LAUNDRY LIST OF SAVINGS · and lecturer on topics ranging from jetpacks to robots in the military....

4230 Hatwai RoadLewiston, ID 83501(888) 743-1501 toll free(208) 743-1501 localwww.clearwaterpower.comE-mail: [email protected]

Propane: (888) 798-5280 toll freePropane: (208) 798-5220 local

Board of Directors:Richard E. Butler, Culdesac, Idaho President

Alan Lansing, Lenore, Idaho Vice-President

Kenneth Weiss, Asotin, Washington Secretary-Treasurer

M.M. Harris, Saint Maries, Idaho Assistant Secretary-Treasurer

Pamela Anderson, Potlatch, IdahoRobert Callison, Kendrick, IdahoThomas Hutchinson, Craigmont, Idaho

General ManagerK. David Hagen

Sta� Edwin Ausman Director of Purchasing and WarehousingLisa Hall Manager of Financial and Office ServicesDouglas Pfaff

Manager of EngineeringRobert Pierce

Manager of Member ServicesScott Seegmiller

Manager of Information SystemsCynthia Tarola Director of AccountingLisa Tuell

Director of Member ServicesStanley Vannoy

Manager of Operations

Business Hours:Monday - Thursday7:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.Closed Friday

ID-1

EASY WAYS TO SAVE

1-888-743-1501 • CLEARWATERPOWER.COM

LAUNDRY LIST OF SAVINGS

TIPS #12, 13, 17, 21 & 24

32 A P R I L 2013

Board of DirectorsPresident Lori Anderson, Condon Vice President John Qualls, HeppnerSecretary/Treasurer Roy Carlson, Fossil

Gary Wilde, OlexRaymond Harrison, Condon Todd Lindsay, Heppner Mark Wunderlich, HeppnerDeacon Heideman, Ione

ManagerJerry Healy, Heppner

171 Linden WayP.O. Box 398

Heppner, OR 97836 (541) 676-9146

http://[email protected]

Columbia Basin Electric Cooperative’s main objective is to provide reliable electric service to its members at the lowest cost consistent with good business practice.

OR-2

32 A p R I L 2013

One free, easy call gets your utility linesmarked AND helps protect you frominjury and expense.

Safe Digging Is No Accident:Always Call 811 Before You Dig

Know what’s below. Always call 811 before you dig.Visit call811.com for more information.

CALLDIGBEFORE YOU

ALWAYS

Board of DirectorsHoward Gonser, PresidentBarbara Nagle, Vice PresidentDan Williams, SecretaryClay Smith, TreasurerMilt Skov, Director

ManagerDwight D. Langer

Board MeetingsUsually the fourth Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. at the PUD offices, 2345 River Rd. The public is always welcome.

Our MissionTo provide reliable, competitively-priced energy and related services that benefit our customers, in the tradition of public power.

Our Core Values and BeliefsLocal citizens championed and fought to create our People’s Utility District. They believed—and we believe—in the public’s right to own and control its electric utility.

Today, our values are a legacy from our public power heritage, as well as guideposts for a changing future.

We believe in: Public ownership and local control. Integrity. Keeping power rates as low as possible.

Providing quality essential services. Quality customer service. Community involvement.

2345 River RoadThe Dalles, OR 97058(541) 296-2226 FAX 298-3320www.nwasco.com Dear Customers—Our Friends and Our Neighbors,

NWCPUD’s board and staff carefully follow the comments and actions of our legislators and regulators regarding energy policy and programs. They frequently point out how their new policy or program will bring or maintain affordability. However, their proposals usually result in higher costs and reliability risks. They use the term affordability to gain public support, yet rare-ly state the true cost of their proposals or define what afford-ability means to them.

The next time you read about electric energy and affordabil-ity, ask yourself if the policy or program will really lower our cost of electric energy. Too often it is just talk.

At the PUD, we are serious about maintaining energy affordability and service reli-ability to our customers. We define affordable energy as the lowest reasonable cost power delivered to the public as a whole. We look for the price point at which the vast majority of the purchasing public can afford to use electric energy in the way of their choosing—without having to deprive themselves of other essentials.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the average retail electricity price in Oregon is 8.24 cents per kilowatt hour. The PUD’s average cost in 2012 was 4.7 cents/kwh. Our customers save over $19 million per year in electric energy costs!

By maintaining the most affordable customer rates, the PUD helps you keep more of your hard-earned dollars in your pockets—money that can then be used to pur-chase a newer car, TV, or appliance, to take that family trip or to help pay for higher education. Likewise, we believe that by providing the most affordable rates to our community’s employers, they may be able to afford to hire more employees, buy new equipment, develop new processes or save for the future.

Until next time, have a great day.

Dwight LangerGeneral Manager

OR-3

Manager’s Report

32 A P R I L 2013

Board of Trustees President Ralph RiseDistrict 2, Elmer City

Vice President Albert PreugschatDistrict 8, Bridgeport

Secretary/Treasurer Monte JosephDistrict 5, Nespelem

Cindy CorpeDistrict 1, Coulee Dam

Martin OlbrichtDistrict 3, Belvedere

Dorothy PalmerDistrict 4, Nespelem

Patrick Morin Jr.District 6, Nespelem

Gilbert Desautel Jr.District 7, Disautel

Ricard TuplingDistrict 9, Okanogan

Board meetings are the fourth Tuesday of every month.

P.O. Box 31 • 1009 F St.Nespelem, WA 991558 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (M-F)Phone: (509) 634-4571Fax: (509) 634-8138 email: [email protected]: www.nvec.org

For after-hours emergencies, call 634-4571 to page an on-duty employee.

WA-5

32 A P R I L 2013




CALLDIGBEFORE YOU

ALWAYS

Dear CPI Members:Last month, a small army of Oregon electric cooperative leaders met with our legislators in Salem to discuss legislation of interest to con-sumer-owned utilities. One important energy issue to surface so far in this year’s legisla-tive session is the expansion of net metering service.

What exactly is net metering?Customers use renewable generating equip-

ment such as solar photovoltaics or windmills. Net metering refers to any extra energy that flows from the customer’s system onto the util-ity grid, essentially causing the electric meter to run backward.

At the end of the year, if the members gen-erate more electricity than they use, CPI cred-its them at its avoided cost. That means CPI pays them for any wholesale power costs that were not made, or “avoided,” because the net metering facility displaced the need for CPI to purchase power. The customers are billed only for the “net” energy consumed.

To date, CPI has helped 125 members install 521 kilowatts of photovoltaic, wind and hydro generation.

As the Oregon Legislature debates energy legislation, we urge lawmakers to exercise cau-tion when it comes to addressing net metering.

Policies that govern such services are devel-oped locally with the members who own the co-op. This arrangement works well with cus-tomer-owned generation for electric co-ops.

Several net metering legislative proposals

would substitute local decisionmaking with state-mandated rules that pose serious finan-cial and operational risks for many co-ops. This is especially true for large generation proj-ects and for net metering service in general as it grows in size.

CPI is again taking the message to the leg-islature to preserve local control of your co-op and to keep our rates affordable and our ser-vice reliable.

Dial 8-1-1Building a deck? Planting a tree? Installing a mailbox? 811 is the number you should call before you begin any digging project.

People digging often make risky assump-tions about whether they should get their util-ity lines marked.

Every digging job requires a call—even small projects like planting trees or shrubs. If you hit an underground utility line, you can harm yourself or those around you, disrupt service to an entire neighborhood and poten-tially be responsible for fines.

Calling 811 before every digging job gets your underground utility lines marked for free and helps prevent undesired consequences for you and your neighbors.

We want you to be safe as you enjoy the beauty of springtime in Oregon.

Roman GillenPresident/CEO

OR-6

President’s Report

Mailing addressP.O. Box 1180Philomath, OR 97370

(541) 929-3124(800) 872-9036

Local O� ces6990 West Hills Rd.Philomath, OR 97370

1900 W Oak StreetLebanon, OR 97355

Chairman Russ Sapp

Vice President Thad Springer

Secretary Mary Jane Swink

Assistant Secretary Terry Plagmann

President/CEORoman Gillen

Treasurer/CFOTony Wilson

www.cpi.coop

Earth Day, April 22

32 A P R I L 2013

OR-8

The Future Revealed at Annual MeetingOur 76th Annual Meeting is coming soon, on Saturday, April 20, with a business meeting, dinner and guest speaker from 5-7 p.m. at the Hermiston Community Center.

Our new meeting format, adopted last year, is shorter and more focused on UEC’s business at hand. The majority of those who attended last year gave us strong feedback to keep and build upon the new for-mat.

Our guest speaker will be Daniel H. Wilson of Portland, a New York Times best-selling author and contributing edi-tor to Popular Mechanicsmagazine. He earned a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, holds four patents and has written eight books.

Wilson serves as a keynote speaker, panelist and lecturer on topics ranging from jetpacks to robots in the military. In 2008, he hosted his own TV series, The Works, on the History Channel.

He has appeared on news programs such as CBS Sunday Morning, in the pages of Wired magazine and USA Today, and spoken before audiences at conferences, schools, museums and the military academy at West Point. He is a young, enthusiastic and entertaining speaker who is looking forward to visiting Hermiston.

As the Hollywood Reporter put it, in naming Wilson among Hollywood’s 25 most powerful

authors, “The 34-year-old computer scientist-turned-hit writer’s two most recent novels, Robopocalypse and Amped, were scooped up before he had finished writing them. Says Wilson, ‘DreamWorks bought Robopocalypse, I sold the book the next day, and at the end of the week I was in a room with Steven Spielberg and (screenwriter) Drew Goddard talking robots.’ ”

Wilson steps in as our speaker in place of Menlo College football coach Mark Speckman, who regretfully informed us he had to cancel because of his new job as an assistant football coach in the Canadian Football League. He has a conflict with a training camp in Florida that weekend. We wish Coach Speckman the best in his new job and look forward to inviting him back in the future.

Our 76th Annual Meeting will be fun and informative, served up with a good meal. If you’ve never been to our annual meeting, or if it’s been a long time, please give us a try on April 20. Our annual meetings are held for you, and remain free of charge to the member-ship and invited guests.

O� cesHermiston O� ce750 W. Elm St.567-6414

Boardman O� ce203 E. Boardman Ave.481-2220

Toll-Free1-800-452-2273

To Report An OutageCall 888-465-5701 any time day or night

DirectorsPresidentBryan Wolfe

Vice PresidentLee Docken

Secretary-TreasurerBob MacPherson

RoseEtta Ansotegui John Otis Glenn RohdeJe� Wenholz

General ManagerSteve Eldrige

MissionUmatilla Electric Cooperative is a member-owned business that sells energy and other services to improve the quality of life in our communities.

umatillaelectric.com

32 A P R I L 2013

Sincerely,M. Steven EldrigeUEC General Manager/CEO

105 E. 4th St.The Dalles, OR 97058Office phone: (541) 296-2740Toll-free phone: (800) 341-8580www.wascoelectric.com

Board of DirectorsRon Holmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PresidentMichael Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vice PresidentJim McNamee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .SecretaryH . Kelly McGreer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .TreasurerGary Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DirectorRobert Durham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DirectorRobert “Bob” Hammel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DirectorNeal Harth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DirectorDeOra Patton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Director

StaffJeff Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .General ManagerMarie Wilson . . . . Executive Admin . AssistantShannon Bessette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AccountantJim Bailey . . . . . . . . . . . . Engineering AssistantJim Green . . . . . . . . . .Engineering TechnicianTraci Brock . . . Marketing & Member ServicesLaura Correia . . . . . . . Customer Service Rep .Jennifer Lindsey . . . . Customer Service Rep .Casey McCleary . . . . . . . Operations ManagerAl Rose . . . . . . . . . . . The Dalles Line ForemanMichael North . . . . . . . . . The Dalles LinemanRobert Gridley . . . . . . . . . The Dalles LinemanWesley Woods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ServicemanBrewster Whitmire . . . . . . . . . . . .Field TechnicianDan Funkhouser . . . Grass Valley Line ForemanGerald Haeffelin . . . . . Maupin Line ForemanFrank Roeder . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maupin LinemanRay Kindley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Attorney

Mission Statement“Wasco Electric Cooperative Inc.will provide its members withcompetitively priced, reliable energyand related services.”

Office Hours:Monday - Thursday,7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

OR-9

32 A P R i L 2013

Legislative VisitAlong with leaders from the other 17 co-ops in Oregon, several Wasco Electric board members and I converged on Salem last month to spend a day meeting with our legislators. The focus of our visit was to express our concerns with several bills related to changes to the state’s net-metering law.

The current net-metering law allows our members to install small-scale renewable generation—such as solar— at their residence, and the energy their system produces in excess of their needs is generated back into Wasco’s system.

At the end of each year, the co-op pays the member/generator for the energy delivered to the co-op at the same rate per kilowatt-hour that we pay for whole-sale power from the Bonneville Power Administration.

Wasco Electric has offered this pro-gram for many years. More than a dozen such projects are connected to the co-op’s system.

The proposed bills to change current laws—driven primarily by urban legisla-tors and solar manufacturers—call for changes that could have a significant financial impact on all members of the co-op.

The two big concerns we have with these bills are increasing the generation capacity of nonresidential projects from the current 25 kilowatt-hour to 2,000 kWh and requiring the co-op to pay the

generator our retail rate for the excess generation rather than the wholesale rate.

To give you a sense of the size and the potential financial impact such a change would have on Wasco Electric, let me break down the numbers.

A 2,000 kWh hydro-generation resource connected to our system under the proposed law would have the potential to generate more power than required at our Tygh Valley Substation, which serves the city of Maupin and the Bakeoven and Juniper Flat areas.

This excess generation would amount to millions of kilowatt-hours. At the retail rate, the co-op would be required to pay the generator more than $1 million. These costs to benefit a single generator would be shared by all of the members of the co-op.

The current net-metering laws work well as they were intended—to allow an individual customer to offset all or most of their energy requirements. Wasco Electric supports and encour-ages this approach. We do not support an approach that will allow one devel-oper to profit from the cooperative at the expense of the other members.

Jeff DavisGeneral Manager

Manager’s Message

Dear Member,

On page 25, inside this edition of Ruralite, you will see an article about the Clean-Hydro education e� ort that is under way on television and in print. I am proud that Douglas Electric Cooperative is a part of this e� ort because the Northwest’s hydro-power dams and rivers bene� t all of us and our customers in so many ways.

As the article points out, hydropower isn’t capturing the same kind of attention in the eyes of the public as it once did. � ere are several reasons for this. Chief among them is many people have moved to the Northwest from other parts of the country where hydropower wasn’t a daily part of their lives. Many of our young people have not grown up with the dams and so do not understand and appreciate their value. And dramatic changes in the energy industry and government-led e� orts to encour-age other types of renewable energy, such as wind, have dominated media headlines.

I believe it’s time we tell the incredible story of our dams, hydropower and the Co-lumbia and Snake rivers. We need to rejoin, and be a part of, the conversation. � at is exactly what the CleanHydro public education e� ort is about.

I hope you will take a moment to visit the website www.CleanHydro.com, so you can view the TV and print advertisements. While the advertisements promote the key ways hydropower and the rivers a� ect our lives, the website shares more about these amazing resources. Please share it with your friends and families so they, too, can feel the same sense of pride about what we have right here in our own backyard.

Best Regards,

Dave SabalaGeneral Manager

OR-10

OwnedBy ThoseWe ServeDouglas Electric Cooperative Inc.,Roseburg, OregonPhone (541) 673-6616 (800) 233-2733

O� cersPresident. . . . . . . Terry NelsonVice President . . Robert PoageSecretary. . . . . . . Shirley CairnsTreasurer . . . . . . . Dick McHa� eDirector . . . . . . . . Larry ShipleyDirector . . . . . . . . Roy EllisDirector . . . . . . . . Carey Weatherly

ManagerDave Sabala(541) 637-0342

SuperintendentTodd Sherwood(541) 580-7205

O� ce ManagerPaul Leonard

Member ServicesTodd C. Munsey

Douglas FastnetTodd Way

Mission StatementThe mission of Douglas ElectricCooperative, a member-owned and operated cooperative, is to provide a� ordable, reliable electric and other compatible services that enhance the quality of life for its members, using pro-gressive marketing in conjunc-tion with sound � nancial and management principles.

Telling Our Hydro and Rivers Story

32 A P R I L 2013

P.O. Box 97Monument, OR 97864

(541) 934-2311Toll free (888) 203-7638

DIRECTORS President Paul WaltonVice President Dave Humphreys Sec./Treasurer Tom Campbell Dan CannonCheryl JenisonLaReta JonesAdam Temple

MANAGERTroy Cox

The board of directors meets the second Monday of each month.

Columbia Power Co-op

POWER OUTAGE NUMBERSCo-op office . . . . . . . . . 934-2311Randy Sweek . . . . . . . . 934-2743Gary Warner . . . . . . . . . 934-2961Troy Cox . . . . . . . . . . . . . 934-2155Brian Woodell . . . . . . . . 934-2260 Josh Hamilton . . . . . . . 934-2133Mike Osborne . . . . . . . . 934-2067Joe Ringering . . . . . . . . 934-2198

OR-11

32 A P R I L 2013




CALLDIGBEFORE YOU

ALWAYS

Campaign Promotes Hydro’s BenefitsIn this edition of Ruralite, you will see an article on pages 4 and 5 about the CleanHydro education effort under way on televi-sion and in print. I am proud Central Electric Cooperative is part of this effort because the Northwest’s hydropower dams and rivers benefit our region and our members in so many ways.

As the article points out, hydropower is not capturing the same kind of attention in the eyes of the public as it once did. There are several reasons. Chief among them is many people have moved to the Northwest from other parts of the country where hydropower wasn’t a part of their daily lives. Many of our young people have not grown up with the dams, so they do not understand their value. Dramatic changes in the energy industry and government-led efforts to encourage other types of renewable energy—such as wind— have dominated media headlines for years. The unparalleled economic and environmental benefits of hydropower barely get a mention.

We believe it is time we tell the incredible story of our dams, hydropower and the Columbia and Snake rivers. We need to rejoin and be a part of the conversation. That is exactly what the CleanHydro public education effort is about.

I hope you will take a moment to visit the website www.CleanHydro.com so you can view the TV and print advertisements. While the advertisements promote the key ways hydropower and the rivers affect our lives, the website shares more about these amazing resources. Please share it with your friends and families so they, too, can feel the same sense of pride about this invaluable Northwest resource that is the envy of the rest of the country.

OR-12

Central IssuesCentral Electric CooperativeDIRECTORS:

Chairman Ray Clarno, RedmondVice Chairman Tom Strand, TerrebonneSecretary/Treasurer Kip Light, Madras David C. Clemens, SistersBoyd Keeton, TumaloShirley McCullough, Prineville Kelly McFarlane, Powell ButteKenneth H. Miltenberger, Alfalfa Dan Steelhammer, Bend

Attorney Robert E. Maloney Jr.Lane Powell PC, Portland

STAFF:President Dave Markham

Chief Financial Officer Rawleigh White

Operations Manager Bob McConnell

Corporate Information Officer Lisa Cutter

Member Services Director Jeff Beaman

Bend District ManagerKaren Lewis

24-HOURPHONE NUMBERS:

Redmond .............(541) 548-2144Bend ......................(541) 389-1980Madras ..................(541) 475-3266Prineville ..............(541) 447-5321Sisters ....................(541) 549-5698

Board meets the third Thursday of each month at the CEC office, 2098 N. Highway 97, Redmond, OR.

www.cec.coop

Mission StatementThe aim of Central Electric Co-op is to make electric energy available to its members at the lowest cost consistent with sound economy and good management.

President’s Report

32 A P R i L 2013

We are pleased to report—as we have for at least the past 10 years—WOEC received a clean opinion from an indepen-dent auditor, which is the highest rating given. At its regular board of directors meeting March 19, the board and man-agement staff was presented with the annual audit report by Kenneth Kuhns of Kenneth Kuhns & Co. of Salem.

The board, staff and members present each had an opportunity to ask questions of the auditor. As is normal procedure, the board held an executive session without staff to give it an opportunity to ask questions of the auditor regarding any staff issues or concerns during the audit, and staff conforming to policies and procedures.

I would like to share with you several of the comments and sections of the auditor’s report and management letter. We will be putting the audit report on our website this month for all members to view in its entirety.

The financial records of West Oregon Electric Cooperative, Inc. are maintained substantially in accordance with the Uniform System of Accounts prescribed by the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), United States Department of Agriculture.

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of West Oregon Electric Cooperative, Inc. as of December 31, 2012 and 2011, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the years then ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

As part of obtaining reasonable assurance about whether West Oregon Electric Cooperative, Inc.’s consolidated financial statements are free from material misstatement, we performed tests of its compliance with certain provisions of laws, regulations, contracts and grant agreements, noncompliance with which could have a direct and material effect on the determination of consolidated financial statement amounts.

The results of our tests disclosed no instances of noncompliance or other matters that are required to be reported under Government Auditing Standards.

We noted no matters involving West Oregon Electric Cooperative, Inc’s internal control over financial reporting and its operation that we consider to be material weak-nesses as previously defined with respect to:

• The accounting procedures and records;• The process for accumulating and recording labor, material and overhead costs,

and the distribution of these costs to construction, retirement, and maintenance or other expense accounts; and

• The materials control.I appreciate all efforts of staff and management for their excellent work to obtain a

clean audit.

W. Marc Farmer, General Manager

OR-14 652 Rose Ave

P.O. Box 69Vernonia, OR 97064

(503) 429-3021 Toll free (800) 777-1276

www.westoregon.org

BOARD OF DIRECTORSPresident Robert VanNatta (Dist. 2 – Mist, Apiary, Birkenfeld)

Vice President David Hess (Dist. 7 – Manning, Hagg Lake,Yamhill County)

Sec./Treasurer Marty Van Dyken(Dist. 3 – Vernonia, Keasey)

Brian Baker(Dist. 1 – Jewell, Elsie, Hamlet)

Dan Murphy(Dist. 4 – Vernonia)

Bob Paleck(Dist. 5 – Timber, Buxton)

Dixie London (Dist. 6 – Chapman, Scappoose)

GENERAL MANAGERMarc Farmer

Contact the Board: [email protected]

Board meetings are the third Tuesday of each monthat 7 p.m.

West Oregon Electric Co-op

What’s InsidePage 4:Play it Safe OutdoorsPages 28 and 29:Challenge of Greening the Future

32 A P R I L 2013

WOEC Audit Report

Surprise Valley Electrification Corp.516 U.S. Hwy. 395 E.Alturas, CA 96101

Phone (530) 233-3511Toll-Free: (866) 843-2667www.surprisevalleyelectric.org

Office open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.Monday through Friday

After hours and outages:Call office numbers above

Staff

Jim Hays, General ManagerBrad Kresge, Assistant General ManagerDennis Reed, Line SuperintendentLynn Culp, Member Service Manager

Board of directorSCraig Joiner, PresidentLookout

Dennis Flynn, Vice PresidentAdel

Raymond Cloud, Secretary/TreasurerNew Pine Creek

Wesley CookCedarville

George JaskaLakeview

John ErquiagaLake City

Duane McGarvaLikely

Board meets the fourth Thursday of the month at the SVE office.

Dear Members,Surprise Valley Electric’s service territory is home to a thriving diversity of wildlife, much of which is airborne. Golden eagles, bald eagles, northern goshawks and red-tailed hawks are just a few of the permanent raptor population that adds to the natural splendor of our region. As citizens of our community and stewards of our bioregion, employees at Surprise Valley Electric are mindful of the responsibility to maintain wildlife-safe infrastructure. Following are examples of SVE policy and recent projects: • While power poles may

look the same at a glance, they are not. Reconfigured spac-ing of wires on all new SVE pole construction observes spacing guidelines set forth in “Suggested Practices for Avian Protection On Power Lines: The State of the Art in 2006” (Edison Electric Institute).• All jumper wires on newly-

installed SVE transformers are now insulated to prevent birds from direct contact with a line.• SVE-designed bird perches

have been installed throughout our service territory, including at the Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge.• Twenty power poles near Lake City recently were upgraded to conform to current

bird safety specifications.• A stretch of power line more than a mile long was buried at the Modoc Wildlife

Refuge near Alturas.• SVE management monitors advancements within the industry pertaining to wild-

life safety.Surprise Valley Electric management and staff are, first and foremost, members of

our community. We recognize and revere the roles natural beauty and wildlife diver-sity play in the quality of life in our area. While electricity is at all times potentially lethal, and tragic accidents do happen, we are committed to ever-improving wildlife safety standards throughout our territory.

Please contact us if you have questions or concerns regarding wildlife protection near your home.

Best regards,

Jim Hays, General Manager

Co-op Cares About Our Region’s Wildlife

Bald eagles are a common sight in our area.

CA-15

32 A P R i L 2013

Dear Member:

For the last two months, we have used the Ruralite magazine to inform you on our progress as we prepared to bring you our new SmartHub program. In February, we introduced SmartHub and spoke of the many features and benefits the program offered. In March, we launched the program and walked you through the SmartHub registration process. In April, we’re pleased to announce that the energy monitoring and prepaid metering features will go live. Members will be able to sign up and begin monitoring their

electric use and managing their accounts better and easier than ever before.On pages 4, 5 and 8, you will find a slate of features, benefits, and explanations, to help

you understand how you can put SmartHub to use and begin managing your account. We’ve also provided some new Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to help you as you

decide how you may use SmartHub.Whether paying your bill, monitoring your energy use, or using the enhanced prepay

option, we’re pleased to bring you SmartHub. Look for the SmartHub logo on our web site and register today.

If you have questions, please feel free to call our Customer Services Department at 541-484-1151 and again, welcome to SmartHub.

Down the line

787 Bailey Hill Road / P.O. Box 21410Eugene, Oregon 97402Offi ce Phone: (541) 484-1151Website: www.laneelectric.com

BOARD OF DIRECTORSJeri Nelson, PresidentOakridge District

Chris Seubert, Vice-PresidentCentral District

Pat Dymock, SecretaryMcKenzie River District

Chuck Leighter, TreasurerCentral District

Loy Sparks, DirectorCentral District

Jim Hill, DirectorOakridge District

Ed Bangle, DirectorRow River District

MANAGEMENT STAFFTony ToncrayConstruction & Maintenance

Doug StockdaleEngineering Services

Debi WilsonO� ce & Sta� Services

Dave D’AvanzoMember & Regional A� airs

BOARD MEETINGS4th Monday of each month(Unless otherwise noted)Lane Electric's O� ce at 11 a.m.

Rick CrinklawGeneral Manager

32 A P R I L 2013

MANAGEMENT STAFFTony ToncrayConstruction & Maintenance

Doug StockdaleEngineering Services

Debi WilsonO� ce & Sta� Services

Dave D’AvanzoMember & Regional A� airs

BOARD MEETINGS4th Monday of each month(Unless otherwise noted)Lane Electric's O� ce at 11 a.m.

SmartHub... Manage your account 24-7-365!

32 A P R I L 2013

Using SmartPhones & Tablets

On the Road

With your Computer

At the O� ce

From your Laptop

Sitting at Home

From your Laptop

At the O� ce

With SmartHub, you can manage your business most anywhere, any time!

OR-16

SmartHub: Energy Monitoring & Prepay Options..

Getting Involved...

PowerLines...

Down the Line...

In this issue...Feature: Page #

4,5,8

25

28-29

32

A Touchstone Energy® Cooperative

Dear Members,As part of a larger lobbying effort, the Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association held a Legislative Day in March. Oregon cooperative managers and directors visited with our state senators and representatives to share concerns and opinions regarding pending legislation.

Two areas were of particular interest to the association this year. Three House bills and one Senate bill were written to drastically change the rules about net metering of customer-generated solar energy. Another bill is promoted by ORECA to allow volun-tary green power programs to count toward the renewable energy portfolio standard requirements (RPS).

The net metering bills are problematic in that they allow aggregation of individual solar projects into one large generating unit that is allowed to sell to other subscrib-ers on the utility’s system without any cost recovery by the utility. The electric system maintenance costs would be shifted to those not participating in the solar program. Some of the bills require the utility to buy solar energy from the customer at retail rates. Blachly-Lane buys customer-generated power at wholesale rates, which allows the utility to sell that power to other members with a margin to fund system mainte-nance. Again, if the utility is required to buy at retail rates, there would be no margin when the power is sold and maintenance costs would be transferred to other members not involved in the solar program.

Some other features of the net metering bills are an increase in the allowable solar project size from 25 kilowatt to 2,000 kW and no requirement for an external discon-nect switch. A solar installation as large as 2,000 kW, depending on location, might require a substation upgrade with no contribution from the solar generator to cover the cost of the upgrade. That cost would have to be passed on to the members at large. Utilities generally require an external disconnect switch for the safety of their person-nel. When a utility crew works on a line with a generator connected, there needs to be a way to disconnect the generator that can be secured with a lock, to prevent the crew from coming in contact with high voltage. This effort to save the cost of a disconnect switch would create a potentially unsafe situation for utility crews.

The House bill modifying the requirements of the RPS would allow cooperatives to require new large customers such as data centers/server farms to fund the purchase of enough green power to satisfy RPS requirements. This keeps the green power cost with the large customer rather than spreading it to all of the other customers who already pay their fair share of the green power requirement.

ORECA and your cooperative continually monitor legislation and lobby in the best interests of our members.Joe Jarvis, General Manager

OR-17

ORECA Legislative Day

General ManagerJoe Jarvis

Blachly-LaneElectric Cooperative90680 Highway 99Eugene, OR 97402(541)-688-8711(800)-446-8418www.blachlylane.coop

Mission Statement: Blachly-Lane’sprimary objective is to provide safe, cost-e� ective, reliable, and competitive electrical energy and service to its members.

Board of Directors:Ernie Jacksch, Chairman(ph: 927-3466) District 1(Low Pass, Blachly, Deadwood andIndian Creek areas)

Bob Sikes, Secretary/Treasurer(ph: 935-7602) District 2(Fern Ridge and Elmira-rural areas)

Cheryl Haskell, Director(ph: 998-3954) District 3(Junction City-rural and Hwy 99N)

Tom Irwin III, Director(ph: 998-6428) District 4(Hwy 36, Hall Road andNorth Poodle Creek Road)

Cliff Kelley, Vice Chairman(ph: 935-5728) District [email protected](Warthen, Sheffler and Walton areas)

In this issue ...Page 4: Meet Your Meter ReaderPage 8: James DulleyPage 25: Power of CommunityPage 28: Director Election Bios

Monthly board meetings on the fourth Monday at 5 p.m. Check the website monthly.

32 A P R I L 2013

Board of Commissioners

Randy L. KnowlesPresidentDan G. GunkelVice PresidentRay A. MosbruckerSecretary

Jim SmithGeneral ManagerRon IhrigChief Operating OfficerGwyn Miller Human Resources ManagerShannon CrockerChief Financial Officer Holly DohrmanPower Manager

Ron SchultzChief EngineerJeff ThayerOperations ManagerSteve VanTuylInformation Technology ManagerMike DeMottCustomer Service Supervisor

www.klickitatpud.com

Goldendale Office1313 S. Columbus Ave.Goldendale, WA 98620(509) 773-5891(800) 548-8357

White Salmon Office110 NE Estes Ave. P.O. Box 187White Salmon, WA 98672(509) 493-2255(800) 548-8358

WA-18

32 A P R I L 2013

The storm in January 2012 was one of the largest-scale storms Klickitat PUD has ever experienced. There are roughly 12,000 customers in Klickitat County, and nearly every one of them experienced a power loss at one time from January 18-28. There were more than 300,000 out-age hours—an average of approxi-mately 25 hours per customer.

After this devastating storm that kicked off 2012, outages were extremely mild, by comparison.

KPUD’s goal is to provide safe, reliable electric service. With 24 sub-stations, 203 miles of transmission line and 1,667 miles of distribution line, this can be a daunting task.

The Average System Availability Index is used as a standard to show the percentage of time power is available to a customer. The ASAI goal in 2012 was 99.9715 percent. Our goal was for every customer to be out of power for no more than 3.3 hours.

Excluding the major storm, we reached this goal in 2012, with an ASAI of 99.987 percent. This means we kept the lights on 99.98 percent of the time last year. There were 230 outages, not including planned or power supply outages caused by Bonneville Power Administration or PP&L. The main cause was trees, com-pounded with ice, snow and wind. A total of 14,025 customer-outage hours were recorded in 2012—an average of 1.17 outage hours per customer.

We track outage statistics month to month and year to year, not only to see our reliability to the consumer, but to help us identify problem areas with mul-tiple outages. Whether it is the substation,

feeder, or a specific piece of under-ground or overhead line, this information becomes crucial when making mainte-nance and new construction plans.

Planned power outages are important safety measures that protect our crews. We have two areas on the list for planned outage repairs: the first week of June for the Roosevelt area, and this summer for Bingen and White Salmon.

At a recent customer meeting in Dallesport, a customer asked about prior reliability statistics. Upon researching this question, it was concluded that on aver-age throughout the 1980s, every customer was out of power for approximately 6.9 hours.

We look forward to continuing to serve you in the most electrically safe and reli-able way possible.

Ron Ihrig, Chief Operating Officer

KPUD Charts Electric Outage History for 2012

78th Northern Lights Annual Meeting Ahhh—spring at last! As this season begins, I look forward to blue skies, warm days, tulips and daf-fodils and, of course, the Northern Lights Annual Meeting. This year, the annual meeting will be Saturday, May 4, at Sagle Elementary School in Sagle, Idaho. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., with the meeting kicking off at 10 a.m. PDT.

The annual meeting provides an opportunity for members to meet the board of directors and the employees of NLI, and be updated on the financial condition and future plans of the cooperative. As in years past, we will provide an electrical safety demonstration, which has always been a favorite with the kids. Coffee, juice, pastries and fresh fruit will be available for all to enjoy, along with a flurry of great prizes, including two $250 energy credits.

One of the greatest values of being a member of a cooperative is your right to vote. This year, three districts are up for election. Those seats are held by Eric Anderson, District 1; Don Vickaryous, District 5; and Vern Hollett, District 7. If you live in any of these districts, you may receive an official ballot in the mail with information regarding the candidates running in your district. There are two ways you can vote: in person at the annual meeting, or by mail. Please take time to read the details regard-ing each candidate running for election.

I look forward to meeting and talking with many of you at the annual meeting. It is always a pleasure to meet and enjoy fellowship with the faces of the cooperative.

I hope to see you there!

—Annie TerraccianoGeneral Manager

ID-19

Manager’s Report

The power of local service

Board of Directors by DistrictDist. No. 1—Eric Anderson, Priest Lake, ID(208) 443-1201Dist. No. 2—Judith Simonson, Noxon, MT(406) 847-2643Dist. No. 3—Steve Elgar, Sandpoint, ID(208) 265-0570Dist. No. 4—David Pemberton, Careywood, ID(208) 661-5911Dist. No. 5—Don Vickaryous, Moyie Springs, ID(208) 267-1601Dist. No. 6—G.E. Butch Hagen, Bonners Ferry, ID(208) 819-3191 Dist. No. 7—Vern Hollett, Priest River, ID(208) 265-5249

www.nli.coopP.O. Box 269Sagle, ID 83860

For Outages: (866) NO-LITES(866) 665-4837 For regular business within the Sandpoint area: (208) 263-5141

Outside Sandpoint:(800) 326-9594

Board President Don Vickaryous

Board Vice PresidentSteve Elgar

Board Secretary/Treasurer Judith Simonson

General Manager Annie Terracciano

32 A P r I L 2013

Idaho County Light & PowerCooperativeP.O. Box 300Grangeville, Idaho 83530Phone: (208) 983-1610Tollfree: (877) 212-0424Fax: (208) 983-1432E-mail: [email protected]: www.iclp.coop

DirectorsPresident Ernie RobinsonWhite Bird

Vice President John SolbergKamiah

Secretary-Treasurer Cliff TackeGreencreek

Frank McIntireKamiah

Gerald FreiGrangeville

Kim DahlerKooskia

Jim PoxleitnerCottonwood

AttorneyGreg FitzMaurice

ManagerJake Eimers

ID-21

(This is the second in a series on the history of Idaho County Light & Power Coop-erative, which celebrates its 75th year in business this year)

Last month, I introduced the cooperative’s original incorporators to you, explaining that this is our 75th anniversary. Scanning the meeting minutes from those early years reveals our founders were not just determined, they were committed. In the first 18 months, they met no fewer than 40 times. And that was just the recorded meetings!

They accomplished a lot. After incorporating in June 1938, they secured the co-operative’s first loan for $191,000 from the Rural Electrification Administration on October 12. With a bankroll to work with, the next job was to sign a power contract with Washington Water Power Co., which they did later that month.

Of course, you can’t build a utility without engineers and employees, so in Novem-ber 1938, the board approved an engineer from Lewiston, T.C. Smith, to design and approve construction. At that same meeting they selected Leslie Gillette from 12 appli-cants to be project supervisor (considered the co-op’s first manager). The board bought the cooperative’s first pickup from the Chevrolet Garage in Grangeville.

They also spent a lot of time finding a location. The board was courted and lobbied by both the Cottonwood Chamber and the Grangeville Business Club. Three locations in Cottonwood and seven in Grangeville were offered. The final vote was 4-3, with the bid going to the Flanigan building in Grangeville over the Cottonwood State Bank building. The monthly rent was $10. That didn’t end the debate. Three years later, in 1942, the co-op settled into a location across from the post office in Grangeville.

By March 1939, the board had bids for 158 miles of power line. The winning bid cost $128,983 and provided service to more than 200 homes. By early May, the co-op had 460 paid memberships. The date of the first energization was September 15.

By early October, Superintendent Gillette announced to the board they had 60 members taking service and “Release 2 & 3” would be energized on October 5. He then submitted plans for 125 miles of line to extend power to another 281 members.

As 1939 came to a close, money was running out, so the board requested an addi-tional $143,000 to furnish power to 330 members. Plans for extending the power lines to Winona, Battle Ridge, Clearwater and Glenwood were discussed. In 1940, the co-op extended power to the town of White Bird and gained a new delivery point near Kamiah.

Growth continued until the war years made materials and labor hard to find. By the end of the 1940s, the co-op had 1,000 consumers and more than 560 miles of line. The early 1950s saw power come to the mountainous country east of Kooskia and Kamiah along the Middlefork of the Clearwater. During the mid- and later 1950s, power went to the upper reaches of the Salmon River to Slate Creek and Lucile, and to Joseph Plains, Banner Ridge and Slate Creek. Riggins requested power, and the board ap-proved a bid, but the contractor backed out when they couldn’t get the materials.

Since the late 1950s, most major construction was to upgrade existing service areas to provide for ever-increasing load and to improve service.

—Thanks for listening, Jake Eimers, Manager

Co-op Grows Strong Into the 1950s

32 APRIL 2013

75 Years - Local. Trusted. Serving YOU!

Wa-22

Columbia REA115 East Main Street,P.O. Box 46Dayton, WA 99328Phone: (509) 382-2578Fax: (509) 382-2736

2929 East Melrose Street,Walla Walla, WA 99362Phone: (509) 526-4041Fax: (509) 526-3666Toll Free: (800) 642-1231

ColumbiaREA.coop

Board of DirectorsBill Stonecipher, PresidentDennis Munden, Vice PresidentKatie Wooldridge, Sec/TreasurerMarc Armstrong, DirectorDon Meiners, DirectorTim Pettyjohn, DirectorBruce McCaw, DirectorVic Parks, DirectorEric Johnson, Director

Board meetings are normally the fourth Tuesday of each month. The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. and is held in the Dayton office.

Staff

Chief Executive Officer, Les Teel

Executive Assistant/HR, Jennifer Aichele

Manager of Marketing &

Member Services, Scott Peters

Manager of Engineering & Operations, Dave Reller

Manager of Financial Services, Jim Cooper

Manager of Communications & IT, Bob Greene

Manager of Safety and Regulatory Affairs, KC Dors

View the candidate videos online at www.columbiarea.coop.

Columbia REA Members,

Your 2013 election ballot was mailed separate from this issue. You should be receiving it about the same time as you receive this magazine. Voting is by mail only, there will be no voting at the meeting!

Every member’s ballot received by April 17, 2013 will be entered into the special prize drawing. Ten (10) prizes of a $75 credit to be awarded. The prize credit will be applied to your Columbia REA power bill. You do not need to be present to win, but we must receive your ballot by 3 p.m. on April 17, 2013 at the Dayton office, to be eligible to be entered into the special prize drawing.

32 a p r i l 2013 www.columbiarea.coop

16755 Finley Butte RoadP.O. Box 127

La Pine, OR 97739

[email protected]

(541) 536-2126 • (800) 722-7219

DepartmentsCustomer Service . . . . . . . Option 3Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . Option 4Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Option 5Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Option 6

After Hours Outage and Emergencies: (541) 536-2165or (800) 752-5935

OFFICE HOURS Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed holidays.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS PresidentDiana Cox, Christmas ValleyVice PresidentAlan Parks, Fort RockSecretary/Treasurer Gordon DeArmond, Crescent Bud Kendall, La PineRobert Reed, La PineVic Russell, Fall RiverRon Sommerfeldt, GilchristLeland Smith, SunriverKen Wilson, Chemult

Board meets the fourth Mondayof each month at the co-op office.

STAFF General Manager Dave SchneiderOperations/Engineering ManagerDarwin ThurstonMarketing ManagerTeresa LackeyCFO/Accounting ManagerJami BartunekInformation Services ManagerShaun LamarAttorneyWilliam Sheridan Jr.

Manager’s MessageOR-23

Dear Member, I am honored to have been selected to serve as general manager of Midstate Electric. I appreciate the trust and confidence the board of directors has placed in me to manage your cooperative. It is bound to be an exciting journey.

While I may be new to the position of general manager, I am not new to Midstate Electric. I was hired as accounting supervisor in 1995 and promoted to accounting manager in 2008. With the announcement of Bill Kopacz’s retirement last year, I was appointed to the position of assistant general manager to work closely with Bill to ensure a smooth transition upon his departure. At last year’s annual meeting, the board announced I would be the next general manager.

Having worked at Midstate Electric for 18 years, I know the history of the co-op. We have faced many challenges: BPA rate increases, threats of deregulation, federal and state legislation threatening our co-op philosophy and local board control, severe storms, rapid system growth and material shortages, rising costs at all levels and rap-idly changing technology. I am confident I have gained the experience necessary to run your co-op in the professional manner you have come to expect.

I am a licensed certified public accountant with a bachelor’s degree in business management from California State University-Chico. With more than 25 years of management experience, I entered the utility industry in 1991.

My wife, Lori, and I have two daughters, Rachel and Dani. Both girls are gradu-ates of La Pine High School and are enrolled in Northwest Christian University. Our family enjoys living in Central Oregon and being part of the La Pine community. We attend Cascade Bible Church in La Pine.

Giving back to the community we serve is important to our board of directors and employees. We take an active role in the communities throughout our service areas. We support local charities and nonprofit organizations to improve local environments, provide food and shelter for the underprivileged, and enhance educational and recre-ational opportunities. Support is provided both financially and with hours of volun-teer effort.

Our focus has been and will continue to be to provide our members with safe, affordable and reliable power. As always, this will be accomplished with exceptional member service and your best interests at heart.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Bill for the excellent job he did as general manager, passing to me such a well-managed, sound electric cooperative. I will do all I can to add to the cooperative’s record of excellence as we face the challenges of the future.

Dave SchneiderGeneral Manager

32 A P R I L 2013

DIRECTORS President Gary Jones

Vice President Larry Monroe Secretary-Treasurer Stan

Spencer Blaine TannerDel Dee Kunzler

Krinn McCoyRalph ScissonsLarry HensonDoug Webb

GENERAL MANAGER Heber Carpenter

OPERATIONS MANAGER Kim Smith

Board meets the fourth Wednesday of each month

P.O. Box 617Malta, ID 83342

To Call Raft River• Office hours (208) 645-2211• Toll free (800) 342-7732 (After hours and outages)

Western Division(All calls for Jackpot, Jarbidge, Mountain City and Owyhee)• Office hours (208) 645-2211 • Toll free (800) 342-7732 (After hours and outages)

Raft River Rural Electric Co-

DIRECTORS President Gary Jones









Western Division(All calls for Jackpot, Jarbidge, Mountain City and Owyhee)• Office hours (208) 645-2211 • Toll free (800) 342-7732


DIRECTORSPresident Gary Jones











DIRECTORSDIRECTORSDIRECTORSDIRECTORS

President Gary JonesDIRECTORS

President Gary JonesPresident Gary JonesPresident Gary JonesPresident Gary JonesPresident Gary Jones

Vice President Larry Monroe President Gary Jones

Vice President Larry Monroe Vice President Larry Monroe Vice President Larry Monroe Vice President Larry Monroe Vice President Larry Monroe

Secretary-Treasurer Stan Vice President Larry Monroe

Secretary-Treasurer Stan Secretary-Treasurer Stan Secretary-Treasurer Stan Secretary-Treasurer Stan Secretary-Treasurer Stan

Spencer Blaine TannerSecretary-Treasurer Stan

Spencer Blaine TannerSpencer Blaine TannerSpencer Blaine TannerSpencer Blaine TannerSpencer Blaine Tanner

Del Dee KunzlerSpencer Blaine Tanner

Del Dee KunzlerDel Dee KunzlerDel Dee KunzlerDel Dee KunzlerDel Dee Kunzler

Krinn McCoyDel Dee Kunzler

Krinn McCoyKrinn McCoyKrinn McCoyKrinn McCoyKrinn McCoy

Ralph ScissonsKrinn McCoy

Ralph ScissonsRalph ScissonsRalph ScissonsRalph ScissonsRalph ScissonsLarry Henson

Ralph ScissonsLarry HensonLarry HensonLarry HensonLarry HensonLarry HensonDoug Webb

Larry HensonDoug WebbDoug WebbDoug WebbDoug WebbDoug Webb

GENERAL MANAGERGENERAL MANAGERGENERAL MANAGERGENERAL MANAGER

Heber CarpenterGENERAL MANAGER

Heber Carpenter Heber Carpenter Heber Carpenter Heber Carpenter Heber Carpenter

OPERATIONS MANAGER OPERATIONS MANAGER OPERATIONS MANAGER OPERATIONS MANAGER

Kim SmithOPERATIONS MANAGER

Kim SmithKim SmithKim SmithKim SmithKim Smith

Board meets the fourth Board meets the fourth Board meets the fourth Board meets the fourth

Wednesday of each monthBoard meets the fourth

Wednesday of each monthWednesday of each monthWednesday of each monthWednesday of each monthWednesday of each month

P.O. Box 617P.O. Box 617P.O. Box 617P.O. Box 617Malta, ID 83342

P.O. Box 617Malta, ID 83342Malta, ID 83342Malta, ID 83342Malta, ID 83342Malta, ID 83342

To Call Raft RiverTo Call Raft RiverTo Call Raft RiverTo Call Raft River

Office hours (208) 645-2211To Call Raft River

Office hours (208) 645-2211• Office hours (208) 645-2211 Office hours (208) 645-2211 Office hours (208) 645-2211 Office hours (208) 645-2211 Toll free (800) 342-7732 Office hours (208) 645-2211 Toll free (800) 342-7732• Toll free (800) 342-7732 Toll free (800) 342-7732 Toll free (800) 342-7732 Toll free (800) 342-7732

(After hours and outages) Toll free (800) 342-7732

(After hours and outages) (After hours and outages) (After hours and outages) (After hours and outages) (After hours and outages)

Western DivisionWestern DivisionWestern DivisionWestern Division

(All calls for Jackpot, Jarbidge, Western Division

(All calls for Jackpot, Jarbidge, (All calls for Jackpot, Jarbidge, (All calls for Jackpot, Jarbidge, (All calls for Jackpot, Jarbidge, (All calls for Jackpot, Jarbidge, Mountain City and Owyhee)(All calls for Jackpot, Jarbidge, Mountain City and Owyhee)Mountain City and Owyhee)Mountain City and Owyhee)Mountain City and Owyhee)Mountain City and Owyhee)•Mountain City and Owyhee)• Office hours (208) 645-2211 Mountain City and Owyhee)

Office hours (208) 645-2211 • Office hours (208) 645-2211 Office hours (208) 645-2211 Office hours (208) 645-2211 Office hours (208) 645-2211 Toll free (800) 342-7732 Office hours (208) 645-2211 Toll free (800) 342-7732• Toll free (800) 342-7732 Toll free (800) 342-7732 Toll free (800) 342-7732 Toll free (800) 342-7732

(After hours and outages) Toll free (800) 342-7732

(After hours and outages)

Raft River Raft River Raft River Raft River Rural Electric Co-Rural Electric Co-Rural Electric Co-Rural Electric Co-

DIRECTORS President Doug WebbVice President Gary Jones Secretary-Treasurer Blaine Tanner Del Dee KunzlerLarry HensonRalph ScissonsStan SpencerKrinn McCoyLarry Monroe

GENERAL MANAGERHeber Carpenter


Board meets the fourth Wednesdayof each month




ID-24

ICUA Youth Rally Entry FormRaft River Rural Electric Account NumberP.O. Box 617Malta, Idaho 83342 Date

Yes, I would like to be a Raft River Rural Electric youth representative and have the opportunity to attend the ICUA Youth Rally, July 8 to 13, 2013; win one of several general scholarships; and have a chance to be selected to attend the National Youth Tour in Washington, D.C., in June 2014.

Name Age

Address

City State Zip

School Grade

Youth Rally Entry RulesHere is your chance to attend the ICUA Youth Rally this July, win one of several general scholarships and perhaps be selected to represent the ICUA and Idaho on the NRECA National Youth Tour of Washington, D.C., in June 2014.

Who can enter: Any high school sophomore or junior whose parents or guardians are members of Raft River Rural Electric.

How to enter: All you need to do before May 3 is clip, fill out and mail the form below, or call (208) 645-2211 or toll-free (800) 342-7732. Do it now!

Qualified entrants will receive an entry packet by return mail. Complete the packet as instructed and return the necessary material to Raft River Rural Electric, post-marked no later than May 17, 2013.

Requirements: Completed application forms and a personal interview.

32 A P R I L 2013

32 a p r i l 2013

P.O. Box 1253521 Davis DriveOdell, OR 97044

(541) 354-1233www.hrec.coop

Directorspresident Butch GehrigVice president patrick MooreSecretary Bernie Wells Treasurer roger NelsonGary BloomOpal DeBoardDoug MahurinJohn McGheeMike Udelius

ManagerJohn Gerstenberger

Serving rural Hood River County

since 1945

Hood RiverElectric

Cooperative Or-26

Dear Members,Thanks from the board of directors and staff to those members and guests who attended the annual membership meetings of Communications Access Co-op and Hood River Electric Co-op on the evenings of March 13th and 14th. Your ongoing interest in the affairs of your cooperative service providers is appreciated.

After listening attentively to the auditor’s, attorney’s, manager’s and nominating committee reports, the members present re-elected Doug Mahurin, John McGhee and Patrick Moore as directors for the next three years.

The meeting attracted guests from several regional utility associations, includ-ing the Northwest Public Power Association, the Public Power Council, the Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association and the Bonneville Power Administration.

Other guests included LS Networks CEO Michael Weidman and Senior Engineer Wally Kelly of D Hittle & Associates. You may recall HREC is a part owner of LSN. Learn more about the company at its website, www.lsnetworks.net. D Hittle & Associates is a consulting firm we hire when we need outside engineering expertise.

A recurring theme at the meeting related to HREC’s worker-safety record. I announced that HREC employees had worked nearly 320,000 employee hours during the past 10 years without a lost-time incident. The co-op has earned safety awards in the Northwest Public Power Association’s Safety Competition every year since 2005, including first place for 2007, 2008 and 2010. Please join me in congrat-ulating the staff on this impressive—and continuing—safety record.

I spent some time describing the CleanHydro education campaign created by and for Northwest RiverPartners. RiverPartners’ polling has indicated hydropower and other benefits of the Columbia/Snake river system are not capturing the same atten-tion in the eyes of the public as they once did, for a variety of reasons.

The campaign, aimed at educating Northwest citizens about our tremendous river resources, includes a few 30-second television ads that will air through mid-June on most Portland and Seattle TV stations. There is also a website, www.cleanhydro.com, and print material. A print ad appeared on page 8 of the March issue of this magazine. HREC is a member of RiverPartners and a supporter of the Clean Hydro campaign.

Thanks again for allowing us to be of service.

John Gerstenberger, Manager

Manager’s Message

Board of DirectorsPresident John Ugalde Sec./Treasurer Gary MillerFrank AlbisuJoe CroninGary DefenbaughAlex Dufurrena Zach Sword

General ManagerRandy WhitakerOperations Manager/Line SuperintendentBrent BeverlyElectrical EngineerShane SweetOffice ManagerFred FlippenceAttorneySteve Finlayson

Harney Electric Cooperative

277 Lottery Lane Hines, OR 97738 (541) 573-2061

[email protected]

Orovada, Nevada (775) 272-3336

[email protected]

www.harneyelectric.org

OR-27

32 A P R I L 2013

Dear Members:Harney Electric’s Annual Meeting is May 4, 2013, in McDermitt, Nevada. If you do not plan to attend the annual meeting, but you still want to vote, you have two alternatives:

1. You can vote at the Hines office.2. You can vote with an absentee ballot.No one can vote until we know who is going to be on the ballot. The deadline for

nomination by petition is 21 days before the meeting: April 12, 2013. We try to mail out the notice of the annual meeting the next day, April 13, 2013, which is also the earliest day allowed by the bylaws. This is important because the bylaws state you cannot vote or request an absentee ballot until the notice of meeting is mailed.

Voting at the Hines office is not difficult. Just come in to Harney Electric’s new office in Hines on Lottery Lane, across from the old mill site and behind the U.S. Forest Service. Make sure the person voting is listed on the membership or has been formally designated as the voting representative if the membership is in the name of a corporation, partnership, government body, etc.

Absentee ballots are not quite as straightforward, but a lot of folks use them every year. You have to request them in person or by mail at the Hines office. The bylaws will not let you do that until the notice of meeting is mailed. As a convenience, we include an absentee ballot request form with the notice of meeting. We try to mail out the absentee ballot the same day the requests come in.

When you get the ballot, don’t put it with the bills you will get around to. The bylaws say the ballot has to be received at the Hines office by 5 p.m. the day before the meeting. We cannot accept a ballot that your neighbor brings in for you to the meeting. Mark your ballot, put it in the privacy envelope and put that in the mailing envelope. Be sure to sign the outside to verify it came from a bona fide member, and get it in the mail.

Anyone familiar with the postal service between northern Nevada and Hines realizes that 20 days does not allow a lot of time to request a ballot and get it mailed. It seems to work for those members who don’t delay in mailing the request and then the ballot back to us.

We agree this is all a little cumbersome. There has been a great deal of controversy the past few years about election integrity and voter credentials. We don’t go as over-board as some, but we do adhere to what our bylaws say.

Your vote is important. Cast it carefully.

Best regards,Randy WhitakerGeneral Manager

Absentee Ballots

P.O. Box 384Challis, ID 83226 Phone: (208) 879-2283 Fax: (208) 879-2596After-hours emergency numbers: Propane: (208) 879-2201 Electric: (208) 879-4900

Topping my list of issues to report to the SREC membership this month is the Bonneville Power Administration rate case for the years 2014 and 2015. Every two years, BPA engages its customers in a rigorous process of rate setting for its wholesale power and transmission service. Typically, smaller electric companies such as SREC engage BPA in this process through a trade organization. In SREC’s case, Northwest Requirements Utilities represents SREC’s interests.

� e BPA rate case now under way actually consists of three separate rate cases occurring simultaneously � ese are the power rate case, the transmission rate case and over-supply rate case.

As the name might suggest, the power rate case sets wholesale power rates. BPA’s initial proposal prior to the rate case indicated a power rate increase in the double digits was needed. Working with its customers, BPA was able to scale back the in-crease to a single-digit increase. SREC’s wholesale power rate is estimated to increase approximately 7 percent.

� e transmission rate case sets the rate SREC pays to have the power it purchases delivered to SREC. Traditionally, this cost has been about 10 percent of our wholesale power cost. We are seeing these costs rise. BPA’s initial proposal in the case had SREC’s transmission rate increasing by 26 percent. Most of the increase was attributed to BPA changing a billing factor and the allocation methodology it uses to assign transmis-sion costs. NRU and other customer groups provided testimony to BPA on the impact of these changes, and BPA has backed away from its initial proposal. Now the impact of its transmission rate case proposal appears to cause SREC’s transmission rate to increase by approximately 7.3 percent.

� e over-supply rate case is new to BPA. Over-supply occurs when BPA produces more power than there is demand for. � is typically occurs when snowmelt run-o� is entering the river system. BPA had enough � exibility historically to balance supply with demand, but since it has integrated all of the wind generation resources this � exibility is diminished. � ere is a cost in curtailing generation and there are many ideas about how these costs should be determined and allocated. It is too early to know the e� ect of this rate proceeding other than all proposals drive wholesale power rates higher.

� ere are other issues I am tracking closely. I will touch on these issues and fur-ther update the SREC membership on the BPA rate case proceeding and its impact in my manager’s report at the annual meeting later this month. I look forward to see-ing you there. Don’t miss out on the opportunity for a great meal, musical entertain-ment, a power bill credit and the opportunity to win some great prizes.

—Ken Dizes, Manager

ID-28

Manager’s Report

Board of DirectorsPresident Bob BorenVice President Jeff BittonSec./Treasurer Norman WallisMichael MillerDoug ParkinsonEric TilmanChuck Wunch

Manager Ken DizesAttorney Dale Storer

Board meets the third Wednesday of each month

Email: [email protected]: www.srec.org

The BPA Rate Case

Ken Dizes

32 A P R I L 2013

No, it is not a typo, CleanHydro is meant to be one word. CleanHydro is a public education effort designed to tell the incredible story of the Columbia and Snake river systems. These rivers of the Pacific Northwest have shaped both the land and the lives of Northwesterners for thousands of years. Today, that means commerce and irrigation. It means generating zero-carbon footprint energy for 60 percent of all the electricity needs in the Northwest. Hydropower provides 90 percent of the renewable energy in the Northwest. Sheesh, hydropower is the “original” renewable resource.

In addition to clean renewable energy, the Columbia and Snake river systems help drive the economy in the Northwest.

• The Northwest has a rich agricultural landscape. Snake River dams provide opportunity for large-scale irrigation in most of Eastern Oregon and Washington, and all of Idaho. Six percent of the yearly runoff from the Columbia and Snake riv-ers is used to irrigate about 7.8 million acres of Northwest farmland. Idaho has the region’s most irrigated acreage, with more than 3 million acres.

• The system provides a 465-mile navigable river highway for transporting Northwest goods and products, fueling the Northwest’s economy. The Northwest is the nation’s leading exporter of wheat, barley, paper products and automobiles.

• Traditional energy-intensive industries—such as timber, paper, chemical, food processing, aluminum and manufacturing—representing hundreds of thousands of Northwest jobs, continue to rely on low-cost hydro to stay in business and grow.

• The dams provide millions of acre-feet of water storage for flood control.It is time we tell the incredible story of our dams, hydropower and the Columbia

and Snake rivers. That is exactly what the CleanHydro education effort is about. Watch for an article on the education effort in a future issue. Next time you are surf-ing the web, stop off at www.CleanHydro.com. The videos provide a powerful visual and a compelling story of how the region’s river system allows farmers to feed our families and export goods to the world. Wow, what a story.

Jo ElgGeneral Manager

ID-29

On the Wire with CleanHydroOn the Wire with CleanHydro

UNITED ELECTRICCO-OP, INC.

UnitedElectricCo-op Inc.Directors President George TonerVice President Dean NielsenSec./Treas. Bruce Beck Gary JonesRonald Osterhout David PhillipsCordell SearleJohn R. West

General ManagerJo Elg

Director of Engineeringand OperationsDick Hagemann

Mailing address:1330 21st St.Heyburn, ID 83336

Phone: (208) 679-2222

Fax: (208) 679-3333

Email: [email protected]

Web address:www.unitedelectric.coop

After Hours: (208) 679-4444

32 A P R I L 2013

Jo Elg

Board of DirectorsCarl Crosman, President Will Stark, Vice PresidentDan Stowe, SecretaryLon Rake, TreasurerPaul Kildal, DirectorJim Manning, DirectorJe� Saxe, DirectorFred Williams, Director

P.O. Box 45Glennallen, AK 99588www.cvea.org

Copper Basin District(907) 822-3211(907) 822-5586 (fax)Mile 187 Glenn Hwy.Valdez District(907) 835-4301(907) 835-4328 (fax)359 Fairbanks Dr.After hours outage line(866) 835-2832

Important Dates

AprilDeadline: Election ballots must be received in the correct CVEA mailbox by 5 p.m., Tuesday, April 9, 2013CVEA Board Meeting: The April meeting of the Board of Directors is 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, 2013, in GlennallenAnnual Meeting: The CVEA Annual Meeting will be Tuesday, April 16, in the Copper Basin District and Thursday, April 18, in the Valdez District. Registration begins at 6:30 p.m.

MayCVEA Board Meeting: The May meeting of the Board of Directors is 2 p.m., Thursday, May 16, 2013, in ValdezCVEA O� ces Closed: The CVEA o� ces will be closed, Monday, May 27, 2013, for Memorial Day

32 A P R I L 2013

Copper Valley Electric Association 2013 Annual Meeting of Members

The time has come! This is your final reminder to attend the 2013 CVEA Annual Meeting of Members. This is your opportunity, as a member-owner, to find out what’s going on at your electric Cooperative and the date is just around the corner!

The meeting will be Tuesday, April 16, 2013, in the Copper Basin District at the Alaska Bible College Murdock Campus Center and Thursday, April 18, 2013, in the Valdez District at the Valdez Civic Center. Registration and food service will be from 6:30-7 p.m. and the business meeting will begin promptly at 7 p.m.

A FREE gift will be given to all attendees and tons of prizes are available for reg-istered members. One lucky member from each district will go home with $1,000 CASH!!!

Don’t miss your chance to hear reports, learn about CVEA projects and issues, and ask questions about your electric cooperative. You’ll also accept director election results and find out who won the CVEA Community Foundation scholarship awards.

Don’t forget to bring a few extra dollars this year; CVEA will be doing a Split-the- Pot fundraiser for the CVEA Community Foundation, which provides scholarships and contributions to non-profit organizations in our communities!

CVEA Board of AdjustmentThe Board of Adjustment acts as an appellate body when a consumer feels the Cooperative has violated its Tariff or has otherwise not accorded them fair and equi-table treatment. The Board of Adjustment will hear complaints which have not been resolved by CVEA’s written complaint procedure.

The Board of Adjustment is appointed from the Membership at the Annual Meeting in April. The term of a seat on the Board of Adjustment is two years. Two seats are open in the Copper Basin District and three seats are open in the Valdez District.

If you are interested in serving, please contact Sharon Crisp at 822-5506, 835-7005, or stop by the sign-up table at the Annual Meeting.

AK-34

Dear Customers,

In this edition of Ruralite, you will see an article about the CleanHydro education effort that is under way on television and in print. I am proud Tillamook PUD is a part of this effort because the Northwest’s hydropower dams and rivers benefit all of us and our customers in so many ways.

As the article points out, hydropower is not capturing the same kind of attention in the eyes of the public as it once did. There are several reasons for this. Chief among them is many people have moved to the Northwest from other parts of the country where hydro-power was not a daily part of their lives. Many of our young people have not grown up with the dams and so do not understand their value. Dramatic changes in the energy industry and government-led efforts to encourage other types of renewable energy, such as wind, have dominated media headlines.

I believe it is time we tell the incredible story of our dams, hydropower and the Columbia and Snake rivers. We need to rejoin, and be a part of, the conversation. That is exactly what the CleanHydro public education effort is about.

I hope you will take a moment to visit the website www.CleanHydro.com, so you can view the TV and print advertisements. While the advertisements promote the key ways hydropower and the rivers affect our lives, the website tells more about these amazing resources. Please share it with your friends and families so they, too, can feel the same sense of pride about what we have right here in our own backyard.

Sincerely,

Raymon D. Sieler

OR-35

Telling the CleanHydro Story

Board of DirectorsDoug Olson, President Ed Jenkins, Vice PresidentKen Phillips, TreasurerHarry Hewitt, SecretaryBarbara Trout, Director

General Manager Raymon Sieler

Board meetings are in the PUD office at 6 p.m. the first Tuesday after the 11th of the month

Mission StatementTillamook People’s Utility District is dedicated to delivering the best value of electric services, while continuing our commitment to the customers and communities we serve.

CreedWe shall work together to:XX Provide exceptional customer service;

anticipate and strive to exceed our customers’ needs.

XX Provide high-quality and cost-effective services to our customers.

XX Assure a safe electrical system and working environment for our customers and employees.

XX Operate a financially stable business.XX Encourage cooperation and open

communication among the customers, board of directors, management and employees of Tillamook PUD.

XX Support all the communities we serve.XX Be environmentally responsible.

1115 Pacific Ave. • P.O. Box 433Tillamook, OR 97141Phone: (503) 842-2535 Toll free: (800) 422-2535www.tpud.org

Office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday

For EMERGENCY service afterbusiness hours, call (800) 842-2122

32 A p R i l 2013

32 A P R I L 2013

Leaving the TV on when you’re not watching it or just for company uses energy.

And electronics like DVD players, Play Stations and sound systems also use power even when they’re not in use. Just by being plugged into an outlet, they’re using power.

Smart Strips save energy by cutting off power to electronics you’re not using. Receive up to two Smart Strips with a Home$ense Audit.

The Home$ense Audit costs $39.95 – a great value considering you’ll receive energy-saving products worth $150 to $200. Schedule your Home$ense Audit and discover your power to use less.

Sign up today. Call (907) 458-4555 or email [email protected].

Energy Waster #3: Leaving the TV on

A � at screen TV can cost $30 a month to operate – or more if you forget to turn it o� . If you just like to have sound around

the house, a radio uses a fraction of the energy a TV does.

Golden Valley Electric Association

AK-37

“Owned By Those We Serve.”

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Bill Nordmark, Chairman (District 7)Tom DeLong, Vice-Chairman (District 2)John Sloan, Secretary (District 6)Rick Schikora, Treasurer (District 3)Ronald Bergh (District 5)Aren Gunderson (District 1)Frank Eagle (District 4)

MAIN OFFICE

758 Illinois StreetPO Box 71249Fairbanks AK 99707-1249

Regular Business Phone(907) 452-1151Fax (907) 458-6365Member Services

DISTRICT OFFICES

Delta Junction1681 Richardson Hwy.PO Box 909Delta Junction AK 99737(907) 895-4500Fax (907) 895-5472

NenanaMile 303.5 Parks Hwy.PO Box 00130Nenana AK 99760(907) 832-5481Fax (907) 458-6387

Toll-Free Number1-800-770-GVEA (4832)

www.gvea.com

The Power to Use Less

off power to electronics you’re not using.

The Home$ense Audit costs $39.95 –

April 6Indian Taco Dinner. 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sierra Valley Grange Hall, 92202 Highway 70, Vinton.For more information, call (530) 993-4621.

Susanville Eskualdunak Club Annual Lamb Stew Feed. Monticola Club, 140 S. Lassen St., Susanville. 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. For more information, call (530) 257-5367.

Backyard Gardening Workshop. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Permaculture, composting, intensive raised bed gardening, backyard chicken projects and perennial crops. Meet at the end of Oak Street (near Quincy Elementary School). Sign up in the Quincy Natural Foods store.For more information, call (530) 283-2458 or visitwww.qnf.coop.

April 6 & 7 Ranger-led Snowshoe Walks. Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center, Lassen Volcanic National Park. 1:30 p.m. Walks last one to one and a half hours. $1 donation requested, snowshoes provided. For more information, call (530) 595-4480.

April 13Calpine Elks Bingo. Calpine Elks Lodge, 71292 Highway 70, Portola. 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.For more information, call (530) 832-0950 or email [email protected].

Taste of Plumas. Plumas County Fairgrounds, 204 Fairgrounds Road, Quincy. 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Take a tour of many of the best culinary establishments and great wines available in Plumas County in a single location. Meet the chefs, owners and sta� who would love to entice you for a more extensive dining experience. The event also features a silent auction. Tickets: $40, includes a souvenir wine glass. For more information, call (530) 283-3402.

April 18 Lassen County Chamber of Commerce Mixer. Hosted by High Sierra Collision and Towing, 472-635 Johnstonville Road, Susanville. 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.For more information, call (530) 257-4323.

April 19Words & Music – Portola. Williams House Museum, 424 E. Sierra Ave., Portola. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Show begins at 7 p.m. A monthly series of acoustic music and the spoken word featuring Andrew Ohren. Sign up for open mic at the door. $3. For more information, call (530) 283-3402.

April 19 & 20The Magic Beanstalk Players present “The Music Man Jr.” Quincy Town Hall Theatre, Friday 7 p.m., Saturday 2 p.m. The kids of the Magic Beanstalk Players present this irresistible classic American musical. $8 adults, $5 students. For more information, call (530) 283-3402 or email [email protected].

April 19 & 21 Susanville Symphony “Composition Competition.” Susanville Assembly of God Church. 7 p.m. Friday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call (530) 257-2920 or visit www.susanvillesymphony.com.

April 20 Lassen Sportsmen’s Club Junior Fishing Derby. Memorial Park. Registration 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. Forms available at the chamber o� ce. For more information, call (530) 260-7644.

Craft Show. Loyalton Senior Center, 302 1st St., Loyalton. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Bring your crafts to sell. This event bene� ts the Loyalton Senior Center.For more information, call (530) 993-4770.

April 20 & 21Cabin Fever Quilt Show. Father Burns Social Hall, corner of S. Pine Street and Taylor Avenue, Portola. Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.For more information, call (530) 832-0446.

April 22High School Jazz Night. Town Hall Theatre, Quincy, 7 p.m. Join us for a night of music by our county’s high school musicians together on one stage.For more information, call (530) 283-3402.

April 24Community Supper – Portola. Father Burns Social Hall, S. Pine Street and Taylor Avenue, Portola. 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.For more information, call (530) 832-4441.

April 25 - 28 International Mountain Bike Association Trail Building School. A local trail assessment along with other clinics and events in Susanville. For more information, call (530) 250-4400.

April 27WP Railroad Museum opens to visitors. Western Paci� c Railroad Museum, 700 Western Paci� c Way, Portola. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. For more information, call (530) 832-4131.

April 27Susanville Eskualdunak Club Mus Tournament. Monticola Club, 140 S. Lassen St., Susanville. 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call (530) 257-5367.

Spring Home, Garden and Outdoor Recreation Show. Lassen County Fairgrounds. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call (530) 257-4323.

Opening Day Sierra Valley Little League. Little League Field, Loyalton. 9 a.m. to noon. Regular season games run through the second week of June.

May 4Plumas Sierra Cattlewomen “A Taste of Spring” Reception and Dinner. Calpine Community Center. Social hour 5:30 p.m., dinner 6:30 p.m.For more information, call (530) 993-1655.

Spanish Creek Bird Walk. Sponsored by the Plumas Audubon Society. Led by David Arsenault and Tony Hill. Gansner Park, Quincy, 7:30 a.m.For more information, call (530) 283-3052.

Plumas-Sierra REC

COMMUNITY CALENDAR Manager’s MessageContinued from page 32

As the article states, PST’s project will dramatically increase bandwidth in the region, allow businesses and institutions near the route to directly connect to fiber and allow local Internet service providers to offer robust Internet services to homes and businesses in our region.

If you have any questions, or would like more information, please call me at (800) 555-2207 ext. 6076, or email me at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Bob MarshallGeneral Manager

A P R I L 2013 25

CA-39

Shop at HomeThere are many well-documented reasons why shopping with local, independently owned businesses benefits our communities. One of the most important reasons is to refuel the local economy.

When we buy from local, independently owned businesses rather than nationally owned chain stores or through the Internet, more of the dollars we spend recirculate within the community through additional purchases from other local businesses—continuing to strengthen the economic base of the commu-nity in the process.

Another lesser-known benefit is that many of our locally owned businesses not only offer one-of-a-kind merchandise, but will often go the extra mile to fulfill special orders—saving you the time and inconvenience of having to drive to the big city.

Furthermore, shopping locally creates more local jobs, funds our public services through sales tax and invests in community improvements.

We understand it is not always easy or pos-sible to buy what you need locally, but making an effort to think LOCAL first can mean the difference between living in a richly diverse community and one that struggles to exist.

Finally, a word on behalf of our merchants who often pay a 1.5 to 3 percent swipe fee for credit transactions: If you are not using cash, consider using a debit card instead of a credit card, as debit card purchases are with-drawn directly from your checking or savings account, allowing local merchants to keep and recirculate more of their profits.

A New LookYou might have noticed our new logos in this issue of Ruralite and on your PST bills. Why new logos, and why now?

PSREC started developing a new logo when we realized other company vehicles in our community had similar logos. For safety sake, it is important that our members easily rec-ognize our service trucks and our employees when we are on your property working on our system.

Since many of PSREC’s service trucks need fresh decals, now was an opportune time to update our old logo.

Likewise, PST has gone through a transfor-mation see page 29. Its new logo combined with a new tag line better capture the forward direction of the company with...infinite band-width, infinite solutions and infinite possi-bilities. For more information on PST and its service offerings, visit their new website, www.plumassierratelecom.com.

We will introduce the new logos in the months to come on our vehicles, ID badges, websites, signage, bills, communications and stationery.

RatesAs we reported in the January issue of Ruralite, the board and management are carefully evalu-ating whether we need a rate increase this year. We are analyzing variables, including precipi-tation, which has been poor this year, and the associated hydro generation, along with cost increases, including the cost of new regula-tions. We will avoid a rate increase if we can, and will delay any needed increase as long as possible.

Fiber UpdateAn article on the future of Internet access on pages 28 and 29 references the PST Mid-Mile Fiber Project—the first phase of which will be completed at the end of July.

Continues on page 25

Manager’s Message

BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

PresidentChris Miller, Litchfield

[email protected]

Vice PresidentDave Roberti, Sierra Valley

[email protected]

Secretary/TreasurerOle Olsen, [email protected]

Dan Kenney, [email protected]

Ivan Randall, [email protected]

Bill Robinson, Doyle [email protected]

Tom Hammond, [email protected]

Manager Robert (Bob) Marshall

[email protected]

Our subsidiary,Plumas-Sierra

Telecommunications offers a variety of high-quality

Internet solutions.For more information,

please visitwww.plumassierratelecom.com or

call (800) 221-3474

For information about any of our products, please call

(800) 555-2207 or visit ourwebsite at www.psrec.coop

RU

RAL ELECTRIC CO-O

PPSREC

PLUMAS-SIERRA

32 A P R I L 2013

Could You Use …• A new refrigerator?• An electric convection oven?• A hybrid water heater?Your chances of winning one increase

if you come to Mt. Wheeler Power’s annual meeting April 20.

This year’s grand prize is a $1,200 credit toward an Energy Star-rated refrig-erator or electric convection oven, or you can use it toward a hybrid water heater.

Get your raffle ticket at the door when you join us at 2 p.m. at the Bristlecone Convention Center. Dinner and addi-tional raffle prizes will kick off the eve-ning, then we will get down to business with our audit report, scholarship win-ners and employee service awards.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Kevin Robison, Member Services Manager

NV-40

P.O. Box 1510001600 Great Basin Blvd.Ely, NV 89315

(775) 289.8981(800) [email protected]

Emergency ContactsEly O� ce(775) 289-8981

Eureka O� ce(775) 237-5693

Outside Ely / Eureka Area(800) 97-POWER

Board of DirectorsDistrict 1 – Ron MillerDistrict 2 – Bob SwetichDistrict 3 – Jerry MorrillDistrict 4 – Don PhillipsDistrict 5 – Rick HendrixDistrict 6 – Jerald AndersonDistrict 7 – Sandra GreenDistrict 8 – Wilma SanfordDistrict 9 – Frank Leon

Proudly serving more than 10,000 residents and businesses throughout Nevada and Utah.

Winter hours are November through April; Summer hours are May through October.

Winter hours: The Ely office is open Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Eureka office is open 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“Powering Your Future”

Members register at last year’s annual meeting, hoping for a shot at one of the big prizes. This year, a new refrigerator, convection oven or water heater could be yours.

32 A P R I L 2013

32 A P R I L 2013

Reduce your energy usage with the V-Meter at: www.vea.coop

NV-42

800 East Highway 372P.O. Box 237

Pahrump, NV 89041

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

DISTRICT 1 DISTRICT 2 Peter Gazsy Shiela Rau

DISTRICT 3 DISTRICT 4Rick Johnson John Maurer

DISTRICT 5 DISTRICT 6 Dave Lowe David Dawson

OFFICE PHONE(800) 742-3330 (within Nevada)or 775-727-5312, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.Weekdays, except holidays

AFTER HOURS & EMERGENCYWe are here 24 hours a day, seven days a week for your emergency needs.775-727-5312Web site: www.vea.coopEmail: [email protected]

VEA Youth Ambassador Program Launched

Pahrump Valley High School students Nicole Dirrigl and Jonathan Brown are interested in the academic, business, and other opportunities available to students through VEA’s new Youth Ambassador Program.

Exciting new opportunity for young people to accelerate on the road to success.

VEA’s Ambassadors are informed, involved and invaluable to our co-op. � ey help educate other members about VEA, energy topics, and other important issues. � ey have been featured at various times by our national association as a great example of engaged members who serve the coopera-tive and community. � ey are knowledgeable advocates of the cooperative business model.

What about the next generation? How can we help develop new leadership who can brighten the future by understanding, embracing, and putting into action cooperative business principles?

� ese questions helped motivate VEA to initiate a Youth Ambassador Pro-gram. High school and college students interested in learning more should call 727-5312.

Kittitas County Public Utility District No. 11400 Vantage HighwayEllensburg, WA 98926(509) 933-7200(24-hour phone service)Office hours: 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday

www.kittitaspud.com

Commissioners Roger C. SparksPaul RogersShan Rowbotham

General ManagerMatt Boast

Assistant General ManagerBrian Vosburgh

Please visit our website listed above for all approved board minutes.

The Board of Commissioners meets the last Tuesday of each month in Building “B.”

PUD O� ers Budget Payment PlanPUD No.1 of Kittitas County o� ers residential customers the opportunity to convert unpredictable seasonal electric billings into 12 equal monthly payments.

How your payment is determinedWe review the past year’s electric use to help project use for the coming year. � at projection is divided by 12 to deter-mine a monthly payment.

How it works� e monthly payments you make in the summer and fall are intended to help you establish a credit balance, leading into the higher-use winter months. At the end of 12 months, the goal is for your account balance to be at zero.

Watch your bill carefullyIf you are still on self-read meter, you must report your meter read monthly. You are responsible for all of the use. � e payment amount can be raised if the payment does not cover use. You can ask at any time to be removed from the Budget Payment Plan.

Frequently asked questionsWhat happens if I have a surplus or de� cit on my account a� er 12 months? Any debit or credit on your account a� er one year of activity is rolled into the next year’s budget payment account and your monthly payment is adjusted accordingly—up or down.

If I build up a credit during the year can I skip a payment? No, you still need to make your budget payment each month. � is is the key to building up the credit necessary to absorb higher winter use. If you skip a payment you are subject to being dropped from the budget plan.

If you would like to know more about Budget Payment Plan, call our o� ce at (509) 933-7200 or email [email protected].

Budgeting your power bills doesn’t have to be frus-trating if you know the amount ahead of time each month by using the PUD’s Budget Payment Plan.

WA-43

32 A P R I L 2013

District Offices4005 23rd Street

Baker City, OR 97814523-3616

567 West PierceBurns, OR 97720

573-2666

400 Patterson Bridge Road P.O. Box 575

John Day, OR 97845 575-0161

2408 Cove Ave. P.O. Box 790

La Grande, OR 97850 963-3155

[email protected]

Report Outages at (866) 430-4265

Officers/Directors: President Charles Hofmann,Baker CountyVice President Greg Howard,Union CountySec./Treas. George Galloway,Union County

David Baum, Union CountyGeorge “Austin” Bingaman, Union CountyRobert Cargill, Harney CountyGary Miller, Grant CountyPeggi Timm, Baker County Ralph Ward, Baker County

Werner Buehler, General Manager

Ron Williams, Attorney

OR-48

Don’t Miss the OTEC Annual MeetingElectric cooperatives are different from other businesses you deal with. We are respon-sible to you, our member-owners.

As a member, you are invited and encouraged to attend the OTEC Annual Meeting Saturday, April 27, in La Grande (see page 5 for details). Our annual meeting is a great opportunity to get together with friends and neighbors to listen and discuss your cooperative, and for us to let you know what we are doing to keep your electricity rates low and reliable.

It has never been more important to get involved. Increasing regulatory pressures by state and federal policymakers continue to force our rates to rise. Legislation pending in Salem and Washington, D.C., will increase the regulatory hurdles we need to comply with to run your utility.

In addition, our power provider, the Bonneville Power Administration, plans to increase rates this fall due to a number of regional and national factors.

It is hard to predict the future, but one thing seems certain: Government regula-tions threaten to increase our cost of doing business. New regulations won’t be our only threat. Prices for power, materials and equipment will continue to rise.

Your OTEC Board of Directors is committed to keeping you informed about policy changes that will affect your electric bill. Watch for the latest information in Ruralite, online at www.otecc.com and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OTECoop.

Last year, we rolled out our Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Connections Card, which provides members discounts on pharmaceuticals, hotel stays, online shopping and an ever-increasing number of local businesses. Find out more about the card and current discounts at www.connections.coop. We want to hear how you have used your card.

At this year’s annual meeting, we will award the inaugural Peggi Timm Leadership and Community Service Award. The award is named for the principal OTEC founder and longtime OTEC board member Peggi Timm, who has ceaselessly supported our Eastern Oregon communities through volunteerism and community service. The board will select one woman from our service territory who best exemplifies the spirit of service Peggi has demonstrated. The winner will select a charity of her choice to receive a $25,000 award, paid out of unclaimed capital credits.

This year, we supported the youth in the communities we serve by awarding 28 scholarships to deserving college-bound students. Later this year, we will send four exceptional students to Washington, D.C., for the annual Youth Tour.

We work every day to put you, our members, first. As always, we do our best to look out for you.

Regards,

Chuck Hofmann, President Werner Buehler, General Manager

32 A P R I L 2013

Member-owned since 1921

Ohop MutualLight Co.

34014 Mountain Highway E.Eatonville, WA 98328

Phone: (253) 847-4363Night troubles: (253) 847-4363

Email: [email protected]

Board of DirectorsPresident Frank HoffmanVice President Louie MettlerSec./Treasurer Jerry WalterDirector Mel Cox

General ManagerIsabella Deditch

Dear Members:It is that time of year again when our legislators in Olympia are crafting new bills and changing some existing ones.

The Ohop Board of Directors and I have been busy staying current with those bills, either by conference calls with Kent Lopez—the manager of the Washington Rural Electric Cooperative Association and our lobbyist in Olympia—and by visits to Olympia with our legislators. Some bills have a tendency to move quickly through the committees, while others that were perceived as dead all of a sudden grow legs and run straight to the floor for a vote.

Several bills in the hopper would hurt small utilities and drive up electric rates. Most of them deal with renewable energy issues, such as wind, solar and wave cur-rent, which are all good, clean energy sources. But since they are relatively new, that generation is more expensive than energy from hydro. Plus, we already pay for green power in our rates since our “energy mix” from the Bonneville Power Administra-tion includes renewable resources.

We do not have the same issues big companies—with tens of thousands of cus-tomers—have. What is affordable for large companies is not necessarily affordable or needed by small member-owned cooperatives like Ohop. As a small utility, we do not have the money, staff or processes in place to comply with all of the new propos-als without raising the rates dramatically.

The main message to our legislators is, “One size does not fit all.”As electric co-op consumers, we need to alert state lawmakers about the need to

keep electric bills affordable, reminding them that their actions have consequences. A sound, thoughtfully crafted energy policy can lead to great things. The electric

cooperative program is a perfect example, after all. But a hastily enacted energy policy could have far-reaching impacts on the electricity we use every day, doubling or even tripling its cost in the coming years and perhaps diminishing its availability.

This is where the voice of the people comes in and where you, as an electric co-op consumer, can make a difference and greatly influence the energy debate at the federal and state levels.

Elected officials need to hear a constant drumbeat about how energy costs affect us. We can make our opinions heard via e-mail, a letter or even video. It’s amazing how quickly elected officials respond when they hear from voters.

Let’s keep that ball rolling to ensure that when our representatives and senators vote on legislation affecting electric bills, your concerns are paramount in their mind.

—Isabella DeditchGeneral Manager Don’t forget Ohop Mutual Light

Company’s Annual Meeting, Friday April 12, 2013, 7 p.m.,at the Ohop Grange.

WA-49

Members Need to be Heard at the Capitol

32 A P r I L 2013

AK-64

P.O. Box 44Kotzebue, AK 99752(907) 442-3491(Fax) (907) 442-2482

Board of Directors

PresidentCraig McConnell

Vice PresidentAlfred Nanouk

SecretaryCharlie Gregg

TreasurerAllen Jessup Sr.

Wally Carter Sr.

Frank P. Greene

Harold Lambert

John Rae Sr.

Herman Reich Sr.

General ManagerBrad Reeve

Kotzebue Electric Association Inc., a locally owned utility dedicated to cooperative principles, will make electric energy, and other value-added utility services and products available to its members’ at the lowest cost consistent with sound economic and management practices, which improves utility services and the quality of life in our service area.

There is an Easier Way to Pay BillsMake it easier on yourself when paying your bill or checking your electric use. Kotzebue Electric Association has a website to make those tasks simpler and faster than ever before. All you have to do is go to www.kea.coop.

Click on the button “Login To Your Kotzebue Account.” First-time users need to click on “Register Account.” Enter your account number and your meter number, which are on your bill statement, along with your phone number (without any spaces). If you have more than one meter, enter one of the meter numbers and click submit. Create a password. It may only be up to eight spaces and consist of letters, numbers or characters. Re-enter your password. Enter a question/hint that will help you remember your password.

Once you are set up you can see all of the payments and statements associated with your account for the previous 13 months. You can then select a particular state-ment to view detail and/or print. Your

statements show how many kilowatt-hours you use on a monthly basis. It also shows daily use and what it was the previous year.

If you do not want to think about having to pay your bill, sign up for Auto-Pay. To do this, come by the KEA office, fill out the Auto-Pay form with your credit card information, and your payments will be made automatically every month. This is a good way to get airline miles.

Join the growing number of KEA customers who use the website to pay their bills, check on their electric use, or use Auto-Pay.

If you need help with any of these options, call the office at (907) 442-3491 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

payments and statements associated with your account for the previous

32 A P R I L 2013

Board of DirectorsChairmanCharlie Curtis, Kiana

Vice ChairmanWalter G. Sampson, Noorvik

SecretaryPhyllis Clough, Old Harbor

TreasurerHelena R. Jones, Ambler

Robert L. Beans Sr., Mountain Village

Peter Demoski, Nulato

Fred Sagoonick, Shaktoolik

Meera KohlerPresident & CEO

Alaska Village ElectricCooperative, Inc.4831 Eagle StreetAnchorage, AK 99503(907) 561-1818 (800) 478-1818

AlakanukAmblerAndreafskyAnvikBrevig MissionChevakEekEkwokElimEmmonakGambellGoodnews BayGraylingHoly CrossHooper BayHusliaKaltagKasiglukKianaKivalinaKobukKotlikKoyukLower KalskagMarshallMekoryukMintoMt. Village

New StuyahokNightmuteNoatakNoorvikNulatoNunapitchukOld HarborPilot StationPitkas PointQuinhagakRussian MissionSt. Mary’sSt. MichaelSavoongaScammon BaySelawikShagelukShaktoolikShishmarefShungnakStebbinsTellerTogiakToksook BayTununakUpper KalskagWales

Communities Served

AVEC Top 10 Power Plant Operators of 2012At the beginning of every year, our operations department spends many hours sifting through the events of the past year on a mission to identify the top 10 power plant operators. This is no easy task. We have more than 90 PPOs who work hard to keep the lights on in our member villages.

When selecting the top 10, many criteria are evaluated: responsiveness to requests for assis-tance from consumers and AVEC personnel; performing duties satisfactorily, including routine maintenance; running the most efficient generators to maximize fuel efficiency; keeping the day tank full of fuel; total hours of unscheduled power outages; keeping the plant clean and ensur-ing an inventory of normal routine maintenance materials on hand; and turning in completed paperwork.

Jason Jones of Anvik is the No. 1 plant operator of the year.Special recognition goes to Jason, who has not had an unscheduled power outage since

September 2010—two and a half years—a feat worthy of special recognition.Many of this year’s winners have been on this list before—some several times. That is because

they are consistent and conscientious. It is a pleasure to see them selected by their peers for rep-resenting the best practices of our program. Congratulations to these well-deserving operators!

The other nine operators receiving honors are:• Frank Brown of Eek • William Woods of Ekwok • Harold Gregory of Emmonak • James Bright Jr. of Goodnews Bay • Lucy Evan Jordan of Kalskag • Ray Hawley of Kivalina • Daniel Tunutmoak Jr. of Scammon Bay • Edward Bekoalak of Shaktoolik• Thomas Olanna of Shishmaref

Thank you, Jason, for your exceptional performance and thank you to all the top 10 power plant operators who go above and beyond the call of duty in service to their community.

Until next time,

Meera KohlerPresident and CEO

AK-105

32 A P R i L 2013

65 S. Roop St. Susanville, CA 96130 Phone (530) 257-4174 Fax (530) 257-2558 www.lmud.org

BOARD OF DIRECTORSPresident H.W. “Bud” BowdenVice President Richard Vial Treasurer Fred NagelJay Dow Jr.Jess Urionaguena

STAFFGeneral ManagerWilliam H. “Bill” Stewart, CPA

Electrical Operations ManagerDavid Folce

Electric Superintendent Cort Cortez

Business Office ManagerKeri Richards

Accounting and Finance ManagerMary Anderson

Energy Services ManagerTheresa Phillips

IT Operations Technician Nick Dominguez

Executive AssistantKaren Rollings

In case of an outage: If your electricity is offfor more than a few minutes, call 257-4174. Office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. After-hours and weekend calls are answered by a local service and immediately forwarded to standby personnel.

The board meets at 5:30 p.m.the fourth Tuesday of each month.

CA-106

Frequently Asked Questions

How do LMUD’s electric rates compare to the rest of California? Every once in a while we hear the following statement from an LMUD customer: “Lassen Municipal Utility District has some of the highest electric rates in the state of California.”

However, that statement is false. While it is true high rates plagued LMUD custom-ers more than a decade ago when California’s energy crisis and other outside factors forced rates to rise, today LMUD customers enjoy rates that are well below the state average of 15.07 cents per kilowatt-hour. LMUD customers now pay 12 cents a kWh, which is 17 percent less than they did in 2001.

Most Californians are served by investor-owned utilities. The main difference between IOUs and publicly owned utilities is that IOUs are for-profit entities—they must turn a profit to satisfy their investors. POUs answer to you, the customer/owner of the utility. A POU’s priority is to serve the customer to the best of its ability. Turning a profit is not at the forefront of a POU’s business model.

Recently, Pacific Gas and Electric announced it would raise residential rates by a small amount. PG&E’s website showed an example of how this rate increase would affect its average customer. A PG&E customer using 1,200 kWh per month would see a slight increase in their bill—$5.59 per month—bringing their bill from $301.59 to $306.59, and amounting to an average per kWh rate of 25.5 cents.

In comparison, LMUD customers who use the same amount of energy—1,200 kWh— pay roughly half, or $144, at 12 cents a kWh.

Through prudent financial practices, operating efficiencies and keeping an eye on the bottom line, LMUD has been able to stabilize rates. As a not-for-profit, publicly owned utility, LMUD’s mission is to deliver energy at the lowest possible cost without sacrificing reliability.

So the next time you flip a light switch, turn on your computer or cook dinner, rest assured LMUD is working hard to bring you the power you need, reliably and at a reasonable price.

For more information on California’s electric utilities and the territories they serve, visit the California Energy Commissions website at www.energy.ca.gov. To compare electric rates throughout the United States, visit the Energy Information Administration at www.eia.gov.

32 A P R I L 2013

Escambia River

Annual Meeting: One of the Many Benefits of Membership As a member of Escambia River Electric Cooperative, you are much more than a customer. You are an owner.

As a member-owner, many great benefits are available to you and your family. EREC membership also means you have a voice in the cooperative.

Your opportunity to exer-cise your voice and enjoy a special day just for EREC members is coming up soon.

Co-op members receive benefits through programs such as H2O Plus/Water Heater for Life, Heat Pump Rebate and Energy Efficiency Financing, for example. Members can get energy audits of their homes to determine ways they may be able to save money on their electric bills.

EREC also realizes the importance of serving our future members with

programs such as Safety City, Cooperative Environment, Youth Tour and scholarships for high school seniors.

The benefits to members don’t stop there. One prin-ciple that sets us apart from other businesses is our con-cern for community. As a cooperative, we have a unique responsibility to support the areas where our members live and work. From sponsoring a local school’s activities to sup-porting new jobs and industry through our economic devel-opment efforts, we are a driv-ing force in our community.

All of these are great ben-efits of EREC membership. One of the most important aspects of being a member is coming up this month at EREC’s annual meeting.

Members maintain demo-cratic control of our co-op by

electing fellow members to represent them on the board of trustees every April.

Be sure to attend EREC’s annual meeting Saturday, April 27, at Jay High School. Come out and vote for your choice of trustees and enjoy a day of activities only available to the EREC membership.

President’s Message

Sam Walker

Members acknowledge that $3.96, plus actual postage, is the cost to publish 12 issues a year of Florida Currents (USPS PP-81). Published by Ruralite Services Inc., 2040 A St., Forest Grove, OR 97116—a not-for-profit Oregon cooperative corporation—the magazine serves the communications needs of consumer-owned electric utilities in Florida. Periodicals postage rates is pending at Forest Grove, OR 97116 and at additional mailing offices.

Postmaster: Please send address corrections to P.O. Box 558, Forest Grove, OR 97116.

HOW TO CONTACT FLORIDA CURRENTS

Have a problem receiving your edition of Florida Currents? Utility members should contact the local utility office listed on the back cover. Nonmembers should contact Ruralite Services, P.O. Box 558, Forest Grove, OR 97116-0558; (503) 357-2105; email [email protected].

Subscription services: Nonmember subscriptions $12 (US) per year; $25 (foreign) per year. Prepayment required. Allow 4 to 8 weeks for first issue. Be sure to identify which local edition you want to receive.

Extra copies: $2 each, pre-payment required. Supply is limited. Identify edition, month and year. Contact Ruralite Services.

Reprint permission: Direct all requests to Ruralite Services.

MANUSCRIPTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Please do not send unsolicited materials. If interested in writing for Florida Currents, query first. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope for writer’s guidelines. Address requests and queries to Ruralite Services.

DISPLAY ADVERTISING INQUIRIES

Contact Jessah WillisNational Country Market611 S. Congress Ave. Suite 504Austin, TX 98704(800) 626-1181 or (512) 441-5200www.nationalcountrymarket.com

PRINTED IN FLORIDA

Trend Offset Printing Services10301 Busch Drive NorthJacksonville, FL 32218

© 2013 Ruralite Services Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

Side Roads 10In the Kitchen 16Florida Gardener 18

Travel Journal 19Festival Roundup 22Outdoor Pursuits 30

Inside

Your utility pages: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 25, 26, 32

Also In This Issue

April 2013Vol. 2, No. 6

A Bug’s Life ...and Much More 12Richard Archbold’s gift offers scientistsan opportunity to study what interests them in a one-of-a-kind ecosystem.

A P R I L 2013 3

4 APRIL 2013

2012: Nine Primary Goals AchievedEach year our board of directors, the members elected by you to represent

you, set goals for this utility to achieve. In 2012, we determined that we had nineprimary goals to accomplish. In this Annual Report we outline these goals andtheir corresponding achievements in order to share our progress with you, ourmember-owners.

Our first and most important goal is safety. The well-being of our employeesis paramount so we keep it in the forefront of our minds at all times. I am proudto report that Florida Keys Electric Cooperative has achieved this goal bycompleting over five years without a single lost-time accident. This statisticmeans that in the last 1.4 million hours worked by our employees no onereceived a work-related injury resulting in time away from work. This is anaccomplishment within itself, but FKEC added to its outstanding record last yearby also earning national recognition for completing the challenging Rural ElectricSafety Achievement Program.

Second to safety, our next primary goal is to deliver reliable electric service.We are constantly working to maintain and improve our local power system tominimize outages and keep the lights on for you. I believe we did well by thisgoal, achieving an average of only 43 minutes of power outages per member forthe entire year. This is an improvement over our previous 99.99% reliabilityrating, making it our lowest average outage time in the past five years

The following report outlines the balance of our 2012 goals and illustratesour past achievements as we continue striving to improve our services.

Scott NewberryChief Executive Officer

Florida Keys Electric Cooperative Association, Inc. • 2012 Annual ReportPh

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FKEC-April-AnnualReport-FINAL_Layout 1 3/12/13 4:14 PM Page 2

Offices

Open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday

26733 U.S. Hwy. 27 East/P.O. Box 519Moore Haven, FL 33471(800) 226-4024 or (863) 946-6200Fax: (863) 946-2150

214 SR 70 WestLake Placid, FL 33852(800) 226-4025 or (863) 531-5000

111 SW Park St.Okeechobee, FL 34974(800) 226-4023 or (863) 467-5111

POwer interruPtiOn numberMoore Haven ............................. (800) 226-4024

Phones are answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including weekends and holidays. Please have your location or account number handy when you call.

bOard Of trusteesJohn “Jack” Coxe, President, District 8 Lake Josephine, (863) 655-3056James “Jim” Aul, Vice President, District 7 Lorida, (863) 441-0441 Russell Henderson, Sec./Treas., District 3 Ortona and Palmdale, (863) 946-0865Donnie Lundy, Trustee, District 1 Moore Haven, (863) 946-0402Barney Goodman, Trustee, District 2 Hendry County, (863) 983-7324Shannon Hall, Trustee, District 4 Lakeport and Brighton, (863) 946-3242Ladd Bass, Trustee, District 5 Venus and Hicoria, (863) 441-2227Lee Henderson, Trustee, District 6 Highlands Park, (863) 633-9281Irene Lofton, Trustee, District 9 Okeechobee, (863) 467-1219

The next meeting of the Board will be at 9 a.m. April 25 at the Moore Haven headquarters office. Any changes to this schedule will be posted in the lobby of all three district offices.

executive staffCEO Jeff Brewington CFO Jennifer ManningDir. of Business Development Paul McGeheeDir. of Employee Services Yvonne BradleyDir. of Information Technologies Bradley HillDir. of Member Services Margaret EllerbeeDir. of Operations Tracy Vaughn

FL-153

Government Regulations Lead to Increase in Power Costs

CEO’s Message

As you read this, our annual meeting is behind us and all of you who attended should know my concerns about government regulations and their effect on our power costs. We already have been hit this year to the tune of $600,000 by the Environmental Protection Agency’s RICE rule.

Another more costly EPA ruling looms on the horizon. EPA is considering classifying coal combustion residuals or coal ash as a hazardous material. This change could cost us more than $2.75 million—our share of the additional costs our power provider, Seminole Electric Cooperative Inc., will incur if it no longer is allowed to recycle its coal combustion residuals. Seminole’s recycling program provides superior building materials used in cement, concrete blocks and drywall. Rural Florida jobs will be lost should this ruling move forward.

On the state level, there are two pairs of bills we particularly would like to see passed. Senate Bill 338 and House Bill 191 increase penalties for stealing electricity and increase a utility’s minimum recovery in a civil action from $1,000 to $3,000. Senate Bill 682 and House Bill 659 would allow landfilling of coal combustion residuals if EPA declares them a hazardous material. Currently, hazardous materials cannot be landfilled in Florida. This bill also promotes the continued recycling of these materials.

Also on the state level is another pair of bills we don’t agree with. Senate Bill 498 and House Bill 309 would exempt renewable energy systems of up to 5 megawatts from the definition of public utility. Other particulars in the bill would lead to you subsidizing these facilities. This is not the cooperative way of doing business.

For the sake of your power costs, I hope you can support our position on these items. If you do, please contact our state and national elected officials. You can contact them through the Our Energy Our Future link on our website, www.gladesec.com, and our Facebook page. While visiting our sites, please also consider joining the Cooperative Owners for Political Action PAC.

Jeff Brewington

32 A P R I L 2013

Offices722 West Highway 22P. O. Box 220Wewahitchka, FL 32465(850) 639-2216 or (800) 333-9392 9434 Highway 77 P. O. Box 8370Southport, FL 32409(850) 265-3631 or (800) 568-3667

6243 East Highway 98Panama City, FL 32404(850) 481-1188

www.gcec.com

ceO/General ManaGerMichael E. White

TrusTeesPresident Kinneth DanielsVice President Gary Cox Secretary Eddie JonesTreasurer Robert ByrdDoug BirminghamJimmy BlackRupert BrownWaylon GrahamGus Wise Jr.

Trustees normally meet the third Tuesday of each month at 12:30 p.m. CST. The board meets at the Wewahitchka office in even-numbered months (February, April, June, August, October and December) and the Southport office in odd-numbered months (January, March, May, July, September and November).

The mission of GCEC is to continually evaluate and implement technologies and seek solutions that fulfill a diversified memberships’ changing expectations for cost-effective, dependable utility services through a dedicated and responsive workforce.

FL-154

GCEC President’s Message

You are Invited!

Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative will hold its 65th Annual Meeting of the Members Saturday, April 6, and we hope you will come.

Have you ever attended an annual meeting? We have talked with people who said they wanted to go in years past, but something came up or they forgot and ended up missing it. We also see some of our members every year.

For those of you who wonder what a cooperative is, why it has an annual meeting and why you should care or attend, here is a brief explanation.

Even though all cooperatives are not operated in the same manner, they do have one thing in com-mon: They are organized and controlled by their members to provide a service or benefit for those members. In the case of GCEC, those members are you, the ones we provide with electric service.

That is where our annual meeting comes in. At the annual meeting, our members participate in a business meeting. In addition to the business por-tion of the meeting, our annual meeting gives our members a chance to catch up with their neighbors. We will have live music by The Gann Family, dis-plays for our members and activities for the chil-dren. We also will treat our members to complimen-tary food and beverages.

It is a great way to spend a Saturday in April.To make it more fun, we will draw for door prizes

throughout the meeting, with drawings for our grand prizes—$100 electric bill credits—at the end of the meeting.

We hope to see you at our headquarters office in Wewahitchka on April 6. You can read more about our annual meeting on pages 4, 5, 6, 28 and 29 of this issue.

Kinneth Daniels

Please join us April 6 for your cooperative’s 65th annual meeting

32 a P R i L 2013

Rising Costs Necessitate Rate Adjustment

ising Prices. Nobody likes the sound of that phrase. Yet, sometimes price increases are unavoidable. In recent years, your cooperative has seen significant increases in costs for goods and services. Unfortunately,

we have reached the tipping point where we simply cannot continue to maintain the level of service you want and deserve without adjusting electric rates.

PRECO is a not-for-profit electric distribution cooperative. This means we don’t raise rates to generate profits. We raise rates simply to cover the cost of doing business and only when absolutely necessary. Beginning in April, in order to continue providing safe and reliable electric service, a 4.9 percent increase — about $5.22 per month for the average household — will be implemented. This is not an arbitrary decision we take lightly or without due cause.

Periodically, we are required to conduct a cost of service study — performed by an objective outside consultant — to ensure that rates are fairly implemented. The cost of service study identifies the total revenue requirement for the cooperative by answering the question: How much revenue is needed to cover all costs and provide a margin?

Margins supply the capital needed to purchase poles and equipment, adequately maintain the power lines, upgrade electric service, and more. Margins reduce the need to borrow funds to accomplish these vital activities.

In addition to the cost of service study, our research includes a financial forecast, power requirements study, construction work plan and long-range system plan. Running an electric cooperative is a very complex process requiring detailed planning and preparation for an ever-expanding service area.

Ultimately, your nine-member Board of Directors has the essential responsibility to determine rates. Just like you, Directors are members and receive power from Peace River Electric. And, the membership’s interests — including rates — are represented by the Directors which are elected by you at regularly-held District Meetings.

When we’re doing our job right, you shouldn’t have to think much about the utilities you use every day. But in the context of evaluating rates, we encourage you to take a moment to do so now. Consider how much you spend per day on other products and services you value, when for about $5.36 per day the average household can purchase enough electricity to run a refrigerator, TVs, computers, lights in every room, hair dryers, a stove, washer and dryer, and every other plugged-in appliance. Electricity is still a great value compared to other commodities.

Finally, keep in mind that everything we do is with our members’ best interests at heart. Providing you with safe and reliable electricity is our top priority. Our dedicated employees work around the clock to keep the lights on responsibly, while properly maintaining and improving our system, protecting the environment and meeting new federal regulations. Rate increases are tough for everyone, but this move will help Peace River Electric Cooperative continue to keep electric service safe and reliable.

To RepoRT poweR ouTAge CAll:1-877-282-3656

CoRpoRATe HeAdquARTeRs 210 Metheny Road Wauchula, Florida 33873 Hours 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., M-F Telephone: 1-800-282-3824FAX: 863-773-3737

BRAdeNToN offiCe15105 59th Ave. EastBradenton, Florida 34211 Hours 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., M-FTelephone: 1-800-282-3824

iNdiAN lAke esTATes17363 County Road 630Lake Wales, Florida 33898For your convenience, a payment drop box is located at the front gate. Payments will be posted on the next business day.

BoARd of diReCToRsleonard CrawleyP R E s i d E n T

Bruce Vickersv i C E P R E s i d E n T

John Martins E C R E TA Ry/ T R E A s u R E R

Hollis Albritton, Jr.A s s T. s E C R E TA Ry/ T R E A s u R E R

Maruice Hendersond i R E C T o R

george w. Millerd i R E C T o R

A. Byron Newberryd i R E C T o R

samuel Rawls d i R E C T o R

Harold schatschneiderd i R E C T o R

BoARd MeeTiNg ATTeNdANCeAny PRECO member may attend a Board Meeting. Due to building security requirements and for us to facilitate attendance, members wishing to attend a Board Meeting should contact the Cooperative in a timely manner for logistical information regarding the meeting.

upCoMiNg BoARd MeeTiNg dATes April 24, 2013 May 28, 2013 June 25, 2013

32 A P R i l 2013

Randy shawGeneral Manager & CEOPEACE RivER ElECtRiC COOPERAtivE

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LAUNDRY LIST OF SAVINGS · and lecturer on topics ranging from jetpacks to robots in the military....

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