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MATTERS

Avoid danger Call 811 before you dig Homeowners can make risky assumptions about whether they should get utility lines marked, but every digging job requires a call — even small projects like planting trees and shrubs, or installing a mailbox.

The depth of utility lines varies, and there may be multiple types of utility lines in any given area.

Erosion and root system growth can also alter the depth or location of buried lines. Hitting a line can knock out service to your home and an entire neighborhood, cause serious injury to you and others, and result in fines and repair costs.

For your safety, please call 811 at least three business days before any digging project on your property. If you have a contractor performing work, make sure they’ve called 811.

In fact, it’s required by law to notify local utilities of digging projects. This one call will get all participating utility underground lines marked for free to help prevent problems or injuries. Simply call 811 and answer a few questions about your location and the type of work to be done. Or, go to the website at Call811.com.

Pro tip: Be sure to keep the ticket number 811 gives you for future reference or to track your request online.

Remember: know what’s below before you dig — always call 811!

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THE

Perspective G rid Reliabilit y in Jeopardy

In over 40 years of serving our members and cooperative, I can confidently say that I’ve never witnessed a time when the electric energy industry is on more unstable ground.

Current state and national energy policies, and a lack of support for a better balance of energy-generating facilities, are reshaping the energy landscape in a manner that puts electric consumers in greater jeopardy of being in the dark during serious weather events.

In any impactful event, it’s our hope that lessons are learned, and positive steps are taken to correct course. As energy policy advancing renewable energy has progressed through the years, we’ve continued to lose access to energy sources that we can tap into at any point in the day when needed – also known as dispatchable energy resources.

We’ve learned the hard way through watching the Texas energy crisis in 2021, as well as our own regional rolling blackouts on Christmas Eve of 2022, that when dispatchable, ready to use, energy sources are in high demand but unavailable to utilities and electric consumers, the lights go out. This can literally pose a life-or-death situation when temperatures plummet.

Our Brighter Future Vision lays out a positive pathway forward, which emphasizes a balance of reliability, affordability, and sustainability.

This balanced philosophy would allow not only Blue Ridge Energy but all utilities to safely meet carbon goals mandated by law without sacrificing reliability or your wallet. Current state and

D

From Blue Ridge Energy CEO Doug Johnson

federal policy is out of balance more than ever, making the goals we wish to achieve with our Brighter Future Vision more challenging. As policymakers continue to pursue aggressive carbon reduction initiatives at a state and national level, concern for affordable and reliable power has been pushed to the wayside.

Recently, the North Carolina General Assembly passed SB 678 into law, which expanded the state’s definition of clean energy to include nuclear generation. This makes nuclear generation eligible for “clean energy credits” under the state’s REPS (Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards) law enacted in 2007. This is a smart move in the right direction for our efforts to strengthen reliability by deploying dispatchable generation, like Advanced Nuclear or Small Modular Reactor Nuclear, with intermittent or renewable resources.

While this is a positive step in the long term, bringing more nuclear energy and natural gas generation onto the grid takes a long time for permitting, approvals and construction. With aggressive clean energy policy mandates for solar and wind, I believe we are continuing to move too far, too fast in the renewable transition. As coal plants are mandated to be shut down under current energy policy, we have few energy resources that we can tap into in the short term that don’t rely on the wind blowing or the sun shining. At 4 a.m. on a frigid Christmas Eve morning in 2022, we had access to neither – creating a crisis that wouldn’t have occurred just a decade ago.

Story continued on page 22...

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Membership MAT TERS

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Direc tor Prox y Commit tee to be appointed

As part of the director election governance process, giving members an option to vote for cooperative directors by mail or Internet, a Director Proxy Committee will be appointed by the Board of Directors at their regular March board meeting.

This committee will be made up of three directors elected by secret ballot whose terms are not expiring and who are not running for re-election this year to the Board of Directors.

As stated in the cooperative’s Bylaws, the Proxy Committee serves multiple roles for the membership. First, the committee will cast votes for all members designating their preferences selected on their submitted electronic or paper proxy forms. Secondly, the committee will serve as a proxy for any member wishing to assign their vote for director elections to the committee. Lastly, the committee will cast votes for members who return their proxy but do not make a choice on the voting options.

Director election kits will be mailed or sent by email to members who have requested to receive this information electronically on May 29, 2024. The notice of Annual Meeting, along with information about board candidates, will be part of the director election kit.

Members have convenient options to vote by Internet or mail and, therefore are not required to attend the Annual Meeting in order to vote for directors. However, members who have not voted by the deadline date of June 19, 2024, at 5 p.m., or who voted by Internet or mail but wish to change their vote must attend the Annual Meeting on Thursday, June 27, 2024, at 4 p.m. in order to do so.

Members wishing to be considered for nomination to serve on the Board of Directors have two options: the Nominating Committee or Nomination by Petition. Interested members must first submit a director application packet, which is available by contacting Julie O’Dell, chief administrative officer, Blue Ridge Energy, at jodell@blueridgeenergy.com or by calling 1-800-451-5474, ext. 3202.

The completed packet is due by 5 p.m., Friday, March 1, when using the Nominating Committee process or by 5 p.m., Monday, April 1, when using the Nomination by Petition process.

For a complete list of qualifications and requirements to serve as a director of the cooperative, please refer to the cooperative’s Bylaws available at BlueRidgeEnergy.com under Company>Board Governance>Corporate Documents or by contacting any Blue Ridge Energy office.

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Continued: G rid reliabilit y in jeopardy Your cooperative continues to innovate by evaluating wholesale power resources and contracts, studying battery technology, and advocating for your interests to our elected officials. We cannot do this alone! More than ever, we need the help of our members to speak out against energy policy that moves

too far, too fast, and share these views with elected officials in the hope that we can continue to power a Brighter Future for all North Carolinians with balance in the areas of reliability, affordability and sustainability, without all of the unnecessary sacrifices.

Impor tant sur vey coming!

We’re asking members to watch your inboxes for an important survey to help Blue Ridge Energy and cooperatives across the state understand and plan for the electricity needs of members. The survey, conducted by Cooperative Insights for North Carolina Electric Cooperatives, will ask about the presence of energy-intensive appliances and various fuel types used in your home. It will also consider critical issues that help us plan to best serve our members now and in the future, including energy management, EVs, residential solar, battery storage and smart home technologies.

Conducted periodically for more than two decades, this survey is important for planning to ensure that needed capacity is available for reliable electricity. This NC Cooperative Energy Use Survey will be sent to a random sample of Blue Ridge Energy residential members in March and April via an email from surveys@cooperativesurvey.com. We encourage members receiving the survey to participate.

Visit us on the web: BlueRidgeEnergy.com CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Doug Johnson EDITOR Renée R. Walker PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Jacob Puckett

Membership MAT TERS

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DISTRICT OFFICES Caldwell Watauga Ashe Alleghany PowerLine*

TOLL FREE (828) 754-9071 (828) 264-8894 (336) 846-7138 (336) 372-4646 (800) 448-2383

(800) 451-5474

OFFICE HOURS: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM Monday - Friday Kiosks available

(PowerLine* is an automated account information and outage reporting system)

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