CEO’s Message

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Balancing Electricity Supply & Demand

Electricity is essential for nearly every aspect of daily life—so much so that we rarely think about how it’s produced and delivered to our homes. You might be surprised to learn that behind the scenes, a network of experts is working daily—and even by the minute—to anticipate how much electricity you need before you even use it.

We’re all connected to the electric grid, so ensuring the right amount of electricity for all involves a complex process of forecasting energy demand, planning for capacity, and securing enough supply to meet every member’s needs.

Powerful Sources

First, electricity must be generated at a power plant using either traditional sources, such as coal and natural gas, or from renewable sources such as hydro.

At Wells Rural Electric Company (WREC), we work closely with Bonneville Power Administration, our wholesale power partner, to secure enough electricity for our communities. We use a diverse mix of energy sources to generate the power we deliver to your home or business. By pulling from a variety of sources—hydro, nuclear, other renewables, and market purchases—WREC has options to ensure reliable power at a competitive cost.

WREC is beginning a new relationship with PNGC Power, which is also a cooperative, so we can pool resources and expertise with other utilities to continue delivering affordable power for you.

Electricity supply changes throughout the day because demand fluctuates based on consumers’ needs. For example, WREC knows we need more electricity in the mornings, when members start their day and, in the evenings, when members cook dinner, run appliances and watch TV. Demand also increases based on weather patterns, such as extremely warm or cold temperatures.

Looking Ahead

As the energy sector undergoes rapid change, all consumers need to understand the basics of electricity supply and demand.

Electricity use in the United States is expected to rise to record highs this year and next, with the demand for electricity expected to at least double by 2050. At the same time, energy policies are pushing the early retirement of always-available generation sources, which will undoubtedly compromise reliable electricity.

WREC remains committed to providing safe, affordable, and reliable energy to the members we serve. That’s why we are preparing now for increased demand and other challenges that could compromise our local electric supply.

Balancing electricity supply and demand is a complex job, which is why we have a network of partners in place to manage the electricity we need and keep the electric grid balanced.

As we begin a new year, your board of directors and employees renew our dedication to ensuring your access to safe, reliable, affordable and environmentally responsible electricity now and into the future.

Best wishes,

Thad S. Ballard
CEO

Embodying the Cooperative Spirit

With the holiday season upon us, I want to take a break from talking about the energy industry. Instead, let’s discuss the ways each of us can embody the “cooperative spirit” this December and help share it with our families, friends, neighbors, and communities.

Give the gift of energy efficiency. First, I’ll get the shameless plug out of the way. If you are looking for gift ideas, we have several great suggestions on our website, in addition to providing energy efficiency, improving productivity, or are just downright cool. Whether you are shopping for somebody interested in smart devices and home automation, your favorite handyperson, or the tech junkie in your family, there are all kinds of energy efficiency options at just about every price range.

If you want to compete with Clark Griswold rather than just keep up with the Joneses, there are almost limitless decoration options that are energy-efficient and visually stunning.

• Attend a community event. Now that we have gifts taken care of, the simplest embodiment of the cooperative spirit remains the sense of community pride we all share. I would encourage everybody to participate in 1 of the many community events that help make December special. Find a caroling group, attend your local school’s Christmas concert, or attend 1 of the light parades. I hope that we see you there!
• Enjoy an old tradition. 1 of my favorite parts of the holidays is the way each person and family seems to have their own unique way of celebrating. For my family, I love decorating our tree with ornaments we collected during family vacations. Each ornament—the carved wooden bear from Yellowstone or the shell from the beach—reminds me of happy times with my family.
  I hope you will take some time this month to enjoy those time-honored traditions and maybe even include something new.
• Make a new tradition. Speaking of new, I encourage you to expand your boundaries and make a new tradition this holiday season. 1 of our WREC employees told me the other day that a few years ago his family started spending a night each holiday cooking something new together. They have boiled live lobsters, rolled their own sushi, and made New England lobster rolls from scratch in recent years. That sounded like great fun to me. If there is something you have always wanted to do with your friends or family, there is no time like the present to make it happen.
• Help someone in need. Finally, I encourage you to be on the lookout for somebody struggling this holiday season. While December is a joyous time of the year for many, the holidays are also notoriously difficult for so many others.

Whether it is a small act of kindness, such as making a point to say hello to someone new, smiling at a stranger, or taking the time to volunteer at a local food pantry or other charity, kindness matters this time of year. After all, the real heart of the cooperative spirit is the way we embrace each other, look out for each other and take care of each other every day.

Regardless of how you celebrate, I hope your December and New Year are merry and joyful.

Best wishes,

Thad S. Ballard
CEO

Supplying a Balanced Energy Diet

Solar generation is a popular topic we hear about from members. Whether we are chatting at a community rally or on social media during an outage, our members are often curious about how solar fits into the future of electricity generation.

Surprisingly, politicians in both major parties agree that solar generation is an important part of America’s energy future. Such agreement is quite the feat these days, as I am sure we will all be reminded this month. The real debate is about how solar helps support a balanced energy mix.

I heard an analogy the other day that sums up this discussion well. I want you to think of electric generation in terms of nutrition.

When it comes to Wells Rural Electric Company, hydroelectric generation is a balanced diet.

The Pacific Northwest’s hydroelectric dams represent a strong backbone of dispatchable baseload generation. In other words, hydro is the driving force for meeting consumers’ nutritional needs or demand. The power of the river is constantly harnessed by hydroelectric dams, providing 3 square meals a day. Dispatchable generation, such as hydro, ramps up or down to meet increased demand during certain times of the year, such as when everybody cranks up their heat in the winter. Think of those times when you are extra hungry after a busy day.

Now, think of solar power in terms of supplements. Multivitamins, fish oil, creatine, protein shakes, etc., are just a few examples of supplements that can be used to give people an advantage to accomplish their health goals.

Solar can be exactly that.

Solar can fill in the demand around the shoulders where the baseload might be lacking. It can help pick up the extra load when the sun is shining and everything else is already running at peak levels. Think of solar as a healthy snack when 3 square meals aren’t quite enough. Solar power is a handful of almonds or a protein shake, that helps you get through an afternoon or after an intense workout. Those well-timed “snacks” can be vital to staying on track for your fitness goals.

Solar production is not a source of baseload generation. When the sun doesn’t shine, solar panels do not produce electricity. Also, demand for electricity typically peaks in the morning as people get ready for work and then at the end of the day when they arrive home. Solar hits maximum production in the middle of the day when demand is lower and current battery storage technology cannot reliably or affordably shift that generation to be used when we need it most.

Solar power is an excellent resource when used correctly, but it still cannot quite fulfill all our nutritional needs. As helpful as these supplements can be, they are not a replacement for a balanced diet. It is not healthy to live off multivitamins and protein shakes.

Ultimately, the energy industry needs baseload resources, such as hydro, to work in harmony with intermittent resources, such as solar power, to meet the needs of our members and the growth of our communities.

Best wishes,
Thad S. Ballard
CEO

Mandatory Maintenance Outages

Many dedicated Wells Rural Electric Company employees work every day to keep the lights on. We are proud of our reliability record and the approach we take with preventive maintenance, improvement projects, and modernizing our system to deliver electricity to all our members.

The reality, though, is outages are inevitable. Last month, I talked about unplanned power outages and the impacts wildfires have on the Western United States. This month, I’m discussing the nature of scheduled outages.

Scheduled outages happen when the choice is made to intentionally take part of the system offline to perform maintenance, upgrades, or other work. We try to work hot (with the power still on) when it is safe to do so. When possible, we take shorter outages at the beginning and end of projects.

One message I want to emphasize, however, is that “scheduled” is almost never a synonym for “optional.” While there is never a good time to be without power, some times are worse than others. We do our best to schedule outages during the least inconvenient times.

Unfortunately, waiting until temperatures are more mild is not always possible.

When we say “scheduled,” what we often mean is, “The power isn’t out yet, but it will be if this isn’t fixed.” We need to start calling these types of outages “mandatory maintenance.”

A good example of this happened a couple of years ago when lightning struck a transmission pole north of Wells. The strike snapped, broke, and burned the pole and other wooden equipment. And yet, somehow, the structure was still standing, and the power was still on.

The damage required a scheduled outage, which was mandatory to fix our power infrastructure. We had a few hours to inform members of the outage before working with Idaho Power to get the structure rebuilt.

During a recent mandatory maintenance outage, our substation maintenance crew, and a highly-specialized contractor, tested the main transformer in the Carlin Substation. Members were understandably frustrated by a lengthy outage on a hot summer day to test the transformer and then another lengthy outage in September to make repairs. However, we could not risk the transformer failing during the winter months when swapping it out with a replacement transformer would have taken the power down for days.

Mandatory maintenance outages are part of doing business. As infrastructure ages and weathers, repairs and maintenance are inevitable. Sometimes, we can’t do that while the power is on.

Sometimes, as was the case a few winters ago, the work is being done on the transmission infrastructure outside of our system or by third parties. While we certainly advocate for our members during these times, as we did then, scheduling such outages is not always under our control.

Most scheduled outages are due to the availability of contractors or failing equipment. Crews spend significant time patrolling lines and planning system maintenance to identify and address hot spots before they become an issue. Even with that approach, we occasionally have a situation that needs immediate attention. These outages may be planned, but they are not optional. Putting them off increases the risk of longer outages when the weather and timing could be much worse.

Best wishes,
Thad S. Ballard
CEO

Wildfires Pose Serious Threat

We hate it when the power is out.

As a member-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperative, keeping the lights on—or, more specifically, providing safe, reliable, affordable, carbon-free electricity—is Wells Rural Electric Company’s core business function.

Yet, power outages are inevitable. This summer, we’ve had a lengthy planned outage as well as a nearly 24-hour wildfire-related outage following extensive damage.

Next month, I’ll talk about the nature of scheduled outages and mandatory maintenance. This month, I want to focus on the wildfire-related outage that took power down for members in Wells and the surrounding area starting Saturday, August 17, and lasting until just before 7 p.m. on August 18.

Unplanned power outages happen for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes equipment malfunctions or fails, or somebody backs into a power pole and knocks it down. Unplanned outages are frequently caused by weather-related issues such as high winds, lightning strikes, wildfires, and extreme temperatures. Unfortunately, the kind of weather that causes most of these unplanned outages also makes them the least convenient times to be without power.

Wildfires, in particular, have become a massive issue in the Western United States. Wildfires are unpredictable, cause billions of dollars in financial loss each year and, unfortunately, lead to loss of life. Wildfires have the ability to bankrupt utilities and cause widespread outages.

Wildfire mitigation keeps CEOs from utilities all over the country awake at night. At WREC, we go to great lengths to protect our members, our equipment, and our utility from wildfire damage. We conduct extensive tree trimming and right-of-way clearing every year to try to remove fuel sources from around our equipment. A couple of years ago, we were lucky when a wildfire in Ruby Valley burned under our lines without causing any damage.

The cooperative owns firefighting equipment, and our employees undergo wildfire training and coordinate with other agencies to plan for wildfires. WREC is not alone in these efforts. Every utility in our region has a wildfire mitigation plan to guide their operation during the summer months. Unfortunately, those issues hit close to home this August when a fire burned in the Buhl-Castleford area, taking down 7 structures on Idaho Power Company’s transmission system that delivers power to our service territory.

Initially, Idaho Power received a Bureau of Land Management request to de-energize power to the section so they could drop retardant from airplanes. The time between this request and the power shutting off was likely minutes, and WREC only received the information shortly after the power went out.

In the last decade, only a tree/freeze-related outage in Carlin comes to mind as a comparison. Restoring power would have taken longer if not for a herculean effort by Idaho Power line crews to rebuild the burned structures. It took 3 transmission crews and a rock crew to get power back on by Sunday evening.

We appreciate the efforts of the lineworkers who left their families and worked through the night and into the heat of the day to get our power back on. Most of all, we appreciate your patience and flexibility in communicating with WREC, and with your fellow members, to keep informed and help each other as the situation evolved.

Best wishes,
Thad S. Ballard
CEO

Community Engagement

Electricity powers our daily lives. In today’s world, it’s a necessity. Providing that necessity to members also happens to be Wells Rural Electric Company’s (WREC) core business function, and we have an oft-used phrase to go with it: Wells Rural Electric Company provides members with safe, reliable, affordable, environmentally responsible electricity.

It’s a good phrase. While that duty represents our core function—and for as much as we take pride in delivering on it—it is not our mission.

At WREC, we view our purpose as something bigger.

WREC exists to improve the quality of life in the communities we serve. 60-plus years ago, a group of ranchers came together to secure the power they so badly needed to earn their livelihood and drive our local economies further. In the decades since WREC has grown into so much more.

We believe in our communities. We love our communities. We live in our communities.

Our employees are your friends, neighbors, and family. They coach local youth sports teams, volunteer at community events and serve on boards and committees.

Commitment to community is in WREC’s DNA. While that commitment is something we try to live up to every single day, it’s especially evident in the fall.

In the coming months, we have several events planned to show the love and enthusiasm we have for our communities and for you, our members. First and foremost, we’ll kick off the upcoming school year with our annual community rallies. We’re almost a decade into our current format, and these events continue to grow each year. It’s incredible to witness, and we look forward to seeing you every year.

We are planning on the following dates:

• Wells: Monday, September 16
• Wendover, Utah: Wednesday, September 18
• West Wendover: Monday, September 23
• Carlin: TBA

We’ll share the date of Carlin’s rally as soon as we know in early August. Stay tuned to social media and your local school for more details as we get closer.

As much as we love community rallies, that’s not all we have in store. October is National Cooperative Month, which we celebrate with Member Appreciation Month. We’re excited about the plans we have this year, which we’ll share soon.

Finally, we’re gearing up for the WREC Classic Basketball Tournament with teams from each of our communities. From December 5 through 7, we’ll welcome to our service territory hundreds of student-athletes, coaches, parents, and fans from across Nevada as we celebrate our local schools and students.

It’s going to be a busy and rewarding fall. I hope we connect with you at 1 of these events.

In the meantime, we’ll strive to fulfill that core function of providing safe, reliable, affordable, environmentally responsible electricity.

Our mission always remains close to our hearts. As a member-owned electric cooperative, what makes us different will always be what makes us great.

Best wishes,
Thad S. Ballard
CEO

Upholding the Ideals of Your Cooperative

I’m overwhelmed by the congratulations and good wishes that have been pouring in since the announcement of my new role as CEO. I’m humbled by the responsibilities the board of directors has entrusted to me and the support of my colleagues. It’s an incredibly exciting time to lead our team in serving you, our members.

For the past 39 years, it has been my privilege to serve you in various roles. Early in my career, I focused on designing power lines to serve new accounts. Next, I turned my attention to increasing efficiency and controlling costs through purchasing and materials management. I then had the privilege of working in member services, where I planned events and participated in community activities that engaged our members, solved problems, and provided information.

Working in government affairs aligned my passion for politics with my desire to protect your interests. Most recently, I have focused on securing your continued access to safe, reliable, affordable, and carbon-free wholesale electricity and building a culture of service with my fellow employees. I sometimes joke that I’ve had every job in the company except climbing poles and fixing trucks.

In every role, my priority has always been providing the best possible service to you. My experience has given me intimate knowledge of our service territory and electric grid, familiarity with our membership and its needs, and an understanding of our business model. My experience helps me understand the importance of teamwork and collaboration in achieving our goals and overcoming obstacles.

As we face challenges such as aging infrastructure, wildfire prevention, restrictive regulation, and securing affordable wholesale energy, I am confident we have everything we need to serve our communities. Our dedicated team of employees is committed to providing safe, reliable, and efficient service, and our board of directors is committed to ensuring we meet our mission. We focus on continual improvement and making decisions based on the best interests of our entire membership.

I want to thank the courageous souls who had the vision to bring electricity to this area 66 years ago. I also want to thank my predecessor, Clay Fitch, for his mentorship and tireless service to you for the past 37 years.

We are the stewards of what they built and endeavor to ensure it continues to serve our communities. I look forward to serving you in this new capacity and pledge to always uphold the ideals of your cooperative.

Best wishes,
Thad S. Ballard
CEO

Don’t Overlook Electrical Safety

At Wells Rural Electric Company, we frequently refer to our core business function as providing members with safe, reliable, affordable, and carbon-free electricity. 3 of those phrases are heavily talked about because, for several reasons, they are top of mind for us and our members.

When it comes to affordability, we get questions about bills each month. Cost is something most of us are conscious of on a day-to-day basis. When it comes to reliability, there is no mistaking when the power goes out. The recent political landscape has also placed a spotlight on the carbon-free part of that statement that is inescapable in the media.

Safe is sometimes too easy to overlook until a problem presents itself, but there is a reason it is first on the list.

In our industry, safety is life. When you make a mistake in the high-voltage environments our lineworkers work in daily, the outcome can be fatal. For that reason, our lineworkers are highly trained, and they discuss safety on a daily basis. They have meetings, known as tailboards before they start on every project to discuss how the work needs to be done and the potential hazards so everyone is on the same page.

During my career, I’ve sat in too many conferences listening to other CEOs talk about the tragedies they have experienced at their utilities when something goes wrong. I don’t even want to imagine 1 of our employees not coming home to their families. The same goes for our members. We want you to be safe as well.

May is National Electrical Safety Month. I hope you will see some of our communications— including in this issue of Ruralite—or somebody else’s, and give them a few moments of your attention that could come in handy when an electrical hazard or problem is suddenly staring you in the face.

For example, do you know what to do if your car strikes a power pole and comes in contact with a power line? First off, if you ever come across a downed line or equipment, treat it as if it is energized. Electricity has no sound or smell and it is always better to stay a safe distance away and call 911.

Similarly, if you are in a vehicle that strikes a power pole and causes lines to come down, do not get out of your vehicle. Electricity is always looking for a path to ground and, if lines are in contact with your vehicle, that path may be your foot when you step out. If your vehicle is smoking or on fire and you must escape, you want to hop out and away from the vehicle and land on both feet, then shuffle or hop to safety.

That is 1 of many situations most of us don’t think about, yet knowing what to do can save lives.

Electricity is a wonderful necessity that powers our lives. It is also something that needs to be respected. Do not allow safety to be something you overlook. I hope you will spend some time this month, and every month, reading and learning habits that could save a life.

Best wishes,

Clay R. Fitch
Chief Executive Officer

Sometimes the greatest ability is availability. Or, in this industry, reliability.

For all the talk about keeping rates affordable, cost is not the No. 1 priority in most industry surveys. That distinction goes to reliability.

If you think about it, it makes sense. Cost matters. At Wells Rural Electric Company (WREC), we work hard to keep rates as affordable as we can in our cost-based model. But availability matters more. Electricity fuels our lives, connects us with loved ones, and powers most of our entertainment, not to mention keeping us warm or cool. In today’s world, electricity is a near-necessity.

While we are always looking for ways to improve, I am proud of WREC’s reliability record. We’ve upgraded our technology in recent years to better monitor and track our reliability. I’m happy to say WREC’s reliability, in terms of average outage minutes per member, exceeds both state and national averages.

But notice I didn’t say it was perfect.

As much as I wish I could say we’re working toward zero outages, that’s not realistic. Some outages are inevitable, especially in our area where maintaining reliability is a challenge. For starters, WREC exists at the edge of the Columbia River Basin and, as a result, at the end of the transmission lines that deliver power to our service territory. Whether there’s a problem between point A and point B (or, more accurately, point Z) or necessary maintenance, transmission outages are often out of our control.

Once electricity gets to us, we face a new set of challenges. Most cooperatives exist because their members were too spread out to be profitable for investor-owned utilities to serve. In WREC’s case, we maintain more than 1,000 miles of energized line spread through more than 10,000 square miles of service territory. That’s a lot of ground to cover, and, because of the terrain and sparse population, most of our members are radially fed. That means the more rural and farther from the substation you live, the more likely you are to experience an outage if there is a problem. In a radially fed system, any fault between the substation and your home could affect your service. If you live 100 miles away from the substation, any issue along the way affects your power.

Our rural members need to be prepared for occasional outages. When you live in a rural area, some outages are inevitable no matter how advanced monitoring technology or extensive preventive maintenance may be.

Thankfully, we have great crews who go to great lengths to avoid as many outages as possible. You may have noticed tree trimming trucks moving through your area the last several weeks to clear rights-of-way and remove problem foliage. We are constantly patrolling power lines looking for potential problem spots. Each year, we budget for projects to remove, replace, or repair damaged and aging equipment.

Finally, the power is most likely to go out during times of extreme weather when it’s the most inconvenient to be without. In this area, that typically means wildfire season or winter when high winds, moisture, and freezing temperatures create all kinds of problems. When your power goes out in the midst of a storm, rest assured that WREC’s team of excellent lineworkers is prepared to leave the warmth of their own homes to go out in those extreme conditions and work at all hours to make sure your access to electricity is restored as quickly as possible.

Best wishes,
Clay R. Fitch
Chief Executive Officer