TechnicalTours

Technical tours are a unique element of the PES General Meeting technical program. This year, five tours are being offered, one a combined technical and leisure tour. All technical tours depart from the Grant Street Main Entrance (Level 1) of the Minneapolis Convention Center with the exception noted below. Please arrive 15 minutes earlier than the posted departure time. Advance registration required. There is no on-site registration for technical tour with the exception of the combined Technical/Leisure tour, which departs from the 11th Street door of the Hilton Hotel.

Because of the security concerns of some of the tour hosts, technical tour reservations will only be accepted when they are included with pre-registrations received ten or more days prior to the beginning of the General Meeting. Lists of registrants will then be forwarded to those tour hosts who desire them. There will be no on-site technical tour registration during the Meeting. All tours will depart and return to the Minneapolis Convention Center (MCC)

	Description	Price per Person	Date	Time
Tour #1	The Bakken Library & Museum		Cancelled	Cancelled
Tour #2	3M Company 3M is a fundamentally science-based, multi-national company that produces thousands of products - from health care and highway safety to office products, abrasives and adhesives. The PES tour will focus primarily on 3M’s line of high-capacity Aluminum Conductor, Composite Reinforced (ACCR) products that are manufactured in partnership with long established conductor supplier Southwire. The tour will show various tests demonstrating the ACCR conductors’ capabilities, and also include demonstrations of the compatibility of the technology with most tools and fittings commonly used with ACSR hardware. Weather permitting, a short walk will be taken for a look at an Xcel Energy transmission line passing through the 3M Center complex that has been retrofitted with ACCR conductors using those tools and fittings. The tour will also include a visit to 3M’s Innovation Center where many other products in use by electric utilities are on display.	$ 15	Tuesday, July 27, 2010	8:15 AM - 12:00 PM
Tour #3	Enterprise Data Center – Uptime Institute Tier 3 Certified & Great River Energy Platinum LEEDS Headquarters Building, Maple Grove Located in the Minneapolis metropolitan area, this newly constructed enterprise data center boasts a Tier 3 design as accredited by The Uptime Institute. This tour will explore the 20 megawatts of backup, on-site generation, the 20 megawatts of uninterruptible power, and the other electrical and mechanical systems required to operate a concurrently maintainable data center. Great River Energy is a generation and transmission cooperative that serves 28 member distribution cooperatives with members in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The GRE headquarters building, completed in 2008, was awarded Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, the highest designation available to buildings that demonstrate energy efficiency and sustainability. The building is the first in Minnesota to achieve the distinction. The PES tour group will view the various energy saving and recovery technologies incorporated into the architecture, as well as the on site solar and wind power generation systems.	$ 15	Tuesday, July 27, 2010	1:00 PM - 4:45 PM
Tour #4	Xcel Energy Merriam Park (SMART) Substation, St. Paul Merriam Park is an Xcel Energy substation located in a residential area of the Midway district on the western side of St. Paul. The substation has recently been retrofitted with state-of-the-art digital “Smart Grid” control and monitoring technology that will be the focus of this tour.	$ 15	Wednesday, July 28, 2010	1:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Tour #5	Historic Minnehaha Steamboat – Lake Minnetonka Cruise	$ 50	Monday, July 26, 2010	1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

IEEE prohibits discrimination, harassment and bullying. For more information,
visit http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/whatis/policies/p9-26.html