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Less than 36 hours after Hurricane Helene made landfall late on Sept. 26, an initial force of 40 lineworkers from 11 Ohio co-ops headed south.

Disaster response

When electric cooperatives in North Carolina and South Carolina put out the call for help after Hurricane Helene barreled through in late September, Ohio answered. 

When the Ohio group reached the Carolinas, what they found was shocking. In the western parts of those two states, Helene had left a mutilated landscape in its wake. Roads, bridges, power systems — in some places, even entire villages — had been washed entirely off Appalachian hillsides and into flooded valleys. Damage was widespread, and it was devastating.

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Dorothy Montgomery

Connection to the past

Dorothy Montgomery is old enough to remember when the men from “the REA” (in this case, Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative) started digging holes, by hand, to set electric poles along her country road after the creation of the Ru

Montgomery recalls the excitement that spread among her family and neighbors as more and more signed up to join the co-op to bring electricity to their homes and farms — which had previously been lit by oil lamps or “Aladdin lamps.”

There’s one detail in particular, however, that is still fresh in her mind to this day. “I remember the shock if you stuck your finger in the socket,” she says. She’d been told doing that would hurt — “and it did,” she confirms. “Oil lamps never shocked you.”

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The remains of the Ohio's Electric Cooperatives Education Center after being hit by a tornado.

Resilience and rebuilding

In the early morning hours of February 28, an EF2 tornado ripped through London, Ohio. Winds as high as 130 mph tore off roofs, snapped trees, and battered barns and outbuildings. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.

While Willie won’t be resurrected, the Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives Education Center — free popcorn and all — will be back, joining hundreds of farm-focused exhibitors September 17 to 19 for the 2024 Farm Science Review.

“It may look a bit different, but we’ll be there,” says Missy Kidwell, manager of cooperative development for Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives, noting that a new building, still under construction as of early August, was expected to be finished and ready to go in time.

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An overhead view of the Cardinal Power Plant in Brilliant, Ohio.

Between a rock and a hard place

The U.S.

“Buckeye Power has invested more than $1 billion in environmental controls over the past 20 years,” says Pat O’Loughlin, Buckeye’s president and CEO. “To put it in perspective, that’s over half of everything we’ve invested in the entire history of our company, and those investments have produced dramatic results in cleaner air, cleaner water, and significantly reduced solid waste such as ash.”

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Niagara Falls

Revisiting renewables

There’s an important debate going on currently about the best way to generate electricity to power America’s homes and businesses, framed something like this: Low- or zero-carbon-emission sources that are both generally expensive and only intermittently available on the one

“While coal and natural gas provide the bulk of our electricity supply in a reliable and cost-competitive manner, we continue to seek opportunities to develop renewable energy projects that make sense for our members,” says Pat O’Loughlin, president and CEO of Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives, the trade association that provides services to the 24 electric distribution cooperatives in the state. “Our hydropower, bio-gas, and solar resources are an important part of the mix. We’re always looking to grow and expand our supply resources in economical, practical, and beneficial ways.”

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Cardinal Power Plant

Reliability at risk

Electric-industry leaders nationwide are pushing back against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recently announced regulations that those leaders say are a threat to the reliability and affordability of electricity in the U.S.

One of the new rules would require Cardinal and other coal-fired plants to be 90% carbon-emission free by 2032 and points to carbon capture and sequestration — technology that does not and is not likely to exist at a scale that would be necessary — as a means to achieve it. Generating facilities unable to meet the demands would be forced to close.

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Lineworker in bucket truck cutting down tree.

Tree-liable power

In early March, a spring storm ravaged much of the region served by Logan County Electric Cooperative in Bellefontaine.

“System reliability and safety are extremely important,” says Scott Roach, director of engineering services at LCEC. “With every new project, every work plan, it’s always with that in mind.”

Foliage foibles

One of the most significant factors affecting that reliability is the presence of trees. Of course, properly placed trees not only are beautiful to look at, but they also provide tangible benefits: increasing property values, reducing the cost to heat and cool a home, providing privacy, and even cutting stormwater runoff.

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Ben Jones of South Central Power is finishing his associate degree through the COLT/WVU-P partnership. He plans to continue through the program and earn a bachelor’s degree.

Growing by degrees

When Brian Bick was fresh out of high school, he started taking college classes but soon discovered he didn’t enjoy spending his days in a classroom. He decided to pursue a career as an electric lineworker.

Higher-ed partnership puts co-op lineworkers on a path toward leadership.
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Balancing scale

Balancing act

The U.S. electricity system is poised to change more in the next 30 years than it did over the past century. The main reason for such a rapid transformation: goals set by industry and government to lower carbon dioxide (CO2) by mid-century.

Leaders within and beyond the sector are focused on developing the right mix of resources to enable a low-carbon future. While specific CO2 targets and the resources available to achieve them can vary by region, the early steps of the carbon reduction journey have shown that:

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Jody Williams, a key accounts representative at Lancaster-based South Central Power Company, performs job functions such as member service, business development, and event planning — even employee relations at times.

'I work for the co-op'

The jobs most people likely think of when they consider working at the local electric cooperative either require advanced electrical engineering degrees or involve climbing poles and working in potentially hazardous conditions — which might make working for the co-op seem e

Along with the aforementioned lineworkers and engineers, most co-ops employ:

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