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News Releases For information contact:
Samantha Neral, Communications Specialist
Phone: 763.323.2636
Email: samanthan@connexusenergy.com 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 25, 2012
Focus on reliability and 75 years of service at Connexus Energy Annual Meeting (Ramsey, MN) — It’s about giving members what they want – reliable electricity at an affordable price. That’s what Connexus Energy has been providing its members for 75 years. And, that message was front and center at Connexus Energy’s Annual Meeting held on April 24, 2012, in Ramsey.

“As wholesale power costs keep rising and electric sales decline, we are doing everything we can to reduce our costs and find innovative and better operational efficiencies,” said Connexus Energy CEO Mike Rajala. “We’re cutting costs but not at the expense of reliability and service.” Rajala pointed out that in 2011, in two separate American Customer Satisfaction Index surveys, Connexus Energy ranked number one in power reliability across the country.

According to Rajala, wholesale power costs will continue to rise for the next several years. “Since wholesale power makes up 75% of our members’ bills, we expect electric rates to go up slightly. But the good news is, Connexus rates continue to be below the national average.”

Board Chair Peter Wojciechowski reflected on the cooperative’s 75 years of serving members and compared electricity prices back in 1937 to today. “The difference is less than four cents per kilowatt hour. In all this time, electricity really hasn’t gone up that much in price. It still is great value for the money.”

In the Board of Directors’ election, incumbent Mark Ethen and new director Gordon Westerlind were elected to the board. Two bylaw amendments were approved by the membership.

Connexus Energy is the largest customer-owned utility in Minnesota providing electricity and related products and services to over 126,000 homes and businesses in portions of Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Isanti, Ramsey, Sherburne, and Washington counties. Additional information about Connexus Energy is available online at connexusenergy.com.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 6, 2012
CONNEXUS ENERGY MEMBERS ARE NOW INVITED TO SHARE AND COMPARE ENERGY USE WITH FRIENDS ON FACEBOOk People can compete in energy saving challenges on the Opower social energy app, which was developed in partnership with Facebook and the Natural Resources Defense Council

Ramsey, MN, Connexus Energy members now have the ability to share and compare their energy use with friends on Facebook with a social energy app. Designed to provide people with a better sense of their energy use while fostering friendly competition, the app provides new ways for people to discover savings opportunities. People now also have a new place to connect and converse around energy use and experiences they’ve had saving energy and money. To get started, Connexus members should visit social.opower.com or search for the “Opower” app on Facebook and connect their utility account.

People who sign up will immediately start to see how their energy use compares to others, providing context for how efficient their home is versus other similar ones. As friends are invited and join in, people will then be able to compete against each other in savings competitions.

The social energy app is the result of a partnership between Opower, Facebook, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) that is being offered by Connexus Energy as a new way for members to get further engaged in their energy use and cut unnecessary energy costs. Millions of homes across the U.S. today can choose to connect their utility account with the app and start participating.

The initial set of features in the app include:
Compare Energy Use to Similar Homes: People are able to benchmark their home energy use against a national database of millions of homes. All benchmarking will be done on an aggregate level, ensuring complete data privacy.
Compare Energy Use Among Friends: People are able to invite friends to compare their energy use against their own, show how energy efficient they are, and share tips on how to improve.
Publish Conversations About Energy to the Facebook Newsfeed: People are able to share information about their energy use, rank, group participation, and tips.
Group Development – Cooperation and Competition: Communities of people are able to form teams to help each other achieve collective goals, as well as compete against other groups.
Automatically Import Energy Data: Customers of participating utilities, such as Connexus Energy are able to import their energy data into the application automatically, if they so choose. (Customers from utilities that are not participating will also have the option to input their energy usage into the app manually.)

According to NRDC, improvements in energy efficiency have the potential to deliver more than $700 billion in cost savings in the U.S. alone. Understanding how people consume energy and their behavior around managing their use is critical to capturing this unlocked energy efficiency potential. Motivating consumers to take action—a longstanding challenge—is the key to unlocking this potential. The social energy app is one of the many things that Connexus Energy is offering customers to become more informed energy users.

Connexus Energy is the largest customer-owned utility in Minnesota providing electricity and related products and services to over 126,000 homes and businesses in portions of Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Isanti, Ramsey, Sherburne, and Washington counties. Additional information about Connexus Energy is available online at connexusenergy.com.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - January 3, 2012
Connexus Energy ranks #1 in reliability Connexus Energy scored the highest reliability rating by its members compared to other electric utilities and cooperatives in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The survey is produced under license with the University of Michigan.

Connexus scored a reliability rating of 90, compared to the ACSI national electric industry’s average of 86 in the third quarter of 2011. “Our members took part in the survey and gave us the high ranking. I am very proud of the fact no other cooperative or utility in the country ranked higher,” said Connexus CEO Mike Rajala.

By definition electric reliability measures the consistency of electric service on demand as provided by utility companies to their customers. But according to Rajala, it means much more. “It means when you’re a Connexus member, and you flip a switch or push a button, your electric appliance or gadget will work, because electricity is there. Electricity is a crucial product that we scarcely think about, unless we don’t have it. Judging by the high ACSI rating of Connexus reliability, our members don’t think of us often and, that’s a darn good thing. I hope our members see value in getting electricity from a company that is reliable.”

Connexus Energy is the largest customer-owned utility in Minnesota providing electricity and related products and services to over 126,000 homes and businesses in portions of Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Isanti, Ramsey, Sherburne, and Washington counties. Additional information about Connexus Energy is available online at connexusenergy.com.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September 26, 2011
Cold Weather Rule reminder from Connexus Energy (Ramsey, MN)—Connexus Energy customers who may have trouble paying their winter energy bills are reminded that the Cold Weather Rule takes effect October 15.

The Minnesota Cold Weather Rule protects qualified residential utility customers during the winter months. Under this rule, electric service will not be disconnected from October 15 through April 15 due to non-payment, if customers meet Cold Weather Rule requirements. However, this rule does not relieve customers of their responsibility to pay their utility bills.

Customers who qualify for Cold Weather Rule protection need to set up a payment schedule with the utility.

For more information on the Cold Weather Rule, customers can call Connexus Energy Credit Department at 763.323.2620.

Connexus Energy is the largest customer-owned utility in Minnesota providing electricity and related products and services to over 125,000 homes and businesses in portions of Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Isanti, Ramsey, Sherburne, and Washington counties. Additional information about Connexus Energy is available online at connexusenergy.com.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - August 2, 2011 - 11:30 a.m.
Severe weather hits north metro More than 7,000 Connexus Energy customers experienced an outage as weather blew through the north metro. Strong winds resulted in a significant number of broken power poles and down trees. Connexus crews, as well as numerous crews from other utilities, will be working around the clock to restore power. The majority of customers should have power restored by late Wednesday, but the heaviest hit areas of northern Anoka County and southern Isanti County may not be restored until Thursday.

Connexus Energy is the largest member-owned utility in Minnesota providing electricity and related products and services to over 125,000 homes and businesses in portions of Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Isanti, Ramsey, Sherburne, and Washington counties. Additional information about Connexus Energy and the outage is available online at connexusenergy.com.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 19, 2011 - 9:00 p.m. Update
Storm Outages in North Metro Approximately 400 Connexus Energy customers remain without power following Tuesday's morning strong storm. Connxus crews are working through the night and we expect to have everyone's power back on by noon Wednesday.

Initially, more than 5,000 customers were left without power. Just like the previous two storms that hit the area earlier this month (July 1,
July 10), Tuesday's storm toppled trees on power lines, causing major damage.

Connexus Energy is the largest member-owned utility in Minnesota providing electricity and related products and services to over 125,000 homes and businesses in portions of Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Isanti, Ramsey, Sherburne, and Washington counties. Additional information about Connexus Energy is available online at connexusenergy.com.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 11, 2011 - 4:00 p.m. Update
Another round of severe weather hits north metro Just over 300 Connexus Energy customers remain without power this afternoon following last night’s wind storms. Power is expected to be restored to those remaining customers by later tonight. Connexus crews, along with guest crews will work through the evening, until everyone’s power is back on.

When the storm first hit, more than 6,500 customers lost power. This was the second damaging storm to hit our area in just over a week.

Connexus Energy is the largest customer-owned utility in Minnesota providing electricity and related products and services to over 125,000 homes and businesses in portions of Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Isanti, Ramsey, Sherburne, and Washington counties. Additional information about Connexus Energy is available online at connexusenergy.com.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 11, 2011 - Noon Update
Another round of severe weather hits north metro Approximately 650 Connexus Energy customers remain without power today following last night’s storms. Power is expected to be restored to those customers sometime this evening. Initially, when the storm first hit, more than 6,500 customers lost power. Connexus crews worked through the night. This morning, additional guest crews from East Central Energy, Elk River Utilities, and Okay Construction are helping with the restoration efforts.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 11, 2011 - 6:00 a.m.
Another round of severe weather hits north metro More than 6,500 Connexus Energy customers lost power last night following yet another round of severe weather. Just like last week’s storm, strong winds and lightning caused the outages. Connexus crews worked through the night and restored power to 5,000 customers. However, 1,500 remain without power this morning. Connexus expects everyone’s power to be restored sometime later this evening.

Connexus Energy is the largest member-owned utility in Minnesota providing electricity and related products and services to over 125,000 homes and businesses in portions of Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Isanti, Ramsey, Sherburne, and Washington counties. Additional information about Connexus Energy is available online at connexusenergy.com.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 2, 2011 - 9:00 p.m.
outages in north metro Approximately 2,000 Connexus Energy customers remain without power after last night's storms. The strong winds left a huge mess for utility workers to clean up. Many large trees toppled on power lines, slowing down the restotation process.

Connexus Energy crews as well as dozens of crews from utilities from around the state are working to get everyone's power back on. It may be sometime tomorrow before everyone's power is restored.

Connexus Energy is the largest electric cooperative in Minnesota —serving more than 125,000 customers in the north metro.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 2, 2011 - 8:00 a.m.
Storm outage update for north metro Approximately 6,000 Connexus Energy customers are still without power today following last night's strong storms. Lightning and winds caused the outages.

All available crews, with help from several neighboring electric cooperatives, Lake Region, Crow Wing Power, and Okay Construction are working around the clock to restore power.

Crews are dealing with large toppled trees on power lines which makes power restoration more difficult. In those situations it takes significantly more time to get power back on. There are hundreds of such incidents.

As a result, it may take another 24 to 36 hours before all power is restored. We thank you for your patience. We' ll keep you updated on our progress.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 1, 2011 - 9:00 p.m.
Storms cause outages in north metro More than 10,000 Connexus Energy customers are without power following the strong winds and lightning that rolled through the area earlier this evening.

All available crews have been called and will continue to work around the clock to restore power as quickly as possible.

Due to the large number of widespread outages it may take some time before everyone's power is back on. We thank our members for their patience as we work to get the mess left by the storm cleaned up.

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