2. Minnesota Broadband
Finley Engineering
Serving electric and telecom/broadband cooperative markets for 65 years.
Design and Engineering of fiber projects for over 36 years.
Involved in 30 Minnesota Broadband Grant applications over the 4 years
funding has been offered.
3. Cooperatives and Broadband
Members trust their cooperatives
Staff have relationships with members
Customer/billing system in place
Fleet in place
Aerial infrastructure
Managed conservatively (cash available)
Allowance for longer payback periods
Relationship with financial institutions
Smart Grid and other internal communications
4. Barry Network Overview
Barry Electric
Rural Southwest Missouri
43 Full Time Employees – 2 part time employees
7 Employees are GoBEC
SEDC Electric and Billing software
Project scale:
1,080 miles of fiber
9,800 meters
9.3 Meters/Mile
5. Barry Network Overview
Project timeline
FTTx Design – Mid 2013
Broadband Experiment Application 2014
RUS Work Plan Amendment to include fiber 2015
Phase 1 Fiber Construction 2016
Funding
RUS
CoBank bridge financing
6. Barry Electric Board Decisions
DO NOT compromise the existing strong electric plant
Is there an unneeded burden on those who do have Broadband service
Economic Development
Energy system efficiency
Energize the community
8. Benefits to the Grid
Existing Power Line Carrier system for meter reading and control
FTTx network downline devices
Capacitor Banks
Reclosers
Regulators
Switchbanks
Future meter connection?
