Vegetation Management Helps Keep the Lights On

Year to date, Todd-Wadena Electric Cooperative (TWEC) has had 143 outages caused by trees. These have affected nearly 3,000 members, with over 4,200 hours of power off. “When we have storms like we’ve had this season with strong maintained winds, there’s not a whole lot that can be done to prevent outages from happening. However,  […]

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Electric Vehicle (EV) First Responder Safety Training

In June, TWEC hosted an electric vehicle safety training program for first responders. This was a regional event offering the training to all local community first responders. The course was taught by staff of Safety and Security Consultation Specialists, LLC (SASCS), a first responder training company based out of southern Minnesota. In the past 10 […]

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Reliability // CEO Column July 2022

Reliable power is an expectation that many of us never have to think about and hadn’t until events in other parts of the United States exposed how fragile the grid can be. Both California (2020) and Texas (2021) suffered blackouts that impacted thousands of customers. As of late, and much closer to home, there have […]

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Dedicated Employees // CEO Column June 2022

The May storms that hit not only Todd-Wadena’s service territory, but many of our neighbors as well, brought unprecedented outages. As our team of employees worked hard to restore power as quickly and safely as possible, we were encouraged by the support we received from cooperative members. I want to take this opportunity to thank […]

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May Storms Cause Widespread Outages

Todd-Wadena Electric Cooperative crews worked tirelessly to restore power to our members affected by the damaging storms that swept through our region this May. On May 12th, a storm knocked out power for approximately 4,000 members. Thirty-two poles were broken throughout our service territory. We had incidents of barn roofs blowing through our electric lines […]

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No Empty Shelf: How We Ensure Availability of Needed Materials

Since the pandemic, it is not unusual to be in a business and see an empty shelf. The “empty shelf” has also carried over to the important materials cooperatives use to maintain electrical lines, build new services, and upgrade services. At Todd-Wadena Electric Cooperative, there is no empty shelf. Our management team, Operations Department, and […]

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Economic Development // CEO Column May 2022

Todd-Wadena Electric Cooperative (TWEC) is helping to grow local communities that provide jobs, tax revenues, and healthy businesses – all vital to a thriving community. To support this objective, we offer two economic development loan programs. The loans are intended to create employment opportunities, improve infrastructure, and/or improve the quality of life in rural areas. […]

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2022 Annual Meeting a Success

With over 255 members and guests in attendance, Todd-Wadena Electric Cooperative celebrated the 2022 Annual Meeting at Wadena’s Maslowski Wellness and Research Center on Tuesday, April 19th. In the board of director elections, Nominating Committee Chair, Wally Weise announced that incumbents Marie Katterhagen and Mike Thorson were re-elected for a three-year term. An organizational meeting […]

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Discount for TWEC Members for Locating Private Facilities

Members of Todd-Wadena Electric Cooperative are able to receive a special discount on private locating services. While utility-owned electric wires are located for free when calling 811—Gopher State One Call, member-owned private facilities such as underground electric wires and gas lines to outbuildings, electric fence, sprinkler systems, septic systems, and similar underground items are not […]

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2021 in Review // CEO Column April 2022

With our Annual Meeting coming up soon, it is a great time to reflect on what Todd-Wadena Electric Cooperative (TWEC) accomplished over the past year. I am pleased to report that the Cooperative had another strong year in 2021. OperationsLast year was one of TWEC’s biggest construction years ever, with 152 new services installed. We […]

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