East River Electric 2020 Annual Report

In April 2020, East River transferred a mobile
substation to the substation serving the 3M plant
near Aberdeen. The sub was moved to provide
an emergency backup to the plant in the event
of any major outages. The 3M plant ramped
up production of N95 masks to meet demand
through the pandemic.
of the plant. Northern has multiple feeds from the
substation to the plant and East River has a dual
transmission feed to the substation. We coordinated
with Northern to ensure the 3M team that our system
was equipped to serve the plant with undisrupted
power, with no scheduled outages or switching and no
planned construction in the area that would affect the
plant. East River system operations put a heightened
awareness on the Aberdeen plant and planned to
bring that substation back on first in the event of an
outage.
As an additional precautionary measure, East River
and Northern Electric moved our mobile substation to
the substation serving 3M to serve as an emergency
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backup in the rare event we would have had any major
issues in that area.
Advocating for Rural America
From temporary slowdowns and shutdowns of
food processing plants to ethanol plant workforce
reductions, slowdowns and shutdowns, rural America
suffered significant economic impacts caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The nationwide steep drop in liquid fuel demand
during the pandemic resulted in a major economic
impact on biofuels processing plants across the
country. Estimates show as much as half of U.S.