Vinita –

GRDA's 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report recently earned GRDA a "certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting" from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA).

Once again, the Grand River Dam Authority has been recognized for its financial reporting efforts.

In late January, the utility learned that its 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report entitled Looking To The Future, Celebrating the Past, earned honors from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) of the United States and Canada. In fact, the “Certificate of Achievement For Excellence In Financial Reporting” is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting. Its attainment “represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management,” according to GFOA’s Stephen Gauthier.

The annual report is developed in-house by the GRDA Finance and Corporate Communications Departments; those departments have helped GRDA attain the award for every annual report since 2000.

“While GRDA is pleased to have a continuing record of achievement in financial reporting, we still strive to exceed the standards when preparing all our reports,” said GRDA Chief Financial Officer Carolyn Dougherty. “It’s great recognition for our dedicated team but I also think it’s important for our customers and the people of Oklahoma to know that our team works very hard in the area of financial reporting and compliance.”

Though GRDA is currently working on the 2011 annual report, Dougherty added that the award-winning 2010 report can be viewed online at grda.com. The 2011 report should be online by late April.

“We encourage the public to take a look at it and learn more about GRDA,” she said.

With offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C., the GFOA is a nonprofit professional association serving approximately 17,500 government finance professionals.

Headquartered in Vinita, Oklahoma, GRDA is Oklahoma’s state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Directly or indirectly, GRDA’s low-cost, reliable, electricity serves nearly 500,000 homes in Oklahoma and stretches into 75 of 77 counties in the state. At no cost to Oklahoma taxpayers, GRDA also manages 70,000 surface acres of lakes in the state, including Grand Lake, Lake Hudson and the W.R. Holway Reservoir. Today, GRDA’s 500 employees continue to produce the same “power for progress” that has benefited the state for 75 years.

# # #

Vinita – Grand River Dam Authority Chief Executive Officer/Director of Investments Dan Sullivan has announced that Ellen Edwards has joined GRDA as the Authority’s new General Counsel. She began her duties on December 1.

 Edwards comes to GRDA from the Oklahoma Insurance Department where she had served as Deputy General Counsel since January 2011. Prior to that, she was Of Counsel with the Conner & Winters firm. She has also served as a member of the Oklahoma Workers Compensation Advisory Council and, from 1996 to 2008, served as an Oklahoma Workers Compensation Court Judge.

“We are honored to have someone with the breadth of experience that Ellen Edwards brings to GRDA as general counsel,” said Sullivan. “As an experienced litigator, worker’s compensation judge and Counsel for the Oklahoma Insurance Department, Ellen brings the background and experience needed to successfully lead our legal department. I am grateful for her service to the State of Oklahoma and look forward to her significant contributions as GRDA General Counsel.”

 Edwards earned her Juris Doctorate from the University Of Oklahoma College Of Law and a B.A. in Political Science from Colorado College. She replaces outgoing GRDA General Counsel Gretchen Zumwalt-Smith whose resignation was effective December 1. Zumwalt-Smith had led the GRDA Legal Department since 2006.

 Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is a non-appropriated state agency, funded by revenues from the sale of electricity and water. GRDA generates, transmits and sells electricity to Oklahoma municipalities, electric cooperatives and industrial customers, as well as off-system customers across a four-state region. GRDA also manages nearly 70,000 surface acres of lake waters in Oklahoma (Grand Lake, Lake Hudson, and W.R. Holway Reservoir).

 # # #

Tulsa – The Grand River Dam Authority Board of Directors has selected State Representative Dan Sullivan (R) to serve as the next Chief Executive Officer/Director of Investments for the state-owned utility. The board offered the position to Sullivan following a special board meeting, held in Tulsa on Thursday (October 13).

Dan Sullivan

Sullivan was born in Tulsa and graduated from Wagoner High School. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Northeastern State University in 1985 and his Jurist Doctorate from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 1988. He has represented Oklahoma House District 71 since his 2004 election. He has also served as majority floor leader during his time in the legislature.

Sullivan will replace former GRDA CEO Kevin Easley, who announced his resignation last April and resigned in August, after serving with the Authority since March 2004.

“The board feels like its done its due diligence and conducted a thorough search for the right person to lead this organization that benefits so many Oklahomans,” said GRDA Director Brent LaGere, who led the board’s search committee. “In my opinion, Mr. Sullivan is a person with leadership skills, intelligence and integrity who possess a good work ethic.”

Sullivan was chosen after an extensive search for the position which drew nearly 85 applicants. He will officially assume his GRDA duties on December 1.

Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is a non-appropriated state agency, is funded by revenues from the sale of electricity and water. GRDA generates, transmits and sells electricity to Oklahoma municipalities, electric cooperatives and industrial customers, as well as off-system customers across a four-state region.

Vinita – Stephen Spears, an 11-year member of the Grand River Dam Authority Board of Directors, will serve as GRDA Chairman during the next 12 months. He took over the board’s top spot during its September 14 meeting in Vinita.

Spears, who had served as chair-elect since September 2010, replaces GRDA Director David Chernicky (Tulsa) in the chairman’s role. Meanwhile, Greg Grodhaus (Grove) will serve as the chair-elect for the coming year.

A member of the GRDA Board since May 2000, Spears serves as an ex officio director/designee for the Municipal Electric Systems of Oklahoma (MESO). He is the city manager/engineer for Cushing and previously served as GRDA Chairman in 2006-07.

Grodhaus has been a member of the GRDA Board since May 2011, following his appointment to that post by Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin. Now retired from Tacit Networks, an internet technology company, he spent nearly four decades in the information technology industry.

Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is a non-appropriated state agency, funded by revenues from the sale of electricity and water. GRDA generates, transmits and sells electricity to Oklahoma municipalities, electric cooperatives and industrial customers, as well as off-system customers across a four-state region.

# # #

Locust Grove — The Grand River Dam Authority is announcing that the temporary energy shortage, which led to its request for customers to curtail electricity consumption during the evening hours of Wednesday, August 3, has now passed.

 GRDA’s electric generation and transmission capabilities have been restored to normal operating levels.

Due to a temporary energy shortage, the Grand River Dam Authority is asking electricity customers to voluntarily curtail electricity usage.

The combination of the heat and an outage of one generating unit on Wednesday afternoon (August 3) has prompted this appeal by GRDA.

GRDA is asking its customers to continue to curtail electricity usage until its announcement that the current energy shortage has passed.

Vinita — A Grand River Dam Authority request to temporarily suspend the lowering of Grand Lake in August and September 2011 has been dismissed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

GRDA’s request, made in April, was for temporary relief from rule curve requirements included in GRDA’s license to operate Pensacola Dam and Grand Lake. In 1992, FERC, which is the federal agency with oversight of the nation’s hydroelectric facilities, issued that license to GRDA. In 1996, it was amended to include the Grand Lake rule curve. In the years since, that rule curve has required GRDA to lower the lake’s elevation in mid-August to facilitate a millet seeding project on exposed mudflat areas of the lake.

Late last year, GRDA initiated discussions on the possibility of a rule curve amendment. At the November 2010 meeting of the Grand Lake Technical Committee, GRDA Director of Ecosystems Dr. Darrell Townsend met with representatives from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Oklahoma Water Resources Board and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. Townsend polled committee members as to whether they would support an amendment that would grant GRDA operational discretion for Grand Lake within the power pool and eliminate the rule curve requirement.

The technical committee, which was also established under terms of the FERC license, did agree to support delaying the drawdown of Grand Lake until after the 2011 Labor Day weekend. However, the committee indicated it would not consider a license amendment to permanently change the rule curve until further modeling and studies could be completed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

Although the drawdown was originally implemented for wildlife habitat reasons, and not flooding concerns, FERC indicated a study, to research the upstream flooding potential, would need to be completed before it would consider the rule curve amendment, even on a temporary basis. According to GRDA, such a study would need to be completed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. GRDA had requested that assistance from the Corps earlier in the year. However, in mid July, GRDA was informed by the Corps that its request for assistance was denied, due to the Corps’ current work load and lack of available staff.

Due to the FERC dismissal of the temporary relief request, GRDA will proceed with the drawdown in 2011, to meet requirements of the operating license.

# # #