When Minnkota Power Cooperative took on the task of updating its inventory of equipment and materials in an effort to smooth supply chain kinks, the generation and transmission cooperative had no idea Mother Nature would soon present the new process with two powerful tests.

A June 2025 derecho with winds of up to 120 mph carved a massive path of destruction throughout North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota, leaving a historic footprint of damage in the G&T co-op's service territory. The storm toppled 139 power poles, damaged 91 substations, and disrupted service for seven of Minnkota's 11 member distribution co-ops.

Six weeks later, heavy rains and tornadoes whipped the G&T's territory again, snapping trees, knocking 48 substations out of service, damaging 50 poles and impacting service to six member co-ops.

Thanks to a supply chain initiative approved by its board in 2024, Minnkota had available transformers, conductors, poles, line and other critical equipment to energize power lines within a few days as many of its member co-ops were still clearing heavy debris.

“We were positioned in a much better spot to be able to react to situations like that and we were actually able to come out of that really quite well," says Harold Narlock, senior manager of power delivery operations at the Grand Forks, North Dakota-based G&T.

“We had a really a large percentage of that safety stock material on hand, so we didn't have to go out and procure equipment," adds Scott Schreiner, Minnota's procurement manager. “We were able to react really quickly."

These successes—at a time when power demand is skyrocketing—can be traced back to the co-op's supply chain initiative that was driven by its belief that disruptions, long lead times and high prices will persist indefinitely.

It meets regularly for deep-dive self-assessments of supply chain operations to head off snarls that can threaten reliability.

The initiative focuses on three main areas: inventory and physical space management, supplier and contractor management, and planning and budgeting.

For physical space management, Minnkota evaluated its indoor inventory to find more storage for high-dollar items and is expanding its outdoor laydown yard at its headquarters. The new space will allow Minnkota to keep more poles, transformers and other large equipment at the ready.

The co-op, which operates 265 substations and nearly 4,000 miles of transmission line across 34,000 square miles in North Dakota and Minnesota, now reaches out to its suppliers on a semiannual basis, sending a questionnaire to get a sense of shortages, issues and lead times to facilitate quick action when emergencies arise.

Minnkota also speeds procurement through blanket purchase orders for services and materials rather than drafting one-off contracts whenever a need arises.

“If we need a crane on-site immediately or an electrician or any of those trades, we have service contracts secured for one to three years," says Narlock. “If you need just routine work or something in an emergency, we're prepared for that, too."

Internal communications also proved important, says Sadie Gilbraith, the G&T's procurement services supervisor. She credits the quick response after the second devastating storm in August to “involving different departments about what's happening and what work has been performed and what's left to do."

Gilbraith also notes that co-ops' often-remote locations can exacerbate supply chain delays, making advanced planning even more crucial, a challenge the initiative's vitality can address.

“Because the market is continuously changing, the supply chain challenges that we have as a cooperative will always be changing as well," Schreiner says. “We have made a commitment to look for continuous improvement."

Schraeder says she can only imagine a slow, complicated response to the back-to-back intense summer storms if Minnkota had not planned ahead.

“Thankfully," she says, “our power delivery and procurement teams had already worked through what our vulnerabilities would be in a scenario like this and had prepared well in advance, so we were able to get power back on for our members quickly in the wake of both storms."