87th Annual Meeting Recap

North Central Electric’s 87th annual meeting was held virtually for the fourth year in a row. Hundreds of members attended either by phone or computer on June 13

Attorney Brent Howard presented the election results. Districts 1, 2, and 3 had an uncontested election, making Kevin Bishop your director representing District 1, Dennis Schindler your director representing District 2, and Nick Wagner your director representing District 3 In this year’s election, the membership voted on changes to the Code of Regulations. The election was conducted by Co-op Ballot, an independent, third-party balloting provider. Co-op Ballot certified that all five issues passed.

Board Chair Rodney Snavely gave an update on the headquarters building project. The project began in May 2022, and the construction work is coming to a close as employees operate under a temporary occupancy permit while waiting for the final components necessary to open the building to the public. He thanked the members who actively participate in Operation Round Up/People Fund. “The People Fund remains dedicated to giving our members and communities the extra helping hand we all may sometimes need,” he said.

Snavely also updated members about the member advisory committee group, which kicked off in 2022. This committee consists of nine to 18 total members (up to two per district) and meets twice a year to learn about electric issues, receive education about cooperative policy and procedures, and help to inform members at large about services and events related to the operations and management of the co-op. For more information about the committee, contact the cooperative at 419-426-3072

Pat O’Loughlin, president and CEO of Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives (OEC), took a look back on 2022 and all the challenges that it brought, including volatility in fuel prices, high inflation, supply chain disruptions, long lead times for electrical equipment, and severe weather events that caused widespread grid disruptions. Nonetheless, he praised Ohio’s 24 electric cooperatives for their performance at keeping the lights on, making repairs when outages did occur, and holding cost increases to a minimum. O’Loughlin touched on topics like environmental regulations, market rules, unreasonable goals and timelines to achieve greater reductions in carbon emissions, the continued need for coal, the impact of grid reliability, and much more.

NCE President/CEO Ed VanHoose congratulated the 2023 scholarship winners and encouraged all graduating seniors who are children of NCE members to apply for these scholarships.

VanHoose briefly talked about the headquarters project and the delays affecting the co-op's ability to open the building to the public, as well as the community center and its availability in the future.

Next, he touched on the impact of the current state of the economy and how generation, transmission, and fuel costs, supply chain issues, and labor shortages affect your cooperative. He spoke about the potential for NCE to see rolling blackouts depending on the weather and the availability of generation resources.

“Where does that leave us for the future?” VanHoose asked. “Well, it leaves a lot of uncertainty, leaves a lot of volatility, and it leaves me saying something that I have never said in my 20 years running an electric cooperative. And that is that I think its time for us all to consider buying personal generators for your own house to help offset when these types of events could potentially happen.”

He also encouraged members to do some research and be prepared for the supply chain issues that are going to be inevitable when members start to try to get personal generators.

Finally, VanHoose updated members about two types of broadband. The first use of broadband is internet access for members’ homes. NCE is not offering this as a service, but instead has collaborated with Bascom Communications to help build out and offer broadband service to NCE members in Seneca County. Look for some announcements that will be coming in the following months.

The second use for broadband is within the electric industry. This broadband network will allow NCE to have the ability to automate switching between substations if a transmission line is down. By utilizing fiber, NCE can reroute the power to keep the lights on for members. Beginning next year, the co-op plans to develop the technology roadmap using this new communication backbone that will enable us to provide advanced metering infrastructure as well as some smart home capabilities to all members.

Miss the meeting? View a recording on the co-op's page here: www.ncelec.org/annual-meeting.