Power Lines

Co-ops were early adopters of AMR (automated meter reading) and AMI (advanced metering infrastructure), which automate tasks as mundane as reading a meter or finding the location of an outage. In a big city, that might take a few minutes for a utility crew, but co-op crews might have to drive for a couple of hours to do the same thing. If technology can eliminate that two-hour trip, it’s safer for employees, minimizes outage times, and saves members money.

Governor

Two candidates who have never held elected office face off for governor, as Republican Vivek Ramaswamy takes on Democrat Amy Acton. 

OHIO COOPERATIVE LIVING: What will be the issues of highest priority for your administration?

Greenville-based Darke Rural Electric Cooperative, for example, has an outreach program for first- through third-graders in local schools. “Safety around electricity is so important,” says Jen Davenport, director of communications and member relations at Darke Electric. “How do we reach everyone with that message? One way is to start early, with the kids, because they’ll always remember those lessons.” 

“Washington Electric called me last week and told me they would be here, and here they are,” she says. “I think it’s kind of exciting. They came through and cut the trees without cutting the wire. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

About 50% of all power outages are caused by vegetation. That figure varies widely depending on the landscape through which power lines run, and it reaches two-thirds for some Ohio co-ops. Many outages occur during storms when limbs or entire trees fall across electric lines, but others arise less dramatically when branches grow into lines. 

In front of those screens at Buckeye Power, the system operations team watches it all unfold, for the most part just as had been predicted the night before, then gets to work on the all-important forecast for the next day. The basic question team members must answer is both simple and complicated: How much electricity will our members need? 

When big changes come very quickly, often with little or no information that’s easily accessible, neighbors tend to react with suspicion and sometimes even anger. Residents of towns like Trenton, in Butler County, and South Bloomfield, in Pickaway County, have crowded local zoning boards, signed petitions, and generally begun pushing back against data centers planned in those communities. In fact, at least 30 Ohio municipalities have enacted or are considering enacting moratoriums on new data centers.

And that raises a question: What’s the big deal?

11:52 a.m., March 13: Trouble begins

In Millersburg, in eastern Ohio, reports of outages started coming in to Holmes‑Wayne Electric Cooperative around noon. “The numbers escalated quickly through the afternoon,” says Robyn Tate, the co-op’s vice president and chief administrative officer, noting that the hardest-hit areas were also the most rural. Large trees came down and numerous poles snapped under their weight. 

“Safety is everything, something that can affect our lives every single day,” she told the crowd. “I definitely don’t like to do this kind of thing, but I will do it forever if it can keep one other family, one other person, from having to live what we live now.”

Pride and joy

Brandie’s oldest child, Blake Rodgers, was born March 25, 2000, and even before his first birthday, he had learned to climb steps and could even climb up onto furniture. As he grew up, he excelled at football and baseball and at being a big brother. 

“People choose geothermal for the environmental benefits and to save money,” says Tim Litton, director of marketing for WaterFurnace, an Indiana-based geothermal system manufacturer. “Geothermal is twice as efficient as any traditional heat pump, which means people can save more money on heating and cooling. 

Buckeye Power, the generation and transmission cooperative that provides the electricity Ohio’s co-ops distribute to their members, can reduce costs and ease strain on the grid by cycling those appliances off and on for short periods of time when the demand for power is at its highest. More than 100,000 co-op members in Ohio volunteer to participate in the program.