Currents dec2016

Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative Lighting the way since 1937

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

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Suwannee Valley

currents December 2016

Diverse energy sources keep your electricity affordable and reliable

@SVEC_COOP_FL

CEO’S COR NER

Time to reflect Michael S. McWaters Executive V.P./CEO

We'll soon be thinking about New Year’s resolutions and looking ahead to all the things we'll want to accomplish in 2017. But as I write this column at the end of November, my mind, and maybe yours, too, tends to lean in the other direction. We look back on the goals we achieved and maybe one or two that didn’t quite work out.

In terms of our cooperative, I think we can reflect on this year and be very proud of what we’ve accomplished. We expanded this newsletter to better communicate with our members, reached a remarkable safety milestone, launched a new Cooperative Solar program and even endured a battering by the winds of Hurricane Hermine, while responding quickly and efficiently to restore power.

Through each year, and in each trial, we are always guided by our core values, and as you’ll see in this newsletter, we continue to pursue excellence in those continually. You can learn more about how SVEC’s partnership with Seminole Electric Cooperative and a diverse energy mix helps us remain dedicated to affordable and reliable energy, as well as the many ways we’re working to make your experience as a member even better.

You can also find a story about one SVEC employee for whom the desire to serve others extends well beyond the hours of his job. Daniel Carver’s recent trip to the Bahamas to help the people there recover from a hurricane of their own is an example for all of us to Continued on Page 4, see MANAGER

At SVEC, we know the most important service we can provide for our members is safe, affordable and reliable electricity that is available every time they need it.

Keeping the cost of electricity low and reliability high requires a balance of different resources. This way, if one resource becomes less available or much more costly, we can turn to others.

To achieve that reliability, SVEC partners with Seminole Electric Cooperative, a wholesale energy provider that draws on a variety of resources for the electricity it generates. SVEC does not produce any electricity itself. Just as you are a member-owner of SVEC, SVEC is a member-owner of Seminole.

We purchase energy from Seminole and then distribute that energy to your home.

COAL AND NATURAL GAS

One of the most important of those sources is the Seminole Generating Station (SGS) in Palatka. With two 650-megawatt coal-fired generating units, SGS supplies power to Seminole’s member cooperatives throughout Florida, while using state-ofthe-art environmental control technology to limit sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and particulate matter emissions.

While coal has long been a mainstay

resource for U.S. electric utilities, one trend facing the industry as a whole is its changing role and the growing efforts to replace it with natural gas. These efforts have picked up speed in recent years, as coal accounted for more than half of the nation’s electricity generation just 15 years ago, but made up just 33 percent of electrical output in 2015, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Meanwhile, natural gas has doubled from a 16 percent share to a 33 percent share since 2000. Seminole itself operates the 810-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant, the Midulla Generating Station (MGS). MGS is located on the Hardee/Polk County border southeast of Tampa.

We at SVEC are keeping a close eye on these changes as they develop to ensure that they do not impact the reliability and affordability of power for our members.

RENEWABLE RESOURCES

In addition to fossil fuel resources like coal and natural gas, Seminole works to balance its generation mix with power from renewable energy facilities, including waste-toenergy, landfill gas-to-energy and a biomass facility. These diverse resources reduce our members’ vulnerability to changing conditions in the market and keep prices low.

Continued on Page 4, see ENERGY

Island hopping

One employee’s trip to repair storm damage in the Bahamas In a region like the Suwannee Valley, where hurricanes are common, only having to weather the edges of a storm like Hurricane Matthew is a blessing. But further south, past the Florida Panhandle and into the Atlantic, the people of the Bahamas faced a much more dangerous side of the same storm.

In the early days of October, shortly before it made its way to the U.S. east coast, Matthew made landfall on Grand Bahama Island as a Category 4 hurricane. There it battered the entire island chain with winds over 100 mph and gusts up to 121 mph, ripping off roofs, flooding buildings and trapping some in their homes.

When Daniel Carver, a field equipment specialist at SVEC for 16 years, saw the devastation, he knew he had to do something to help.

While it isn’t uncommon for staff from neighboring cooperatives to travel across states to help each other recover from storms, Carver took that spirit of service even further by traveling with his wife and a group of volunteers to Grand Bahama Island in November.

“It was just something that I felt burdened to do, to help those people out,” he says. “I feel that I’m blessed with a lot of talents and abilities, and I don’t like to keep them to myself. I like to use them to help

Daniel Carver sits atop the Church of God of Prophecy on Grand Bahama Island.

other people.”

ROOFS, WALLS AND CONCH FRITTERS

When he first heard how extensive the damage to Grand Bahama Power Company’s system was, Carver thought he might be able to apply his electrical expertise to getting the island’s lights back on. But with his trip approaching, Carver was informed that hundreds of volunteers from surrounding areas had already helped repair much of the damage.

Even so, as he set out from the Freeport Harbor to the island’s West End, the area hit hardest by the hurricane, the damage that remained was apparent.

“We drove for about a mile or so, and every pole we saw was down. It was pretty devastating,” he recalls. “The farther you got out toward the west end of the island the worse it got. The houses out there sustained a lot more damage. Some of them were literally moved off their foundation.”

Since the power company already had more help than it could handle and was turning down any additional volunteers, Carver turned his focus to the group he had traveled with and the work they were doing in the community.

Priority one was repairing the roof on the Church of God of Prophecy in the town of Sea Grape. With the shingles torn off and one of the gable ends of the building ready to collapse, the job was expected to take a week, the duration of their stay.

Carver and company set to work on the roof, repairing any wood that had been damaged by the storm and replacing the shingles on top of it.

The gable end required some more complex problem-solving. Leaking off the edge of the roof had weakened the joint connecting it to the concrete wall of the gable end, causing it to lean outward.

The team first straightened the wall to its original position, then had to engineer a

The Sea Mission group had time to replace the shingles on a local woman’s roof.

Daniel and his wife, Cathy.

couple of trusses to hold it in place.

To prevent the same thing from happening again in the future, they also decided to extend the roof out past the wall. This meant jackhammering 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of concrete and removing it from the roof by hand before the roof could be elongated.

In the end, the whole procedure took four days, leaving the group time to replace the shingles on a nearby house and distribute some clothing they had brought for the church to give out. In thanks, the community decorated one room of the church building and hosted a dinner with a menu full of local Bahamian favorites.

“We had lobster salad, conch fritters, pan-seared yellowtail snapper,” Carver says. “The people were super appreciative.

They really showed us love from the day we got there. It was very humbling to see them give when they already have so little.

It makes you realize we really have it made

here in the States.”

STAYING THE COURSE

While Carver paid his own way, the trip was organized by a group called SEA Mission. SEA stands for service, evangelism and assistance, which the organization attempts to provide to the people of the Bahamas through construction trips, vacation Bible school programs and sports camps.

Having seen the need for a mission dedicated to the people of the Bahamas after a boating vacation in the islands, Dr. Denton Sumrall and his wife, Carol, began discussing their vision with north Florida churches in the mid-'90s. SEA Mission was officially established in 1995 and has gone on to lead building and repair projects in the Bahamas for over 20 years.

This is the second such trip Carver has gone on, having traveled to the islands with his daughter for another mission trip in

July, and he hopes to return at least once in the coming year. For him, being able to consistently offer help to the people of the Bahamas is every bit as important as making that first trip.

“I took part in an interview for one of the local radio stations while we were there, and one of the things we wanted them to understand is that we’re there to help for the long term,” he says. “We don’t just come once and disappear. We send groups throughout the year to work in the community.”

In the wake of Hurricane Matthew, that dedication is even more important.

“The median income there is already really low, especially with the devastation now,” Carver says. “A lot of people have very little, and now they have even less. If my talents and abilities can help them, I want to do that.” 

MANAGER, continued from front

aspire to.

Finally, I would like to wish all of our members Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as we close out 2016. We’ve accomplished a lot together this year, and I look forward to exciting things in 2017. 

ENERGY, continued from front

Seminole has also teamed up with its member cooperatives like SVEC to offer a Cooperative Solar option to members who want to invest in solar power. While resources like solar power may not yet have the capacity or reliability to be a primary source of electricity for large communities, Cooperative Solar gives everyone who wants to participate a chance to support renewable power.

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

Not only is the SGS facility one of the cleanest coal-based power plants in the country, Seminole takes every opportunity to recycle the byproducts of its electric generation process.

In 2000, Continental Building Products constructed a factory next door to the SGS so it could convert the waste from its sulfur dioxide control systems into synthetic gypsum used to make wallboard. Approximately 500,000 tons of synthetic gypsum is recycled each year. Without this process the material would have to be landfilled. Seminole also recycles the bottom ash produced at the site and sells about 40,000 tons of it each year to be made into concrete block.

As your electric provider, SVEC believes in the benefits of having a diverse fuel mix. Together, coal-fired plants with reduced emissions and little waste, like the Seminole Generating Station, combined with renewable resources and purchased power make it possible to keep electricity affordable, reliable and sustainable. 

SMORE SMORE

Safety Safety Member Experience Member Experience Outreach to to Community Outreach Community Reliability Reliability Economic Viability Economic Viability

As a cooperative, SVEC is dedicated to providing the best electric service to our members, not to making money for shareholders outside of our community. While pursuing that mission, our actions are guided by five core values: Safety, Positive Member Experience, Outreach to Community, Reliability and Economic Viability.

In this newsletter, we’ll be taking a look at how SVEC fulfills our value of providing a positive member experience.

MEMBER EXPERIENCE

At SVEC, we don’t want to settle for just meeting our members’ expectations — we want to exceed them. One of the ways we do that is by constantly working to make it easier and more efficient to do business with the cooperative.

To that end, SVEC offers multiple ways for members to make payments, including MyChoice Prepaid Billing and budget billing. MyChoice allows members to purchase electricity before they use it with credit on their account. Track your usage, and when your account balance drops to a level that you select, we’ll notify you. Statistics even show that members who use prepaid billing tend to conserve energy and save money.

Budget billing, on the other hand, is a great option for members who want to know exactly how much money they will be spending on electricity each month. Every billing period, SVEC calculates a 12-month average of your account and bills you that amount. This levels out the fluctuations caused by changing weather and makes it easy to plan a budget by knowing exactly how much your electric bill will be each month.

For those who want to take care of business in person, our main office is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Our drive-thru is open on the same days from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. And if you need to make a payment after hours, the automated payment kiosk in the the foyer of our building is available 24/7.

In addition to offering multiple ways of paying your bill, SVEC also ensures members have options when it comes to reporting an outage. Our members can always call to report an outage by dialing 800752-0025, but we will soon be rolling out technology that allows you to text an outage to the same number. While this capability hasn’t launched yet, we are hoping to have it ready soon.

Members can also report an outage online or from their mobile device using the most powerful tool at their disposal: SmartHub. Simply open the app and tap the “Service Status” icon. Here you can see if the cooperative is aware that there is an outage in your area. If not, tap “My power is out,” where you can add any helpful information to your outage report.

When you’re done, tap “Submit” and your outage will be sent straight to SVEC. SmartHub can do more than just report outages, though. It also makes it possible for you to pay your bill from any mobile device, track your electricity usage and set up alerts to let you know when a payment is due or if there are changes to your account.

Haven’t downloaded SmartHub yet? Members with Apple or Android devices can simply scan the QR codes below. And for more information about SVEC programs, visit svec-coop.com and click on the “Member Services” tab.

Sign up for SmartHub today!

To access the SmartHub app on an iPhone or iPad, simply scan this QR code with your device.

To access the SmartHub app on an Android device, simply scan this QR code with your device.

Increased credit in December's bill SVEC's Board of Trustees has authorized a one-month increase in the credit applied to members' electricity bills in the form of the Wholesale Power Cost Adjustment (WPCA). The increased credit, which will be deducted from December 2016 bills, is a result of operating, maintenance and fuel costs being below projections, and is an example of how members benefit from being part of our not-for-profit cooperative.