MEAN board of directors votes to move forward with Wind Project — March 27, 2001

Nebraska Power Review Board approves authorization to construct — Dec. 21, 2001

Groundbreaking ceremony — May 9, 2002

Public Viewing Day — July 31, 2002

MEAN wins national environmental award — Sept. 20, 2002

MEAN dedicates wind farm — Nov. 13, 2002

MEAN celebrates and evaluates one year of operation — Sept. 30, 2003

MEAN board of directors votes to move forward with Wind Project — Nov. 15, 2001
    The MEAN board of directors unanimously approved the development, construction and operation of a wind generated energy project in Kimball County, Neb., at the Nov. 27, 2001, board meeting.
    The board of directors voted to move forward with the Kimball Wind Project to develop up to 20 wind turbines. The vote enabled MEAN to continue efforts to obtain an authorization to construct, pursue the project design and determine an exact location.
   The board also authorized signing a Letter of Intent with the Tennessee Valley Infrastructure Group (TVIG) to negotiate and execute a contract to develop the project.
    The vote was prompted by the desire of MEAN and its participants to develop a long-term, economical renewable energy resource.

Nebraska Power Review Board approves authorization to construct — Dec. 21, 2001
   On Dec. 21, 2001, the Nebraska Power Review Board unanimously approved MEAN's application to develop the project up to 30 megawatts (or 20 turbines) in Kimball County, Neb.
   In a letter to Richard Duxbury, executive director of NMPP Energy, Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns said, "Not only will the project bring economic benefits to the area, but it will clearly demonstrate the benefits that wind power can bring to farming and ranching operations."
   MEAN selected two prospective sites for the wind farm and began negotiations with the landowners.
   On March 20, 2002, MEAN entered into the Wind Farm Energy Project Agreement with TVIG to construct 10.5 megawatts of wind-generated energy.

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Groundbreaking ceremony — May 9, 2002
   Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns headed a list of dignitaries at the Kimball Wind Project groundbreaking ceremony on May 9, 2002.
   Richard Duxbury, NMPP Energy executive director, welcomed more than 100 Kimball-area citizens and special guests to the event. "As an organization, we are driven to provide economical energy for our members and to be ever conscious of environmental concerns," Duxbury said during his introductory speech. "This is the basis on which we entered into this project.
   "The Kimball wind farm fits our system economically and is, environmentally, the right thing to do."
   In his remarks, Johanns said, "Today, MEAN, NMPP Energy and Kimball embark on a journey into the future. Together they are taking steps into what will be Nebraska's energy future: producing an increasing amount of electricity from wind. Today, the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska and its members are showing that our wind resources can be developed. The steps we are taking here today can lead to tomorrow's big successes."
    Following Johanns' speach, Sen. Don Preister, Omaha, a member of the Nebraska Unicameral Natural Resources Committee and long-time supporter of renewable energy, praised NMPP Energy and MEAN's efforts to bring clean energy to the region. "The Kimball wind farm has caught the attention of everyone, from environmental groups as well as conservation groups," he said.
    Preister nominated NMPP Energy and MEAN for the Sierra Club's "Friend of the Environment" award. Sierra Club officials presented the award to Duxbury and Bill Leung, MEAN chief operating officer, in late April 2002.

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Public Viewing Day — July 31, 2002
    MEAN, along with the Tennessee Valley Infrastructure Group (TVIG) and Danish wind turbine manufacturer NEG Micon, invited the media and public to observe the placement of one of the 22-ton wind turbines atop the No. 4 tower on July 31, 2002.
    A special crawler crane lifted one of the 44,000-pound turbines, with 113-foot, 15,000-pound blades, in place during the day-long event.
    Media and the public took photographs and videotape of the turbine placement and received a project media kit. NMPP Energy's Executive Director Richard Duxbury, MEAN Chief Operating Officer Bill Leung and TVIG Project Manager Ben Fischer were on hand to answer questions.

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MEAN wins national environmental award —
Sept. 20, 2002
    MEAN received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Region VII Pollution Prevention Environmental Excellence Award in September 2002.
    Richard Duxbury, NMPP Energy chief executive officer, accepted the award at an EPA ceremony on Sept. 20 in Kansas City, Mo. Then EPA division director Art Spratlin and then EPA Region VII administrator Jim Gulliford, presented the award.
    "We are indeed proud to be named as a recipient for this prestigious award," Duxbury said at the ceremony. "The MEAN Wind Project at Kimball will be a great benefit to the environment and a cost-effective source of renewable energy for our member communities and their ratepayers."
    Duxbury said MEAN was selected to receive the EPA award for its work in energy efficiency, renewable or alternative energy resources, and construction of Nebraska's first and largest wind farm.

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MEAN dedicates wind farm — Nov. 13, 2002
    MEAN officially dedicated what was the state's first large commercial wind farm, and the largest wind farm of its time in Nebraska, on Nov. 13.
    Clustered inside a blue-and-white tent, a crowd of people came together to symbolically watch the beginning of the flow of renewable energy. Seven, 350-foot towers and turbines quietly, efficiently began providing renewable energy to the equivalent of more than 4,000 homes in Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming.
    At the dedication, Richard Duxbury, NMPP Energy executive director said, "Achieving a clean, sustainable energy future is an enormous challenge for all of us. We are very pleased the planning and construction of the MEAN Wind Project at Kimball is complete.
    "It is my conviction that this was the right project, at the right place and the right time — and we did it," he said.
    Bob Jacobsen, MEAN board chairman, said the dedication was a great day in MEAN's history. "The project has been an extraordinary journey for us. We are privileged to have this amount of support from our members."

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MEAN celebrates and evaluates one year of operation — Sept. 30, 2003
        The operational information gathered from Oct. 1, 2002 to Sept. 30, 2003 was meaningful for other power suppliers in the region at that time. Richard Duxbury, NMPP Energy executive director, said, "The data we collected the past year is of tremendous value to the members of the Nebraska Power Association and others embarking on the development of additional wind projects."
    Kevin Gaden, MEAN manager of electric operations, said the project produced 29,263,232 kilowatt-hours (kwh) in full-scale operation, from Oct. 1, 2002, to Sept. 30, 2003. That amount equals a 32 percent capacity factor, or 32 percent of full-load operating capability. For example, the maximum output of 10,500 kilowatts multiplied by 8,760 hours per year equals 91,980,000 potential kwh of production.
    Projections showed an annual production of 32,483,402 kwh. "We missed the projection by about 10 percent, in part due to unit availability, wind output in some months and other operational challenges," Gaden said.
    The project produced more than 2 percent of MEAN bulk participants' electric needs over the year.
    John Krajewski, MEAN manager of planning and engineering, said, "Budgeted contract needs for MEAN's electric service contracts were more than 1 billion kwh. The more than 29 million kwh produced met 2.2 percent of those needs. That's as much energy as a small power plant that runs 24 hours a day the entire year at full capacity."
    Based on industry sources, Krajewski estimated the project would offset the following environmental emissions:
    * Carbon Dioxide 20,484 tons
    * Sulfur Dioxide 117 tons
    * Nitrous Oxide 58.5 tons
    As Gaden suggested, however, operational challenges still existed, due to the newness of the project. "Predicting wind speeds hourly is difficult at best," he said. Dis-patchers must schedule exact hourly output numbers in advance, he said, and actual numbers must lie within
2 megawatts of the schedule to avoid a penalty. In addition, MEAN must submit preliminary schedules two to four days in advance in a region where temperatures and weather patterns may change 50 degrees in two to three days. Kimball's location, in proximity to the Rocky Mountains and prevailing winds, makes predictions even more difficult because of air mass changes over the mountains.
    In Oct 2002, a station transformer failure caused a short plant outage and in February 2003, extreme-cold temperatures could have caused some hydraulic operational problems, despite the installation of the "Arctic package." On a more positive note, a system recloser (an electric-equipment control device) prevented a short outage in August 2003.

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