power generation

National Cooperative Month has been celebrated in October for more than half a century. This year’s theme, “Cooperatives Build,” recognizes not only the physical facilities needed to serve members, but also the important role that cooperatives play in building community. Nationwide, 40,000 cooperative businesses, including electric cooperatives, credit unions, and agricultural cooperatives, offer various services and products to 120 million people. While each cooperative is unique in some ways, we all share a common set of business principles.

Blazing hot days in August, bone-chilling cold days in February — what do those weather extremes have to do with the cost of electricity? More than the bottom line on your electric bill.

Explaining the connection is a big part of the workday for Kara Snyder, marketing and key accounts manager at Butler Rural Electric Cooperative in Oxford, about 40 miles north of Cincinnati.

At the center of Snyder’s conversations are little boxes containing radio-controlled switches that can be installed on certain kinds of water heaters and many air-conditioning systems.

Our seven guiding principles serve as the touchstone for electric cooperatives around the world. Later in this issue, we’re featuring the principle of cooperation among cooperatives. Another cooperative principle that bears repeated emphasis is that of member education, training, and information.

We hear about independence all the time in our daily lives — independent voters are a hot topic this year, and energy independence has been an important subject of late. Last month’s issue of Country Living featured autonomy and independence as pillars of the seven principles on which electric cooperatives were founded. Independence is a powerful idea that has fueled our country’s growth; that was born of great intellect; and that has been paid for with blood, sweat, and tears.

About 3:30 in the afternoon last December 23, o

Later this year, you’ll see Ohio’s electric cooperatives’ latest power generation project spring up, along with the OurSolar logo. We plan to install community solar projects in several locations around the state.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8iLk1k1TKI&feature=emb_title

Sometimes our perceptions become skewed by what we hear or read in the news. Headlines often emphasize problems and concerns but rarely celebrate the slow, constant progress made by business or industry. We often need a reality check, or an opportunity to look at the facts and adjust our perception. I hope you’ll take a few moments to look at the electric power industry as I see it.

As a recipient of Country Living, you are almost certainly a member of an electric cooperative. But what does that mean, and how did that happen?

How’s this for a job description? A bit of Sherlock Holmes, plus number-cruncher, technology wizard, problem-solver, with a cheerful outlook and the ability to work well with others — that’s just a partial list of what it takes to become a co-op energy advisor.

All that expertise is just a phone call or mouse click away to get reliable, trustworthy answers to your energy questions.