Where everybody knows your name

May marks YEC’S 82nd year of serv­ing our mem­bers. As we hold our annu­al meet­ing this month—giving you a place to exer­cise your voice, vote and membership—I thought I would share how your co-op cham­pi­ons the small-busi­ness-feel with the pos­i­tive attrib­ut­es of a cor­po­rate busi­ness.

We pride our­selves in know­ing our mem­bers and pro­vid­ing that per­son­al touch for your ser­vice trans­ac­tions. We proud­ly have locals look­ing out for you, employ­ing over 120 mem­bers of our com­mu­ni­ty that you rec­og­nize from school, choir prac­tice, the gro­cery store or ball prac­tice. On the oth­er hand, the ser­vices we can pro­vide mem­bers through tech­nol­o­gy and busi­ness ben­e­fits remind you of a large cor­po­ra­tion. Here’s how we do both.

Co-ops have a long his­to­ry of being team play­ers. We part­ner with orga­ni­za­tions across the state so that we secure the best deals, best rates and most sup­port for our mem­bers.

Let’s start with pow­er sup­ply. Cen­tral Elec­tric Pow­er Coop­er­a­tive, Inc. is the gen­er­a­tion and trans­mis­sion pow­er coop­er­a­tive for YEC and the oth­er 19 coop­er­a­tives in the state. Togeth­er with the oth­er dis­tri­b­u­tion coop­er­a­tives, we own and con­trol Cen­tral so we can get the best whole­sale pow­er rate for our mem­bers. Addi­tion­al­ly, since Cen­tral han­dles our pooled gen­er­a­tion and trans­mis­sion needs, your co-op has more time to focus on what mat­ters most—our mem­bers. Not only does this help keep your elec­tric rates low, but it also allows YEC to focus on our job of dis­trib­ut­ing pow­er through­out our ser­vice ter­ri­to­ry.

YEC also pur­chas­es a large amount of mate­ri­als and sup­plies since we own and oper­ate near­ly 4,200 miles of infra­struc­ture, have more than $248 mil­lion in assets and serve approx­i­mate­ly 68,000 mem­bers. We have the buy­ing pow­er to get a good deal, but being part of a larg­er team helps us get our mem­bers the best deal. Decades ago, South Car­oli­na elec­tric coop­er­a­tives formed a util­i­ty sup­ply buy­ing orga­ni­za­tion called CEEUS. This com­pa­ny helps YEC and the oth­er co-ops get an excel­lent price on the poles, wire and equip­ment we buy each day.

We are also part of the statewide trade asso­ci­a­tion called The Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tives of South Car­oli­na (ECSC). They help us with polit­i­cal and legal issues, get­ting help when our area is hit by major storms and train­ing our line­men and oth­er employ­ees. With­out ECSC, your coop­er­a­tive would need its own attor­neys, instruc­tors, polit­i­cal experts and com­mu­ni­ca­tions teams. In fact, the mag­a­zine you have in your hands was pro­duced by ECSC.

The coop­er­a­tives of this state even pool our resources when it comes to eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment. The SC Pow­er Team helps South Carolina’s elec­tric coop­er­a­tives attract indus­try, and its asso­ci­at­ed jobs and invest­ment, to co-op ter­ri­to­ry. Improv­ing the qual­i­ty of life for our mem­bers is one of the main ways your co-op looks out for you. Not only are good jobs an asset to the com­mu­ni­ties we serve, but serv­ing large accounts that buy pow­er around the clock keeps your co-op’s costs down and your rates low.

Your co-op’s team­work not only makes a direct impact to the invest­ment and ser­vice we pro­vide our mem­bers, but it also allows us to focus on being the place where every­body knows your name.

Sin­cere­ly,

 

 

Paul Basha
Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer