Manager’s Message – September 2018

Dear Members:

The cooperative’s 2018 annual meeting is Saturday, September 8. We hope you will join us for a fun, informative day at the co-op. This year’s meeting will feature broadband information, a health fair by Eastern Plumas Health Care and great prizes, including $500 off your electric bill and a 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport.

We also have the election for the board of directors. Three strong candidates are vying for the District 1 seat. If you do not vote by mail, you can vote at the meeting.

This is always a lively event, with great opportunities to ask questions about your electric cooperative and its telecommunications business.

Wildfires

Our thoughts are with all those affected by the devastating wildfires. PSREC sent line crews and equipment to Redding to assist in rebuilding Redding Electric Utility’s infrastructure after the Carr Fire destroyed a large portion of its system.

PSREC does all it can to prevent wildfires from starting in our service area. We extensively trim and remove hazard trees and vegetation from our rights-of-way and put our system on single-shot, which means that if a fault is detected, the line is shut down. This will prevent our equipment from trying to reclose, or re-energize, helping to decrease the risk of a limb or debris in the lines igniting. Single-shot settings during the fire season do mean longer outage times so crews can fully investigate and patrol the lines before re-energizing.

We have been working with Pacific Gas and Electric to see the impact of its Community Wildfire Safety Program. One worrisome component is a plan by PG&E to turn off power if there is an extremely high risk of their lines causing a fire. We are concerned that a lack of power will lead to many more issues and dangers, including a lack of water and lack of communications for our region.

We will be working hard to keep our backup power in place and we will be working with PG&E to minimize the impact of their programs on our members.

WRAP Program

We are again offering a discounted rate for qualifying members through our Winter Rate Assistance Program. The discounted rate is available for November through April electricity use to income-qualified members.

For more information and an application, visit www.psrec.coop, or call (530) 832-4261.

Youth Opportunities

As part of our commitment to the communities we serve, PSREC and its subsidiary offer life-changing opportunities to local youth, including scholarships and the Washington Youth Tour.

These programs provide enriching experiences to help young people discover themselves and their roles as citizens.

They also introduce them to the cooperative way, teaching the value of involvement and commitment to their communities.

Please see our story Win an All-Expenses-Paid Trip
to Washington, D.C.! for more information about the Washington Youth Tour. Visit our website at www.psrec.coop for more information on all of our youth opportunities.

Telecommunications

PST continues to expand broadband coverage in the region. We are currently focused on areas with high interest that are in relatively good repair on the old cable TV system we acquired.

Expanding in this way allows us to bring in revenue more quickly, which will let us reinvest in expanding to the harder-to- reach areas. This has been a frustrating process. In some areas, the cable TV system has needed more repairs than we had hoped. The Graeagle system, in particular, turned out to have an odd mix of cable types and sizes. Please be assured that we will continue to improve the systems until they are reliable.

We will discuss our plans for various areas at the annual meeting.

We are also working with various communities on harder-to-reach areas as well, but those projects take more planning—and sometimes even grants—to make them work. For more information about our telecommunications products, including coverage maps, please visit our website at www.pst.coop.

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

Sincerely,

Bob Marshall
General Manager