BY TERRI HUGHES-LAZZELL, Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly
news@fwbusiness.com
Rural electric membership cooperatives were created to deliver power to the deepest corners of rural areas. Over time, they began serving urban areas and providing long-distance telephone service, too.
These days, REMCs' mission is more than just power lines, it's technology - from allowing residential and business customers to access the Internet, to using the Web to read electricity meters from miles away.
REMCs are electric utility cooperatives, in which the customers are members. Members receive a share of the profits from the nonprofit cooperative.
There are REMCs in 46 states, and all are independently owned. Most serve rural areas; the service territories were established in the 1960s when the Rural Electrical Administration was established to provide low-cost loans for erecting electrical lines.
Customers within an REMC service area often have been bypassed by companies that provide cable or digital-subscriber-line Internet service. To some, REMCs may not be viewed as centers of high technology, but they are taking the initiative to provide Internet access to customers, forging ahead in the same manner as when they were busy building power stations and transmission lines.
"It's kind of like going back to our roots," said John Klingenberger, corporate relations manager for United REMC, based in Markle. The company serves more than 10,000 members in Huntington, Wells and southwest Allen counties, as well as portions of Wabash, Whitley, Grant and Adams counties.
United REMC is working to bring high-speed broadband Internet access to its customers.
"New technology doesn't happen overnight," he said. "It's similar to when we set up electricity for rural customers in the 1930s. Broadband to rural areas is like what we did years ago when we started electrical service to rural areas."
Because of demands from customers, Klingenberger said the cooperative also is looking at providing high-speed wireless service, but a target date hasn't been set.
The response from United REMC customers has been better than expected.
"We have many home-based businesses that need high-speed Internet service," he said.
Northeastern REMC, based in Columbia City, likewise is providing high-speed Internet access to members in southwest and northwest Allen County, Whitley County and portions of Kosciusko, Noble, Huntington and Wabash counties. The company serves 26,000 members.
The cooperative supplies wireless high-speed access through Wild Blue, an Internet service provider, said Mike DeFreeuw, director of marketing and communications for Northeastern REMC.
"Many people have been taking advantage of the service," he said. "We had to stop adding customers because our space on the satellite was filled. We're adding another satellite, so we will be able to open it to more customers."
Unlike most REMCs, Northeastern REMC has a customer base that is primarily urban, especially the areas of Allen County that it serves. But those in its outlying regions are grateful for the opportunity to use the technology, DeFreeuw said.
"It's truly like our beginning when we were trying to get electrical service to people all over the place," he said, echoing Klingenberger.
High tech doesn't stop at providing Internet service. It extends to improving the way REMCs deliver the service they were created for: electricity.
Both United REMC and Northeastern REMC have launched automatic meter programs. United REMC's automatic meter-reader program transmits meter information from members' homes and businesses to a substation, where the information is then radioed to the office.
Klingenberger said the system means fewer man-hours in the field reading meters, and it also can detect outages and disconnect customers for nonpayment.
"It allows us to give better service," Klingenberger said
Northeastern REMC is using an advanced metering infrastructure, or AMI, which allows it do more than just read meters from a distance.
The cooperative began using the system in August 2005, piloting it on 300 meters. Northeastern REMC has a four-year plan to have all residential and commercial customers online.
The system uses a radio frequency to transmit information from meters to a collector in the cooperative's main office. An Internet browser can check the meters hourly, tracking usage, lost grid power or even surges, said Andrew Mitchell, engineering specialist for Northeastern REMC.
"We can do quality voltage studies, checking high and low voltage, allowing us to get ahead of customer calls with outages, and we can direct crews to the exact problem," he said.
The information also helps Northeastern REMC ensure the proper equipment is in place for new and existing customers. The system can detect if underground or above-ground lines are degrading.
"We can determine if equipment is overloaded and upgrade," Mitchell said.
Currently, between 800 and 850 rural customers are online with the AMI system, and Northeastern REMC plans to add 7,000 more this year. It will convert all residential customers in three to four years, Mitchell said.
Another 100 to 110 large commercial customers have been put on the new AMI system, with 500 companies expected to be online within four years, he added.
"The system allows us to help the customer, as well. We can show them when they have high usage during each day and they can determine what they need to do to change that," Mitchell said.
Mitchell said one commercial customer already has used the information to adjust its after-hours energy usage.
The cooperative eventually plans to allow customers to log into the system by computer and check their usage. There's even the potential for Northeastern REMC to control some customers' electrical appliances, such as water heaters, to keep usage down in exchange for rebates, Mitchell said.
Northeastern REMC also offers its customers an energy audit. Using either an infrared camera or a blower-door test, Doug Ferrell, an energy adviser with the cooperative, can show members whether their houses leak energy.
The infrared camera works best in cooler weather, when the home is at least 20 degrees warmer than the outside air temperature, he said. The blower-door test, which uses a fan, can be used in warmer months.
Ferrell said currently he's checking about 10 to 12 homes each month with the infrared camera. The information is given to the homeowner, who usually can do many of the repairs, such as sealing around windows. For anything beyond the homeowner's ability, he has a recommended list of contractors.
Even new construction can have energy leaks, he said.
"Anything you can do to stop the flow of heat out of the home can save money," Ferrell said. For example, proper sealing can save as much as 30 percent in heating costs.