Heartland Consumers Power District is celebrating the grand opening of their new headquarters facility in Madison, S.D. with events scheduled July 6, 7 and 8. The facility is expected to be South Dakota’s first newly constructed LEED Platinum building.

On Tuesday, July 6, United States Senator Tim Johnson will visit Heartland for a tour of the green building. A reception for Heartland customers will take place on Wednesday, July 7 beginning at 3:30 p.m. with Lieutenant Governor Dennis Daugaard providing the keynote address at approximately 4:30 p.m. Finally, the public is invited to an open house Thursday, July 8 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. with guided tours available from 10:00 a.m. to noon. A program will take place at 12:15 p.m. with South Dakota State University President Dr. David L. Chicoine providing the keynote address. A ribbon cutting with the Madison Chamber of Commerce is to follow.

Heartland is a non-profit, public power utility providing wholesale electric power and energy to customers in South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.

“After outgrowing our previous facility in Madison, our board voted to build a new facility, one that would be easy on the environment, conserve energy and provide a healthy environment for our employees,” said Heartland General Manager Mike McDowell. “This facility has turned out to be everything I hoped it would be and more. We are proud of our investment in the Madison community and happy to continue to call this community home.”

Heartland invited Daugaard and Chicoine to speak at their events because of their long-time partnerships with both the state of South Dakota and SDSU. Most notable, through an agreement with the state, Heartland provides power to six state institutions, including SDSU. By contract, all energy sold to SDSU is renewable via Heartland’s investment in the Wessington Springs Wind Energy Center.

According to McDowell, working with the state and university has been rewarding, noting, “Heartland has been a long-time partner of the state. With the addition of the Wessington Springs Wind Energy Center to our power supply portfolio, we amended our agreement to ensure all power provided to both of South Dakota’s flagship universities is renewable. We are very proud of our investment in this wind farm and our partnership with the state.”

Heartland also provides annual engineering scholarships to students at SDSU and recently partnered with the university and the University National Parks Energy Partnership Program to sponsor a PV design-build project at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The project provided SDSU electrical engineering students with a design-build experience that successfully demonstrated renewable energy technology and resulted in financial savings for the park.

Heartland’s new headquarters facility was designed and built to achieve LEED Platinum Certification. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is administered by the U.S. Green Building Council and is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED recognizes performance in five key areas including sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. A series of credits are available within the five areas and certification is obtained at Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum.

The Heartland building was designed to be 44% more energy efficient than a standard building. A thermal envelope consisting of eight inches of roof insulation and six inches of wall insulation along with an efficient, closed-loop, ground source heat pump, contribute to the savings. At least 70% of the building’s energy is from renewable sources including roof-mounted solar panels and the Wessington Springs Wind Energy Center.
The facility uses 33% less water than a standard building through low-flow fixtures coupled with sensors and native prairie plants used in landscaping require no permanent irrigation. Low-maintenance materials such as polished concrete flooring, precast concrete walls, metal panel siding and a standing seam steel roof are visible throughout the facility.

Heartland broke ground in the spring of 2009 and moved into their new facility in January of this year. Twelve employees occupy the 9,400 square foot facility.

Approximately 45 regional companies were involved in the construction of the building, designed by Koch Hazard Architects of Sioux Falls. Henry Carlson Company, also of Sioux Falls, served as construction manager and Jason Crain of Construction Management Professionals was hired as project manager to assist Heartland staff manage the project from design to completion.

“Heartland has been a great partner in creating this green building,” said Stacey McMahan, AIA, LEED AP, of Koch Hazard. “They came to us wanting to ‘go green,’ so we began the conversation about sustainability strategies, cost, process and carrying their goals through design and construction. Heartland has been dedicated and creative in their response to LEED requirements. The only way to create a great building is to work with a great client.”

Heartland announced plans to build the new, environmentally friendly headquarters in April of 2008. At the same time, they announced the sale of their old facility in Madison to the South Dakota Association of Rural Water Systems.