April 2016 Proudly serving the members of …aemc.coopwebbuilder2.com/sites/aemc/files/web pages/About...We are members of NC 811. Call 811 or 1-800-632-4949 two business days before

Albemarle Soundsis published monthly by

Albemarle Electric Membership Corporation

P.O. Box 69Hertford, NC 27944

(252) 426-5735

Gary Ray, General ManagerChris Powell, Editor

Website and member portal:www.aemc.coop

Outages:1-800-274-2072

24-hour payments: (252) 426-4419

We are members of NC 811. Call 811 or 1-800-632-4949

two business days before you plan to dig. They will contact us to locate any underground

electric lines. It’s the law.

April 2016 Proudly serving the members of Albemarle Electric Membership Corporation

Albemarle EMC Carolina Country APRIL 2016 21

Winslow Promoted to First Class Lineman

New Hope Substation Comes Online

Ken Winslow (left) is congratulated by Operations Manager Glenn Parks. Winslow was recently promoted to first class lineman. Winslow has worked with the co-op since 2008.

Perquimans members in the New Hope area should have significantly improved reliability now that they have been switched to the recently constructed New Hope Substation.

Switching those members to the new substation was considered critical, said Kevin Heath, manager of engineering.

“The old circuit was close to capacity,” Heath said. “Any excessive load due to cold weather could have caused an outage.”

Now, instead of being served by one 12,000-volt (KV) circuit, the New Hope residents are being served by four 12 (KV) circuits coming from a new

substation. The upgrades will ensure that the New Hope area has plenty of capacity to meet the needs of future growth for years to come.

An AEMC lineman switches New Hope residents to the New Hope Substation.

ACT Grant Awarded

An Albemarle Community Trust grant was recently given to the Perquimans County Schools Foundation. The $2,400 grant will be used for a field trip that will involve all second-grade students attending the Annual Livestock Show and Sale, in Elizabeth City. The Albemarle Community Trust is funded by members who contribute voluntarily through their power bills. Members can opt out at any time.

Albemarle EMC Carolina Country APRIL 2016 22

Student Chosen for Youth TourJ’Nya Moore has been selected to

represent Albemarle Electric Membership Corporation on this year’s Washington Youth Tour.

J’Nya is a junior at Pasquotank County High School. For the past three years, she has received the Superintendant Academic Team award. She was also student of the month in February. She is an honor roll student who has been inducted into the National Honor Society. J’Nya participates in teen court, the Distributive Education Clubs of America and the Student Government Association. She has also volunteered as a member of the prom committee, and she has also volunteered with Judge Eula Reid.

“Albemarle EMC is proud to play a part in giving this wonderful experience to such an accomplished student,” said Gary Ray, general manager of Albemarle EMC. “We know she’ll have a great time and learn a lot about the importance of cooperatives.”

The trip will be June 11-17. The Youth Tour is unlike any other visit to Washington, D.C. Students receive high-level access to Capital Hill, where they

meet legislators from their districts and have a chance to ask them questions. This year’s trip will also feature an evening cruise down the Potomac River in a cruise ship with three dance floors.

While on the trip, J’Nya will have the opportunity

to compete for the $2,500 Gwyn B. Price Youth Tour scholarship and the $2,000 Katie Bunch Memorial Scholarship. The third scholarship, worth $2,000, will be awarded to the student selected for the Youth Leadership Council, which is a national advisory committee to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

Clean Power Plan Put on

HoldOn February 9, the U.S. Supreme

Court ordered that implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan be put on hold until all legal challenges to the plan are resolved. This is likely to take until 2017.

In its current form, the Clean Power Plan sets carbon dioxide emission limits for each state to achieve a collective national emissions reduction of 32 percent by 2030. As this issue works its way through the courts, electric cooperatives will continue to work with policy leaders on energy issues affecting our members. Our goal is to ensure that regulations and legislation support our balanced portfolio and allow us to continue to provide you with safe, affordable and reliable power in an environmentally responsible way.

Capital Credits Being Refunded this Month

Capital credits are the year-end margins earned by your cooperative. They are allocated to each member based on their electric usage for that year. These monies are a source of equity and may be returned to members when the co-op is in a sound financial position. We’ve been fortunate enough to make annual refunds to our members for as far back as co-op records go. The oldest nonretired margins on our books are for the year 1989. Your board of directors is pleased to approve another general retirement of capital credits. In an effort to reach the members that have been with us the longest as well as benefit those that are among the newest, the refund years will consist of the following:

1989 capital credits 100% $355,096.32 1990 capital credits 25% $98,257.45 2014 capital credits 7% $102,055.80Those who were members of Albemarle EMC during these years will probably

receive a capital credits refund in April. The credit will be a line item on bills stating Capital Credit Refund. “If you consider the cost of printing checks, envelopes, postage, bank reconciliations, etc., it saves our members a lot of money if we credit the refunds on their electric bills,” said Clarissa Perry, manager of corporate services.

If a member has several accounts, the capital credit system adds them together. The credit will only be posted on one account. Anyone that received power during these years but is no longer an active member will receive a check. It is important for members to give the co-op a good forwarding address when they move off Albemarle EMC lines.

Director Achieves

Certification

Garry Meiggs, member of the Albemarle EMC Board of Directors (right), recently earned his Director Gold certification.

John Spence, president of the Albemarle EMC Board of Directors, presented Meiggs with the certificate. Director Gold recognizes directors who have earned their certificates for Cooperative Director and Board Leadership. They also must be committed to continuing education.

Teachers: Apply Now for Bright Ideas Grants

Grants can be applied for by visiting www.NCBrightideas.com. The deadline to apply is Sept. 23.

Youth Tour winner J’Nya Moore (center) is accompanied by her mom, Delishia, and Principal Amy Fyffe.

How Albemarle EMC works to provide its members with the highest-quality service possible.

Albemarle EMC is at Your Service

Albemarle EMC Carolina Country APRIL 2016 23

Co-ops Provide Resiliency to the Power GridAs residents of Chowan County, my

family has one primary supermarket from which to purchase groceries. We also purchase quite a few groceries from our local farmer’s market. We shop at the farmer’s market to buy locally raised meats and produce. We also like that several of the producers are organic, and their products are high quality. But one of the underlying reasons we believe in supporting our local farmers’ market is it gives us comfort knowing that we are not 100 percent dependent on the sole supermarket for our groceries. I shutter to think what would happen if our only supermarket was to close its doors. Some could argue that another supermarket chain would fill the void. But how long would that take? And what would we do in the meantime? Our little farmer’s market would probably become much more popular over night.

In an era of business consolidation and centralization, it’s more important than ever to protect the businesses that provide resiliency to our economic system. In my book, electric cooperatives are similar to the farmers’ markets of the world. Electric cooperatives are small, local, people-oriented and provide a necessary alternative to a consolidated industry. Anyone paying attention during our past economic downturns knows full well that even the most well-established businesses can vanish suddenly. Here are a few: Enron, WorldCom, Washington Mutual and Lehman Brothers. Of course, this is not to suggest that any of the large electric utilities are in any danger. Historically, the power industry has been one of the most stable. Even so, isn’t it nice to know that our region’s power

needs aren’t all in one proverbial basket?Electric cooperatives were born out

of a need for diversification. Early in the 20th century, America was being electrified. However, the rural areas were being left behind. It simply was not profitable for power companies to run miles and miles of line to serve one small farmhouse at the end of a road. To solve this problem, not-for-profit electric cooperatives were established through Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal program “to electrify rural America.” A group of residents organized to form an electric co-op. The co-op was initially funded by low-interest loans available through the Rural Electrification Administration. Representatives from Camden, Pasquotank, Perquimans and Chowan counties met and formally incorporated the co-op on Feb. 24, 1945. In the months to come, the co-op applied for a loan from the Rural Electrification Administration for $685,000 to serve 2,119 member consumers. Consulting engineers were named, contractors’ bids accepted, and construction began. By September of 1946, the first lines were energized in Camden County. From its humble beginnings when a group of determined farmers decided to work together to provide themselves electricity, Albemarle EMC has grown into a multi-million-dollar business serving more than 12,500 members in the Albemarle region. More than 1,300 miles of line stretch into remote areas and have been essential to sustaining the local economy and standard of living.

Electric cooperatives are unique in that they are nonprofit, member-owned and member controlled. Members have

indirect control of their cooperative through the individuals they elect to serve on the board of directors. Members can also have direct control by running for a seat on the board of directors.

As a nonprofit business, cooperatives give back any excess profits (referred to as margins) to its members through what are called capital credits. Co-ops differ from for-profit companies in how they allocate those margins. A for-profit business retains those earnings for its own account or pays them out to shareholders as dividends, based on the amount of stock each investor owns. In a cooperative business model, margins are typically allocated among the members based on the amount of business each member did with the cooperative. In our case, the more electricity a member uses, the larger the amount of capital credits the member receives. For this year, Albemarle EMC has announced margins of more than $555,000.

Co-ops are a different breed in the utility world. Our seven cooperative principles are: voluntary and open membership, democratic member control, member’s economic participation, autonomy and independence, education training and information, cooperation among cooperatives and concern for the community.

From their inception, electric cooperatives have provided a viable alternative to the power industry. Cooperatives truly are companies run for the members and by the members. In a free and democratic republic, options are always a good thing — whether you are buying groceries or electricity.