SREC holds annual meeting

BY CHRIS WYMAN
WANTAGE — Some 800-plus Sussex Rural Electric Cooperative members attended the organization's annual meeting on June 3 at the High Point Regional High School.

Much of this year’s meeting focused on the cooperative’s response to the October 29 arrival of Hurricane Sandy. Although portions of the meeting dealt with the financial health of the company, a new and enhanced system for tracking power outages was also introduced. The system enables members to monitor outage repair progress via the Internet by accessing www.outages.sussexrec.com. The website can be accessed on mobile devices.

In addition to the cost saving program that controls many of the 12,000 members’ electric water heaters, a recently announced program for central air conditioning systems was also described to members. Both systems are designed to reduce energy usage during peak hours.

Sussex Rural Electric Cooperative President and CEO Jim Siglin spoke about the challenges of Hurricane Sandy in his address to the membership. “Mother Nature again did her best to cancel Halloween,” said Siglin. “Hurricane Sandy brought new challenges to restoring service. Because of the size of the storm and the uncertainty of its landfall, it became very difficult to find outside crews to assist us.”

Siglin said the size and scope of the storm was not yet known until it had passed through neighboring states, whose utilities were not able to make a commitment to assist in New Jersey until their own damage was mitigated. However, crews from cooperatives in South Carolina and Florida were able to respond to SREC’s needs.

“These crews arrived the evening the storm hit, rested that night and were ready to work Tuesday morning," said Siglin. "Tree trimming crews were also hard to secure, but with much persistence we were able to get the necessary crews.”

Siglin also offered the membership an extended question and answer session. Vernon Township Councilman Dick Wetzel, a cooperative member, asked about the status of a petition by some 525 Vernon residents to switch from their existing service by Jersey Central Power & Light to SREC. At this point, it appears doubtful that JCP&L and the state government will allow the residents to switch.

In response to Wetzel’s question, another resident said that he was cautious about adding new members from JCP&L since it might be costly to upgrade their electrical service to conform to SREC’s higher standards of equipment and performance.

Several members also took the time to praise the cooperative for its performance and timely restoration of power during the past storms. Whenever a member brought such praise, the rest of the members in the auditorium offered loud applause to show their agreement.

Siglin also noted that weather patterns, if they continue to bring increasing and recurring damage to the area, would be proactively addressed and planned for by the cooperative in order to maintain the highest possible level of effective and timely response to potential crises.