Fun Fact About Rural Electric Cooperatives

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Spock
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Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:01 pm

Fun Fact About Rural Electric Cooperatives

#1 Post by Spock » Sat Oct 12, 2019 9:47 am

A number of years ago, I was on a kinda/sorta advisory board for our local rural electric cooperative. Simply put, it was kind of a farm team to prepare people for possible service on the actual Board of Directors.

One thing that has stuck with me is that every rural electric cooperative in the country uses exactly the same equipment=transformers/poles/whatever. That way when a hurricane or ice storm strikes and major outages occur-other rural electric coops can send their guys down to help and they all know exactly what they are doing.

The investor owned utilities such as PG&E are different animals and may have different stuff than other IOU's.

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BackInTex
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Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 12:43 pm
Location: In Texas of course!

Re: Fun Fact About Rural Electric Cooperatives

#2 Post by BackInTex » Sat Oct 12, 2019 10:03 am

Spock wrote:A number of years ago, I was on a kinda/sorta advisory board for our local rural electric cooperative. Simply put, it was kind of a farm team to prepare people for possible service on the actual Board of Directors.

One thing that has stuck with me is that every rural electric cooperative in the country uses exactly the same equipment=transformers/poles/whatever. That way when a hurricane or ice storm strikes and major outages occur-other rural electric coops can send their guys down to help and they all know exactly what they are doing.

The investor owned utilities such as PG&E are different animals and may have different stuff than other IOU's.
The big guys can afford to upgrade facilities and technology due to scale and inventory a larger % of replacement as well where the cooperatives can buy and transfer from each other but would be alone if upgrading. One of my company's clients is Lee County [FL] Electric Coop. We also do a lot with Duke and Florida Power & Light.
..what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? let them take arms.
~~ Thomas Jefferson

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