CEO Blog

August 26, 2011

The Work Plan

When I was young, September used mean that school was starting. Now, school starts in August. Things are constantly changing. The same is true for all of us here at Joe Wheeler EMC; we are continually trying to do the right things that will improve your electric service.

Your cooperative is sort of like the guy that built a one room house when he was a single fellow. In a few years, he met a young lady and they were married. They then decided that they needed more room and added a living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen to the original one room house. Before they knew it, they were having a family and needed more space. They built on three more bedrooms, a laundry room and another bathroom and a half bath. After a time the siding needed to be replaced and they decided to brick the house and add on a two car garage. They also borrowed some of the money that they needed as they added new space to the house. The point of this story is simply to say, like many families, Joe Wheeler EMC is constantly changing and our system has to change to keep up with your needs.

A few months ago, our engineering department did a study of the electric grid in order to identify lines that might need to be upgraded or replaced. The study, or as we call it the “Work Plan”, is pretty detailed and takes quite a while to complete. The work plan covers projected power line upgrades that need to be done over the next four years. The Work Plan forecasts load growth and that helps us identify where lines need to be replaced. The plan also anticipates the cost of new lines to serve new customers. To help improve reliability, tie lines that connect substations to each other are also planned, as is work to replace aging transformers at existing substations. All-in-all the Work Plan anticipates that Joe Wheeler will spend approximately $36 million over the next four years to keep the system in good working condition.

After the Work Plan was finished, it was presented to our board of directors and they decided to approve it. We do the best that we can to plan our work and then work the plan to make sure that your power is reliable. Since the work plan covers four years, JWEMC plans to spend about $9 million each year.

I hope that we always do a good job of providing very reliable power service to you and your families.