MORE POWER TO YOU
A year in review, the year ahead Co-op growth strong and steady
D
Duane Salstrand
elegates from North Carolina’s electric cooperatives in April reviewed the past year, looked ahead to new issues, elected officers, acknowledged dedicated service, and awarded youth scholarships at the annual meeting of the coops statewide organizations in Raleigh. In a keynote address, R.W. “Chip” Leavitt, CEO of Brunswick EMC and outgoing president of North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation (NCEMC), focused on the power supply strategies the co-ops collectively have developed. While maintaining a diversified portfolio of power resources, solidifying their financial standing, and engaging in political and regulatory discussions, Leavitt said, the cooperatives have been able to “better manage our rising costs, have some control over our destiny, diversify our power supply risks, and strive to provide our members affordable and reliable power while maintaining the seven cooperative principles.” In another address, Thom Tillis, a Mecklenburg County Republican recently elected Speaker of the House in the state’s General Assembly, outlined the challenges facing the new legislature and asked co-op leaders to remain involved at the state level. Elected to serve as board officers of the North Carolina Association of Electric Cooperatives (the co-ops’ services organization) were J. Douglas Brinson, Tideland EMC, president; Tony E. Herrin, Union Power Cooperative, vice president; and Allen W. Speller, Roanoke Electric Cooperative, secretary-treasurer. Elected to serve as board officers of NCEMC (a power The North Carolina Association of Electric supply cooperatives Cooperatives awarded scholarships in April to three high school seniors (from left) serving co-ops) Marisa Linton of Wayne County, Dillon Voss of were Donald H. Burnsville, and Autumn Proctor of Cherryville. Spivey, Pee Dee EMC, president; Mitchell L. Keel, Four County EMC, vice president; and Mark A. Suggs, Pitt & Greene EMC, secretary-treasurer. Among the 35 co-op leaders acknowledged for their years of service was R.W. Jones of Newport, who has served 60 years on the Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative board of directors. Scholarships were awarded to the following high school seniors, each of whom represented their electric cooperative in 2010 Youth Tour to Washington, D.C. Autumn Proctor of Cherryville (Rutherford EMC), Dillon Voss of Burnsville (French Broad EMC) and Marisa Linton of Wayne County (Tri-County EMC).
The number of Americans served by electric co-ops is increasing faster than the national rate of population growth, according to newly released figures from the 2010 Census compiled by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. In fact, co-ops are growing faster than even the fastestgrowing states, according to population statistics. The population served by co-ops rose at a brisker clip than overall population growth in 45 of the 47 states served by co-ops. For example, Nevada was the fastest growing state in the nation during the last decade, with a 35.1 percent population increase, according to a Census briefing released March 24. Yet co-op growth outpaced that from 1999 to 2009, with a 42 percent increase. “This is part of a longer-term trend we’ve been seeing, where co-ops have been exceeding the national average in terms of consumer growth,” said Mike Ganley, director of NRECA’s Strategic Analysis Unit. The growth rates for the population and co-ops are not precisely comparable, because the Census covers 2000 to 2010, while the latest decade of NRECA data runs from 1999 to 2009. Still, the pattern is unmistakable — co-op growth is very strong, as the number of Americans served by co-ops jumped an estimated 22.6 percent from 1999 to 2009. Meanwhile, the U.S. population increased by 9.7 percent to 308.7 billion, which Census analysts called the smallest single-decade increase since the 1930s. Most of the general population increase occurred in southern and western states, which the Census said accounted for 84.4 percent of the national growth in the last 10 years. Those numbers were reflected in co-op totals. From 1999 to 2009, co-ops in both Texas and Georgia served more than 1 million additional residents than during the previous 10 years. Florida gained more than 500,000 served and North Carolina more than 400,000. The recession of 2008–09 slowed growth across the board, as co-ops grew by 0.6 percent in 2009, according to the NRECA Strategic Analysis Unit. Still, NRECA analysts say, three-quarters of all co-ops experienced a net increase in 2008, even though new housing starts were at all-time lows and customer growth was flat across the country. While the Census has not yet released extensive new data on rural areas, it is likely that growth within states was more concentrated in suburban and exurban areas. In addition, analysts noted, large gains or losses by a single large co-op can have an exaggerated effect on statewide totals. “As long as the population shift continues toward the South and the West,” Ganley said, “it is likely that we’ll see strong continued overall co-op growth.” —Steven Johnson, Electric Co-op Today
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