Roger Fox Flips the Switch

Coop CurrentsCoop News

Retiring after 32 years, Board Vice President wins Aiken Award Longtime Washington Electric Co-op Vice President Roger Fox, of Walden, will step down from the Board of Directors this fall. For his service, Fox has been awarded the George Aiken Award, presented annually by the Northeast Association of Electric Cooperatives. Fox has served on the Board for 32 years, but …

President’s & GM’s Message: With focus on greatest good, WEC will invest in advanced metering system

Coop CurrentsCoop News

Also: recognizing Roger Fox, trucks cause sunny-day outages, winter storm preparation Co-op Month Louis: I grew up in Adamant, which was kind of a center of the early cooperative movement generally, so co-ops were just a normal part of life for me. The Adamant store, which is the oldest continually operating food co-op in the country, is what a store …

Ask the Energy Coach: When should I buy an EV?

Coop CurrentsCoop News

Dear Energy Coach: My current car is a gasser, but my next will be electric. My question is, should I buy now or later for the best incentives? You’re in good company. Anecdotally, I know of many WEC members and Vermonters who have decided their current combustion engine vehicle will be their last. There’s more to take into account than …

WEC Plans to Upgrade Members’ Meters

Coop CurrentsCoop News

New system will improve outage restoration, allow time-of-use rates “These additional capabilities will assist us in outage restoration and in giving accurate restoration estimates, help our crews know what’s going on when there’s an issue on our system, enable us to do time-of-use rates and other types of rates, and better work with members who have solar and heat pumps.” …

A Tour of Coventry: Landfill Processes and Gas-to-Electricity Generation

Coop CurrentsCoop News

Every September, WEC and Casella host an open house at Coventry Landfill, welcoming Co-op members and the public to learn about how the landfill operates and how landfill gas is captured to power WEC members’ homes.A few weeks before the September 16 open house, WEC Board member Betsy Allen toured the landfill and gas-to-electricity plant and took pictures. Here she …

Co-op Month: Cooperatives Are All Around

Coop CurrentsCoop News

Avram Patt grew up with the cooperative model. The former general manager of WEC, current member, and state representative spent his youth in the Bronx, in a home surrounded by the Amalgamated Housing Cooperative: a nearly hundred year old housing co-op funded by a union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, to be affordable housing for workers. Patt’s father, a …

Safety Minute: Vehicle Accidents

Coop CurrentsCoop News

Electrical safety tips from Safety and Environmental Compliance Specialist David Young Mistakes can happen to anyone. On September 12, just after noon, a vehicle accident created a widespread outage. A longtime grain delivery driver, making a regular delivery to a farm and who had done this routine countless times, became distracted. He moved the grain delivery truck without lowering the …

Place-based Education for Everybody

Coop CurrentsCoop News

WEC’s Community Fund supports a gazillion years of Naturalist Journeys at North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier For as long as anyone at North Branch Nature Center can remember, Washington Electric Co-op has sponsored the popular Naturalist Journeys program through regular donations from the member-supported Community Fund. “Thank you for the gazillion years of support. I think that’s the accurate …

Historic Floods in Central Vermont; WEC Offers Community Fund Flood Response Grants

Coop CurrentsCoop News

On July 9, towering purple and black thunderheads sat over Central Vermont, crackling with lightning and dumping hard rain. The next day, July 10, prolonged, torrential rain caused the worst flooding Vermont has seen since Tropical Storm Irene, and in many areas, since 1927. The next day, July 11, state officials watched Wrightsville Dam with concern as water rose within …

President’s & GM’s Message: WEC infrastructure tolerates catastrophic flooding; excess solar threatens substation

Coop CurrentsCoop News

Regulators’ order requiring a income-qualified reduction system calls into question Co-op’s ability to self-govern WEC’s flood response, outages Louis: Our poles and wires were not too badly affected by the initial storm on July 10 that caused catastrophic statewide flooding. We had about 1,100 members out. We did, however, have a pretty major outage the following Thursday and Friday, July …