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LOUISVILLE (October 11, 2018) –  As Hurricane Michael makes its way across several lower southeast states, it continues wreaking havoc and leaving thousands without power.  Crews from 17 Kentucky electric cooperatives are on their way to Georgia to help with power restoration efforts.

Thursday morning, just one day after Hurricane Michael made landfall in Florida, the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives deployed 80 lineworkers, including construction crews, service crews and support staff, to assist in recovery.

There are now over 100 workers in Georgia and Virginia. On Monday, crews from Jackson Purchase Energy and West Kentucky RECC, left to help with restoration efforts in Virginia.

Kentucky electric cooperatives from across the state have offered their help and support. Crews from Blue Grass Energy, Clark Energy Cooperative, Farmers RECC, Fleming Mason Energy, Gibson Electric Membership Cooperative, InterCounty Energy, Jackson Energy Cooperative, Jackson Purchase Energy, Licking Valley, Kenergy Corp., Owen Electric Cooperative, Pennyrile Electric, Salt River Electric, South Kentucky RECC, Tri-County Electric, Warren RECC and West Kentucky RECC sent crews to aid in relief efforts.

South Kentucky RECC CEO Dennis Holt says SKRECC’s contract crews were released prior to the storm making landfall to be in place to deal with the turmoil left by Hurricane Michael.

“In addition to the crews, South Kentucky RECC has sent several pieces of much-needed equipment including several digger trucks, large bucket trucks, and small bucket trucks. These crews will assist at Middle Georgia EMC, if needed, or will transfer to a location that they are needed.”

Middle Georgia EMC serves approximately 4,200 members, and their Senior Vice-President Mike McGee says the assistance is very welcome.

“We at Middle Georgia are extremely thankful for the assistance from South Kentucky RECC. At this point, we just don’t know how much damage we may sustain, but here they are forecasting 150-mile-per-hour winds. We appreciate South Kentucky RECC for leaving their daily duties and making the drive here to help restore our members from damage from Michael.”
The top priority of each local Kentucky co-op is service to its own consumer-members. Before committing resources to mutual aid requests, each co-op ensures it has ample crews available for all local needs, including routine maintenance and emergencies.

“Cooperation among cooperatives is one of our guiding principles,” said Clarence Greene, KAEC Safety and Loss Prevention Director. “These deployments are long hours in challenging conditions, but lineworkers are wired to help people. Mutual aid deployments also provide invaluable training opportunities they may not get in their respective area.”

One year ago, 131 Kentucky co-op workers helped restore power in Georgia after Hurricane Irma. The largest mutual aid deployment in Kentucky co-op history came in 2016 when 143 lineworkers responded to Hurricane Matthew.

Because the national network of transmission and distribution infrastructure owned by electric cooperatives is built to federal standards, line crews from any co-op in America can arrive on the scene ready to provide emergency support, secure in their knowledge of the system’s engineering.

Providing critical materials

In response to Hurricane Michael, Kentucky-based United Utility Supply Cooperative is loading a tractor-trailer with utility supplies for use by affected electric cooperatives in Alabama and the Florida panhandle.

With its main warehouse and headquarters at 4300 Champions Trace in Louisville, UUS also has warehouses in several other states, including Alabama. UUS personnel will assist with the delivery of critical supplies to affected co-ops.

UUS has implemented its storm emergency plan, providing round-the-clock support to meet the material needs of co-ops affected by Hurricane Michael.

In advance of the hurricane, UUS also made pre-storm deliveries to cooperatives in Alabama.

Shelby Energy announces that its board of directors has selected Jack Bragg, Jr. as the next President and Chief Executive Officer, effective December 1, 2018. Mr. Bragg comes to Shelby from Washington Electric Cooperative located in Marietta, Ohio. Bragg was chosen from a large pool of interested and highly-qualified applicants and selected during a comprehensive executive search performed by Mr. Roy Palk, President of New Horizons Consulting with offices in Lexington, Kentucky and Bradenton, Florida.

Mr. Bragg is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Management Accountant and Chartered Global Management Accountant. He holds master’s degrees of Accountancy and Business Administration from Northern Kentucky University along with bachelor’s degrees of Accounting and Agricultural Economics from the University of Kentucky. Bragg is an experienced utility professional with a wide array of skills developed across a broad spectrum of utility operations.

Bragg served as the General Manager/CEO at Washington Electric Cooperative in Marietta, Ohio since January 2016. He previously held the position of Vice President of Finance & Support Services at Northern Kentucky Water District in Erlanger, Kentucky from October 2005 to December 2015. In addition, Bragg served as the Chief Financial Officer at Owen Electric Cooperative in Owenton, Kentucky from November 1999 to October 2005.

His transition to Shelby Energy will begin during November 2018, to replace retiring President and CEO, Debra Martin. Martin will remain employed as a special advisor until her retirement on January 2, 2019. In his role as President and CEO, Bragg will be Shelby’s representative in business and political settings, accomplish strategic initiatives established by the Board and direct overall operations of Shelby Energy.

Retiring CEO Martin said, “I’m very pleased with the selection of Jack Bragg to lead our cooperative. I’ve known Jack for a number of years and his ethics, business knowledge and professional behavior will be an asset to our members and our employees.”

“Shelby Energy is fortunate to have someone of Jack Bragg’s caliber and experience as our next President and CEO. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the job that will serve Shelby Energy well in the years ahead,” said Chairman Ashley Chilton.

Bragg shared, “I am honored and excited to lead Shelby Energy. Shelby’s mission is providing members with safe, reliable and cost-effective energy, and I look forward to continuing that mission for the future and working for the best of the members.”

Go fish

WEST LIBERTY

When Ward Dickey is not on the job at Licking Valley Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation, he is likely to be on the lake with a group of fishermen. 

Dickey is not fishing, though: He is helping a new generation learn the sport through the Wolfe County High School Bass Club. The club enables students to participate in fishing tournaments and compete for college scholarships within the safety of adult supervision from volunteers like Dickey. 

“The club really opens doors for kids,” says Dickey, whose son, Hunter, 16, recently won Angler of the Year with classmate Nathan Landsaw. The duo also placed fourth in the 2018 Kentucky High School Athletic Association Region 4 Bass Fishing State Championship regionals.

It’s time-consuming but worthwhile, according to Dickey, who says the competitions are not like leisurely fishing.

“The kids fish when it is hot and when it is cold,” he says. “We backed into the water one day last year when the water was 12 degrees. And the lakes are spread out all over the state. There is a lot of travel involved.”

A tradition of volunteering

BARDSTOWN

“It got in my blood,” Dooley Mattingly says about volunteering.

“I come from a family of 14,” he explains. “If someone had a need, we would help in any way we could. Dad was one of three men who started the New Hope Volunteer Fire Department and was a firefighter for 26 years.”

The Salt River Electric employee and U.S. Army veteran carries on the tradition of volunteering and followed in his dad’s footsteps as a firefighter for 25 years. He is president of the Tri-County United Way and chairman of the Tri-County 5K Trifecta. He has been president of the New Haven Optimist Club and the Central Kentucky Chapter of the Wild Turkey Federation, as well as a former board member of Rolling Fork Iron Horse Festival. In addition, Mattingly serves as a referee for high school basketball and track.

“I am always proud to give back. It is special to help people out in time of need,” Mattingly says.

By Debra Gibson Issacs, from Kentucky Living, October 2018.

Morgan County solar farm shows co-ops continue to be renewable leaders

By Kevin Osbourne

On a hillside next to Licking Valley RECC’swarehouse in Malone, Kentucky’s newest solar farm towers row upon row above Steele Road.

Malone Sun-Light Solar Farm is the vision of Wolfe County native Gary Booth and Licking Valley RECC, working in collaboration with Eastern Kentucky University and Danville-based Wilderness Trace Solar.

“The project shows that great things can be achieved when people work together,” says Kerry Howard, Licking Valley RECC general manager and CEO. “It’s going to be a great project for students to learn about renewable power.”

Booth, who retired from a successful career at Proctor & Gamble (P&G), invested in Malone Sun-Light Solar to show students that with modern technology, eastern Kentucky has unlimited potential.

“I want kids thinking we are not behind,” says Booth, a native of Campton who attended Eastern Kentucky University and rose to become a vice president of Research and Development at P&G before his retirement. “I want students believing that we can do anything.”

The 932 solar panels at Malone Sun-Light Solar Farm, which was dedicated at Licking Valley RECC’s annual meeting on June 20, provide enough electricity to power about 40 homes.

Booth says students from local schools and EKU will monitor data during different times of the day and seasons of the year.

“Students will mine the data to learn about the production of power, and they will learn how to extract learning from a large database,” he says.

John May, manager of Administrative Services at Licking Valley RECC, says the co-op installed transformers and provided the land. Licking Valley’s 17,000 members in Breathitt, Elliott, Lee, Magoffin, Menifee, Morgan, Rowan and Wolfe counties will benefit by getting renewable power at a competitive price.

Last year Licking Valley and Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Co-ops dedicated Cooperative Solar Farm One in Winchester. “The new farm in Malone demonstrates that we continue to be leaders in renewable power,” says May.

Booth, a lifelong scientist who led the development of Bounty paper towels, Charmin toilet paper, Folgers coffee and other products at P&G, says he embraces the philosophy of U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers that technology can level the mountains to create new opportunities for eastern Kentucky.

“I put all my energy into that premise,” he says. “I did the solar farm as a demonstration that people in the mountains have access to the same technology as anyone else.”

Gary Booth’s other solar projects

One of the greatest blessings in Gary Booth’s life was that television signals could not reach his parents’ home in Campton when he was a boy.

“All we had to do was read,” says Booth, who turns 78 this December. “I read a lot of science-oriented books. By age 10, I knew I would be a scientist. Not having TV was a rich blessing.”

He attended Campton Elementary and Wolfe County High School, then went to Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond to major in chemistry and math. While at EKU he met and married his wife, Jane, and the two have been together for 56 years.

Booth completed a doctorate in organic chemistry at Ohio State University and then embarked on a long career in research and development with P&G.

The Malone solar project is the latest in a long series of solar projects he developed. For 20 years, he has worked with SonLight Power—a Christian organization bringing power to poor communities—to install solar panels in Guatemala, Haiti and Africa.

In September 2017, he and SonLight Power placed 80 solar panels on the roof of Campton Baptist Church.

He also was instrumental in the solar array on the new science building at EKU, where students will monitor power production and learn how to manage the data.

Booth’s latest solar project was scheduled to go online by late summer when 81 panels begin producing power at Campton Elementary.

“It’s been an absolute delight working with Licking Valley and the co-ops,” Booth says. “Every way they could help, they did it.” KL

KEVIN OSBOURN is the managerof Communications at East Kentucky Power Cooperative, which generates power for Licking Valley RECC and 15 other electric cooperatives.

Greg Grissom elected president and CEO by electric cooperative board

Paducah (September 25, 2018) – The Board of Directors of Jackson Purchase Energy Corporation (JPEC) is pleased to announce that Greg Grissom has been unanimously elected president and CEO of the electric cooperative.

Grissom, a native of Hickman, brings nearly twenty years of co-op executive experience to his new role heading JPEC which serves about 30,000 consumer-members in six western Kentucky counties. He begins in the new role on December 3.

“This is an exciting day for Jackson Purchase Energy,” said JPEC Board Chairman Erick Harris. “Our talented employees and loyal consumer-members are getting a proven leader who understands both the important role JPEC plays in our communities and the challenges faced by electric cooperatives across America.”

Harris thanked Michael W. Chambliss, Vice President of System Operations for power generation partner Big Rivers Electric, for serving as Interim CEO during the executive search.

Grissom comes to JPEC after serving three years as Chief Executive Officer and President at Pennyrile Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation in Hopkinsville. Prior to that, Grissom was President and Chief Executive Officer of Hickman Fulton Electric Cooperative in Hickman, Kentucky since November 2000. He is a graduate of Murray State University and of the Management Internship Program of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

“I look forward to engaging with our consumer-members and helping our communities prosper,” Grissom said. “I want all of us to be proud of the role Jackson Purchase Energy plays in our lives. Whether you are a consumer-member, an employee or a board member, we’re all in this together. That’s what being a cooperative is all about. Our partnerships with other cooperatives can help us to deliver on our goals safely, efficiently and transparently.”

Pennyrile Electric Board of Directors named Vice President of Operations & Technical Services, Alan Gates, as the interim President and CEO until the position is filled.

“As we will begin the search process for a new CEO, we thank Greg for his time at Pennyrile Electric and wish him the best in his new position at Jackson Purchase,” said Pennyrile Electric Board Chair Jimmy Futrell.  “With our strong management team and staff, our member-owners can be assured, there will be no interruption in the cost-effective and reliable service they are accustomed to.”

Grissom and his wife, Denise, have two children. Their daughter, Anna Gregory, is a junior at Murray State University. Their son, Greyson, is a sophomore at Trigg County High School.

Grissom is a board member of the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives, United Utility Supply and Federated Rural Electric Insurance.

Larry Hicks, former president and CEO of Salt River Electric, passed away on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018. He was 62 years old.

Hicks served as Salt River’s president for 20 years, until his departure in 2015. During his career, he was instrumental in guiding Salt River through some of its most transformative years, as well as serving on several boards and in leadership roles within the community.

Hicks is survived by his wife Ellen and his three children.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Lessons learned from Hurricane Ike, the surprise windstorm

The forecast called for gusty winds, perhaps as high as 45 miles per hour, but by the end of the day, Governor Steve Beshear would declare a state of emergency after that gusty forecast transformed into a blast of hurricane-force winds.

Not including uninsured losses, Kentucky faced $595 million in damages and the largest power outage the commonwealth had ever seen.

It was Sunday, September 14, 2008. The skies were clear with no rain or lightning, not the usual setting for a weather disaster. 

Yet, in what the Kentucky Public Service Commission would later describe as an “unprecedented convergence of meteorological events,” the warm air carried by remnants of Hurricane Ike escaped through a break in the clouds, replaced by a rush of air from a colliding cold front. 

“This was a unique event, not duplicated anywhere else in the United States,” John Gordon, chief of the National Weather Service office in Louisville, would later say. “It was the most extreme event I have ever seen.”

Sustained winds of more than 50 miles per hour—gusting to 75 miles per hour—and falling trees and limbs wiped out thousands of power lines and poles across the state. 

Electric cooperatives incurred about $4.3 million in windstorm costs. A federal disaster declaration would eventually apply to 34 counties. 

“One of the biggest things I learned from that very storm was to be patient when sending the guys out to restore,” says Brian Jones, operations manager at Owen Electric in northern Kentucky. “We didn’t want our linemen in buckets or on poles due to the long duration of the sustained high winds.”

With more than 28,000 consumer-members affected, Owen Electric was one of several electric cooperatives tasked with widespread outages as Ike made a path along the Ohio River.

“Once the winds had died down, we had a game plan and assessments to start working,” Jones recalls.

The Safety and Loss Prevention team at the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives coordinated the mutual aid response, matching requests for assistance with offers to help from co-ops in Kentucky and surrounding states. In fact, some of the same Virginia co-ops that helped Kentucky in 2008 received help from Kentucky co-ops when a powerful nor’easter struck that state six months ago. 

“This is another benefit of cooperation among cooperatives,” says KAEC safety director Clarence Greene. “When disasters strike, we are better prepared to respond because we’ve seen it before.” 

When the windstorm struck, 121 lineworkers from 14 Kentucky co-ops were helping restore power in Mississippi. They returned to Kentucky to join restoration efforts here.

Salt River Electric CEO Tim Sharp recalls the windstorm as a test that co-op employees successfully passed. 

“Lineworkers demonstrated their commitment to consumer-members in a very challenging situation,” Sharp says.  The key was being prepared, with proactive maintenance of tree trimming, up-to-date sectionalizing of the system to minimize outages and constant training, Sharp adds.

“It affirmed what we were doing was correct,” Sharp says. “Even though we had catastrophic conditions, damage to the system was limited, and power was restored in two to three days.”

A disaster plan and open lines of communication were instrumental in the ability of United Utility Supply to quickly equip cooperatives with critical materials.

“Once a disaster strikes, we continuously supply our members with material as needed,” UUS Executive Vice President Gary Burnett says. “We meet afterword to evaluate how we met our members’ needs and determine how we need to improve in the future.”

KAEC President and CEO Chris Perry says co-ops learned a lot about themselves from both the windstorm and the devastating ice storm that hit four months later.

“First, our cooperative network across the country is ready and able to send additional line crews to make repairs when needed,” Perry says. “Second, cooperatives must invest in tools and technology to make outage restoration safer and more responsive.”

After the storms, Kentucky co-ops invested in outage management systems that give a clearer picture of where to begin restoration efforts. 

“Hours and days have been saved with these systems in place,” Perry explains.

Jones says another key element to Owen Electric’s storm response was a strategic deployment of crews.

“It’s better to hold a crew in the office waiting for information than to send everyone out, then call that crew back in because of the additional information you’ve received,” Jones says.

“Slow and steady is more efficient and safer,” he adds. “Which is what our main objective is to be—safe and reliable.”

Joe Arnold