The 85th annual meeting of the members of Excelsior EMC took place May 12 at the Bulloch County Agricultural Complex in Statesboro. More than 300 members participated in the meeting.
Promptly at 1:10 p.m., Steve Minor, Cooperative attorney, called the business session to order.
After the invocation by Director David Cromley, national anthem and approval of the minutes of the last meeting, nine employees were recognized with a service award for a combined total of 100 years of service to the Cooperative. Receiving service awards were: Five years – Gavin Edenfield, Jonathan Hansen, Scott Hebden, Josh Holland and Carson McLamb. 10 years – Kent Wilson. 20 years – Ashley Donaldson and Mark Trapnell. 25 years – Tamie Wells.
Following the presentation of employee service awards, Greg Proctor gave the President/CEO’s Report. In his report, Proctor provided members an overview of how the cooperative is preparing for growth, described the modernization of Excelsior’s mapping system, thanked Excelsior EMC’s employees for a history of employee safety and culture of continuous improvement and closed by talking about the impacts of inflation on wholesale power costs.
Proctor explained that Excelsior EMC has already begun preparation for the major growth that Bulloch County and surrounding counties are anticipating in the coming years. He stated, “One of the ways that we are working to improve is by creating a more robust electrical distribution system. Resilience is the ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.
“A resilient electrical system is one that has the ability to withstand the challenges that growth, unexpected events, and mother nature place upon it.”
He stated that Excelsior’s four-year work plan consists of multiple projects that will improve Excelsior’s system reliability and resiliency. One such project converts the Jimps substation located beside the Walmart Distribution Center to a higher voltage, which will help to prepare the system for the residential, commercial and industrial growth in the area.
The next large project that Proctor noted was the integration of a new electronic mapping system. This new geographic information system will serve as the foundation of Excelsior’s design, construction, and maintenance system and will provide much more accuracy and efficiency during day-to-day workflow as well as during outage restoration.
Proctor explained that each year the Board conducts a detailed review of capital credits. The 2023 revisions and updates to the Cooperative’s capital credit study along with management recommendations that there be no general retirements or estate retirements during 2023 were reviewed and approved by the Board during their April meeting.
Proctor said that safety is the Cooperative’s highest priority and that he was pleased to report that Excelsior has had its third consecutive year of work with no lost time due to an accident.
He thanked Excelsior EMC employees for their awareness and the safety culture that employees exhibit daily. Proctor also talked about how this is part of Excelsior’s goal of continuous improvement.
Proctor then took time to thank Excelsior EMC employees for their hard work. He explained that it is the people that make everything possible; and that these team members are the ones that keep the lights on for members.
Proctor described the organizational changes that Excelsior has made over the past year to prepare new team members through employee development, knowledge transfer, leadership development and succession planning. Proctor thanked team members who extended their employment past their scheduled retirement to help ensure that knowledge was passed to the next generation of leadership within the cooperative.
Proctor then spoke of the costs of wholesale power in 2022. He explained that wholesale power costs were extremely volatile in the last year with costs of purchased power increasing 41% from $29 million in 2021 to $41 million in 2022. Proctor explained that this was mainly due to the extreme fluctuations in natural gas prices, but inflation was also a contributing factor, being the highest that it has been in 40 years.
Additionally, Proctor spoke about the supply chain issues that have caused major delays and thanked the cooperative’s purchasing agent for his hard work in ensuring crews have what they need to get the job done.
Proctor closed his annual report to members by saying that despite the challenges faced last year, the Cooperative is strong financially, strong in personnel, and strong in its board leadership. Proctor thanked the board for their role in providing leadership and making decisions that provide the best in safe, reliable, and cost-effective service to our members.
Three directors were elected to serve three-year terms. These were: David Cromley, District 1; Mike Anderson, District 2; and Solly Trapnell, District 3.