78th Annual Meeting Is June 13 by NHEC | May 17, 2017 | UncategorizedMeet & Eat! 78th Annual Meeting of Members Tuesday, June 13, 2017 Prospect Hall, Plymouth State University, High Street, Plymouth, NH Dinner starts at 5 p.m., business meeting begins at 6 p.m. D. Maurice Kreis, the New Hampshire Consumer Advocate, will address the membership during the business meeting. The topic of his remarks will be “How Consumers Will Rule the Electric Grid of the Future.” Come early and enjoy dinner provided by Sodexo Catering. A suggested donation of $5 per person will benefit worthy causes in the Plymouth area. Door prizes and post-meeting raffle! Please RSVP to: 1-800-698-2007
Summer Period Bills Going Down 2% by NHEC | May 2, 2017 | UncategorizedBeginning with bills rendered on or after May 1, the typical residential member can expect a total bill decrease of about two percent. That’s a much smaller reduction for the summer than we’ve seen in recent years. So why aren’t rates going down more this summer? It’s not so much to do with the cost of fuels like natural gas that are used to make electricity, but rather two other cost components. The first component is called capacity costs. These are the costs we have to pay to owners of generating plants for being available to turn fuel into electricity every hour of the year, including those few hours when demand is highest. Capacity costs have increased substantially for New England ratepayers this year, which is having an impact on your bill. The second component is called transmission costs. These are the charges we pay to the owners of high voltage transmission lines that get your power to our electric distribution system. Like capacity costs, transmission costs have increased significantly this year as well. MORE ABOUT CAPACITY COSTS… The Co-op’s capacity costs are based on our members’ total demand for power during the one hour each year that demand is at its absolute highest for all of New England. This regional peak usually occurs during early evening on a day in a summer heat wave when air conditioning loads drive up the demand for power. The possibility for the yearly peak demand only occurs in a few hours each summer, but its impact on the price of electricity is felt year-round through the capacity charge NHEC is required to pay to ISO-New England to be paid to the generators. ENERGY EFFICIENCY CAN HELP A lot of these cost drivers are beyond the ability of the Co-op and its 84,000 members to change. We do encourage you, though, to take advantage of our Energy Efficiency programs to help you save energy and money. You can find a complete listing of all our programs here.
Capital Credits Listed on April/May Bills by NHEC | Mar 29, 2017 | UncategorizedNew Hampshire Electric Cooperative will be allocating positive operating margins to each of its members’ accounts based on their individual usage. As a result, a line item pertaining to “capital credits” will appear on the bottom of the April and/or May bills (see message below). It will indicate the amount that is being set aside in each member’s capital account. Please note that this is an equity account, not a cash account. It represents the members’ ownership interest, or equity, in the cooperative. YOUR CAPITAL CREDIT ALLOCATION FOR 2016 IS $0.00. THIS AMOUNT WILL BE APPLIED TO YOUR PATRONAGE CAPITAL ACCOUNT. PLEASE SEE WWW.NHEC.COM FOR IMPORTANT DETAILS.
Island Restoration Will Occur When Conditions Permit by NHEC | Mar 24, 2017 | UncategorizedWhen conditions on the lakes allow, NHEC line crews will be making their way out to various islands where outages have occurred. Some outages have occurred as a result of Winter Storm Stella on March 14. At present, ice conditions are too dangerous to transport employees and equipment to islands to make repairs to the electric distribution system. The decision to send crews to the islands will be made when conditions are for safe passage to and from the islands. We regret the inconvenience, however the safety of our employees and members is our top priority.
Five Days After Stella, NHEC Fully Restored by NHEC | Mar 21, 2017 | UncategorizedFive days after near-hurricane force winds cut a swath of devastation across parts of New Hampshire, NHEC line crews restored power to the last members affected by Winter Storm Stella. Veteran lineworkers say the damage caused by Stella was rivaled only by the 1998 Ice Storm, which knocked out power to more than 50,000 Co-op members, some for up to two weeks. By comparison, Stella’s impact was less widespread – 15,000 members had lost power at the peak of the storm on March 14. But in the hardest hit areas of the northern Lakes Region, Stella left scenes of destruction that will change the local landscape. Untold numbers of large white pine trees were toppled in the towns of Moultonborough, Center Harbor, Sandwich and Tuftonboro, where wind gusts were recorded in excess of 60 miles per hour. Falling trees blocked roads and left many areas inaccessible for days. The damage to NHEC’s electrical distribution system was extreme in spots. The day after the storm passed, line crews were confronted by miles of wire on the ground and more than 100 broken poles. The list of supplies shipped to crews in the field during the restoration effort reveals the extent of the damage: 117 poles 75 8’ cross arms 600 insulators 50 transformers 10,000 feet of wire While the majority of crews worked along roadsides in bucket trucks, other crews headed off-road in tracked vehicles, ATVs and snowshoes to replace poles and hang wire in locations that could not be reached by trucks. At the height of the clean-up effort, a total of 44 line crews and more than 20 tree crews were working in the northern Lakes Region. Much of the restoration effort was centered on the Route 109 area from Route 25 in Moultonborough to Center Tuftonboro. In the days following the storm, the normally quiet road was abuzz with activity as crews from the NH Department of Transportation, electric, cable and phone utilities and logging operations maneuvered around each other’s work areas and coordinated their efforts to open roads and restore services. A restoration of this magnitude required a cooperative effort. NHEC is grateful for the help it received from crews from Vermont Electric Cooperative, Eversource and a number of contract line and tree crews. NHEC also wishes to thank representatives of the state Department of Transportation, local emergency services and municipal officials for their close cooperation during the storm and recovery. Special thanks go to the Sandwich and Moultonborough highway departments for their extraordinary efforts. NHEC also wishes to thank its members for their overwhelming support of our crews. Despite some members being without power for as much as five days, line crews in the field encountered nothing but patience and gratitude from NHEC members. Numerous acts of kindness, large and small, kept spirits high during the clean-up. Thank you to Bob Jones and the Village Kitchen in Moultonborough for serving free breakfast to line crews. Thank you to the Cup and Crumb restaurant in Moultonborough for delivering food to our lineworkers in the field. Thank you to Daphne at the Circle K Irving in Meredith, who gave Dunkin Donuts gift cards to our crews. Thank you to Steve, who dropped off coffee and donuts for two days at the Meredith District office. Thank you to the people of Moultonborough who purchased Girl Scout cookies at their town meeting for delivery to our lineworkers. Thank you to the many members who acknowledged our crews with signs in their driveways or a thumbs-up and a wave. “Our members displayed the best spirit of a cooperative during this storm,” said NHEC President/CEO Steve Camerino. “We are grateful to them as well as our employees, sister utilities and vendors for their support.” Storm-related clean-up will continue throughout this week as crews work with homeowners to restore service lines and clean up broken poles and other system debris along the roadsides and rights-of-way. If you are awaiting reconnection after repairs to your service line, please contact NHEC at 1-800-698-2007.
Applications Being Accepted for NHEC Foundation Scholarships by NHEC | Feb 20, 2017 | UncategorizedPLYMOUTH, NH – The New Hampshire Electric Co-op (NHEC) Foundation is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for 2017 scholarships. This year a total of six, $1,500 scholarships will be awarded to deserving Co-op members or their dependents. Scholarships are available to college-bound high school seniors, students returning to college, and non-traditional students. One scholarship will be reserved for a student entering a vocational or technical institution. All applicants must be a Co-op member, or a legal dependent of a Co-op member. The deadline for applying for scholarships is April 21, 2017. Complete details and applications are available here.