The future of generation

What your co-op is doing to pre­pare for future gen­er­a­tion needs

Over the past two months, we’ve pro­vid­ed con­text for the need for more elec­tric gen­er­a­tion and the need to address this issue across our coun­try and how mem­bers can be involved. Now, let’s dis­cuss what we face going for­ward.

The need for new elec­tric gen­er­a­tion sources is now. The test­ing and imple­men­ta­tion of new tech­nolo­gies to pro­vide sus­tain­able pow­er gen­er­a­tion sources isn’t a fast process. Dare I also say the tech­nol­o­gy we need to sup­ply the reli­able, safe and afford­able ener­gy coop­er­a­tives promise our mem­bers doesn’t exist if coal plants sud­den­ly just go away. But this isn’t recent news. Despite the chal­lenges from the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency (EPA) to move away from pow­er sources using fos­sil fuels, the con­cern over car­bon emis­sions has been around for more than a decade through sev­er­al dif­fer­ent admin­is­tra­tions. This issue isn’t going away, but nei­ther is our need to deliv­er pow­er to our mem­bers.

What options do we have?

Tech­nolo­gies like ener­gy stor­age, car­bon cap­ture, hydro­gen-fired and dual-use tur­bine plants and small nuclear reac­tors are all being dis­cussed as options going for­ward. How­ev­er, these tech­nolo­gies aren’t ready for the main stage. It is vital to explore and research these options now so that we can see what will be viable for our coun­try, our state, for co-ops and for our mem­bers. These new ways of pow­er gen­er­a­tion might be the tick­et, but it is our respon­si­bil­i­ty to be trans­par­ent with our mem­bers about the via­bil­i­ty of these options now while con­tin­u­ing research and devel­op­ment for a brighter tomor­row.

What are we doing?

Coop­er­a­tive lead­ers across our state are work­ing to make build­ing addi­tion­al trans­mis­sion lines eas­i­er by address­ing per­mit­ting issues. This will allow us to part­ner with neigh­bor­ing states more eas­i­ly to secure resources. We are also in con­ver­sa­tions to diver­si­fy our gen­er­a­tion sources to con­tin­ue deliv­er­ing reli­able and afford­able pow­er to you. Gath­ered shoul­der to shoul­der, we’ve brain­stormed and secured the best path for­ward. This includes nego­ti­a­tions to include enough pow­er sup­ply to con­tin­ue attract­ing indus­tri­al cus­tomers on our lines that are large pow­er users. Mem­bers like this not only help your co-op main­tain sta­ble rates, but they also help the greater com­mu­ni­ty with an increased tax basis and local job cre­ation. Details of our plans, along with the oth­er South Car­oli­na coop­er­a­tives, for gen­er­a­tion sources and a fore­cast of the com­ing years will be avail­able by the end of 2023 in our update Inte­grat­ed Resource Plan.

At the end of the day, we want you to know as YEC mem­bers that we’re look­ing out for you. We are work­ing to keep you informed of this issue, as well as assure you that we are work­ing to address the need for more gen­er­a­tion. We cut the lights on over 83 years ago and we will con­tin­ue to forge a path and find a way to main­tain ser­vice excel­lence, despite the odds and chal­lenges we may need to over­come. Luck­i­ly, just like we did back then, we will do it togeth­er while putting our mem­bers first.