Currents-December 2020

DECEMBER 2020

Suwannee Valley

CURRENTS

INSIDE: SCHEDULED INTERRUPTION How planned outages keep our system going HIT THE ROAD Explore six of Florida’s best back road drives AROUND THE COMMUNITY SVEC gives back with food drive, blood drive and more

CEO’S MESSAGE

Suwannee Valley

CURRENTS December 2020

Michael S. McWaters Executive V.P./CEO

Suwannee Valley Currents is a monthly newsletter published by Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative, © 2020. It is distributed without charge to all consumermembers of the cooperative.

Planning for the unexpected As we approach the end of another year, I think many of us find ourselves hopeful and eager to turn the page on 2020. But we also have a chance to reflect on our most recent trip around the sun. I don’t know about you, but as I look back I can’t help but think there are some things you just can’t anticipate.

At the start of the year, few would have predicted a global pandemic or the impact it would have on our daily lives. Even if they did, preparation can only take you so far. We know a thing or two about that in the electric industry. At Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative we work hard throughout the year to strengthen our electric system, but we know that a severe storm could strike and undo much of that work at any moment.

No system is invulnerable, which is why it is so important that we take the opportunity to plan ahead and act where we can. One way we are able to do that is through planned outages on our electric system.

While these outages can be an inconvenience, they are important for ensuring our system is ready when the unexpected happens. The cooperative might schedule outages to perform routine maintenance safely, upgrade our equipment or relocate lines for public infrastructure work.

You can read more about why planned outages are important to our electric system and what you can do to prepare for them in this newsletter. I encourage all of our members to take a moment to read about them so you can better understand the role planned outages play in maintaining reliable service.

This year also saw the most active hurricane season on record, with dozens of named storms. While SVEC was fortunate to weather these storms safely, the same was not true for some of our sister cooperatives across the Southeast. We were proud to live up to our cooperative principles by supporting those in need of help, sending volunteer crews to aid five cooperatives in three states.

SVEC was also excited to take part in several community traditions this fall, from the Live Oak Veterans Day Parade and Melody Church’s pumpkin patch to organizing another blood drive and donating more than 800 pounds of food to local families via Love INC. Finally, I would like to wish all of our members a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year. We may not be able to plan for everything that 2021 has in store, but you can rest assured that SVEC will continue to strengthen our system so we can bring you the reliable service you deserve. 

2 | December 2020

WE BELONG TO THOSE WE SERVE Business Office: 800-447-4509 11340 100th St. Live Oak, FL 32060 Lobby Hours: 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday Drive-thru Kiosk Open 24 Hours 24/7 Power Outage Reporting 800-752-0025 svec-coop.com facebook.com/sveccoop @SVEC_COOP_FL Instagram.com/sveccoop SVEC is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

On the cover: SVEC crews replace hundreds of power poles each year to maintain reliable service. See story, Page 4.

Suwannee Valley Currents

OFFICE CLOSINGS Christmas: Dec. 24-25 | New Year’s Day: Jan. 1

HURRICANE MUTUAL AID The 2020 hurricane season was the most active on record. While SVEC was fortunate to avoid direct impact, we are proud of our lineworkers who traveled to three other states to help five cooperatives restore power to their consumer-members:

Hurricane Sally

Baldwin EMC, Summerdale, Alabama

Hurricane Delta

DEMCO, Central City, Louisiana; and Beauregard Electric Cooperative, DeRidder, Louisiana

Hurricane Zeta

Habersham EMC, Clarkesville, Georgia; and Clark Washington EMC, Jackson, Alabama

UNCLAIMED CAPITAL CREDITS Do you have unclaimed capital credits, or are you the legal beneficiary of a member with unclaimed capital credits?

Find out at svec-coop.com/unclaimed-capital-credits.

Arbor Day tree giveaway

In celebration of Florida’s Arbor Day, SVEC is hosting a free tree giveaway for our consumer-members. A supply of 150 red maples will be available while it lasts at the co-op’s Live Oak office, starting at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 16. The trees will be given away on a first-come, first-served basis, with a limit of one tree per member.

You must provide proof of membership, such as an SVEC bill, to get a tree.

Suwannee Valley Currents

December 2020 | 3

Interruptions for improvements

Planned outages benefit all members

Like any electric provider, SVEC aims to make your electric service as reliable as possible. Planned power outages — though rare — help us achieve that goal.

Regular maintenance like replacing damaged or deteriorating poles or trimming trees near power lines may require planned outages. It is sometimes better to take down a line for an hour or so rather than risk a tree or branch falling on a line while being trimmed and causing damage that might take three or four hours to fix.

SVEC trims each section of its primary electric lines every threeand-a-half years, on average.

Even so, most outages on SVEC’s system are caused by trees or branches falling on lines.

Scheduled outages may also be necessary when installing equipment that strengthens the grid and improves reliability, such as stronger wires, devices that protect equipment from wildlife and extreme weather, and automatic switches that isolate outages and restore power within minutes.

To make these upgrades, SVEC sometimes shuts off power to allow cooperative employees to work in a safe environment.

Systems Operator Clent Flowers approaches each repair on a case-by-case basis, planning a brief interruption of service when necessary.

“You don’t want to get up there and have someone trying to cut a limb over a hot wire,” he says. “If a branch is hanging real low, it’s possible it could fall and hit the wire when you’re cutting it. We have to put the safety of our linemen first.”

4 | December 2020

Suwannee Valley Currents

POLE POSITION

SVEC inspects thousands of poles every year.

Year

Poles inspected

Poles replaced

2019 11,284

826

1,253

641

974

2020 14,329

Miles of ROW cut

Through Sept.

PLANNING AHEAD

A third reason planned outages may occur is the need to relocate lines and other equipment for improved reliability or ahead of public infrastructure improvements like road expansion projects.

SVEC works hard relocating the most problematic lines from heavily forested areas to roadsides. Doing so reduces the likelihood of outages from falling tree limbs and helps linemen make repairs faster when problems do occur. Since the co-op began its line relocation initiative in 2018, 89 sections of line with a total length of 61 miles have been moved to areas that are more easily accessible.

“We’re not unlike a lot of co-ops that have been around for 80 years or more,” says SVEC Director of Engineering Kurt Miller.

“We have a lot of lines that were put in where the trees have now grown up or where there were no roads at the time.”

While planned outages rarely last more than a couple of hours at the most, SVEC tries to avoid them if at all possible. When possible, SVEC will backfeed, or reroute, electricity to consumer-members over a different line. Whenever we do need to schedule an Suwannee Valley Currents

outage, we strive to provide our members with plenty of notice so they can prepare and mitigate any inconveniences the outages might cause.

For outages only affecting a few members, SVEC employees may call each household individually. For larger outages impacting 10 or more members, automated calls will go out to everyone downline from the outage 24 to 48 hours in advance.

To make sure the cooperative can reach you in the event of a planned outage, members should make sure the cooperative has their current phone number on file. By helping us keep up-to-date information, SVEC can maintain reliable electric service without surprises. 

Keeping your contact information updated helps SVEC: » Respond to your outages faster » Process outages efficiently » Notify you when planned outages are scheduled If your contact information has changed recently, please update it using SmartHub or by calling Member Services at 800-447-4509 to help us better serve you.

WEATHERING PLANNED POWER OUTAGES While losing power, even for a little while, is not ideal, consumer-members can take several steps to lessen the inconvenience caused by a planned outage: Make sure cellphones are adequately charged.

Keep refrigerators and freezers closed to preserve the cold temperatures.

Make sure garage doors can be manually opened.

Notify alarm system companies of the impending outage.

If you desire to use a standby generator during a planned outage, make sure it has been properly installed. Improperly installed generators can damage property or harm others.

December 2020 | 5

Cranberry Crumble Bars

Make a kid’s first hunting trip great

By Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission As sure as I eat black-eyed peas and collard greens with hog jowls every New Year’s Day, we Americans love our traditions. For hunters, our passion for the outdoors and preserving our hunting traditions ranks right up there with apple pie, baseball and cowboy boots.

Over one Thanksgiving dinner, my daughter Cheyenne announced out of the blue that she wanted to unplug after the stress of taking exams and go hunting during her winter break to try to harvest her first deer.

If you would like to take somebody hunting for the first time, I have a few suggestions that will better ensure they have a positive experience — which should help you also enjoy the experience more: • Make it about them. An afternoon hunt is a better option for a first-timer than going in the morning. Waking up super early and walking to a hunting spot in the pitch dark can be a scary experience for some new hunters, regardless of age.

• Don’t plan to sit and hunt for too long. Be able to read their body language and have a pulse on whether they are getting bored or are not enjoying the experience of being in the woods. Hunting takes patience, and that can take awhile to adapt to, especially in this day and age when most things are pretty instantaneous.

• Pack snacks and entertainment. A book, tablet or video game can be great to have along when the action is slow. This is especially true with younger kids, but I will admit to occasionally passing time on my smartphone in the woods, as well!

• Be understanding. You can bet that if Cheyenne joins me in the woods again, she’ll have her phone — to let all her friends know exactly what she’s doing. Hey, we all get our passion for hunting in our own way, right?

When you can, offer to take somebody new hunting. Be a mentor and help connect others with nature by introducing them to a longstanding tradition that is such a big part of our American culture.  This story originally ran on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission website on Jan. 9, 2017.

6 | December 2020

Crust and topping: 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup ground slivered almonds 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup chilled butter 1 egg 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon Filling: 4 cups fresh cranberries 1 cup sugar Juice of half an orange (4 teaspoons) 1 tablespoon cornstarch 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease a 13-by-9-inch pan.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, 1 cup sugar, almonds, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter, using a pastry blender or pulling 2 table knives through the ingredients in opposite directions, until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in the egg. Press 2 1/2 cups of this crumb mixture in the bottom of the pan. Stir cinnamon into the remaining crumb mixture. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, stir together the filling ingredients. Spoon the filling evenly over the crust. Spoon the reserved crumb mixture evenly over the filling.

Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until the top is light golden brown. Cool completely. Refrigerate until chilled.

Cut into squares (about 6 lengthwise, 4 across). Store tightly covered in the refrigerator.  Suwannee Valley Currents

Six great back road drives

By Gary McKechnie

I’ve just completed a 3,000-mile-plus road trip in Florida. While drifting along on the open road, I often had the feeling that is similar to what a runner feels when they’re not really aware they’re running: a “flow experience,” they say.

A good road trip in Florida is one of the most wonderful things you can do because it satisfies so many needs. Every moment you are out of the routine, you are discovering something new. Whether it’s an old home on the side of the road, a diner you never knew existed, an orange grove that is perfumed by blossoms, a natural attraction or a well-timed sunset, when you’re on the road you are really alive.

I’m sure you have some favorites of your own. On my Q&A page — which is usually seen by new visitors but not locals, which is why I’m sharing it here — I point out a few of my favorites: • Try out Route 399 southeast of downtown Pensacola, which is a 15-mile seaside drive along the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

• I love Highway 98 that hugs the Gulf Coast past Fort Walton Beach and Destin before Highway 30A. It follows the water all the way to Panama City Beach.

• Interstate 10 is a big road, and it took the traffic from lovely Highway 90, leaving it free and clear as you discover the quiet towns and hills of Western Florida.

• Few places on earth rival the beauty of Florida’s Atlantic Coast, and few roads are as dependable as A1A between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach. It’s low and level and with lovely views of the Atlantic Ocean.

• North of Eustis, Highway 19 kicks off a run through the Ocala National Forest to take you to its natural springs and hiking trails.

• South of Haines City, Road 27 is a great road to take when you’re heading south. It slips past wonderful small towns like Lake Placid and by Sebring and Lake Wales — true Old Florida towns.

Even when gas is expensive, you should spend the time and money to take the best road trip in Florida that you can. It’s an investment that will more than repay you.

Suwannee Valley Currents

December 2020 | 7

Blood drive

Another successful blood drive was recently organized at the cooperative.

The LifeSouth bloodmobile visits SVEC’s office every quarter. In 2020, employees donated 55 units of blood, which according to LifeSouth can save up to 165 lives.

FOOD DRIVE

SVEC employees donated over 800 pounds of nonperishable items distributed by Love INC to local families in need.

Veterans Day parade Once again this year, SVEC was privileged to participate in the Live Oak Veterans Day Parade. We are proud of our cooperative’s veteran employees, who embody the values of duty, integrity and service: Mike Cameron, Army; Danny Daniels, Army; Craig Ragan, Marines; John Robinson, Navy; and Anthony Thompkins, Army.

FALL PUMPKIN PATCH SVEC’s scarecrow was voted the favorite by visitors to Melody Church’s pumpkin patch in October. Additionally, several employees volunteered their time to distribute candy and help with children’s games on Family Fun Night at the patch.