SVEC Newsletter Feb 2016

Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative Lighting the way since 1937

www.svec-coop.com

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Business Office: 800-447-4509 (8 a.m. - 5 p.m. • Monday - Friday)

Power Outage Reporting

Suwannee Valley

currents February 2016

(Day, Night, Weekends & Holidays)

800-752-0025 SERVING RURAL AND URBAN SUWANNEE VALLEY OWNED BY THOSE WE SERVE 11340 100th Street • Live Oak, FL 32060

CEO’S COR NER

Expanding horizons Michael S. McWaters Executive V.P./CEO

From the start, cooperatives have always been more about community than turning a profit.

When running power lines out to rural parts of the country wasn’t cost-effective enough for major electric companies, people across the country took matters into their own hands to open up that opportunity.

Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative is no different.

We were born in 1937 and originally served just 69 members, but that small group worked together to build the foundation for an organization that now serves more than 18,000 members.

The same cooperative values that drove us then still drive us today. The Suwannee Valley community is at the heart of everything we do. In this month’s newsletter, you can learn more about how much SVEC gives to local government in taxes and exactly where the money from your electric bill goes.

And just as each of our members is part of our cooperative family, SVEC itself is part of a wider cooperative of cooperatives.

We were all reminded of just how valuable that partnership is last month as we mourned the passing of Mike Hart, part of the SVEC family. Our neighbor cooperative Tri-County Electric Cooperative generously covered dispatch and trouble work so that Hart’s friends could attend his memorial service.

How can we include so much? As you’ve probably noticed, the newsletter you’re holding has been expanded.

Continued on Page 2, see CEO

SVEC remembers faith and fighting spirit of employee Mike Hart Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative regrets to announce that one of its cooperative family has passed. Mike Hart served as a journeyman lineman at the cooperative for 15 years and was 51 years old.

At SVEC, Hart was known both for taking pride in his work and keeping spirits high for everyone around him.

“He was always upbeat and had an inviting personality,” says Patrick Swinney, SVEC journeyman lineman.

“He was a pleasure to talk to and to be around, the type of person you never get tired of whether it be at work or out on a fishing trip.”

Journeyman lineman Brad Boswell says Mike was a storyteller and could always be relied on to keep the mood cheerful.

“What I will remember most about Mike are his stories that he would share with me and his awesome sense of humor,” Boswell says. “You could always count on Mike to give you a good laugh.”

An avid outdoorsman, Hart was a member of the Live Oak Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation and enjoyed taking fishing trips with his friends and family.

He is also remembered as being a talented handyman and developed a reputation throughout the cooperative for being able to fix just about anything that might be in need of repair.

“Mike had a very inquisitive mind and enjoyed the challenges that his job presented on a daily basis,” says Mike McWaters, SVEC’s executive VP and CEO. “He was good at what he did and took pride in his craft.”

Many will remember Hart as a loving husband to his wife, Kim, proud father to his daughter, Lindsey, and doting grandfather to his two grandsons, Landon and Sawyer.

“He loved his child and his grandchildren very much, and he had a servant’s heart,” says his wife. “He always put other people before himself.”

That continued to be true even after Hart was diagnosed with liver cancer in December 2014. Despite fighting the disease for the last year, he only seemed to redouble his efforts to offer a helping hand or an attentive ear to the problems of those around him.

“When times got hard for him, he was concerned about his friends’ and family’s problems more than his own,” says Boswell.

The family held a memorial service at Southside Baptist Church in Live Oak on Jan. 9. All of us at SVEC would like to thank our cooperative neighbor Tri-County Electric Cooperative for covering dispatch and trouble work during the service so employees could attend the funeral.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Hart family as they mourn this terrible loss.

It’s a great tragedy for SVEC, as well, any time we lose a member of our cooperative family,” says McWaters. “We should all strive to follow the example Mike set for us. The two things that I noticed most about him over the last year were his unwavering faith and his unselfish, joyous attitude. He left a legacy for all of us to live up to through his faith and his character.” 

THE PRICE OF RELIABLE POWER Electricity is like no other product on Earth. Nothing else you purchase is generated, transmitted and consumed all within a fraction of a second. Providing access to that modern miracle is not easy or inexpensive. There are costs associated with every step of the process, from the generation facility hundreds of miles away to the power line outside of your home. A few of those expenses are within SVEC’s control, but most aren’t.

As a cooperative, we want to make sure our members have as much information as possible about how the price of electricity is calculated, and ultimately how their bill each month is determined.

On average, around 68 percent of your bill goes toward the cost of making electricity. Just like our members buy power from us, SVEC buys power from Seminole Electric

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Cooperative, a wholesale power provider. We pay an average base rate per kilowatt-hour, which is reflected in your bill each month based on how much electricity we expect your household to consume.

The wholesale cost of power is determined based on four main factors:

FUEL

The price of coal, natural gas and renewable energy sources account for 49 percent of the price SVEC pays for electricity, 38 percent going to Seminole and 11 percent to fuel purchased from other generation facilities. By having diverse sources to draw from, Seminole Electric is able to keep its rates competitive and stable.

OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE

About 19 percent of the wholesale price of power goes toward basic plant maintenance, the operation of those facilities and transmitting electricity to SVEC’s system.

FIXED COSTS

Certain expenses such as taxes, interest and depreciation remain relatively fixed. These fixed charges make up approximately 8 percent of what SVEC pays for wholesale power, with another 4 percent going to general administrative costs.

PURCHASE POWER

A portion of Seminole’s electricity comes from power purchased from other sources to keep its generation portfolio balanced. The cost of these non-fuel agreements makes up approximately 20 percent of the wholesale power price.

Overall, Seminole’s entire budget is $1.076 billion, maintaining margins of 2 percent. Of course, the cost of generating electricity fluctuates from month to month based on several factors. Extremes in weather or changes in wholesale fuel prices are some of the major factors that can impact energy costs. SVEC makes slight adjustments each month to accurately reflect these changes.

While the bulk of an SVEC member’s bill is dictated by what we pay for power, the rest goes toward the cost of distributing electricity from our system to our members’ homes and businesses. This is essentially what it costs for the cooperative to function and includes expenses like the cost of operating facilities and the energy it takes to distribute electricity. 

For questions regarding your bill, or for more information about factors that influence the cost of electricity, visit www.sec-coop.com or call 800-447-4509.

CEO, Continued from front

Communicating with our members is one of our core values, and we believe the more you know about your cooperative, the better it is for all of us.

With that in mind, from now on our newsletter will be four pages, providing us with more opportunity to share important information with our members. We hope you’ll find the new format to be valuable, enjoyable and a reminder that each one of you is an important member of our cooperative family. 

DANGER! OUTLET OVERLOAD Every year, U.S. fire departments respond to an estimated 25,900 home electrical fires. These fires cause an estimated 280 deaths, 1,125 injuries and $1.1 billion in property loss.

Thirty-nine percent of home electrical fires involve outlets and receptacles, and other electrical wiring.

To ensure safety, you should only use about 80 percent of the available current for each electrical outlet in your home.

Are you overloading outlets? Use this formula to find out: WATTAGE/VOLTS=AMPS Example: Let’s say you are using 2,000 watts of power (for one outlet). Divide the watts by the volts in your home (typically 120), and you come up with 16.6 amps of current being used. With a 20 amp electrical outlet, you are using about 80 percent of the available current.

Source: U.S. Fire Administration, Home & Garden

Electricity isn’t the only way SVEC powers the economy Supporting their community is central to the principles of any cooperative, and one of the many ways Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative lives out that mission is by strengthening the economy in this region.

Not only does SVEC provide affordable, reliable electricity for the people and businesses in Suwannee Valley, but it also gives to local charities that provide families and businesses in need with a helping hand. And while cooperatives are considered not-for-profit corporations under state law, SVEC still pays taxes that go back to the Suwannee Valley area.

The cooperative serves four counties in Florida and recently paid property taxes for each of them. SVEC paid:

Save energy this winter with LED lighting

pp $77,449.68 to Columbia County pp $170,519.24 to Hamilton County pp $133,944.66 to Lafayette County pp $770,808.71 to Suwannee County “As a cooperative, community involvement is central to our core principles,” says Baynard Ward, manager of community relations at SVEC. “Encouraging economic growth in the Suwannee Valley is an integral part of our mission, and we’re proud that every day we’re able to give back to the community we serve.” 

Electric bills can run higher during the winter months as households turn up the heat to stay warm. That makes saving energy wherever you can even more crucial, and one easy way to improve your home’s efficiency is to switch to LED lights.

LED bulbs, or light-emitting diodes, are a tremendous money-saving upgrade over traditional bulbs. LEDs use at least 75 percent less energy overall than traditional bulbs and last 25 times longer.

The average U.S. household has more than 40 sockets for light bulbs, whether they be ceiling fixtures or table lamps. For some homes, switching them all to LED lights could save you hundreds of dollars on your electric bill each year.

Hamilton County Commission L-R: Randy Ogburn (Chairman-District 4), Josh Smith (District 2), Baynard Ward, Harry Oxendine (District 5), Beth Burnam (District 1) and Robert Brown (District 3). (Photo by Jessie Box)

fish fry In January, SVEC held a fish fry to thank employees for their commitment to safety and working over an entire year without a doctor-treated injury. SVEC would like to extend a special thank you to GRESCO Utility Supply for sponsoring the event.

(Photo by: Mark Mosley)

For more information on energy-efficient lighting, or to learn about other ways to save energy around the house, visit sveccoop.com/energy-efficiency.html.

Our gift to you!

Enclosed magnet helps make reporting an outage easy Inside this envelope you will find a magnet with everything you need to report an outage to SVEC. SVEC makes reporting an outage simple. During normal business hours, please call our toll-free number, 800-752-0025. During storms and busy periods, you will reach the cooperative’s automated outage response system.

This system is very easy to use and will match your telephone number with the information for your account and will automatically generate a trouble ticket for the dispatcher. If your telephone number is not on file with us, the system defaults to a recording and requests you to leave your name, number and a brief description of your trouble. These calls are retrieved manually by the dispatcher.

P.O. Box 160 • Liv

e Oa k, FL 32064 •

(386) 362-2226

IMPORTANT

www.svec-coop.

com

Outage Status Map

Keeping your accoun t and contact info rmation up to date is importa nt and improves rest oration time.

It allows SVEC to pro perly process you r outage.

If your contact info rmation changes, please update by calling Member Services at 386-36 2-2226 so that we may better serve you.

REPORT AN OUTA GE

(800)752-0025

MY ACCOUNT # MY METER # MY PHONE # (prima

ry phone on your acc ount)

Farmers, getting an energy audit and upgrade assistance has never been easier Florida farmers and rural business owners looking to save energy can cover 75 percent of their expenses

Jackson Family

Farm photo ta

ken by Mark Mo

sley.

up to $25,000 with help from the Farm Energy and Water Efficiency Realization (FEWER) and Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG) programs. In addition to a free energy audit, they can cover the cost of: Preliminary renewable energy assessments Cash incentives for qualifying equipment Project installation support

There is limited funding, and both programs are first-come, first-served, so call the Suwannee County Conservation District at 386-362-2622 ext. 101 or 121 today!