PRODUCERS
OUR STORY
Cooperatives have deep roots in the communities they serve because, without them, we would not exist. In 1936, a group of farmers in Licking and Knox counties took advantage of a federal program offered by the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) and formed an electric cooperative known as Licking Rural Electrification (LRE). At inception, five people were employed to serve 410 members and 143 miles of electric line. The George Conrad Farm on Smoketown Road was the first member. For 40 years, the office was located one mile south of Utica on State Route 13 and was built in 1959. In 1998, LRE moved the headquarters to Newark.
In October of 1998, Licking Rural Electrification, Inc. acquired National Gas & Oil Company and its subsidiaries. Today, the Cooperative family includes National Gas & Oil Cooperative, Producers Gas Sales, NGO Development Inc., NGO Transmission, Inc., and NGO Propane Cooperative. The Energy Cooperative is the trade name used by LRE and its subsidiaries which operate as separate corporations.
Today, The Energy Cooperative brings safe and reliable energy to members with more than 72,000 meters, primarly in Knox, Licking and Muskingum counties. While the times may have changed, our mission and outlook have not. We view our role as a catalyst for good. Working together, we can accomplish great things for our community now and in the future.
LICKING RURAL ELECTRIFICATION, INC.
LRE is a cooperative that distributes safe and reliable electricity to 27,500 meters throughout nine Ohio counties. LRE owns, operates and maintains 3,029 miles of distribution lines, 40 miles of transmission lines, 20 substations and three switching stations.
NATIONAL GAS & OIL COOPERATIVE
NGO is a natural gas distribution cooperative that provides natural gas service to 39,440 residential and commercial meters within a seven-county area. This service is provided through a network of 1,200 miles of distribution pipelines.
NGO PROPANE COOPERATIVE (NGOP)
NGOP is a propane distribution cooperative that serves 5,227 consumers in fourteen counties.
NGO TRANSMISSION, INC. (NGOT)
NGOT provides natural gas service to both affiliates and non-affiliates through a network of 150 miles of transmission pipelines and three underground gas storage fields.
NGO DEVELOPMENT, INC. (NGOD)
NGO Development Corporation owns interest in more than 100 oil and natural gas wells in Central Ohio.
PRODUCERS GAS SALES, INC.
Producers Gas Sales was formed in response to deregulation of the natural gas industry. Producers is a marketer of natural gas and serves high-volume members. The natural gas is provided by interstate supply, local production, and on-system storage fields.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
By Todd Ware, President & Chief Executive Officer
Todd Ware, President/CEO
While the times may have changed, our mission and outlook have not. We view our role as a catalyst for good. Working together, we can accomplish great things for our community now and in the future. We want to provide our members with services that will enhance their daily lives. This goal was exhibited when LRE was started and when National Gas & Oil was acquired in 1998 allowing us to provide natural gas and propane to our rural communities. Today, we have grown to serve Electric, Natural Gas and Propane to members with more than 72,000 meters. We hope you continue to take pride in our history while being as excited as we are about the growth happening to our system.
2024 - A YEAR OF GROWTH
The year was one of good growth and impressive performance. However, we did see slower growth than anticipated going into 2024. We continued to build out our system both in natural gas and electric, always with the focus of keeping our current infrastructure up to date and maintained. The board was pleased to continue to be able to retire (pay) capital credits back to the electric members for the third year in a row. We anticipate that 2025 will be another year of strong growth, and we remain excited about the opportunities that lie ahead.
SAFETY
We remain committed to the safety of our employees and members, as we work hard every day to deliver your energy reliably and safely. As we have in each of the last several years, we continue to take part in national peer review safety programs and are viewed as state and national leaders within these programs. The safety metrics, once again, came in better than both state and national industry averages. Our electric cooperative has gone over 25 years without a lost time injury.
FINANCIALS
The consolidated net margin for the year was substantially above budget, as we reported a positive margin of over $9 million. This result came in about $3 million above our 2024 budget. The increase in net margin came from several factors including higher farmout income, lower operating expenses, lower interest costs and higher nonoperated revenue from the sale of some land around our natural gas storage fields. We did have lower member sales , which offsets some of the increases. Overall capital expenditures were $8 million below budget as several electric projects were delayed until 2025. Consolidated comprehensive income was just under $10 million, which was also above budget. These results raised our overall equity position to just under 25%.
ELECTRIC
The electric system continues to focus on improving reliability, reducing outage times, and preparing for growth in western Licking County. In 2024, we spent just over $10 million on capital improvements projects centered around rebuilding aging infrastructure and constructing new lines. During the year, we added over 300 new electric members. We have continued to reduce our average outage times over the last several years. The capital projects, plus keeping up on the right-of-way clearing, has allowed us to keep your power on more consistently. In addition, we continue to work on reducing line loss, which helps to keep your power costs down.
NATURAL GAS
The natural gas cooperative continues to grow significantly, as it added almost 600 new residential members and several new large users. During 2024, the natural gas cooperative spent over $16 million on capital improvements. These projects included installing about 17 miles of new distribution pipe, which included a largediameter pipe project in the New Albany area. In addition, they replaced about 11 miles of aging infrastructure. These projects allowed us to keep our outstanding leaks and unaccounted for gas at very low levels.
ADMINISTRATIVE
We continue to work to provide the best member service we can to you, the members, every day. During the year we focused on improving our overall member satisfaction and service levels. We worked to improve our text notification system for outages and we’re happy that more of you are taking advantage of this service. We focused our communication during the year on keeping you informed on power supply, grid reliability, and our grid operator PJM. We continue to devote significant resources toward cyber security and protecting the cooperative’s data. We continue to have an annual audit of our cyber defenses and always look for new methods of preventing a cyber-attack. The future of The Energy Cooperative continues to be bright. There are numerous challenges and opportunities ahead for our communities and cooperative.
Each year brings new challenges for us here at The Energy Cooperative and I feel very honored to lead this cooperative. I am blessed with an outstanding team of employees who work hard in all conditions to bring you safe, reliable and affordable energy every day. They show a high level of dedication to the cooperative and its principles in everything they do. I am also grateful for the strong board of directors who consistently provide excellent leadership and support to The Energy Cooperative.
LICKING RURAL ELECTRIFICATION
By Josh Filler, Vice President & Chief Operating Officer - Electric Operations
Licking Rural Electrification (LRE) brings safe and reliable electricity to members with over 27,500 meters across nine counties in central Ohio. LRE owns, operates and maintains 3,029 miles of distribution lines, 40 miles of transmission lines, 20 substations and 3 switching stations.
In 2024, LRE added 331 new services to its system. LRE tries to be proactive in its maintenance programs to mitigate outages and improve reliability.
2024 PROJECTS
• Replaced aged submarine cable under Pleasant Hill Lake to maintain reliability and recoverability between our Jelloway and Loudonville substations.
• Replaced insulators at our Bladensburg substation.
• Performed full sectionalizing review in the Flintridge substation area for improved outage mitigation.
• Began conversion to new electronic reclosers that have reduced maintenance and will reduce nuisance momentary outages.
• Continued engineering on two new substations in the New Albany and Johnstown areas.
• Continued work with fiber companies to bring high speed internet to our service territory replacing nearly 300 poles to support that effort.
• Rebuilt approximately 20 miles of 12kV overhead distribution lines as part of our aging infrastructure program.
27,500 meters
331 new services added
9 counties
5,524 poles inspected
3 , 029miles ofdistributionlines 40miles oftransmissionlines 20 substations&3switchingstations
596 miles of trees were cut/trimmed
55 potentially dangerous poles replaced
1,123 underground facilities inspected
2,158 hazardous trees removed
2024 INSPECTIONS/MAINTENANCE
129 miles miles mowed
• 5,524 poles were inspected; 55 were identified as deteriorated and potentially dangerous poles that could cause outages or unsafe conditions and were replaced as a result.
• 1,123 underground facilities were inspected for possible hazards, repairs or replacements.
• Regulators, capacitors and reclosers were inspected to ensure proper operation.
• Inspections of each of our substations and switch stations were completed monthly, as well as oil testing each station transformer and infrared scanning for potential hot connections.
• 596 miles of right-of-way along our lines were cut and trimmed, 129 miles were mowed and 2,158 trees identified as dangerous or hazardous were removed from under or near power lines.
NATIONAL GAS & OIL COOPERATIVE
By Dan McVey, Vice President & Chief Operating Officer — Gas Operations
National Gas & Oil Cooperative brings safe and reliable energy to 39,440 residential and commercial meters within a seven-county area. Members of the cooperative consumed over three billion cubic feet of natural gas last year. This gas service is provided through a network of 1,200 miles of distribution pipelines.
We are committed to providing our members with safe and reliable natural gas service.
In 2024, we connected 586 new members and installed 18 miles of distribution mains for new growth. Most of the new mains were installed in western Licking County in conjunction with development in that area.
2024 PROJECTS
• Installed over 10 miles of new pipelines
• Added a new gas supply source in the New Albany area to serve new members
• Completed installation of a 6-inch high-pressure pipeline to bring gas supply from southwestern Licking County to the Pataskala area
• Upgraded system supply in the Newark Industrial Park
• Relocated our Gas Control office to integrate their operations with our Hebron service center
2024 INSPECTIONS/MAINTENANCE
• Performed over 24,597 OHIO811 requests for location of pipeline facilities
• Inspected over 300 regulator stations and nearly 1,000 valves
• Maintained 150 miles of pipeline right-of-way
• Responded to over 11,000 service calls for members
• Patrolled and surveyed over 400 miles of pipelines for leak detection
39,440 meters
10 miles distribution mains replaced
7 counties
1,200 miles distribution pipelines
3 billion cf+ of natural gas consumed last year
18 miles distribution mains added
586 new services added
NGO PROPANE COOPERATIVE
By Dan McVey, Vice President & Chief Operating Officer — Gas Operations
NGO Propane Cooperative provides propane service to 5,227 consumers within a fourteen-county area. Members of the cooperative consumed over 3.2 million gallons of propane last year. The propane delivery trucks traveled more than 75,000 miles and drivers made more than 10,000 deliveries in all kinds of weather conditions, proving our commitment to providing our members with safe and reliable propane service.
We continue to focus on providing affordable fixed-price propane with metered service. Our metering option helps members budget for their energy needs and avoid price increases that sometimes occur during the winter season.
This also allows members to pay for only the propane they use each month and avoid a costly bulk tank refill.
As part of our commitment to the community, we have five themed delivery trucks with special colors and decals. Our pink and lavender trucks promote cancer research and awareness. We recognize local veterans and first responders with our red, white and blue trucks. The cooperative is proud to recognize and support these organizations. The cooperative supports charitable organizations based on propane deliveries from our themed trucks.
5,227 consumers
14 counties
75K miles traveled by delivery trucks 10k+ propane deliveries
NGO TRANSMISSION
The primary role of NGO Transmission is to provide firm gas delivery service to the consumers of National Gas & Oil Cooperative and Producers Gas Sales. Transportation opportunities are also available for any qualifying gas shippers within Ohio. NGO Transmission provides natural gas service to both affiliates and non-affiliates through a network of over 150 miles of pipeline and three underground gas storage fields. These gas storage fields help balance the pipeline system and can provide up to half the daily supply needs of the pipeline system.
NGO Development Corporation owns interest in more than 100 oil and natural gas wells in Central Ohio. Many of these wells provide natural gas supply to the cooperative’s pipeline system. Oil and natural gas reserves total 60,000 barrels and 1.7 billion cubic feet. Monthly production averages 650 barrels of oil and 8,000 Mcf of natural gas. Currently we have more than 40,000 acres of land under lease for future oil and natural gas development. Most of the acreage is in the wet gas and oil producing region of the Utica shale.
Producers Gas Sales operates as an affiliated on-system marketing company for large commercial and industrial members. Producers Gas Sales arranges for acquisition and transportation of natural gas through the pipeline system for our large consumers. The volume of gas transported to large commercial and industrial members totaled over three billion cubic feet and represents more than half of the total gas sold or transported through the transmission and distribution systems.
SAFETY & ADMINISTRATION
By Connie Hogue, Vice President of Human Resources & Safety
Safety continues to be a core value of the cooperative. We strive to continuously improve our safety culture for the well-being of our employees, members and the public. We set annual safety goals and expectations while encouraging each employee to practice safe work habits to ensure everyone goes home safely at the end of the day.
SAFETY RECORD
One statistic we use to measure our safety record is the incident rate which measures the incident frequency per 100 employees. In 2024, we incurred zero OSHA-recordable incidents resulting in an overall company incident rate of 0. Incident rates for Ohio electric cooperatives and various natural gas companies throughout the U.S. reported incident rates 2.15 and 2.06, respectively. Our five-year incident rate came in at .68 which is significantly lower than the five-year average for other Ohio electric cooperatives and various natural gas companies as represented by incident rates of 1.92 and 2.16, respectively.
The Energy Cooperative’s natural gas operation earned the distinction of being a top safety performing company in 2024 and received a Safety Achievement Award in the small local distribution company category from the American Gas Association.
SAFETY COMMITTEE
Our safety committee comprises employees from all business lines. The committee meets numerous times a year to discuss ways to improve safety awareness, decrease complacency and improve safe work practices.
Our “Caught in the Act” program continues to be a big part of employee recognition when it comes to safety. This program allows employees to recognize fellow employees who take extraordinary measures to improve workplace safety, minimize potential hazards, or just go above and beyond in an exemplary way of what is expected of them. In 2024, we had 11 employees receive a Caught in the Act of safety award for their efforts toward safety. At the end of each year the committee votes on the one Caught in the Act award that stands out above all others. This person(s) is then recognized at our All Employee Meeting each year.
0 incident rate compared to 2.15 & 2.06
.68 five-year incident rate compared to 1.92 & 2.16
Jarrod Burden, Lineman and Dillon Ledbetter, Apprentice Lineman, were honored recipients for 2024. While working on an outage call, Jarrod and Dillon spotted smoke coming from the side of a nearby home. They saw the homeowner trying to put out a fire at his generator with a small fire extinguisher. They grabbed their larger fire extinguisher off the truck and successfully put out the fire before it spread to the house. Actions like this are why Jarrod and Dillon deserve this award.
MOTOR VEHICLES
Our employees drove over 1.5 million miles in 2024. We incurred a total of four preventable accidents. We monitor our vehicle accident statistics by a measurement known as an accident rate. The accident rate represents the number of motor vehicle accidents for every one million miles driven. In 2024, our at-fault accident rate was 2.66. The five-year average at-fault vehicle rate is 1.47, which is lower than the industry average of 2.45.
HEALTHCARE
Health care expenses for 2024 experienced an increase from the prior year. Overall healthcare and pharmacy costs continue to rise throughout the United States and the cooperative continues to watch these expenses very closely to ensure they remain at a reasonable and affordable level. We continue to evaluate and implement various cost control measures such as adjusting plan design and contribution levels continue to be reviewed on an annual basis.
SUCCESSION PLANNING
In 2024, the cooperative congratulated four employees who retired. These individuals gave countless years of dedication and commitment to the cooperative. As we continue to look at our aging workforce, we anticipate several more retirements in the years ahead. Our succession planning initiatives continue to be an important part of ensuring we have the necessary talent to lead the cooperative into the future.
1.5 miLLION miles driven by employees
1.47 at-fault accident rate compared to 2.45
4 employees retired
MARKETING & MEMBER SERVICES
By Heather Juzenas, Vice President of Marketing & Member Services
Our Marketing and Member Services Department works to simplify things for our members and make their experience as smooth as possible. We manage our cooperative’s communications, public relations, front-line member communications and member account functions. The team also handles member communications, digital media, advertising, call handling, billing, payments, disconnections and collections.
MEMBER CENTER
Our member service representatives speak with hundreds of members each day. They welcome new cooperative members when they move into our service territory, help members understand how their energy use relates to their bills, and teach them how to manage all aspects of their account in SmartHub. Our member center had spoke with 22% more members than 2023.
• Answered 56,664 member calls
• Rated 94% satisfaction on call surveys
• Answered 92% of phone calls within 90 seconds
• Welcomed 4,400 cooperative members
MEMBER ACCOUNTS
This team greets members at our Granville Road drive-thru, generates more than 71,000+ energy bills monthly, and processes all member payments. They also oversee disconnects for non-pay and the cooperative’s collections efforts. During 2024, this team:
• Expanded internal collection efforts, collecting $579,157.19 from 4,993 past due accounts
• Billed 29,772,193 ccfs to natural gas members
• Billed 423,675,767 kwhs to electric members
• Billed 3,235,499 gallons to propane members
• Increased paperless billing to 15% of total bills
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
Our Marketing and Communications team manages the cooperative’s communication efforts. This includes advertising, social media and myenergycoop.com. They handle sponsorships, events and community relations. In 2023, the marketing and communications team:
• Produced four printed and two digital issues of The Energy Cooperative’s Times magazine
• Hosted Kids Day at the Works in June
• Increased members signed up for outage text and messaging by 70%
• Launched a new website
Our department’s top priority is to serve cooperative members. We have an excellent team and look forward to continuing our efforts in 2025.
Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about your account. We are always here to help! You can reach our member services by calling 740-344-2102 or sending a message from our website at myenergycoop.com/contact
56,664 member calls
94% satisfaction on call surveys
4,400 new cooperative members
92% calls answered within 90 secs.
INVESTING IN OUR YOUTH
Children of Members Scholarship Recipients
Investing in our future means investing in our youth. Today’s children will become future homeowners, business owners and the leaders of our communities. As a cooperative, it is important to instill in our youth an understanding of what it means to be a cooperative owner and to show them the cooperative difference. That is why we proudly provided $12,000 in scholarships to high school seniors in 2024.
Children of members scholarship recipients
JOELLE BAKER Newark High School
BRENDAN BERNATH Bishop Rosecrans High School
NICHOLAS FOLTZ Licking Valley High School
NATALIE JUNGERS Newark Catholic High School
ISABELLA MULLINS Fredericktown High School
ETHAN WHITE Granville High School
TREASURER’S REP ORT
For the year ended December 31, 2024, the Board of Directors engaged bhm cpa group, inc. to perform an audit of the cooperatives’ books and records. The bhm group has extensive experience in auditing both utilities and cooperatives. On March 26, 2025, bhm issued the audit report for the year ended December 31, 2024. The audit report contained an unmodified opinion, which in accounting terms is a clean opinion from the auditor.
In 2024, total revenues for the cooperatives were approximately $136.6 million. Total operating expenses for the year were $128.5 million, of which $61.8 million was for purchased energy. Patronage capital received from other cooperatives was $1.7 million. The net margin for the consolidated group was $9.4 million.
Consolidated comprehensive income for 2024 was $10 million. Comprehensive income is calculated by adding net margin and unrealized gains/losses on postretirement benefits plans. Comprehensive income by entity for the year are as follows:
• Licking Rural Electric - $4,211,000
• National Gas & Oil - $2,885,000
• NGO Transmission - $1,888,000
• NGO Development – $668,000
• NGO Propane - $338,000
As of December 31, 2024, your cooperative had total assets of $384 million, which includes $312 million in net plant assets. The cooperatives invested $29.7 million in new plant assets throughout the year. The company had $41 million of patronage capital in other cooperatives, including Buckeye Power and Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC). Included in total assets was $1.5 million in cash and short-term investments. Total liabilities were $288 million as of year-end.
The cooperative has total equity of $96 million as of December 31, 2024. Equity as a percentage of assets for the combined entities has grown to 25 percent.
The Energy Cooperative serves approximately 72,100 meters. During 2024, we paid out approximately $8.7 million in taxes. The cooperative retired $395,000 in patronage capital credits to estates and $635,000 in general retirements to electric members. If you have additional questions about this financial report, please contact the office at 740-344-2102.
INCOME STATEMENT
DECEMBER 31, 2024 REVENUES
$128,524,136
$9,988,739
$8,212,151
BALANCE
1,000,051
6,919,749
$47,432,107
$336,571,339
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
5 1 7 3 6 4 8
9
The designations Credentialed Cooperative Director (CCD), Board Leadership Certification (BLC), and Director Gold Certificates (DGC) are earned by Directors upon their completion of a series of certification classes provided by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA).
COOPERATIVE LEADERSHIP
Connie Hogue, VP/HR & Safety
Heather Juzenas, VP/Marketing & Member Services
Todd Ware, President/CEO
Josh Filler, VP/COO Electric Operations
Dan McVey, VP/COO Gas Operations
Pat McGonagle, VP/CFO
Scott Stitts, VP/CIO
Donald Hawk, District 1 CCD, BLC, DGC
Tom Graham, District 9 CCD, BLC, DGC
Joanne Little, District 8 CCD, BLC, DGC
Dustin Buckingham, District 7 CCD, BLC, DGC
Nelson Smith, District 2 CCD, BLC, DGC
Brad Patton, District 3, CCD
Wayne Zollars, District 5 CCD
John Klauder, District 6 CCD, BLC, DGC
Roy Van Atta, District 4 CCD
Brianna Stone, Executive Assistant to President/CEO
