Manager’s Message – December 2023

Dear Members:

The holiday season is finally here. Some call it the most wonderful season of all because we associate it with family traditions and gatherings with friends and loved ones. It’s a time of giving and spreading joy.

Giving back reminds us of the many good things we have in our community and why it is so important to spread the good as far as we can—especially to the most vulnerable in our area. We are reminded of how wonderful our community is and the impact we have when we work together.

Through the years, the cooperative’s community-focused programs have provided donations to local schools, awarded scholarships to local youth, helped families in need keep the lights on and so much more.

We hope you have a happy and safe holiday season. If you or your family are decorating for the holidays, remember not to overload outlets and circuits, and always look up for overhead lines before you install any tall features or exhibits.

Rates

The cooperative staff and board are reviewing our rates. We are watching the wholesale cost of power at year’s end and going into the new year. Read Ruralite or visit our website or social media for more information.

Telecommunications Outage

Plumas-Sierra’s Telecommunications electronic system controlling our internet service was cyber-attacked on November 3, which caused a disruption in service to our customers. We worked over the weekend to identify the problem, remedy it, and restore service. We are working with the appropriate government authorities to identify the attacker, but we cannot provide further information at this time.

Service to all residential customers has been restored. If you are still without service, try power cycling your modem and router. If, after rebooting your equipment, you are still without service, call technical support at (888) 246-0047 for fiber, wireless, and satellite services and (844) 259-1439 for coax services.

We understand the impact this outage has had on the communities we serve and do not take that lightly. We will provide more details regarding the outage as we have them. Again, thank you to our customers for your patience and to our crews who worked day and night over the weekend to restore service as quickly as possible.

Capital Credits

Each year, the cooperative allocates the margins from the previous year back to members in proportion to the revenue from each member. These allocations are the basis of your capital credits. Over time, the board of directors votes to return the margins from past years to each member. In most years, the yearly allocation is a positive number.

However, we don’t always have a positive margin — due to the high cost of power, Plumas-Sierra REC lost money in 2022. As a result, each member’s overall capital credits will be reduced based on the same allocation we use to increase it in years with a positive margin. This negative allocation is not billed to our members, and there is no impact beyond raising rates going forward to make sure we meet our required financial ratios from our lenders.

Telecommunications

Have you visited PST’s Facebook page lately?

If you are curious and want the most up-to-date information about PST, you can find us on Facebook under Plumas-Sierra Telecommunications. If you can, take a moment to review us on Google, Yelp, and Facebook.

We post systemwide outage notifications and other information, such as updates and tips. If you are not on Facebook, no worries. Visit www.pst.coop to stay informed. You can also receive outage information via text message and email.

To sign up for text and email notifications, log in to the SmartHub app from your mobile device, or from the PST website and set your notification preferences. Please call us at (530) 832-4126 for assistance.

With the SmartHub app, available for Apple and Android devices, you can pay your bill, view outage information and contact us from the convenience of your smartphone, tablet or other devices.

PST is seeing progress with the approvals for the current set of grants and is working with cooperative vendors on getting access to hard-to-find equipment so we can expand our system as fast as possible.

Check availability for your location at www.pst.coop or by calling (530) 832-4261. PST’s internet services are unlimited; you don’t have to worry about data caps. PST offers speeds up to 1 gigabyte per second on fiber-optic service. To learn more about services or get on the interest list, visit the PST website or call (530) 832-4261.

Thank you for your support of PSREC and the common needs of our community. If you have any questions, call (530) 832-6076 or email Bob Marshall.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! We hope you have a safe holiday season.

Sincerely,

Bob Marshall
General Manager