Adams Rural Electric Cooperative

Tree-liable power

sbradford — Wed, 01 May 2024 16:14:00 +0000

Tree-liable power

May 1, 2024

In early March, a spring storm ravaged much of the region served by Logan County Electric Cooperative in Bellefontaine. It was the same storm that spurred the deadly tornado that destroyed a significant part of the community of Indian Lake, and even outside the tornado’s path, high winds snapped trees and brought down limbs and branches all around the area.

As might be expected, power outages were widespread. But upon examination in the following weeks, it seemed as if power had been out less for LCEC members — both fewer and shorter instances — than might have been expected.

“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.

So homeowners are understandably attached to the trees that grow on their property, and Roach, who directs LCEC’s two-man full-time vegetation management crew that’s charged with keeping trees and other flora away from power lines, knows that co-op members can be quite protective of their foliage.

“We completely understand that trees hold a lot of sentimental value for our members,” Roach says. “At the same time, they need to understand the public safety issue and what impact a tree can have on their ability — and sometimes the ability of all of their neighbors — to turn their lights on.”

Trees can be a contributing factor, if not a direct cause, of as much as 50% of power outages. Problems can develop suddenly, such as when branches break and fall across power lines during wind or ice storms, or over time through natural growth patterns, where tree branches may begin to crowd and rub against those lines.

Investing in reliability

Logan County Electric has one of the best records of reliable power delivery in the country, but it wasn’t always that way. In 2005, a powerful winter storm came through Ohio, bringing with it layers of heavy ice that snapped off limbs and branches and brought down trees across the state.

Many of those branches and trees fell across electric power lines, and as many as 500,000 Ohioans were without power at one point — including a significant number of LCEC members. Some of those outages lasted 10 days or more.

“That storm taught us an important lesson, and we invested a lot of time and effort in our vegetation management right after that,” says Roach, who was hired in 2006. “We were not maintaining our right-of-way the way it should have been, but we made some changes in our procedures, and it has made a big difference in our outage numbers.”

Professional standards

Part of the co-op’s investment was to hire full-time vegetation management staff to implement a five-year trimming cycle, rather than bringing in contractors as needed.

“Tree trimming is a very difficult, labor-intensive job that’s also dangerous because obviously you’re working very close to energized lines,” Roach says, “But at the same time, there’s also an aspect of member service to it. If it’s rainy out and they have to put away the chain saws and chippers, they’re out talking to our members — informing them of what’s in the works and educating them about the public safety dangers of trees and power lines.”

In Ohio, along with LCEC, Adams Rural Electric Cooperative in West Union, The Energy Cooperative in Newark, and Frontier Power Company in Coshocton have full-time vegetation managers on staff. The other Ohio co-ops, for the most part, have long-standing relationships with professional tree contractors who perform the trimming around their lines.

All take great care to perform work that conforms to standards and practices of the National Arborist Association, the American Association of Nurserymen, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The last thing anyone at the co-op wants is to fight with a member about a tree.

“Most people understand the reasons we need to trim their trees and don’t object to us doing what we need to do,” says Dan Craig, a certified line-clearance arborist, who has worked at Logan County Electric since 2015. “But it doesn’t always sit well with everyone, and we give members options and work with them to try to come up with a solution that works for both their needs and our needs.”

Of course, when a powerful storm comes through like the one in March, members are bluntly reminded the effect trees can have on utility lines. Says Roach, “After a storm that causes power outages, members see first-hand both the safety concerns and the importance of clearing vegetation away from power lines. No one likes to be without power.”

Trees and electricity

The National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) requires electric utilities to maintain trees around power lines, pruning or removing vegetation that may damage supply conductors.
The Occupational Safety and Hazards Act (OSHA), Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) mandate utility companies must keep their power lines safe and reliable.
Trees account for more than half of all power interruptions.
Tree damage to power lines can create severe public safety hazards such as fires or electrocution.
Consider all electrical lines and electrical utility equipment dangerous. Keep away from them and keep all objects (ladders, antennas, kites, etc.) away from them.
Keeping clear access to utility equipment gives line crews the room to perform inspections and repairs — and keeps everyone safe.

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Logan County Electric Cooperative

trees

vegetation management

tree trimming

Adams Rural Electric Cooperative

Frontier Power Company

The Energy Cooperative

COVID rules

aspecht — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 18:22:36 +0000

COVID rules

September 29, 2020

Jeff McCallister

Power Lines

AJ Atkinson arrives to work at Carroll Electric Cooperative in Carrollton the same as he has every day since he was hired as the co-op’s manager of marketing and member services — but it’s different lately.

In the months since the COVID-19 pandemic began disrupting normal life, electric cooperatives across the state and around the country have made adaptations big and small to keep electricity flowing, and some of the changes could be permanent.

“I think everyone understands that it’s important to do what we can to help contain the virus,” Atkinson says. “People may have thought this was more of a city problem early on, but rural areas are now seeing the effects of the disease, and people are doing their part.”

At Carroll Electric, that meant a new office schedule that included a rotation of staff members working remotely so that those in the office would be able to maintain plenty of distance. While the full staff has now returned to a normal five-day on-site week, all are expected to wear masks when on the grounds, and office hours have been reduced to try to further limit close contact through the day.

At Midwest Electric in St. Marys, the entire staff went to a remote schedule at the onset of the pandemic, and General Manager Matt Berry says that the change went off without a hiccup. The staff has since returned to a schedule of three days in the office and two days remote, which has reduced the number of staff physically present by enough that masks are only required in common areas.

Adams Rural Electric employees are required to wear masks in their West Union office unless they are in their personal office with the door closed. Social distancing is required, and occupancy limits have been assigned to every room in the building. “We’re also having employees report no more than 10 minutes before their start time, and they go directly to their office or their vehicle, so we can limit the amount of close contact,” says Erika Ackley, manager of finance and administration.

Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative also had employees work remotely at the beginning of the pandemic. General Manager Brian Hill says the co-op had high plexiglass barriers installed around cubicles and open spaces so employees could return to working in the office. “We had hoped this was going to be a temporary issue, but it looks like a lot of our changes will be more permanent in nature,” Hill says.

Pandemic response has also meant broad changes in the ways line crews, service techs, and even vegetation management personnel do their jobs.

Several co-ops now have their linemen report for staggered start times to their shifts to limit the number of people in common areas at the same time. Formerly, crews rode out to jobs in the same vehicle; now, in many cases, each lineman travels to work sites in a separate vehicle.

“Our linemen are having their morning meeting remotely via Zoom,” Berry says. “They get their job assignments electronically, then drive directly to the job site individually in their own co-op vehicle, and they’ll come to the office only if they need supplies.”

Changes have not been limited to the distribution cooperatives around the state. The co-ops get the majority of the electricity for their members from the Cardinal Plant in Brilliant, Ohio. Knowing that an outbreak there could have devastating effects on the plant’s ability to continue delivering that reliable power, Plant Manager Bethany Schunn implemented new protocols — in addition to already-strict safety measures — early on in the pandemic.

All employees, contractors, and the limited number of visitors to the plant must have their temperature taken at the security gates before they’re allowed on the grounds. Schunn and her staff also restricted access to all of the plant’s control rooms, changed various dayshift employee schedules to rotating shifts to ensure adequate department coverage, and initiated weekly COVID-19 update calls between plant and corporate management.

“We knew we had to stay on top of this thing from the start,” Schunn says. “Of course we’re following all CDC guidelines, but lots of times we go well beyond because we know our members count on us to stay up and running.”

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Carroll Electric Cooperative

Cardinal Power Plant

Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative

Adams Rural Electric Cooperative

Midwest Electric

Holiday bonus: Returning money to co-op members

hgraffice — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 19:11:16 +0000

Holiday bonus: Returning money to co-op members

December 1, 2017

John Egan

Features

To Roger Rhonemus, it’s almost like a Christmas bonus.

Every year for about 20 years now, Rhonemus, who farms 800 acres of corn, soybeans, and hay in Adams County, looks forward to receiving his capital credits check from Adams Rural Electric Cooperative.

Two decades ago, Rhonemus, 60, used those annual checks, which typically go out to Adams REC members each November, to buy Christmas presents for his three children. Now that the kids are grown with families of their own, he uses it to buy presents for his eight grandchildren. And he couldn’t be happier.

“That check comes in very handy at Christmastime, and I am always very thankful to receive it,” he says. “Receiving a capital credits check tells me my electric cooperative is running a tight ship.”

A resident of West Union, about 60 miles southeast of Cincinnati, Rhonemus has been a member of Adams REC for nearly 40 years. While the checks certainly don’t cover all of his holiday shopping, every bit of it helps. “Any time you get a check in the mail, it’s a good thing. It’s the icing on the cake for being a member of a great co-op,” he says.

Ohio’s electric cooperative network, which comprises of the 24 not-for-profit, consumer-owned cooperatives throughout the state, collectively returned nearly $32 million in capital credits to member-consumers in 2016, the latest year for which full data is available.

“Electric cooperatives are not here to make a profit, and so a capital credits check is our way to return cash to members after we pay our operating expenses,” says Bill Swango, general manager of Adams REC. “A lot of members don’t understand what capital credits are, but once they receive their first check, that’s when they start to get it.”

Capital credits represent each member’s share of the co-op’s operating margins, which is the money left over after bills are paid. Every cooperative, including electric co-ops, handle capital credits differently. While Adams REC is returning money from the early 1990s, other co-ops, such as Butler Rural Electric Cooperative, based in Oxford, have chosen a model that allows them to return capital credits to longstanding members and new ones alike.

In general, the co-op’s margins are allocated to members’ capital credits accounts and then returned to the member in a general retirement on a rotating basis.

Each year, a co-op’s board of directors evaluates whether the co-op’s finances will allow for a return of capital credits to members, so that means not every co-op retires those credits every year. Of those that do, not all issue checks — some simply issue bill credits — and the time of year they are issued also varies from cooperative to cooperative.

There are more than 900 electric co-ops across the country. Across the nation, those co-ops have returned almost $14 billion to their owner-members since 1988, according to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA).

Though Adams REC returns capital to its members nearly every year, there have been years when it could not. “In 2009, we had a major ice storm, and in 2010 we had the derecho that tore up our distribution system,” says Alice Baird, who handles communications duties at the co-op. “The costs of repairing the system in those years drove up our operating costs and reduced our margins.”

Although Adams REC couldn’t make capital credits payments in those two years, the members didn’t lose their credits. They were deferred until the co-op was able to fund them again in 2011.

“As a nonprofit cooperative owned by its members, we always think it’s a good thing to return their cash back to them,” Baird says. “Co-ops are a family, and you always want to take good care of your family.”

John Egan is president of Egan Energy Communications, a national energy communications firm.

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Adams Rural Electric Cooperative

capital credits

farming

Co-op Spotlight: Adams Rural Electric Cooperative

sean.walker — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 14:39:54 +0000

Co-op Spotlight: Adams Rural Electric Cooperative

February 3, 2020

Ohio's Electric Cooperatives

Co-op Spotlight

Largely serving Adams County, but spilling over the borders to four surrounding counties, Adams Rural Electric Cooperative serves over 7,500 members in southern Ohio. The majority of Adams REC’s consumer-members are residential, but they also serve commercial businesses like Hanson Aggregates Eagle Quarry, one of the largest producers of sand, rock, and gravel; and Murphin Ridge Inn, a popular bed-and-breakfast in Amish country. With 1,300 miles of distribution lines, Adams REC’s territory stretches across an area that is rich in history and nature.

Serpent Mound and surrounding nature

In northern Adams County lies Serpent Mound, an internationally known effigy mound in the shape of a snake with a curled tail. Though its age is debated, the National Historic Landmark was built by ancient American Indian cultures centuries ago. Adams REC is home to the Edge of Appalachia Preserve, one of the most biodiverse natural areas in the Midwest. The system contains 11 unique preserves, including Ohio Brush Creek and Lynx Prairie. With 20,000 acres to explore, visitors can see rugged woodland, waterfalls, and more than 100 rare plant and animal species.

Historical highlights

Adams REC is proud to have hired the first woman cooperative general manager in the state of Ohio. The late Linda Gill was hired as a part-time clerk in 1983. She was promoted to accounting manager in 1985 and became general manager in 1993. She retired in 2003.

Other items of historical significance in Adams County include the John T. Wilson Homestead, which once operated as a stop on the Underground Railroad for slaves escaping to freedom. It was also a recruitment and training spot for Civil War soldiers. Today, the site has been restored, a bed-and-breakfast has been added, and it’s been declared a National Historical Landmark. It also hosts Adams County Heritage Days every September.

This piece of history might sound like something out of an old western movie, but it’s true: In 1853, Bentonville residents formed the Bentonville Anti-Horse Thief Society as a vigilante group to recover stolen horses and prosecute thieves. Today, the organization operates as a social club, and anyone across the U.S. can join this group with a one-time fee of $1.

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Adams Rural Electric Cooperative