It took a village

Part two of series: Work­ing togeth­er to find a solu­tion

Elec­tric coop­er­a­tives pride them­selves on exem­pli­fy­ing what it means to work as a team. This vil­lage of peo­ple band­ed togeth­er to elec­tri­fy rur­al Amer­i­ca, and changed the way we live, work, learn and play each day. This vil­lage made their own way when there wasn’t anoth­er option.

This vil­lage is my vil­lage, and one I’m proud to share with you. I grew up here and my wife and I have raised a fam­i­ly on co-op lines. I’ve borne wit­ness to the impact this com­mu­ni­ty has had on me and what we can accom­plish when we band togeth­er.

In last month’s arti­cle, we talked about ways our mem­bers can help off­set the grow­ing need for more elec­tric gen­er­a­tion. Our goal was to explain how crit­i­cal this is to you and to be trans­par­ent in the chal­lenges we face. Just as we always have, work­ing as a team can pay div­i­dends to ensure ser­vice reli­a­bil­i­ty. That is true as your co-op part­ners with oth­er co-ops in South Car­oli­na; as South Car­oli­na coop­er­a­tives work with coop­er­a­tives across the coun­try; and as our mem­bers stand togeth­er to make a dif­fer­ence.

What is your co-op doing?

We are work­ing with oth­er coop­er­a­tives in South Car­oli­na to invest in future gen­er­a­tion that is finan­cial­ly wise and pro­vides less expo­sure to risk for our mem­bers. To do this, we have been pushed to think out­side the box and diver­si­fy our ener­gy port­fo­lio. Next month, we will talk about our future ener­gy mix. Our updat­ed inte­grat­ed resource plan will be avail­able on our web­site for you to read about in detail by the end of this year.

Addi­tion­al­ly, we are con­sid­er­ing inno­v­a­tive ways to engage with and edu­cate our mem­bers on ener­gy use, demand and how your actions can influ­ence the afford­abil­i­ty and reli­a­bil­i­ty of your ser­vice.

What can you do?

Our CEO described appli­ances and tools that are now elec­tric, includ­ing his expe­ri­ence with an elec­tric car. If you look around, the option to elec­tri­fy your life is at near­ly every turn. Read­ing about options to use more elec­tric­i­ty each day right after read­ing about the need for more gen­er­a­tion might be con­tra­dic­to­ry. It is pos­si­ble and, real­ly, it is all about your tim­ing.

Pro­gram­ming your appli­ances and tools to run or charge at a time that is con­ve­nient for you— and when elec­tric­i­ty is not in high demand– helps your co-op keep rates afford­able and off­sets the need for more gen­er­a­tion. Man­ag­ing your use of elec­tric­i­ty by updat­ing appli­ances, rely­ing on tech­nol­o­gy and becom­ing more effi­cient helps your co-op bet­ter pre­pare for the future and saves you mon­ey. Infor­ma­tion shared with your co-op bet­ter equips us to keep your lights on.

Addi­tion­al­ly, cre­at­ing aware­ness of when and how you use ener­gy and the impact it has on your pock­et­book, the co-op’s rates and the abil­i­ty for oth­er util­i­ties to gen­er­ate enough pow­er to sup­ply reli­able ser­vice to every­one is the first step. Our hope is that this aware­ness grows into action where our mem­bers are con­scious­ly using less of the prod­uct we are sell­ing.

You might won­der why you mat­ter in this equa­tion. Just like it took a vil­lage to get your co-op start­ed, it still takes a vil­lage to make a dif­fer­ence. Small changes, like shift­ing your ener­gy use away from ear­ly morn­ings and evening times add up to a big dif­fer­ence. Espe­cial­ly if we’re all doing it togeth­er.