Energy Biz - March/April 2008 - (Page 43) lEadERShIP ROUNdTaBlES Rural electric cooperatives like all other segments of the power industry face an onslaught of challenges. Some are experiencing soaring population growth in their service territories, once rural but now suburban. Others see industrial and commercial load take off. New power plants must be put in place, workers hired and transmission lines strung. Rural electrics are poised to launch an unprecedented campaign to educate their customers about the difficult choices that must be made – from generation to global warming. With the importance of this epochal moment in mind, EnergyBiz recently sat down with several chief executives of rural electrics from around the country attending a meeting of ENERGYBIZ What is unique about your cooperative? the National Rural ElecMarshaLL Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Co-Op is an 8,000-meter electric tric Cooperative Associacooperative that straddles the California and Nevada border. And we have a telecom tion, which represents 900 subsidiary that has about 20,000 customers and about three lines of business. member co-ops serving 40 BE avErs United Cooperative Services is located south of Fort Worth. Our annual million people in 47 states. revenues are about $220 million. Our peak capacity requirement is 450 megawatts. Fresh on their minds was We serve 14 counties in Texas. We’re a product of a consolidation that occurred the observation by Glenn about eight years ago. Our growth rate has been enhanced considerably by movement English, association presifrom the metro area of Dallas-Fort Worth into our area. We are an urban co-op that dent, asserting, “What merged with a rural co-op, so we have a very unique flavor to us in a lot of ways. Our kind of job we’ll be able to power costs have increased 65 percent since 2003. BrighaM 4-County Electric Power Association in Columbus, Miss. has 43,800 do for the next 20–30 years members in parts of eight counties in east-central Mississippi. We have three counties will be determined in the in double digits unemployment. We’re also experiencing a lot of industrial growth next couple of months.” generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides all of our power. We Given the political chalexpect our load to grow a minimum of 18 megawatts in the next two years, up from lenges ahead, he said, 194 megawatts. That’s a pretty significant growth for us. “Communications will be hEnsEL I’m general manager of two cooperatives in southern Minnesota, BENCO and as important this century Brown County REA. Both are relatively small co-ops. BENCO has 13,000 members and as linemen were in the past Brown County REA has less than 4,000 members. One of the things we’re seeing quite a century.” The chief execubit of, with the high price of propane and liquid fuels, is conversions to electric heat. tives’ comments, edited for WhiTEsiDE Coweta-Fayette Electric in Palmetto, Ga. is located about 40 miles style and length, follow. southwest of Atlanta, so you can say we’re an urban cooperative. We serve 73,000 RURal ElECTRIC CEO ROUNdTaBlE members, residential and commercial. We’ve got 30,000 natural gas customers and we also have a subsidiary security business. We are a 400-megawatt system, and typically grow 6 to 7 percent a year. We’re adding about 3,000 customers a year. ENERGYBIZ You all are experiencing dramatic growth. What kind of pressures does that impose? BE avErs It’s put a lot of pressure on our business. Some fear that by 2009 we could have a capacity deficiency and could be looking at blackouts. The state of Texas is seeing about 4 to 5 percent growth. ray BEaVErS GENERAL MANAGER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, United Cooperative Services (Texas) allEGra BriGhaM CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, 4-County Rural Electric Power Association (Mississippi) WaDE hENSEl GENERAL MANAGER, BENCO and Brown County REA (Minnesota) roBErT MarShall GENERAL MANAGER, Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Co-Op(California) How is it by Atlanta? We’re expecting to need 650 megawatts by 2015. The state as a whole needs 20,000 megawatts by 2020. Whether it’s going to be gas, nuclear, coal, or efficiencies — we’re in the process of looking at those issues. MarshaLL We have maybe 20 percent of our power produced by our own generation. We actually plan to increase that. But even though we’re building additional capacity as quick as we can, our growth is definitely going to outweigh the amount of capacity we can build or afford to buy. ENERGYBIZ WhiTEsiDE ENERGYBIZ Do rural electrics have an important role to play in helping to develop renewable resources? WhiTEsiDE We are establishing a national renewable organization and its members will be generation, transmission and distribution cooperatives. It will be interesting to see how it works. MichaEl WhiTESiDE PRESIDENT, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, Coweta-Fayette Electric (Georgia) www.energycentral.com E n E rgyB i z 43 http://www.energycentral.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.