NSP RESPONSE LETTER TO STREET LIGHT
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Northern States Power Company
Normandale DIVISion
5309 West 70th Street
Edina Minnesota 55435
Telephone (612) 941-2992
June 8, 1983
Mr. B ~ll Cra ig
City Manager
City of Hopkins
1010 First Street South
Hopkins, Mn 55343
Dear Mr. Cra~g:
This letter is in response to your letter dated May 5, 1983
regard~ng the poss~ble acqu~s~tion of our res~dential ornamental
street l~ghts.
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As a general rule Northern States Power is reluctant to sell
any of our distr~bution fac~l~ties to our customers. The reasons
for this pol~cy are many and would include the follow~ng:
1. D~fficulties may arise in physically separating
the purchased system from the rest of our fac~lities
particularly in regards to ma~nta~n~ng our electric
system integrity.
2. Port~ons of our d~str~but~on facil~ties are not
required to be built according to the National
Electric Code. Purchasers of our facilities
could incur substantial costs attempting to
bring the system to code and ~n so doing re-
ducing our libility as or~g~nal system in-
sta llers.
3. Selling a street light system, particularly in
an existing underground area, poses at least one
additional concern that is most important. During
~nstallat~on, street light cables are installed
~n the same trench and probably ~mmed~ately ad-
Jacent to our h~gh voltage pr~mary cable. By
sell~ng the street l~ght system, we would be
allow~ng a pr~vate contractor to do rout~ne and/
or emergency maintanence very near our main dis-
tribut~on system. We try very hard to avo~d that
k~nd of situat~on.
For these reasons, and others, we must decline your offer
to purchase our ex~sting custom residential street light system.
( 2)
Of course the c~ty still has the opt~on of ask~ng us to
remove our 46 ornamental un~ts and replac~ng them w~th your
own ornamental system. However, please be adv~sed that under
the current rate regulat~ons as approved by the M~nnesota
Public Ut~l~t~es Comm~ss~on, we would charge the c~ty the
undepreicated value of the cable left ~n the ground and the
terminat~on costs to remove the poles and fixtures. We
estimate that f~gure to be between ten and f~fteen thousand
dollars.
I hope we have answered your question to your sat~sfact~on.
Please contact Stu Fraser if there are add~t~onal concerns or
questions.
Sincerely,
, I
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J.H. Mertz
Division General Manager
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