Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency on May 6 hosted 40 energy professionals from Eurasia and Sri Lanka that were visiting the United States as part of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s SABIT program.
The delegations were interested in learning about SMMPA’s planned energy supply transition from a large coal-based resource to a portfolio that includes renewable generation and efficient dispatchable resources.
The SABIT Program is the Department of Commerce’s business leader exchange program.
Through two-week, industry-specific programs in the United States, the U.S. private sector, professional associations, educational institutions, and U.S. federal, state, and local government agencies impart U.S. best practices to business leaders from Eurasia, South Asia, and Europe. Participants learn from their U.S. counterparts how the private sector promotes innovation, investment, and economic growth.
The delegations received a tour of SMMPA’s Owatonna Energy Station in Owatonna, Minn., and the nearby Lemond Solar Project, which SMPPA purchases the output from under a long-term agreement.
“We appreciate that the Department of Commerce invited us to discuss the Agency’s energy transition with these delegations,” said Dave Geschwind, Executive Director and CEO of SMMPA. “Based on the questions asked by the participants, it seems that many of these countries are in the early planning stages of a similar transition. The Owatonna Energy Station, and its sister plant, the Fairmont Energy Station, are instrumental in maintaining reliability in an energy market that has an increasing amount of intermittent renewable generation. We are proud of these facilities and happy to share our experiences.”
The visiting delegations included regulators, utility professionals and renewable energy developers from the countries of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
SMMPA provides electricity and related services to 17 municipally operated utilities, mostly in south-central and southeastern Minnesota.
