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Rice Lake Utilities
Rice Lake Utilities is the service provider for the City of Rice Lake of the Electric Water and Wastewater services. We are a municipal utility with local control and a five (5) member Utility Commission governs Rice Lake Utilities' operations. Our decisions are made by the Rice Lake Utilities Commission under a tariff authorized by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission.
Electric: The electric utility serves 5519 customers in the City of Rice Lake, as well as a portion of the Township of Rice Lake. While the system peak demand has reached 35 MW our recently constructed substation is capable of supplying as much as 90 MW. We operate a 7200/12,470 V distribution system however additional transmission service could be made available. The utility maintains a very competitive rate structure with extremely reliable service. Rice Lake Utilities has received two of the APPA’s Platinum RP3 awards which evaluate reliability, safety as well as several other best in class business practices. The rates of each class are available at http://www.ricelakeutilities.com/our-rates and are subject to a PCAC which for 2013 is expected to be negative by as much as $0.0015.Rice Lake Utilities has service availability for all residential, commercial and industrial loads in all common voltages. Electrical feeder circuits serving out industrial parks are all 4 MW capacity and dual fed for backup reliability and increased capacity as needed. Rice Lake’s wholesale power supply is with American Electric Power Partners and is flat for 2013-2014 and 2015 with energy prices in 2016 and 2017 already locked in at an even lower rate. Rice Lake has a long term power supply plan which mitigates rate increases through long term contracts as well as effective market purchases backed up by joint action membership with Great Lakes Utilities. We are off takers of the Lakeswind Project providing us with a 20 year fixed price on a wind resource equal to 20% of our energy purchases. A green tariff could be made available with certificate of renewable compliance as required.
Water: The water utility serves 3797 customers, operates (4) municipal wells and (3) water towers in the City of Rice Lake. The system pumping capacity is currently 3,000 gallons per minute with a current storage capacity of 650,000 gallons. The average daily demand is 1.7 million gallons with a maximum daily capacity of 4.3 million gallons. The water quality is exceptional with a competitive decreasing rate schedule with increased usage. The municipal water system is currently under evaluation and will undergo capacity and volume enhancements with the bulk of the work done to better serve our North Industrial Park. A new municipal well and pressure zone as well additional storage capabilities will create numerous development opportunities with minimal constraints if any.
Wastewater: The wastewater utility serves 3797 customers in the City of Rice Lake as well. The utility operates a newly upgraded wastewater treatment facility that has a current design flow of 2.2 million gallons per day with an average daily flow of 1.6 million gallons. The 60 miles of collection system is gravity fed to 7 lift stations to the activated sludge treatment facility utilizing a very environmentally sound and efficient operation. With the plant upgrade we incorporated fine bubble diffusers for better oxygen transfer thus using less energy along with the addition of new primary and secondary clarifiers for increased treatment capacity. We are capturing the biogas and utilizing it at the plant for heating purposes and will qualify as a renewable resource. Current and 2030 Design flows and loadings at the plant are as follows:
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