CEO’s Message: Smart Planning

October 2024

Smart Planning

At Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative, we always have a plan. It might be one of how we can invest in our electric system to keep it strong and reliable for our consumer-members well into the future. Or it could be a plan for how to serve our community in new ways, like rolling out Rapid Fiber InternetSM service across our system.

When it comes to hurricane season, we have an Emergency Restoration Plan that we review to make sure we’re ready to respond no matter how severe the storms that come our way. Last year, when we were hit by Hurricane Idalia, that plan was put to the test. We relied on every bit of preparation and an army of staff, contractors, and crews from other electric utilities to repair more damage than we had seen in SVEC’s 87-year history.

It was a trial for all of us, but we came out on the other side stronger and better prepared. As a result, when Hurricane Debby made landfall this August, followed quickly by Hurricane Helene in September, we knew we could handle anything the storms threw at us.

While Debby ultimately knocked out service to around 96% of our system, that preparation meant we were ready with more resources at our disposal than last year and more than 500 staff and contractors primed to get to work restoring power. In the end, the vast majority of consumer-members had electricity restored less than 72 hours after work began.

You can read more about that effort in this newsletter and expect a detailed breakdown of the restoration after Hurricane Helene in a future issue. I’d like to thank everyone for their hard work and our consumer members for their patience as we made repairs. The speed with which power was restored to so many people is a testament to the smart planning and hard work of everyone at SVEC and our partners.

You’ll also see a reminder about the importance of keeping our power poles clear. Staples and nails can pose a risk to linemen who are working on poles, so help us ensure their safety while restoring power by keeping flyers and ads off power poles.

Finally, you’ll find all the details for this year’s Touch-A-Truck event, where kids can learn all about vehicles and machinery here at the co-op and from other organizations around the community. It’s sure to be another fun-filled day out for the whole family, so I hope to see you there!

Thank you to everyone who helped SVEC navigate the repairs after Hurricane Debby and Hurricane Helene so that we could restore power to our consumer-members safely, quickly, and efficiently. While I hope our system never again has to weather as many major storms as we’ve faced in recent months, I know the winds are likely to pick up again eventually. When that day comes, you can rest easy knowing that your cooperative has a plan.