Eastern Iowa electric power co-op receives $44 million USDA loan

An Eastern Iowa electric power cooperative is getting the largest electric distribution loan ever issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Services in Iowa.

Eastern Iowa Light and Power Cooperative in Wilton will use the $44 million loan to fund its four-year construction and service improvement plan. The cooperative serves rural portions of 12 counties, providing electric service to nearly 19,000 homes, farms and businesses.

'This is a program through the USDA that we have taken advantage of over many years,” said Jim Williams, communications manager for Eastern Iowa Light and Power Cooperative. 'This year's loan amount is the highest that we've ever received.”

The loan includes $580,000 in smart-grid technology and other improvements such as the installation of automated substation re-closers, or large circuit breakers that can be controlled remotely to turn off power during storms. Williams said that will replace a system in which personnel had to drive to substations to shut off power and determine which customers were without power.

The loan also will be used to provide new advanced metering infrastructure for system users and 60 new substation control buildings to protect the new equipment and technologies.

More than $5.3 million of the loan will be used to improve electric lines that were damaged during historic ice storms that hit Eastern Iowa from 2007 to 2009.

Williams said a storm in February 2007 was especially destructive.

'That was easily the worst situation that we have ever gone through,” Williams said. 'We had close to two-thirds of our system or about 16,000 customers without power.

'We worked 16-hour days for about 12 days and brought in contract crews. At one point, we had 150 service linemen working in our territory.”

Announcing the loan Friday in Wilton, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the improvements to 350 miles of electric distribution lines and other planned system upgrades will help attract new businesses, jobs and residents to rural areas of Eastern Iowa.