NOVEC Meeting 2007

NOVEC, The 16th Annual Cooperative Meeting.

Haymarket, Virginia ~ The 16th Annual Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC) meeting was held last week at the Battlefield High School in Haymarket, Virginia. An estimated 548 voting members in addition to the 9,274 proxy members attended this annual event. According to the by-laws for a quorum to be fully recognized, the membership attendance should be at least 2% of the total membership. According to NOVEC there are 119,934 registered members throughout the Prince William County.

The meeting was chaired by Dexter Odin, Attorney for NOVEC. Prior to the official opening of the meeting, the pledge of allegiance was recited and God Bless America was sung by Reine Evans and was accompanied by the crowd. Once the formality and the legality of the quorum was explained, the minutes from the last year's meeting were acknowledged, and formally accepted by the voting members of the electric cooperative, the business meeting came to order.

One of the key highlights of the evening was the election of new Board of Directors from the districts 2 and 5. Each candidate had 2-3 minutes to express their credentials and ways they can serve the cooperative. After the candidates were officially introduced and recognized, members of the cooperative cast their votes.

J. Manley Garber, Chairman of the Board (CEO) of NOVEC presented the Chairman's Board of Director Report. Mr. Garber stressed NOVEC is one of the best cooperative utility companies in the United States in terms of customer satisfaction, value, and financial stability. He thanked NOVEC employees for their dedication in making the cooperative one of the best in the nation.

He then introduced the Chief Executive Office (CEO) of NOVEC. Stan Feuerberg, CEO of NOVEC provided the audience an executive report which included the following:

Ability to keep the Lights On
Attention to Customer Service
Corporate Balance Sheet
Attention to Safety.

NOVEC uses JD Powers and Associates as their means of gauging customer satisfaction. J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information firm that conducts independent and unbiased surveys of customer satisfaction, product quality and buyer behavior. NOVEC uses this organization as means of determining their effectiveness in terms of Quality of Service. NOVEC has compiled the following information:

 

1. NOVEC customers have the highest Per Capital Income in the United States
2. NOVEC has the highest Level of Education, 63% of populations have Bachelor's Degree or other Advanced Degree.
3. NOVEC customers are the highest users of personal computers in the United States.
4. NOVEC customers are the highest users of the Internet in the United States which is about 26% compared to the nation of the average locality size.
5. NOVEC has in excess of 136,000 customers in terms of electric meter subscriptions. In 2006, NOVEC added 5400 new customers. They predict another 3500 customers will be added this year which is quite low according to NOVEC's standards due to the housing crunch.
According to System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), a formula use to calculate the electrical outages during the course of the year. NOVEC has been the most reliable source of electricity in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Northern Virginia area for the past nine years in a row. The average amount of outage according to NOVEC power outage lasted an average of seventy-one (71) minutes or 1.2 hours per year. There are 8,870 hours in a given year i.e., 24 hours x 365 days.
6. In 2007, JD Powers rated NOVEC as the best mid-size utility company in the Middle and Southern States in the United States.
7. NOVEC hasn't had price increase in the past 16 years. The key is according to Mr. Feuerberg is keeping the cost down by not incurring any additional debts, reducing operating expense, and restructure the existing loans.

NOVEC recently introduced a program designed to maximize and electrical consumption called "In-Load Management Program"; what the program does is it lets NOVEC determine the amount of usage by reducing consumption during peak loads through the use of intelligent switches. For additional information about In-Load Management Program, visit their web site at http://www.novec.com/page.cfm?id=544 .The participation is free of charge and in the event the customer is not satisfied with the service, the program can be terminated without additional burden or costs to the customer. NOVEC also offering a view real-time electrical outage within the Northern Virginia corridor. The goal of this free service is to provide customers a view of real-time outages in the out-lying areas as well as real-time trouble shooting for NOVEC employees and engineers. The URL is http://www.novec.com/map/index.cfm. NOVEC has introduced not-for-profit cooperatives, namely: NOVEC Solutions and NOVEC Energy Solutions (NES). These businesses were introduced as a result of a Virginia legislation requiring product/service being offered by a Cooperative other than its regulated electric service must be provided through an affiliate and not the regulated company. Hence NOVEC is now selling Natural Gas to its existing customer base through NOVEC Energy Solutions. In addition, NOVEC Solutions is now selling gas or electric water heaters, stand-by generators, and surge-protection devices and systems.

Mr. Feuerberg acknowledges that NOVEC is in the midst of upgrading its current data infrastructure and currently has over 135 miles of fiber optic line in service. This fiber optic technology enables NOVEC employees to better communicate with its customer base as well as moving data across their huge Wide Area Network (WAN). He further noted although this technology is strictly reserved to NOVEC, it has started restructuring their business model and started re-selling some of the fiber-optic bandwidth excess capacities speed to large telecommunication carriers.

Other interesting financial facts presented by Mr. Feuerberg are:

Back in the 90's, NOVEC owned wireless bandwidth spectrum. NOVEC eventual sold the wireless spectrum. The proceeds of this transaction were re-invested in the upgrade of the infrastructure and paying down long-term debts.

Since 1999, NOVEC has refunded roughly 196 million dollars of which 42 millions have been refunded to NOVEC customers as bill credits and refunds.

Following the Executive summary report, Mr. Wade House, Vice-President and representative from District 5 - Nokesville/Haymarket/Bull Run, presented the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative Report. In his report, Mr. House discussed current plant capacities, expansion plans, and other energy alternatives. Mr. House also discussed the advantage of subscribing to In-Load Management Program. He feels that with the recent price hikes in oil and gasoline consumers have been affected and are feeling the energy pinch. He further noted that they are other resources out there and NOVEC is currently looking and pursuing other alternative fuel resources. Among these resources are coal, diesel power plants, and nuclear power plants.

In closing, NOVEC annual cooperative meeting was meaningful and productive to the members of the cooperative. The meeting provided members of the cooperative the opportunity to participate and voice out their concerns and opinions in matters of energy conservation and environmental stewardship. The NOVEC quorum was well organized and well thought of. It is an event that members of the cooperative look forward to, in addition to having dinner and winning door prizes.

 

 

Date Published: 2007-10-03 06:00:00

Section: Business,