CEO
It has been a busy and productive year for Carroll White REMC. We ended 2023 in solid financial standing, with nearly $2.3 million in margins and in a strong position with lenders, exceeding all of their required key ratios.
Last fall, the board of directors again approved refunding capital credits in the amount of $704,672.69. That makes nearly $8 million returned to members since 2013!
As a cooperative, we have many responsibilities to our members. Three areas come to the forefront: reliability, affordability, and safety.
Over the next five to 10 years, you will hear about reliable electric service as demand for electricity continues to increase and supply continues to decrease. We will do everything possible to ensure that our members have reliable and affordable electric service.
As the electric grid changes, we are all forced to be more flexible and adaptable. Your question to us is, “What are we doing at CW REMC to protect your interests?” As we look at the changing landscape, we will be working closely with our power supplier, Wabash Valley Power Alliance, on what changes are impacting electric generation and the power grid and how we can best respond to those changes.
All the rapid changes in the power market may lead to short-term changes in how we use our energy. This, along with extreme weather conditions, may also lead to shedding some power if the electric grid dictates it.
This is where a new program that Wabash Valley Power is implementing called Power Shift Plus will assist our cooperative and our nearly 15,000 members. This program will include a combination of home generators, battery storage, and solar units, along with the water heater demand response units that we have in place. More details on this program will be coming soon.
We are currently working on three infancy-stage projects with Wabash Valley Power. The details of these projects will directly involve the changing power grid and will create greater reliability within our service territory over the coming years.
Several construction work plan items will also assist with reliability. In the Operations and Engineering Departments, we recently completed and commissioned the new Bringhurst Substation. This improvement was greatly needed in that section of our service territory as the old substation had served our members there since 1953.
We broke ground for the new Freedom Substation, replacing one that served members in the greater Delphi area since the mid-1970s. Upon completion of the Freedom Substation, we will break ground on a new substation called Jackson Substation, located north of Idaville. This will replace a metering point that has been in service for over 60 years and is owned by NIPSCO.
It is a major undertaking to have three brand-new substations go into service within a year of each other. This will provide reliable and affordable power for years to come, not only for current members but also for any new members we are able to add in the coming years.
In addition to the three new substations, Duke Energy rebuilt the Rockfield Substation, and CW REMC obtained an extra feed from that substation. This will significantly enhance our ability to serve members in that area.
These major construction projects and upgrades to the system will allow CW REMC to back feed areas, cutting down on outage times while providing growth opportunities in the future. All indications show sufficient generation capacity to meet electricity demands this year.
In addition to working on major infrastructure projects, five different fiber internet companies have asked us to add their fiber attachments to our poles. Access to high-speed internet service greatly enhances the quality of life and quality of place within our service territory. This request from fiber internet companies involves many considerations.
CW REMC will ensure that existing poles can handle the extra weight and meet height clearance for safety precautions prior to adding fiber attachments. Each CW REMC pole is being checked. To date, we have checked or changed approximately 800 poles to accommodate fiber being added. We anticipate that another 9,000 poles will be checked or changed in the next three to five years.
Meters on the CW REMC system are also being changed. This process began in late 2023 and will continue through 2025.
“Thank you to our 48 hardworking and dedicated employees for their efforts this past year. They are such a dedicated group to work with, and they are such fun to be around daily.”
