Alden ONE on the Job: Minnesota Power/Allette

The Situation

Minnesota Power is an investor-owned utility with roughly 145,000 customers, whose services cover around 26,000 square miles. For much of its history, the company tracked assets on paper and basic computer databases. When a joint use request came along, it was viewed simply as a project to be addressed and completed.

The company got a sudden taste of the future several years ago when the federal Connect America Fund (CAF) spurred a sharp uptick in joint use requests. Before then, a typical attachment request may have involved 20 poles, but suddenly Minnesota Power began receiving applications from companies wanting to attach to 300 or 700 poles. Joint Use ceased being a “project” with an end date and became an ongoing process integral to daily workings of the business.

Developments such as fiber buildout and the deployment of 5G small cell equipment have multiplied the number of pole attachment requests many times over. “It’s just constantly evolving and growing,” says Jodi Corrow, who recently retired as the official in charge of attachments for Minnesota Power’s distribution assets group. “You might finish one, but you might gain two.”

The Challenge

As Minnesota Power began paying closer attention to pole attachments, the company found a lot of code violations among the attachments that were already on its poles and realized it needed a better and more accountable way to keep track of them.

The company had several goals in mind. It needed to avoid overloading utility poles to maintain safe, reliable service. It needed to process attachment applications in a fair, timely way to avoid complaints to the FCC from attaching companies. It needed a way to communicate the increasing volume of joint use requests and data efficiently among its own departments. It needed to ditch the paper and find the best joint use management technology available.

The Software Solution

Minnesota Power turned to Alden for help getting a handle on its rapidly changing reality. After comparing several options, the utility chose Alden ONE as the system of record that best matched its need for consistent, coordinated, detailed communications and data management. “We have been very pleased from the get-go,” Corrow says. “We’ve never been in a scenario where we’re saying maybe we need to look somewhere else.” Here are a few ways the decision paid off for Minnesota Power:

1. Compliance

   Minnesota Power’s most pressing need was help meeting FCC timetables while handling an ever-increasing number of attachment permit applications. “Our directors, our upper-level management, and our legal department had said, ‘We’ll work within the parameters FCC has set, and we will not have a complaint against us that we have to go to Washington, D.C., and deal with the FCC,’” Corrow recalls. Alden ONE enabled the company to get all the relevant departments working together toward this goal, including operations, line, central dispatch, engineering, and design. Now, everyone involved can update information in the system and easily track the progress of each requested attachment.

2. Accountability

   Minnesota Power went from a system that could allow important details to slip through the cracks to one that automatically time-stamps every conversation and communication in the attachment process, from application through approval through completion and post-inspection. While paper invoices can be lost, Alden ONE utilizes digital invoicing to keep work moving along, while reducing the potential for confusion and conflict among the stakeholders involved. The system yields unexpected benefits, says Scott Lyytinen, who became distribution assets coordinator when Corrow retired. For example, when the number of tracked conversations involving attachments dropped from 684 to 372 in one year, officials discovered that some employees were unaware of proper procedures and that additional training was needed.

3. Workflow

   When Minnesota Power turned to Alden ONE, communications improved immediately and Lyytinen saw a quick decline in what he calls the amount of “babysitting” required for ongoing projects. The system updates conversation status automatically. Information flows constantly between Minnesota Power and communications companies, which keeps the attachment process moving smoothly.

4. The Power of Data

   Having field asset data in a system like Alden ONE makes it easy for Minnesota Power to generate useful metrics and create an annual review. Pole data recorded in the system includes information such as the following:

   • What was the average size of attachment requests in 2019 and how did that compare with 2018?
   • How many applications were received and granted? How many attachments were completed?
   • How many poles were involved?

   • How well did the company do in meeting FCC timetables?

   It’s all there in one system – data on 156,000 poles, 272,000 attachments and 25 attaching companies. Improving the accuracy of its attachment records enabled Minnesota Power to increase its licensing revenue by 25%, Lyytinen says. The data also drives staffing decisions. “You had something much more professional you could share with others within the company, especially those above in supervisory and management that needed to be brought into the loop,” Corrow says. If more resources become necessary, the numbers prove that need.

5. Ongoing Resources

   Alden ONE is more than just software. It’s an end-to-end platform that connects all the pieces – internally and externally. “One of the big advantages is just having Alden Systems as a resource,” Corrow says. That included training for both Minnesota Power’s in-house employees and attaching company personnel, business support services, and Alden’s friendly, responsive staff. “It’s a good family,” Corrow says. “It’s a good group of people.”