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 …
President’s & GM’s Message: WEC infrastructure tolerates catastrophic flooding; excess solar threatens substation
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 …
WEC Welcomes New Leadership, Looks Ahead to Grid Updates
Seasonal right-of-way clearing underway to support reliability, broadband rollout, and advanced metering infrastructure Election results; welcome new Directors Steve: We had an unusual number of candidates running for election in 2022, so that’s a good sign that people are interested in serving their community and spending time on the Board. Something else that’s unusual, in my experience, is we had …
Vermont Sees Influx of Funding for Broadband Rollout
WEC plans a third virtual Annual Meeting; transformer shortage affects PowerShift President’s and General Manager’s Message Broadband rollout Steve: Vermont is experiencing an influx of funding related to high-speed internet. There are many more opportunities for federal funding for broadband through various forms: ARPA [the American Rescue Plan Act], NTIA [National Telecommunications and Information Administration], and the USDA ReConnect program, …
Cost equity and policy evolution at a time of change
Steve and Louis discuss the why behind costs and policy decisions President’s and General Manager’s Message Cost equity Louis: We’re at a strange juncture of abundance and scarcity. Our state is receiving lots of federal money for infrastructure, we are encouraging our members to purchase electric vehicles and switch over from fossil fuel to electric devices, and yet we’re looking …
Strategic steps forward
Louis Porter begins GM journey with WEC-wide strategic planning, assessing risk before broadband project goes before membership and regulators, storm preparedness, call for Board candidates, and the season of giving President’s and General Manager’s Message Strategic start Steve: The General Manager sets the process for operating the utility, brings new skills and a new outlook in carrying out the WEC …