Shoring up access to renewable generation, including Hydro-Québec, as Vermont demand for renewable power grows President’s Report By Stephen Knowlton Washington Electric Cooperative is now in its 85th year, and it is a good time to reflect on how we got started as a cooperative. As we are already close to being a quarter of the way through the 21st …
President’s and GM’s Message: Weather Trends and Today’s Priorities
Storms Impact Vermont rural utilities in patterns of threes; welcoming JJ Vandette and Pat Barnes; acknowledging Dan Couture and Elaine Gonier; grant and legislative updates Weather and Outage Management Louis: Weather and outage management continue to be a major focus area not just for Washington Electric, but for our fellow electric distribution utilities. Where and how the weather hits makes …
President’s & GM’s Message: Proactive Changes In WEC’s Major Outage Communication; Winter Storms Hit WEC Territory Hard
Truck Accident Causes Coventry Plant Shutdown; GMP’s Zero Outages Initiative Irasburg truck accident Steve: Members may have heard about the truck accident in Irasburg where a propane truck drove into the Black River and burned. What was not included in most coverage was that the accident impacted our generation plant at Coventry. Louis: The morning of December 4, a propane …
President’s & GM’s Message: With focus on greatest good, WEC will invest in advanced metering system
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 …
Incumbents re-elected, storm resilience focus of Annual Meeting
Storms and an equitable energy future discussed at first in-person Annual Meeting since 2019 The Annual Meeting took place in WEC’s Operations Center, where a few dozen transformers were ready for deployment. Most were ordered in 2020, and only just delivered after three years tied up in the supply chain. Members, staff, and guests mingled and enjoyed farm-to-table dining from …
President’s & GM’s Message: WEC Accesses Contracted Hydro-Québec Power
Longstanding contract provides 2 MW of baseload power as Co-op members’ winter needs and WEC’s electric peaks rise. Also: member education around EV charging, adding load, and safety Background to Hydro-Québec Contract Steve: In 2012, WEC negotiated a new 25-year contract with Hydro-Québec [HQ], and the Board at that time approved it. At the time, WEC did not have a …
President’s Message: Variability and our renewable energy future
2022 marked by major storm, broadband make-ready, rate increase By Stephen Knowlton Washington Electric Cooperative faced two major challenges in 2022. First, Winter Storm Elliott joined us all for Christmas like an unexpected relative, making the holidays more difficult and less comfortable for many WEC members and their actual relatives. As I write this, I find it pleasant to have …
President’s & General Manager’s Message
Why this was WEC’s most expensive storm ever, and what’s next 40 broken poles, $900,000+ in damages. How WEC plans to respond to members’ needs for the next one Storm recap Steve: As a WEC member and Board member, I want to start by expressing my appreciation for the efforts of all WEC employees in restoring power during this outage. …
President’s & General Manager’s Message
Evolution and alignment More on net metering; updates on rate increase, supply chain, and changes to incentive program Time to evolve net metering Steve: We continue to hear from our members in response to our net metering theme issue (September 2022). It’s worth reminding our members that we are not faulting those homeowners who have already chosen to net meter, …
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