Community leaders from across Kentucky were recognized for their work within the electric cooperative community by the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives, Inc. at its annual meeting in Louisville on November 17, 2015.

Co-op managers, directors, and attorneys new to local distribution co-op boards received both recognition and training at the statewide gathering of co-op leaders.  Working together, these individuals will assist in keeping the lights on for 1.7 million Kentuckians in the rural areas of the state.

Also recognized at the KAEC annual meeting was a group of seasoned co-op managers, directors, and attorneys. Many leaders were recognized for twenty years of service and more. Jody Hughes and Howard Downing were recognized for a respective 40 and 50 years of service to Nicholasville-based Blue Grass Energy.

“Kentucky’s electric cooperatives have such a storied program with over 75 years of history,” said Chris Perry, President and CEO of the statewide association. “Today we have the opportunity to both usher in a new generation of co-op leaders, but also recognize the pillars within our program. Many of these men and women have helped make decisions that have ensured safe, reliable, and affordable electricity for many years.”

Photos of those that received service awards can be viewed in this KAEC photo gallery.

Gibson Electric Membership Corporation members voted in favor of the proposed merger with Hickman-Fulton Counties Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation at a Special Meeting on Tuesday, November 17.  The unanimous “yes” vote of 208 Gibson EMC members follows the HFRECC vote in which their members overwhelmingly approved the merger with an 88 percent “yes” vote.  The merger will become effective January 1, 2016.

Gibson EMC will serve HFRECC members and HFRECC’s Hickman office location will remain open and operate as one of Gibson EMC’s five member service centers.  Gibson EMC President and CEO Dan Rodamaker will lead the merged cooperative and all of HFRECC’s and Gibson EMC’s employees will keep their jobs.

“Our board is happy with the outcome,” says David Kimbell, HFRECC Board Chair.  “We look forward to 2016 and the positive changes it will bring for our members,” Kimbell says.

Gibson EMC Steve Sanders agrees.  “We’re pleased that our members have voted strongly in favor of the merger,” Sanders says.  “It is a decision that will benefit our members in the long-term and benefit Hickman-Fulton’s members immediately.”

Dan Rodamaker, Gibson EMC President and CEO, describes the outcome as a win-win.  HFRECC members are expected to see a cumulative savings of about $12.6 million over the next 10 years.  Gibson EMC members also will benefit from the merger by spreading costs over a larger number of members and by eliminating duplication.

“We want to thank all of the members who voted,” Dan Rodamaker says. “We also want to thank the employees and board members of both cooperatives for their selfless decisions and hard work.  We look forward to joining with the HFRECC board and employees and to serving the HFRECC members.”

The electric systems of Gibson EMC and HFRECC connect along the Tennessee and Kentucky border. HFRECC serves about 3,700 residents and businesses in Fulton, Hickman, Carlisle and Graves counties in Western Kentucky and portions of Obion and Lake counties in Northwest Tennessee.  Gibson EMC serves about 35,000 members in parts of eight Northwest Tennessee counties (Crockett, Dyer, Gibson, Haywood, Lake, Lauderdale, Obion and Madison).

The power of working together
Each of Kentucky’s 24 local distribution co-ops and the two generation and transmission co-ops that provide your electricity belong to the statewide organization that also publishes Kentucky Living—magazine, the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives (KAEC). Membership in KAEC gives the co-ops the opportunity to share information and practical advice among themselves, everything from safety to disaster response to technical know-how.

As an additional benefit, KAEC speaks on behalf of the co-ops to provide information to elected officials in the state legislature, in the governor’s office, various cabinets, and state agencies, including the Kentucky Public Service Commission, which regulates Kentucky’s electric utility industry.

This advocacy on behalf of co-ops and their members becomes even more important following August’s announcement of the national Clean Power Plan, which will have a huge impact on Kentucky’s energy future.

Chris Perry, the association’s CEO, says, “We represent 1.7 million people, with electric co-op members in 117 of Kentucky’s 120 counties. Our organization is a great example of how cooperatives work together, sharing resources. We represent our member-owners in Frankfort in many ways all year long.”

Chase Crigler, director of Community and Government Affairs for KAEC, says, “During each legislative session, our statewide association and representatives from the generation and transmission co-ops have a consistent and daily presence in Frankfort. We are constantly interacting with legislators, talking with them about hot-topic issues, and making them aware of issues they might not anticipate. We are always on hand to answer questions, dispel rumors, and provide the facts about all parts of the electric utility system. Then, when the legislature is not in session, we attend joint interim committee meetings around the state. We’ll meet with legislators anyplace they need us to be.”

Electricity and local economies
Working tirelessly year-round on behalf of electric co-op member-owners is becoming increasingly important as the economic impact of national energy policy goals receives more attention.

Crigler says, “Legislators are concerned with jobs, and they’re worried about our state’s competitiveness in terms of power pricing. And they want to know that the lights are going to stay on for all their constituents. Knowing that, even with the many changes going on in the bulk power system, cooperatives will continue to be able to provide reliable, affordable power is important. That has an impact on economic development in communities throughout the state.”

An unusual chain of events shows how cooperatives must always be on the lookout for positive opportunities. A few years ago, Big Rivers Electric Corporation, the generation and transmission cooperative that provides power for three local distribution co-ops in western Kentucky, received approval from the Public Service Commission to add a new interconnection near Henderson to improve reliability in the multi-state region.

Shortly thereafter, a major industrial user in the area, an aluminum smelter, decided to stop buying electricity from Kenergy Corp., the local distribution co-op, and instead shop around on the open market. For a while, losing such a key customer for Big Rivers’ electricity threatened to up-end decades of careful financial planning, affect the stability of the power grid, and cause widespread major increases in the rate structure for all other electricity users served by Big Rivers.

But the same interconnections that made it possible for the industrial customer to buy its power from another source have also offered a workable solution for Big Rivers to use its generation capacity wisely. As a member of MISO, the regional transmission organization that serves 15 midwestern states and the Canadian province of Manitoba, Big Rivers can sell bulk power on the open market.

Big Rivers already has several new contracts to sell electricity generated in Kentucky on the open regional market, with a net savings of $13 million over projected expenses. Big Rivers CEO Bob Berry says, “As a result of this bulk power sale contract, the fuel costs for co-op members is much smaller than it would have been without the sale.”

Big Rivers has also requested in filings with the Kentucky Public Service Commission that any earnings on another bulk power sale to a customer in Nebraska be returned to retail consumers as a credit on their electric bills. Berry says, “Our co-ops’ customers here in Kentucky own us, so they deserve the benefit of this transaction. These are cooperative principles at work.”

By Kentucky Living FUTURE OF ELECTRICITY Columnist Nancy Grant

Fighting Back Against Administration’s Costly Power Plan
By Senator Mitch McConnell
November 6, 2015

Here we go again. The Obama Administration has fired its latest salvo in the War on Coal by publishing the final version of its so-called “Clean Power Plan”—regulations that would effectively shut down most coal-fired power plants and prevent new ones from being built.

These regulations would shrink our state’s economy by almost $2 billion. And they would hurt Kentucky workers and their families by raising electricity rates by double digits while cutting coal jobs across the state. What the administration is pushing for is not a Clean Power Plan, but a “Costly Power Plan” that will have no lasting impact on the environment.

That’s why I am using my position as Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate to fight back against President Obama and his bureaucrats at the EPA who have issued these regulations aimed at the heart of coal country. This summer, I was able to secure language in an Interior Appropriations bill that, if enacted, would halt this regulation.

More recently, I filed a bipartisan measure in the Senate under a procedure established by the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The CRA empowers Congress to overturn regulations issued by the executive branch with a simple majority vote. The CRA measure I filed would stop the Obama Administration from imposing on Kentuckians its anti-coal regulation for new coal-fired power plants.

I am also a proud cosponsor of another bipartisan Senate measure filed under the CRA that would block the so-called Clean Power Plan’s regulation pertaining to existing coal-fired plants. Together, these measures represent a comprehensive effort to fight back against the Obama Administration’s outrageous effort to cut jobs and hike electricity prices in Kentucky.

I’ve been fighting against this president’s hurtful policies, and this so-called Clean Power Plan in particular, since he first proposed it. Several months ago, I wrote a letter to every governor in the country suggesting that they take a responsible wait-and-see approach before subjecting the citizens of their states to unnecessary pain caused by complying with the government’s request for state implementation plans for these outrageous regulations.

I wrote this letter because there is a legitimate question as to whether the administration even has the authority under federal law to issue these regulations. Also encouraging is the fact that the administration, in recognition of the difficulty many states will have complying with this plan, is allowing states to seek a two-year delay to abide by it. President Obama will be out of office by then, and the next administration may not even continue forward on this disastrous route.

This tacit admission from the Obama Administration that its plan is unworkable proves that the pushback from states is making a difference. More than half the states have launched lawsuits to fight back against this ill-advised plan. I’m encouraged that Kentucky’s next governor, Matt Bevin, has already pledged he will not comply with these regulations.

I’m determined to continue the fight against the Obama Administration’s attack on Kentucky jobs. The administration’s lack of compassion for those being trampled by these massively regressive regulations is shocking. The path to pursuing the administration’s left-wing ideological agenda runs right over Kentucky coal miners and their families, who have done nothing to deserve it.

And remember: for all the damage this Costly Power Plan would inflict on the middle class, it’s not even expected to reduce global emissions in any meaningful way.

Tons of pain for almost no gain. That’s the Obama White House plan.

So the fight against the War on Coal continues. This fight will not be short or easy. But it’s essential to our livelihoods and our very way of life, and hard-working Kentuckians should know that I’m going to keep standing and fighting for them, no matter what the Obama Administration or their EPA throw at us.