Executive Report

Dear Cooperative Members,

Cooperatives are collective problem solvers, community assets and hold a distinct place among electric utilities – powering more than half of the country’s landmass and owned by the 42 million Americans they serve. Powering homes and businesses is becoming more complex every day. At Bartholomew County REMC we create solutions – cooperative solutions.

2022 proved to be a challenging year for the energy industry. A combination of global and national issues severely impacted supply costs, creating one of the most volatile environments for fuel and power prices in the last 20 years. However, Bartholomew County REMC met these challenges head on with cooperative solutions. Proactive strategies to give back to members smoothed the cost pressures on rates, protecting against the volatility of wholesale power cost increases for our members. Capital credit refunds totaling $2.2 million and implementing the Utilities Receipts Tax (URT) repeal relieved most of the rising costs of power for our members. With cooperative solutions, the 17% increase in wholesale power costs was mitigated for our members.

2022 was a solid year financially for the co-op, with operating revenue at $47.9 million and $299,000 in margins. We stayed under budget in both capital and controllable expenses and held equity at 58.2%.

Our employees experienced great strides in furthering their education, job training, and professional development. Nearly 40% participated in continuing education, and others returned to school for personal growth. We had four employees graduate from the HEATS (Hoosier Energy Apprentice Training and Safety) program, while several others earned certificates and completed leadership programs throughout the year. See page 16 for more of our 2022 accomplishments and achievements.

In 2022, we held our second drive through member appreciation event, in addition to a food drive. We had 625 cars visit us and handed out 1,300 Chick-Fil-A cards, and 1,400 bags of kettle corn! With help from our members, we delivered over 1,200 pounds of food to local food pantries. Thank you for your generosity. We also hosted our 3rd virtual annual meeting and grew our in-person day at the fair event. It was good to see you at these events.

In 2022, we stayed focused on our mission to exceed in overall performance and execution in member satisfaction, safety, reliability, and cost control, meeting all 8 of our corporate goals. We continued to offer exemplary service to our members and received an ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) score of 88. We maintained consistent reliability numbers, while our average outage duration per customer improved to just 54 minutes (excluding major events). More than a third of our members did not experience an outage throughout the year, as our average number of outages per member was .6. Further, our focus on employee engagement and satisfaction resulted in an all-time high score of 8.3 (out of 10) in the Employee Satisfaction Index.

With continuous investments in vegetation management and system grid upgrades, our average restoration time reached a new record low of just 88 minutes. Our line workers work diligently to maintain a quick response time by moving to any outage in less than 9 minutes and are proud to provide that level of service to our members.

Over the past few years, we’ve risen to meet new challenges and strengthen safety practices at our coop. We have strict safety measurements and goals. Ensuring the safety and well-being of our employees and members remains our highest priority. In 2022, we surpassed our goals with no injuries and no days away or restricted duty.

We know that our core job is to keep the lights on, but our passion is the community. BCREMC directors and employees play an active role in providing cooperative solutions within our community. BCREMC contributed to programs and efforts, giving more than $27,420 in Operation Round Up grants and $22,000 to the United Way in payroll deduction and corporate gifts. See pages 10-11 for more details on our community giving.

Having energy efficient appliances and features in your home can directly impact your bill, which is why we continue to offer an incentive program to help members where it counts. In 2022, we rebated over $72,600 to our residential members and $20,700 to our commercial/industrial customers through our incentive program, provided by our wholesale power provider, Hoosier Energy.

At Bartholomew County REMC, our employees are committed to the membership, offering cooperative solutions to complex issues that come our way. Providing safe, reliable, and affordable energy is always part of the cooperative solution, and what we will continue to deliver. Thank you for the privilege to serve you now and into the future.

Curt Burbrink - President, Board of Directors

Courtney Metzger - Chief Executive Officer