From the Top with CEO Patrick Grace

As we welcome the new year, our cooperative remains focused on reliability, innovation, and growth. Reflecting on the past decade, we’ve significantly reduced outage times, achieving reliability levels well above industry peers in our state. While we’re proud of this progress, maintaining and enhancing this reliability is an ongoing responsibility.

This year, we’re committed to continuous improvement through strategic investments and technology-driven solutions. One key initiative is expanding our self-healing grid powered by our fiber network. About 20% of our system is self-healing, meaning it can automatically reroute power during outages. This technology minimizes service interruptions, and we’ll continue expanding it where it makes sense for our system.

Another critical area of focus is increasing substation capacity. As our service area grows, so does the need for infrastructure upgrades. Substations are essential for our power system as hubs that distribute electricity to homes and businesses. We currently operate about 24 substations, but additional facilities are necessary with continued growth.

For example, we’re working to add new substations, relocate existing ones, and expand capacity at key locations. These improvements will help ensure our system can handle increased electricity demand while enhancing long-term reliability.

Looking ahead, we remain committed to innovative, thoughtful investments that strengthen our electric grid and support the needs of our members. Thank you for your trust and partnership as we continue to power our community together.