Grain Farm Reaps Reward From Natural Gas Savings Plan
(Farm News - September 2009)
Waack Family Farms See Lower Drying Costs
Harvest time is crunch time for any grain farmer. Add a custom harvesting business to the mix and the workdays get really long; just ask Gary Waack and his sons.
Waack and sons Tim, Troy and Chris operate Waack Family Farms, Inc. They grow corn, soybeans, wheat and hay on 1,200 acres near Reedsville in Manitowoc County, Wis. In addition, they do custom baling, chopping and combining for other local farmers, resulting in some workdays of 18 or more hours in the late summer.
"You have to really enjoy what you do to put in those kind of hours," said Gary Waack.
The Waack farm's natural gas-fueled grain dryer also runs almost nonstop for several months, but for the rest of the year it is quiet. That's why it didn't make sense for Wisconsin Public Service to bill Gary Waack for natural gas service 12 months a year.
With assistance from WPS agricultural consultant Joe Sinkula, Waack switched to Seasonal Opportunity Sales Service. This option is available for WPS customers using natural gas 5 months or less during a rolling 12-month period, including agribusinesses using grain dryers. For Waack Family Farms, the gas service is firm from May 1 to October 31, and interruptible from November 1 to April 30. In return for agreeing to "interruptible" natural gas service during peak natural gas usage times in the winter months, when other customers rely on natural gas to heat their homes and businesses, Waack will see a savings of about 8% over what he was paying for natural gas service in the past.
REWIRING PROGRAM IS ANOTHER HELP
Waack learned of the opportunity to save on his natural gas bill from Sinkula, who also guided Waack through the Farm Rewiring Program in 2008. Waack utilized the rewiring program to combine two old services on his farm that were at different voltages to a single 3-phase service.
"One service was 480 volt and the other was 240," Sinkula said. "That could be a safety issue if an electrician didn't know that going in. And converting to a single service just simplified things."
Because the farm had two transformers — two services — Waack qualified for two rewiring program grants, Sinkula added.
In addition to converting the farm's electrical service to one 480 volt service, some of the farm's overhead wires were buried. Waack maxed out the Farm Rewiring Program grant twice at $10,000 each time and took out low interest loans through the program to pay the remaining costs.
WPS IS HERE TO HELP
To find out if your farm can take advantage of lower natural gas costs through Seasonal Opportunity Sales Service, or if you qualify for the WPS Farm Rewiring Program, contact your agricultural consultant.
The Farm Rewiring Program is designed to help WPS farm customers correct their wiring problems. Minimum requirements for the Farm Rewiring Program include:
- 4-wire service to barn and all sub-panels
- All Midwest pole-top switches must be replaced
- Over-current protection required for all underground services and feeders on each end
- Grade level installations not meeting fault-current levels require a current limit disconnect
Qualifying work can include — but is not limited to — the following:
- Replacing aluminum wire with copper
- Increasing service wire size to reduce voltage drop
- Correcting electrical code violations
- Correcting sub-panel wiring
- Installing energy-efficient lighting and equipment
- Installing equipotential planes
- Replacing 120V load with 240V load
- Upgrading to 3-phase service (contact your agricultural consultant for details)
- Repairing bad connections
- Consolidating multiple services in the barn to a single service
- Inspection costs
Other items must be pre-approved by a WPS agricultural consultant. A stray voltage test is conducted before each farm rewiring project. The farm wiring will be inspected by either a state electrical inspector or a state certified commercial electrical inspector.