Codington County Approves East River Electric Franchise Renewal, Ensuring Power Reliability
- Steve Jurrens
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
Northeast Radio SD News - Watertown, SD - The Codington County Commissioners voted to approve the renewal of a long-standing franchise agreement with East River Electric Cooperative, Inc., securing the continued operation of vital high-voltage transmission lines and substations across the county.
The renewal continues an agreement first established in 2006. Jerae Wyer, representing East River Electric Cooperative, presented the request and provided an overview of the cooperative’s essential function.
Cooperative’s Mission: East River, founded in 1949, operates as an electric cooperative focused on providing wholesale, high-voltage power to its 24 member cooperatives, including the local Codington-Clark Electric.
Local Infrastructure: East River’s operations are critical to local power delivery. In Codington County alone, the cooperative maintains approximately 100 miles of transmission line and operates five substations.
Regional Scale: The cooperative’s extensive system spans 41 counties in South Dakota and 22 in Minnesota, managing nearly 3,300 miles of transmission line that ultimately serves about 160,000 individual members.
The importance of the agreement was underscored during the public hearing by Dave Heidi, Manager of Codington-Clark Electric. Heidi spoke in strong support of the renewal, confirming the reliance on East River’s services:
“We rely on these servers day in and day out, every day, to keep the lights on... So we’re all in with East River, and we really appreciate the renewal of the franchise.”
Following the testimony, the Commission moved to approve Resolution 2025-23, which officially renewed the franchise agreement and confirmed the stability of the county’s wholesale power infrastructure for the foreseeable future.
