Meeting Themes Include Flood Response, Emerging Technology, and Potential Impacts of National Policy Uncertainty
Susan Alexander and Board Secretary Betsy Allen, both one-term incumbents, were re-elected to Washington Electric Co-op’s Board of Directors. They were joined by first-time candidate Bill Powell, who retired from WEC staff in late 2024 before declaring his candidacy. Two-term incumbent Steven Farnham and candidate Ian Buchanan finished fourth and fifth. Every year, three of the Board’s nine seats are open for election; all candidates run at-large.
President Stephen Knowlton announced the results midway through the Annual Meeting. Before congratulating the three elected Directors, he said, “I want to offer heartfelt appreciation to Steve and Ian,” noting their thoughtful contributions and appreciating Farnham’s six years of service on the Board.
2025 Annual Meeting
May 1 was a warm and beautiful day during a late and rainy spring. That may be the reason Annual Meeting attendance was lighter than its RSVPs – but the 2025 vote count was higher than in 2024, which also had a five-way contested election.
As members streamed into the Barre Auditorium, Safety and Environmental Compliance Specialist David Young started the program with a Safety Moment. Building off featured speaker Mike Kline’s topic, Young focused on flood safety: preparing for floods, understanding risk terms (like “watch,” which means conditions for the weather event are possible, and “warning,” which means the event is happening or likely to happen very soon). Most importantly, Young described the dangerous power of moving water and its ability, at different depths, to move a person or a car.
Mike Kline, retired State Rivers Program Manager, followed with his presentation on rethinking flood recovery with the watershed in mind. Members responded favorably. Gwenna Peters of Duxbury, attending her first-ever Annual Meeting, appreciated Kline’s ideas and remarked, “If only we could get people to apply it!”
Officers’ Remarks
Members and guests visited and enjoyed a buffet dinner before President Knowlton called the meeting to order. After the meeting formalities, Knowlton welcomed members and special guests from law firm Tarrant, Gillies & Shems; sister co-op Vermont Electric Co-op; VELCO; and Efficiency Vermont. General Manager Louis Porter acknowledged four staff celebrating milestone anniversaries with the Co-op—a combined total of 75 years of loyal service.
Knowlton began his remarks by observing, “I really like these meetings. They’re like a birthday party.” There’s great food, entertainment, and “we even have presents,” he said, noting the popular door prize part of the evening. Most of all, he said, he enjoys connecting with fellow members in person.
While WEC faces challenges from weather and other impacts from climate and a rapidly changing world, members don’t always see the adaptations happening behind the scenes: the improvements WEC makes to protect its grid, Knowlton said. With the intent to share some positive news about “what’s going on under the hood,” he described streamlining management and outage operations, increasing infrastructure resilience, better cybersecurity, improving right-of-way management, increasing state and federal grants, hiring good staff, and improving members’ experience by providing more participation and control in their own electric use.
Treasurer Don Douglas followed Knowlton, leading with one of his characteristically salty jokes (this one tickling divisions both in national identity and in the AL East). Despite some surprises, WEC was within half a percent of its original budget for 2024, Douglas said. WEC returned less money in the form of capital credit retirements to members than in previous years, in part because it had to draw down $2 million in short term borrowing to cover process delays. It was able to quickly pay back the short term borrowing, and satisfied all its lender requirements. Property taxes rose steeply in 2024, and Douglas noted that WEC also went over its budget for outages. However, a half million increase in sales helped offset costs.
Member Q&A
After the election results, the floor opened for member questions.
William Tarkulich of Tunbridge asked whether power from Hydro-Québec would be subject to new federal tariffs, if that would impact rates, and if any of WEC’s federal grants were at risk. Porter responded that nobody knows yet, but Hydro-Québec risk is shared among multiple utilities, and that while no clawbacks had been announced impacting any of WEC’s grants, it’s still an anxious time. Another member asked about new meters (which are expected to be largely paid for by state and federal grants). Porter briefly described the change from meters that communicate through the copper wires that distribute electricity to radio frequency mesh meters, which will give better outage data and inform time-of-use rates and other system information (read more about advanced meters in the October-November 2023 issue of Co-op Currents).
Paul Cate of East Montpelier asked why the Co-op planned to sell Wrightsville, WEC’s hydro generation plant, when it was an owned and local generation source. Knowlton responded that the Board’s decision to sell was difficult to come to. Because regulations prevent the dam from discharging water at will, its maximum power is “during spring runoff, when power prices are not particularly high,” he said. Porter added that Wrightsville is WEC’s “most expensive source of power we choose to accept, that we are not obligated to accept.”
Barry Bernstein of Calais—aware, as WEC’s former President, that net metering is a source of high-cost power that the Co-op is obligated to accept—requested that Knowlton and Porter clarify the Co-op’s position on net metering. Knowlton confirmed that net metering is established by the legislature, and that WEC is required to follow the law. But, he added, “incentives come at a cost,” and as a result members who do not net meter pay to incentivize net metering, and do not realize the benefits of the program. “Pairing solar to local battery storage is a way to make it work,” he suggested.
Eric Andersen of East Montpelier picked up the topic, urging WEC to take action on battery storage incentives. “What I would like to see is easy for WEC to make battery storage more affordable for members,” he said, suggesting WEC could do this in partnership with other cooperatives. Andersen also recommended fellow members listen to Board meetings (Andersen’s spouse, Olivia Campbell Andersen, is a Board Director).
Knowlton thanked Andersen and reframed the question as how to make battery storage accessible to members, without creating a cost impact to other members. Porter added, “We are doing exactly as you suggest as a pilot and will expand as possible.” (WEC is part of the Energy Storage Access Program now being developed and already has the ACRE pilot uses community solar to benefit income-qualified members of WEC and Vermont Electric Co-op; learn more in the August-September 2024 issue of Co-op Currents.)
Michael Duane of East Montpelier addressed newish online outage tracking and restoration timing estimates provided by the Co-op: “It’s terrific.” The tech had improved a lot since the 1990s, when he served on the Board, he reflected: “If I looked across the valley to Plainfield and the lights were on, it wasn’t too bad of an outage. If the lights were off in Plainfield village, it was a bad outage.” Angela Manning of Orange also noted that outages had improved in 2024.
To applause, Porter credited Dave Kresock, Engineering and Operations Director, for the improvements, and added that outage severity was still increasing year over year. “It’s a full sprint to stay where we are,” he said.
Turning the conversation back to net metering, Steven Farnham of Plainfield commented that about 10% of members net meter and he believes that many would like to achieve energy independence and see net metering as a way to be able to afford it. “Why is the Co-op’s parent position to rather be rid of net metering than to put more pressure on changing the incentive?” he asked. Knowlton responded that net metering tariffs are set by the legislature and approved by the Public Utility Commission, and WEC can’t engage in overt political activity but can raise issues. Changing the incentives is a good idea, he said “but at the same point, we have to deal with the law as it stands.”
Porter added that one of his responsibilities is to be WEC’s lobbyist. “I say excess generation should benefit the rest of the membership,” he explained, taking the position that net metering should not be eliminated but paid for at avoided cost, or the cost WEC avoids by not having to source electricity elsewhere. He invited members to get in touch if they thought he should take a different position on their behalf.
Dan Wing, a former Director from Corinth, asked if new meters could look at the time power was produced to ascertain avoided cost. Porter thought an annual average made sense, but noted that would be up to the Public Utility Commission.
The meeting concluded with distribution of door prizes generously donated from local businesses and vendors, and gift cards purchased with points accrued on the Co-op’s credit cards.
Election Results
Vote totals for the Board of Directors election:
*Susan Alexander: 587
*William Powell: 479
*Betsy Allen: 478
Steven Farnham: 385
Ian Buchanan: 380
Write-ins: 6
*elected to the Board of Directors
Total valid ballots cast: 829
Blank votes: 148
Employee Celebrations
WEC staff celebrating milestone employment anniversaries in 2025:
5 Years
Richard Pateta, Second Class Lineman
20 Years
Kevin Lanphear, First Class Lineman
Jason Smith, Construction Foreman
30 Years
Teia Greenslit, Director of Finance
Manager’s Award: Kayla Dunbar
Thank you for your service!
Volunteer Appreciation
During his remarks, President Stephen Knowlton acknowledged the member volunteers on WEC’s Committee on Candidates and Ballot Committee for their diligent work and dedication to upholding WEC’s democratic election process. They are:
Committee on Candidates:
Robin Arnel
Barry Bernstein
Bud Haas
Steve Hatch
Carla Payne
Yvette Tomilinson
Ballot Committee:
Nancy Fuller, Co-Chair
Cort Richardson, Co-Chair
Barbara Bendix
Michael Duane
Gail Falk
Jackie Folsom
Roy Folsom
Cathy Frey
Scott Frey
Jamie Shanley
Special Guests
WEC was honored to welcome these special guests to the 2025 Annual Meeting:
Tarrant, Gillies & Shems
Ron Shems, Legal Counsel
Sarah Buxton
David Mears
Vermont Electric Co-op
Rebecca Towne, General Manager
Paul Lambert
Carol Maroni
Charlie Van Winkle
VELCO
Betsy Bloomer
Efficiency Vermont
Paul Lambert
Annual Meeting Vendors and Sponsors
WEC appreciates local businesses and vendors who supported the Annual Meeting with their services and donated door prizes:
Barre Auditorium
Cabot Creamery
Caledonia Spirits
Farnham Farm Sugaring
Green Mountain Rentals
Hunger Mountain Co-op
Sugarsnap Catering
VEIC
Wayside Restaurant