Co-op News BEC
BEC Ranked the Most Reliable Electric Cooperative in Texas
BEC C R EWS WOR K TO QUIC KLY R ESTOR E P OW E R . PHOTO COURTESY OF BEC MEMBER C LINT CO O K .
MESSAGE FROM CEO BILL HETHERINGTON IN 1842, SAMUEL MORSE AND HIS ASSOCIATE F.O.J. SMITH HAD JUST received the patent for their telegraph and were trying to determine the best way to send the electric signals over wire. Ezra Cornell, who later co-founded Cornell University and an acquaintance of Smith, had developed a plow that would dig a two-and-ahalf-foot ditch, lay a pipe with electric wire and cover the ditch back up as it went. Unfortunately, condensation in the pipes and poorly insulated wires impeded the electrical current, and so Cornell proposed installing poles with glass insulators and stringing the wire from pole to pole. Thus was born the method of transmitting electrical current over long distances. While there have been many improvements to the various ways to transmit electrical energy, the use of wooden poles, insulators and wires remains the primary method to deliver electricity over long distances. These lines cross our region for nearly 4,000 miles, and behind every mile are people who make it possible. Those who install and maintain these lines require special training, knowledge and skills, as they play a critical
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Texas Co-op Power BEC April 2019
role in the restoration of electricity. These men and women spend years honing their abilities to install, maintain and restore electric lines, and we call them linemen. April 18 is National Lineman Appreciation day, a day to acknowledge and honor the tireless and dangerous work these courageous men and women do to keep your lights on and your lives running smoothly. Each year, electric utilities from across the nation submit their reliability indices to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). These indices use a standardized approach to measuring electric system reliability. The two most important indices are the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), a measure of total outage minutes divided by total customers, and the System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI), the number of outages divided by total customers. The EIA recently released its results for 2017 and ranked Bandera Electric Cooperative first in reliability in Texas. Additionally, out of 374 electric cooperatives that submitted SAIDI and SAIFI numbers, BEC ranked 10th in SAIDI and 6th in SAIFI nationally—putting it in the top 2.7 percent of cooperatives. That is quite an achievement thanks to all of the employees of BEC, especially our linemen. Thank you for all that you do each and every day.
BanderaElectric.com
