Doing well by doing good

Although our board of direc­tors deemed it unsafe to host our annu­al meet­ing this month, I still have pos­i­tive updates to share. As we con­tin­ue mon­i­tor­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, we will com­mu­ni­cate plans for our annu­al meet­ing to all of you, includ­ing vot­ing on your trustees, bylaw amend­ments and sin­gle-mem­ber dis­tricts. For now, I bring you the good news in print until it is safe to be togeth­er in per­son.

Your co-op is in great shape

We were able to retire the largest amount of cap­i­tal cred­its at one time in our his­to­ry to you in April 2020. Mem­bers received refunds total­ing $2 mil­lion and, hope­ful­ly, this mon­ey came at a time when extra cash was need­ed most. The co-ops of South Car­oli­na are work­ing togeth­er to make sure the San­tee Coop­er deal is the best it can be for our mem­bers. We will not have a rate increase in 2020, and we do not plan to see one with­in the next two years.

New ser­vices pro­vide ben­e­fits

As promised, we have con­tin­ued work­ing to find a way to bring high-speed inter­net to the unserved and under­served areas of our ter­ri­to­ry. We know this is key to keep­ing every­one con­nect­ed to the world, and we want to do our part to help. We’ve also rolled out new ener­gy ser­vices pro­grams, offer­ing tech­nol­o­gy at a low­er cost for you. Learn more about the ben­e­fits of our whole house gen­er­a­tor pro­gram and ecobee smart ther­mo­stat pro­grams. Last­ly, and per­haps most impor­tant­ly, we are always look­ing out for you and research­ing new ways to enrich our com­mu­ni­ties and improve the qual­i­ty of life in our area. Because of you, we have been able to give $3 mil­lion back to help those in need through our Oper­a­tion Round Up pro­gram. We have also con­tin­ued to be a vital part of eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment efforts in our area so that our mem­bers have more job oppor­tu­ni­ties.

I say all of this with grat­i­tude for our mem­ber­ship, our com­mu­ni­ties and our employ­ees. Local men and women here at YEC care about you and your fam­i­lies. Their ded­i­ca­tion and deter­mi­na­tion to serve you is why we were able to respond to 99.75% of out­ages in 2019 with­in an hour of the first report, no mat­ter the weath­er con­di­tions or time of day.

These are just a few ways YEC con­tin­ues to prove that we have your back and will always set the bar high to deliv­er reli­able, afford­able elec­tric­i­ty to you. Thank you for anoth­er great year!

Sin­cere­ly,

Paul Basha
Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer