the scenes, however, representatives of the three major stakeholders in Iowa’s electrical infrastructure say it takes a lot of planning and effort to keep the electricity flowing,

MidAmerican Energy and Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO) speak from the generation and distribution side of the industry. SSAB Americas, a steel plate manufacturer with a plant northeast of Muscatine, is one of Iowa’s largest utility consumers. All three recognize the importance of dependable power and Iowa’s productive workforce to the success of their operations.

MidAmerican, CIPCO Focus on Safety, Reliability

Kathryn Kunert, MidAmerican’s vice president for community relations and economic development, says “our customers – and our state – count on MidAmerican to deliver reliable, affordable and clean energy – that’s the three-legged stool we are constantly working to balance to meet our promise to customers. And, it’s a promise we take very seriously, because, now more than ever, energy and the infrastructure needed to support it plays the leading role in business attraction and expansion activities.”

MidAmerican serves 820,000 electric customers in Iowa, Illinois and South Dakota and nearly 800,000 natural gas customers in the region. The electric and gas distribution systems are “totally distinct from each other” but are both safe and reliable systems due to the company’s training and operations practices, maintenance and investment in system improvements, says Ms. Kunert. “Through our Safety Through Asset Reliability (STAR) initiative, we continually evaluate our electric and gas delivery systems through two lenses – safety and reliability – which helps us strategically pursue both short-term and long-term system improvements.”

American meets the challenges to reliability posed by severe weather: “We all know just how cold it can get here in Iowa and how extreme temperatures can affect mechanical equipment. That’s why MidAmerican invests in what wind turbine manufacturers call ‘cold weather packages.’ These upgrades enable MidAmerican’s wind farms to continue to generate in very cold temperatures.”

MidAmerican’s also invests in hightech smart grid devices on distribution lines that “can instantly pinpoint the location of an outage and, in many cases, can also help us restore power remotely so customers don’t have to wait for a line crew to respond.”

In cases of damage, a line crew is dispatched to make repairs, but in many cases, such as when a tree branch touches an overhead line and knocks out power, smart grid technology can restore service right away.

CIPCO CEO Andrew St. John says a consistent focus on safety, reliability, and affordability is the key to keeping the cooperative’s system strong. “Every decision we make, and every action we take is based on those factors.”

“Our linemen are always ready for immediate response following storm-related outages,” says Mr. St. John. “We’ve also focused on selective hardening projects to reduce risk of damage to highway crossings, river crossings, and other critical transmission structures in remote areas.”

“We are also fortunate to have a talented and dedicated workforce. Cooperative employees across the state are committed to keeping the power on around the clock. Our employees answer the call no matter what the time, or what weather conditions they must face. If the power is on, our employees are working hard. I can assure you that when the power is off, our team is working twice as hard,” he says.

‘All-of-the-Above Strategy’ Keeps Power Flowing

CIPCO’s member-owner cooperatives provide electric service in 58 of Iowa’s 99 counties. “We are proud to be locally owned and governed and serve businesses and communities across Iowa,” says Mr. St. John. “The reliability and affordability we benefit from today is the result of careful planning and prudent investments that occurred decades ago. It is critical that we continue our long-term mindset and ‘all-of-the-above strategy’ as we make critical infrastructure investments that our state will rely on in the future.”

For CIPCO, the “all-of-the-above strategy” includes a mix of fuels for generation including coal, wind, solar, landfill gas, natural gas and oil energy, plus power from hydroelectric, wind and solar sources. Mr. St. John would like to see that strategy broadened further with nuclear-generated power from a restarted Duane Arnold Energy Center (DAEC).

O will continue to evaluate the potential opportunity to restart the nuclear facility with our joint owners, considering the increased demand for clean, reliable energy. CIPCO is encouraged by NextEra Energy’s public comments that they are thoroughly evaluating the opportunity to resume operations at the facility, which has been an asset to the state of Iowa, and operated safely and dependably for decades,” Mr. St. John said in a statement provided by the co-op.

Last year 52% of CIPCO’s energy was sourced from wind, solar, hydro, and landfill gas generation. An ownership interest in three of Iowa’s coal-fired generating assets provided 26% of energy supply. “Coal generation remain a vital component of our ‘all-of-the-above’ strategy and serves as a cornerstone of reliability, especially during this time when capacity reserves are tightening and demand for electricity is growing,” says Mr. St. John.

Mr. St. John. Ms. Kunert says MidAmerican generates most of the energy the utility delivers to customers from a variety of renewable and traditional fuel sources “to ensure affordable service without interruption, no matter what the weather is like.”

“As part of MidAmerican’s journey to a net-zero carbon future, we are continuing to add more wind and solar generation to serve customers’ increasing energy demand. Today, MidAmerican owns and operates the largest wind fleet of any rate-regulated utility in the country. In addition to using that wind fleet to provide clean energy for customers, it has also been critical in keeping electric rates low – 44% below the national average for our Iowa customers.”

The emphasis on renewables doesn’t mean that MidAmerican isn’t also generating energy from coal. “Our coal facilities are a key part of a balanced, reliable and affordable generating portfolio, and we continue to call on them because it’s necessary to serve all MidAmerican customers and others in the broader region 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” Ms. Kunert says.

MidAmerican has long had a goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and has invested substantial amounts in wind generating capacity. “With the diversified energy mix that MidAmerican has, including the wind and solar generating assets, in 2024, we delivered carbon-free energy equal to 100% of the energy used by our Iowa customers,” Ms. Kunert says. “Through our GreenAdvantage program, our customers can claim the renewable attributes to meet their own sustainability goals because MidAmerican retires both renewable energy certificates (RECs) and emissions-free energy certificates (EFECs) on behalf of customers. It’s something we are very proud of.”

Neither company has altered its all-of-the-above strategy as a result of the Trump administration’s emphasis on fossil fuels. As Mr. St. John puts it, “Our view is that renewables and always available gas and coal are needed. We’re looking for overall longtime certainty. We’re not making decision with shifting political winds.”

SSAB America: Emission-Free Steel ‘A Great Story’

“We are a pretty large consumer of electricity,” says Tom Cox, general manager of SSAB America’s Montpelier plant. “Large,” as in 900 gigawatts (1 billion watts) per year. The Williams energy company website offers this perspective: “The light bulbs in our homes are typically between 60 and 100 watts. So 1.21 gigawatts would power more than 10 million light bulbs or one fictional flux capacitor in a time-traveling DeLorean.”

SSAB uses most of that power to melt about 4,000 tons of scrap steel each day, in an electric arc furnace that runs at 3,000 degrees, 24/7/365. “Reliability is certainly critical,” says Mr. Cox. “It’s hard to heat it up and cool it off. Unplanned outages are problematic. Redundancies are built into system. It’s rare to have an unplanned interruption. Tornadoes and thunderstorms (are the) most common reason.”

MidAmerican is the plant’s major supplier for electricity and natural gas, another big energy need. The operation to melt and roll steel slabs into plates and coils, from 1/8-inch to three inches thick, consumes enough natural gas to heat 50,000 homes a year.

A big part of SSAB Americas’ output goes to build wind turbine towers. That segment of customers fits well with MidAmerican’s focus on renewable energy sources. “It’s important to some customers to say they use emission-free steel. Wind tower producers want to say they are building emission-free towers.”

Because MidAmerican credits all its renewable generation to Iowa customers, SSAB Americas is able to choose its energy sources to produce batches of emission-free steel to satisfy those customers, says Mr. Cox. Emission-free steel towers used to produce emission-free electricity used to build more emission-free steel towers. “It’s a great story for us and MidAmerican,” he says.

With 400 production employees and another 170 embedded contract employees, plus associated jobs in rail, truck and river transportation and at area feeder industries, SSAB America is prime example of the economic impact a strong electric grid supports.

“The Midwest work ethic is hard to beat,” says Mr. Cox. “Iowa’s has a strong economy. It helps our business. It’s been a great state to operate in for all these years.” ABI