Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. has donated nearly $15,000 to the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and its Electrical Engineering Department. The donation is earmarked for laboratory equipment. The check of $14,960 was presented on behalf of Montana-Dakota by Geoffrey Fecske, Montana-Dakota’s transmission system coordinator and a 2003 School of Mines graduate.
The money will help purchase digital watt meters, power quality analyzers and two computers, equipment that’s specific for the power engineering segment of the school.
The power industry is facing an employee crunch with many engineers approaching retirement over the next few years and a dwindling number of power engineering graduates to fill those positions.
“The idea is to help provide updated equipment to an institution like the School of Mines and Technology that can help keep power programs going, and that our industry can benefit from down the road,” Bruce Imsdahl, president and chief executive officer of Montana-Dakota, said.
