CEO’s Message: Bigger and Better in the New Year

January 2024

Having grown up with the transformative power of electricity, it might be hard for most of us to believe that in Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative’s earliest days, local residents had to work hard to convince their neighbors that electricity would change their lives. After President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act in 1936, visionary people in our community had to go door to door explaining the benefits of this new technology until enough people signed up to form their own cooperatives.

Back then, the cost of membership was $5, which wasn’t always easy to come by. Today, that cost hasn’t changed. That’s because we believe that everyone deserves access to affordable and reliable electric service. To keep our quality of service where consumer members like you expect it to be, we’re constantly making repairs and updating our system. After all, what passes for reliable and convenient service is changing all the time.

1 ongoing update to our system that some of you may have already received is our upgraded meters. This next step in the evolution of our automated metering infrastructure is an exciting development that will give our consumer members even greater insight into their electricity usage. It will also help our dispatchers and crews identify the location of an outage faster, shortening the time to fix the problem. In most cases, we’ll probably know where an outage is even before you can call to report it.

It’s funny to think how much-advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) technology has changed the way our consumer members think about their energy usage and how we respond to outages as a cooperative. 15 years ago, the first AMI technology installed on our system was limited to households on the outskirts of our area, and the information it collected couldn’t be easily shared with the members.

You can learn more in this newsletter about that history and the ways the new AMI technology will help us serve you better. The changeout is an ongoing process, but we’ve already installed more than 3,500 new meters, with the system expected to be fully updated by the middle of 2025. If you’re on the lookout, SVEC will be contracting with Allegiant Utility Services to change out the meters, so watch for their trucks with the red logo.

And if you’re already missing that holiday spirit, be sure to check out the community page for some photos of SVEC’s participation in a couple of local Christmas parades last month. It’s always a pleasure to be part of our local Christmas parades.

As we look ahead to the new year, I’m sure everyone is thinking of ways to build on last year’s successes. I know I’m excited to see all the new heights we can reach together. And as always, you can count on us to light the way.