NEW ULM - Wanting to avoid an eminent domain confrontation involving its proposed wind farm project in western Nicollet County, the New Ulm Public Utilities Commission voted Tuesday to petition the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission for a waiver, allowing the project to go forward with the 237 acres of wind rights it already has.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission's deferred action on the NUPUC's permit request would force NUPUC to obtain wind rights to a total of 475 acres of land, double the amount it now has under contract.

"Efforts to secure such additional wind rights by negotiation have been rebuffed by the affected property owners. Given the unique characteristics of the NUPUC Nicollet County site, we have requested that the MnPUC waive its standards for control of wind rights beyond those currently under lease to the NUPUC," City Attorney Hugh Nierengarten reported.

The Minnesota PUC staff recommended that the waiver be denied, and that NUPUC's permit application be denied "because of the NUPUC's lack of control of all of the wind rights required by its standards," Nierengarten reported. However, the MnPUC deferred action of both the NUPUC permit application and the requested waiver.

That was because "the MnPUC wants the NUPUC to first determine whether it will ask the City of New Ulm to exercise powers available to it to acquire the necessary wind rights before the MnPUC acts on the permit application," Nierengarten said.

Commissioners also got their first look at the utility's preliminary 2010 budget which anticipates operating income totaling $38,268,539 and operating expenses amounting to $38,361,189. With the addition of $1,187,611 in non-operating income, a net income of $1,594,961 is predicted. Commissioners set their review of the preliminary budget for Monday, Nov. 23, 2009 at 3 p.m. in the City Hall council chambers.

In other action, the commission, in a mostly technical step, approved modifications of NUPU's contract with Heartland Consumers Power District waiving the early termination provision of Heartland "related to inadequate Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO) transmission availability."

Ron Larsen can be reached at rlarsen@nujournal.com