Medina Electric Cooperative is your cooperative, and we’re excited to share with you how we work to provide safe, reliable and affordable electricity. This year has brought a dynamic legislative landscape, improved system reliability, enhanced member services and a strong commitment to our community. We’re proud to report on a year of progress and proactive planning for the cooperative’s future.
Navigating the Legislative Landscape
Legislation and policy profoundly impact our operations, from power sourcing to your electric bill. This past year saw significant wins, and we will continue to navigate ongoing challenges.
One critical issue was Texas House Bill 3448. This bill, had it passed, would have forced members to subsidize telecommunications companies’ access to our infrastructure, leading to higher electric bills, jeopardizing lineman safety, and hindering rural development rather than promoting a partnership with these companies that access our infrastructure for their equipment.
Thanks to your strong commitment and vocal participation through Voices for Cooperative Power, we successfully advocated for the bill’s withdrawal. This victory demonstrates the vital role of our political action plan and your collective voice in safeguarding affordability and reliability.
On the federal side, the Empowering Rural America Program, or “New Era,” marks a monumental shift. Instrumental to our long-term strategy, this program offers transformative opportunities for the San Miguel Power Plant—a 400 megawatt lignite facility that generates power for rural South Texas, including Medina EC.
San Miguel EC recently secured $1.4 billion in financing through the New Era program. This funding will provide opportunities to transition the plant into a solar generation and battery storage facility, ensuring its prolonged operational life. This transition is projected to save Medina EC approximately $170 million in energy costs over the project’s lifetime. Through our membership with South Texas Electric Cooperative, our power supplier, we remain committed to delivering reliable power and a resilient energy future.
Proactive advocacy is now more crucial than ever. As part of our political action plan, our staff and board members actively attend legislative sessions at state and national levels, ensuring the cooperative voice reaches policymakers.
These grassroots efforts protect your interests, from affordable rates to reliable power.
Enhancing Reliability and Service
Our team constantly works to improve your service and enhance our community. Ensuring reliable, efficient power is core to our mission.
We track performance using the System Average Interruption Duration Index or SAIDI. From 2023 to 2024, we achieved significant reliability gains:
1,220 fewer outages occurred.
On average, each member experienced 56 fewer minutes without power.
This positive trend results from the teamwork between our crews and operators, who restore power safer and faster. Our supervisory control and data acquisition—SCADA—system allows us to remotely monitor and control our grid, identify issues proactively and prevent outages. We plan to further integrate this technology and modernize infrastructure for an even more resilient and efficient system.
We’re also continuously working to improve your experience with how you interact with your account and understand your bill. This past year we’ve modified the bills printed to feature a new 13-month usage graph with a temperature trend, showing how weather impacts your energy use. For quicker bill pay access, QR codes on your bill link directly to the SmartHub payment system. For members with multiple accounts, we’ve introduced a new summary page, simplifying the billing overview.
SmartHub is now enhanced with analytics for residential accounts to help you understand your electricity consumption, pinpointing which appliances affect your bill and by how much. These improvements empower you with better tools and clearer information, ensuring a seamless, user-friendly member experience.
Technology and cybersecurity are more critical than ever. We prioritize protecting cooperative systems and data. We’re proud to announce Medina EC achieved Level 1 Cyber Status from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. This top-tier designation signifies our robust security commitment, protecting your data and electricity reliability.
Living the Cooperative Principles
Our commitment to you extends beyond local lines, incorporating core cooperative principles: Education, Training and Information, Cooperation Among Cooperatives, and Concern for Community. These principles shape everything we do.
Our commitment stretches across the cooperative network. Cooperation is the foundation of our collective strength. We saw this after Hurricane Beryl, when our crews provided mutual aid to Jackson Electric Cooperative in Edna. Globally, we’re proud to plan another impactful trip with NRECA International, bringing electricity to communities worldwide in 2025.
Our deepest commitment is to our members and local communities. Last holiday season, we started Christmas with the Co-op, welcoming members to celebrate the Christmas holiday and take pictures with Santa and we look forward to celebrating with members again this year. Throughout the year, Medina EC also provided significant donations and sponsorships to numerous organizations, youth programs, schools and events across our 17-county service area. Our employees embody this community commitment through our Volunteer Time Off program. In 2024, our team dedicated 1,097 hours to local charities, making a tangible difference where they live and work.
Looking Ahead
As your not-for-profit cooperative, we’re always focused on efficient service and planning for the future. This year we will complete a cost-of-service study to ensure rates are fairly allocated and cover operational expenses, maintenance, and vital capital improvements. Learn more about the cooperative’s financial health in the Operating Statistics found on page 19 of the annual report.
We continue to monitor significant growth across our service area, from large commercial loads to residential subdivisions. To meet the growing needs in Medina County, we’re expanding our Hondo service office, including a new warehouse and vehicle storage facility, with additional updates planned for the member service office.
Our staff is critical for the cooperative’s success in serving you and we monitor staffing needs and prioritize employee development, equipping our team for what’s next. As we invest in our team’s growth, safety remains our absolute top priority. Wired into every decision, we are guided by our slogan: “Work Safe, Home Safe.” To recognize linemen living this pledge daily, we held Lineman Nights Out at each office—an appreciation event for our linemen, their families and all employees for ensuring everyone goes home safe, every single day.
At Medina EC, our focus remains on you, our members as we strive to Exceed Member Expectations in Everything We Do. Thank you for being a valued part of Medina EC. We look forward to seeing you at the 86th Annual Membership Meeting at our Rio Grande City office.
Until next time,
Kenneth Weynand, Board President
Herbert “Trey” Grebe, CEO
