In last year’s report, I shared about the curveballs your co-op has experienced over the last few years. I could almost copy and paste my thoughts from last year about the variety of curveballs we’ve been thrown—and hit with everything we’ve got—over the past year.
While all that remains true, as I reflect over the past year, I see a team that has learned and grown. I wish that there were time and space for me to share the many ways we have grown as a team and all the things we have learned with the goal of serving our members better, but here are a few highlights.
PCA changes: In the last half of 2021 and throughout 2022, we shared detailed explanations of how the drastically increased price of natural gas drove up the cost of power, resulting in the PCA charge of up to $0.03 per kilowatt-hour assessed to your bill to offset the additional costs. That decision was not one that Big Country Electric Cooperative’s leadership team or board of directors arrived at lightly, and the PCA was increased in as small of increments as possible instead of the instantaneous hike many utilities implemented. Each discussion centered around you—how to minimize the cost impact to our members who were getting hit right and left by other increased expenses, balanced with maintaining the financial integrity of your co-op. Thankfully the prices of natural gas and power have decreased, allowing us to remove that additional amount from your bill. We hope and pray that the stable trend continues!
Residential solar: We have learned more about the deceptive sales tactics of some dishonest solar salespeople, some of which have targeted our members. We share education consistently in our news-letter and on Facebook, and we have a robust solar education resource on our website to try to educate our members before they are trapped in a costly contract with no easy way out. We are not against solar energy production—we are against deceptive sales tactics that mislead members into believing their electric bills will go away and solar panels can meet all their needs and make or save them money.
Security and Response Services: In January, we engaged a new after-hours answering and dispatch service to better handle after-hours outages and communications with crews in the field. Dispatchers answering our phone after hours have training and access to work with our computer system and contact crews just as our member account representatives can during regular business hours. This change has been over-whelmingly positive and helpful for us, and we hope that if you’ve had to report an outage after hours, you’ve been pleased as well.
Materials shortages and shipping delays: In early 2023, we were sweating the availability of our most-used pole sizes, larger transformers and several types of meters. Our team worked hard to investigate all resources to ensure that, should a storm happen, we could provide the materials we needed. Thankfully we have had no problems sourcing supplies to restore power, and there have only been a few instances where we’ve had to put members’ projects on hold due to material availability, but it’s worth repeating that if you have a need for new or upgraded service, please let us know as far in advance as possible so that we can order materials and get your project in our ever-growing queue.
We don’t remember who won, but we really enjoyed watching our linemen—especially the tall ones—come up with creative ways to ride a tricycle!
We don’t remember who won, but we really enjoyed watching our linemen—especially the tall ones—come up with creative ways to ride a tricycle!
New substations: Finally, after years of planning, our four new substations are underway. Our Sylvester substation is almost complete but will not be able to be energized until spring 2024. The Wright substation north of Rotan and the North Hamlin substations will follow, and we will conclude with our Camp Springs substation. These will better accommodate growing electric load in their respective areas and will allow us to more evenly redistribute the load of existing meters to alleviate strain on our system. The new substations will also allow us refeed options so that if extended power outages occur, we may be able to refeed service to you from another substation.
We pride ourselves on being more than just your electric company. Our mission is to be the first-choice electric provider and through safe, reliable, competitive service to deliver quality of life for our members, communities and employees that brings us all together. These aren’t just words on our website, they are words we live and work by every day. We live out our mission through applying the Seven Cooperative Principles:
Voluntary and Open Membership: Membership in a cooperative is open to all people who can reasonably use its services and stand willing to accept the responsibilities of membership regardless of race, religion, gender or economic circumstances.
Democratic Member Control: Co-ops are democratically controlled by their members and each member gets one vote.
The trikes were donated to local daycares in Snyder, Stamford and Roby for little legs to enjoy.
Members’ Economic Participation: Each member contributes the same $25 membership fee. As a not-for-profit co-op, margins are allocated for developing the cooperative in ways that benefit the membership and are returned to members as capital credits proportionately to their energy consumption from the cooperative.
Autonomy and Independence: Each co-op has a unique identity and is controlled by its members—not private investors. You elect directors to make decisions for Big Country EC on your behalf.
Education, Training and Information: Our employees and directors receive top-notch education and training so that we can serve you and manage your cooperative well—now and into the future. We extend to the community training about electricity and electrical safety and strive to continually make education available to our members.
Cooperation Among Cooperatives: Although each co-op functions independently, we link arms when our neighbors need it. Remember the storms in late June? Restoration was possible because our neighboring co-ops helped us. There have been times in the past and there will be times in the future that we help other co-ops and they help us. From ice storms to hurricanes and tornadoes to wildfires, co-ops have an incomparable sense of duty and action to help where there is a need. Sometimes that need is in East Texas, Oklahoma or right here at home.
Concern for Community: We don’t just work here, we live here. Whether through financial contributions or volunteering, we care about our communities, and we act on that. Whether donating time or money to the food bank, backpack snack programs or senior citizens centers or participating in community cleanups, coaching youth sports teams, leading youth groups, or serving on the school board, our employees have names and faces that you know and can count on. This principle is also why we send local students to Washington, D.C., each June on the Government-in-Action Youth Tour and award scholarships to graduating high school seniors: We invest in our youth to ensure they’re prepared to be community leaders.
The wonderful thing about our co-op team, beyond what I have listed above, is that in doing all these things, we’re a team and a family. We like coming to work every day—even in the middle of the night if we have to.
Over the decade that I have now been at Big Country EC, I’ve been so proud to see us grow as a family; a family that is united through service and cooperation to serve others. The bond that we have is what makes and keeps us humble and successfully serving you; it is what makes electric cooperatives so special.
In 2024, I could probably write about curveballs again. Weather, technology, the economy—you name it, and you can probably relate—we don’t have the time or luxury of being complacent. We learn and adapt every day. Our new logo reflects that adaptation and serves as an updated emblem of the co-op you trust.
Of all the things that could keep me up worrying at night, I don’t, because I have absolute trust and faith in the BCEC team of employees and directors who serve you. I hope you find comfort and confidence that despite the whirlwind times we find ourselves in, you can trust the names and faces that make up Big Country Electric Cooperative to live out our stated mission to serve you.
