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We all use electricity, both directly and indirectly throughout our day, at work, at play, and home. From our air conditioning systems and appliances to our smartphones, computers, TVs, and Wi-Fi, reliable energy powers our quality of life.

Over the summer, news headlines suggested the potential for disruptive energy markets and unreliable service, especially in the Midwest and West and in states like California and Texas. I’m proud to say your electric cooperative has not experienced those same major disruptions with the power we deliver to you. I’d like to discuss some of the ways we’re committed to continually delivering reliable electricity to you, and our members, and the efforts we are making to stay ahead of the supply chain crisis threatening electric utilities throughout the United States.

In our strategic plan, we identified reliability as a priority of the co-op. With this strategic focus on reliability from your Board of Directors, our dedicated employee team does both the little and big things to ensure members like you receive the service you expect.

Commitment to Reliability

Here is a look at some of the projects we have recently completed that illustrate our ongoing commitment to reliability to improve our 2021 reliability rating of 99.97%.

  • Completed a ground inspection of over 500 miles
  • Utilized our metering infrastructure to have real-time access to our system, which increases the available data we can use to monitor, react to, and plan with.
  • Sectionalized our system to better isolate outages and limit their impact while making it easier for our crews to find and repair issues quickly.
  • Trimmed and mowed hundreds of miles of rights-of-way
  • Annual inspection of all major transmission lines
  • Annual system maintenance program for substations (More on the next page)

Looking Forward

Here are the projects that are on the horizon as part of our efforts to reach a reliability rating of 100%.

  • Installing fiber optic cable to our substations to increase the speed and amount of data we receive back from our system to aid in the restoration of our system.
  • Developing advanced systems to allow load shifting between substations in less than 5 minutes.
  • Ongoing upgrades for both the overhead and underground systems.

Our leadership team is keeping a close eye on the supply chain crisis facing electric utilities across the United States, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been exacerbated by worldwide supply chain issues. Transformers, conductor lines, and other items are in high demand and low supply. To help find solutions, NNEC has joined the Coalition for the Advancement of Reliable Electrical Systems (CARES).

In the end, we believe reliability and affordability go hand in hand and are critical pillars to delivering on our mission to improve the quality of life in our communities. We have worked tirelessly to ensure our energy and service are of great value to you by being both reliable and affordable. Reliability and affordability will continue to work in tandem and be at the forefront of our return on service mentality, and that’s our promise to you.