July 2024 Light Reading

LIGH READING

Things to know about power restoration

Wedo our best to avoid power disruptions, but they are inevitable from time to time. As an Inland Power member, we want you to know that during an outage our team is working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power.

Here are a few important items we would like to share with you regarding our restoration process:

 When your power goes out, it might be just at your home or small section of a neighborhood. Through our AMI system we are able to pinpoint outages, however; we do encourage you to contact us if you do not see your outage on our outage map.

 It’s a team effort at Inland Power to get your power restored as soon as possible. Our member experience representatives receive calls, engineers and field staff survey damage, our vegetation management team clears hazards, dispatchers organize crews, line crews make needed repairs to keep everyone safe and restore power and communicators inform everyone of

progress or potential dangers. When your power goes out, we all work together as quickly and safely as possible to get you back to normal.

 Every outage is different, and we don’t know how dangerous it is or what equipment might need to be replaced. When responding to outages, we first need to see what happened, then figure out what materials we need and plan how to fix the problem without compromising electric flow for the rest of our members.

 Our crews focus on responding first to public safety issues and critical services like hospitals. Then we complete work that impacts the largest of number of members first.

 Our employees face many dangers when working around high voltage electricity. Our crews are on alert for wild animals, weather elements, falling trees and fastmoving cars.

 Sometimes flickering lights can be mistaken as an outage, but these “blinks” are important because they

indicate our equipment worked and prevented a possible outage, likely caused by animals or stray tree limbs falling on power lines.

 We do our best to help those who need it, but if you depend on electricity for life support purposes, you must have a back-up plan. We don’t always know how long restoration efforts will take.

 Our portion of the power grid is connected to other electric utilities, and we maintain positive relationships with power providers interconnected to our system. If our outage is due to an issue from their feed into our system, we must let them do their repairs and be mindful of what they’re going through to fix it.

 Inland Power is a local electric cooperative owned by the members we serve; our employees are local too. Remember, if you are without power, our people might be too.

For more information on outage and emergency prepardness, please visit inlandpower.com/outages-emergencies.

Our mision is our members!

Maximize your energy savings this summer!

Simple and easy tips to follow!

As the temperatures rise this summer, it’s natural to want to turn up the air conditioning to cool off indoors. However, staying comfortable this summer doesn’t have to come at the cost of skyrocketing energy bills. By implementing some simple energy efficiency tips, you can keep your home cool and your energy consumption low.

Here are some easy tips to help you beat the heat while saving money this summer:

Adjust Thermostat Settings

Set your thermostat to the highest temperature you find comfortable. Every degree you raise your thermostat can result in significant energy savings. Consider investing in a programmable or smart thermostat that can adjust the temperature based on your schedule, ensuring your home is only cooled when needed.

Utilize Fans

Ceiling fans and portable fans are an energy efficient way to circulate air and make your home feel cooler. Remember to turn off fans when you leave the room, as they cool people, not spaces.

Seal

and Insulate

Proper insulation and sealing cracks and gaps around windows and doors can prevent warm air from entering your home and cool air from escaping.

Maintain Your Cooling System

Regular maintenance of your air conditioning system, such as cleaning or replacing filters and checking for leaks can improve its efficiency and prolong its lifespan.

Use Energy-Efficient Appliances

When it’s time to replace old appliances, choose energy-efficient models that are ENERGY STAR certified. These appliances use less energy, which can lead to long-term savings on your energy bills.

By implementing these energy efficiency tips, you can stay cool and comfortable throughout the summer while also reducing your energy consumption and saving money on your utility bills. With a little effort and some simple changes, you can make a big difference for both your wallet and the environment.

Common causes of power outages

There is never a good time for the power to go out, but if it happens on a sunny day, you might be wondering why. Here are the most common causes of a power outage to keep in mind.

Weather

High winds, snow and ice can cause tree limbs to fall on power lines. Other weather effects, like wildfires and lightning strikes, can cause major outages.

Animals Accidents

Squirrels, birds, snakes and other animals can accidentally come into contact with power lines, causing short circuits and disruptions to electrical supply.

Vehicles can crash into utility poles, bringing down power lines. Construction work can also result in disruptions to underground lines.

Scheduled Maintenance

Occasionally, we plan outages to perform upgrades or repairs to parts of the Inland Power grid.

Start your path to Inland Power is excited to launch its low interest BEST program!

Building Energy Savings Today!

Are you considering an energy savings project for your home this summer? Before you get started, you need to know about Inland Power’s BEST program. BEST is a low-interest on bill financing program (5%) offered to members for energy saving home projects. This tariff program is extended for specific energy savings projects that are allowed under the Rural Energy Savings Program (RESP), which is overseen by the United States government acting through the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) office.

If you are considering starting an energy savings project in your home, we’ve got a helpful checklist to get your started!

BEST Checklist

Prior to submitting your BEST application, members should have the following prepared:

Identify the type of energy savings project you plan to complete.

Is your project going to be a hybrid electric water heater, heat pump, washer and dryer, residential EV charging station, insulation, windows or solar?

Visit inlandpower.com/best-program for an application. Fully complete your application and submit to conservation@inlandpower.com.

Request a bid from a contractor.

Determine how much you will need to finance to complete your project. Once you have received your bid, please sign and include in your project application.

Review and sign the BEST agreement.

Be sure to include your signed and notarized BEST agreement with your application package.

Please note the following guidlelines and restrictions:

Member can only have one tariff project financed at a given time.

• Minimum project amount is $1,000 and maximum is $50,000.

• Income verfication required for any project over $15,000. On-time payment history - 12 month.

• Home and land must be owned by account holder. Multifamily housing not eligible.

Now that you have basics, you can get started on your journey towards building energy savings TODAY!

Inland Power’s 87th Annual Meeting took place on May 23, 2024 at CenterPlace Event Center in Spokane Valley, Wash. The event was a great opportunity to meet with members and provide a comprehensive update on our cooperative and elect our 2024 Board of Trustee candidates. Election results were announced and Jim Baye was elected to serve District One, Garry Rosman was reelected to represent District Two and Chris Davis was re-elected to serve District Three.

Inland Power board members and leadership provided attendees with a co-op report. “I hope all of us as members, who are owners of this cooperative, realize the significant strides we have made as a company and I am glad to report that Inland Power completed another successful year,” said Inland Power Board President, Randy Suess during his President’s report. “We know that all of this is impossible without your support and membership with Inland Power and Light. We thank each and every one of you for a wonderful 87 years, and we look forward to serving you for many years to come.”

A big thanks to all meeting attendees and members who participated in the board of trustee election process. To view more photos of the event, visit inlandpower.com/annualmeeting

Jim Baye District 1

Garry Rosman District 2

Chris Davis District 3