"Continued Commitment"
2019 Annual Meeting
Continuing commitment
It’s hard to imagine what life today would be like without electricity. If electric co-ops had not electrified towns across rural America years ago, many of our local economies simply wouldn’t exist. Electricity is an essential service and one that we rely on for almost everything that we associate with the modern economy.
We no longer think about electricity, we just assume that it will always be available and that is how it should be. Behind the scenes though, is a team committed to ensure that this distribution system that we operate in real time will be there to make those things that we enjoy in life possible, without even a second thought. At McKenzie Electric we would like to highlight a few of those efforts.
Commitment to safety
Commitment to safety, ours and yours, is a continuous effort. In addition to annual first-aid, equipment operator, and safe work practices training we are never satisfied and continually improve our practices, processes, and procedures, as well as our design practices, to ensure that you have the safest power supply possible.
Commitment to reliability
Our engineering team is always looking several years into the future to ensure that our system has the capacity and capability to reliably deliver power to our members. In 2018 we began a new 10-year planning study and we are performing the initial upgrades to our system throughout 2019, strengthening our transmission system.
Commitment to affordability
Keeping a handle on controllable costs and continuously driving for better efficiency is a staple effort of our entire team. In 2018 we implemented our automation system as an operational resource used in conjunction with outage tracking systems to enable us to identify and isolate problems quickly, many times without the need to roll trucks. In 2019 we are building on this capability to bring a higher level of visibility to our engineering teams who continue to improve our efficiency.
Commitment to security
Physical and cybersecurity are at the forefront of discussions these days. We are happy to report our improved security stance in 2018 with the help of the United States Department of Energy and the National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association providing opportunities for advanced cybersecurity training that have been cascaded throughout our organization. This is an ongoing commitment that continues to evolve throughout this year and onward.
Commitment to our members
Being accurate on our project timelines, as well as driving certainty of scope and price have been an area of significant effort throughout our engineering and operations teams. We are leveraging the best operational practices to ensure that we can provide not only cost optimized solutions, but ones where we also have a high degree of certainty of schedule and scope.
Our commitment to safe, affordable, reliable power continues on all fronts. We are proud to know that the service we deliver enables our economy, our community, and powers both our work and our leisure time. When you turn on your lights, charge your phone, use your computer, prepare your food, watch television, or enjoy time with your family we don’t want you to have to worry about safe, affordable, and reliable power. That is McKenzie Electric's personal continued commitment to you.