Manager’s Message — December 2018

Dear Members:

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

Camp Fire and Back Up Power

On Thursday, November 8, Pacific Gas & Electric cut electric service to Plumas County just after 8 a.m., shortly after the Camp Fire started. According to PG&E, due to the fire there was some damage to their lines that prevented the normal stable connections between PG&E’s Feather River Canyon facilities and its sub-transmission system that serves our communities and PSREC’s main feed.

Plumas-Sierra switched from our primary power supply to our backup within half an hour. PG&E was able to restore power to Quincy shortly after 10 p.m. PG&E was operating in “island” mode, using the Caribou powerhouse to carry their Plumas County customers. They did not have the capacity and stability to carry PSREC’s system.

The PSREC backup system is a limited capacity line, enhanced by 6 megawatts of our generation at the High Sierra Cogeneration Plant. In addition, all three of the prisons on our system used their internal generation to carry their own loads.

PSREC recently completed a solar project in partnership with Sierra Army Depot.

As of this writing, the generation, in combination with our members conserving power, meant we were on backup power for 150 hours straight.

Thanks to everyone who conserved power! It made a real difference. The PSREC Board of Directors has invested considerable time and money into making our system resilient. This would have been a disaster without our past efforts. Thanks to Jason Harston, our manager of engineering and operations, and his team, which has manned the control room at all hours, making sure we kept the lights on.

The member services department did a good job of making sure everyone understood what was happening. If you would like updates on major outages via text, please text PSREC to 95577.

Capital Credits

One of the ways electric cooperatives are different from investor-owned utilities is each cooperative depends on its members to provide the necessary funding, or equity, for operation. Inspired by the idea that people can pool their resources to get things done—a fact that hasn’t changed since PSREC was formed in 1937 by a group of people who banded together to bring electricity to the countryside—your membership ensures access to reliable resources and services, a cornerstone of economic opportunity.

The mechanism by which members contribute equity is known as capital credits, which are determined at the close of each business year by allocating the net profits of PSREC to each member based upon the amount of electricity they purchased.

Capital credit returns are evaluated annually by PSREC’s board of directors.

The board has determined PSREC will distribute a refund to members in 2018.

Members in good standing will receive capital credit refunds on their December bills, received in January. If less than $100, the refund will appear as a credit on your bill. If your refund is $100 or more, you will be mailed a check in January.

Thank you for your support of PSREC and the common needs of our community!

Telecommunications News

PST now hosts its own speed test site, which will allow you to get a more accurate speed test directly from PST’s servers, instead of a server in another state. The speed test site is speedtest.pst.coop, and can be linked to from any page at www.pst.coop.

Progress on expanding broadband services in Quincy on the coax system is going well. We recently opened a new area behind Safeway and are working on repairs for the rest of West Quincy and Chandler Road. When the Quincy and Chandler Road areas are complete, we will then be working in Plumas Pines, Loyalton and Sierra Brooks.

PST’s internet services are unlimited, so you don’t have to worry about data caps, and speeds go up to 20 Mbps download.

If you have any questions, please call me at (800) 555-2207 ext. 6076, or email me at bmarshall@psrec.coop.

Wishing you a safe and happy holiday season!

Bob Marshall
General Manager