Delivering electricity to member-owners safely and reliably is at the heart of Community Electric Cooperative’s mission, and members continue to be well served. During CEC’s annual business meeting in early August, President and CEO Steven Harmon assured attendees that the cooperative’s employees remain laser-focused on the need to keep power flowing to members’ homes and businesses.
Despite the rising material costs, supply chain challenges and shifting technology policies – CEC’s employees demonstrate daily that they are committed to serving members well, Harmon said. CEC is keenly aware that the demand for power is rising statewide and within its service territory – making it all the more important that the Cooperative’s equipment operates reliably and that CEC system resilience is strengthened.
“We don’t take for granted for a single second the importance of electricity to our members,” Harmon said. “It powers our homes, our businesses, our children’s schools and computers, and the hospital and health care facilities that care for our sick and elderly.”
Last year, CEC posted an “average service availability” score of 97 percent, according to an index widely used by electric utilities. The performance topped 2023’s availability and included all outages, 64 percent of which resulted from weather events with 16 percent caused by trees and vegetation.
Community Electric Cooperative has filed with the State Corporation Commission to implement a rate adjustment beginning October 1, 2025. This adjustment, the first comprehensive change since 2012, is necessary to keep pace with the rising costs of equipment, materials, and essential services needed to provide safe and reliable electricity. By aligning rates with today’s operating realities, CEC can continue making the investments required to maintain dependable service for members well into the future. A detailed breakdown of rate schedule adjustments is published on CEC’s website.
To help keep abreast of developments that can affect power delivery and help members conserve energy, the Community Electric team interact frequently at a variety of levels with Richmond-based Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC), Harmon said. ODEC is the nonprofit generation and transmission cooperative that supplies power to CEC and 10 other distribution cooperatives in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. Harmon is serving a term as the current chair of ODEC’s board of directors.
Attendees at the annual meeting were told that CEC continues to invest in programs and equipment that improve efficiency and better prepare the cooperative to respond effectively to extreme weather events that can cause power outages.
CEC’s ability to make these investments is strengthened by the strong financial performance of its RECORE energy solutions subsidiary, Harmon said. Last December, RECORE declared and paid CEC a dividend of $450,000, the 11th consecutive year it has paid a dividend. This helped the Cooperative end 2024 with a much-improved financial margin compared to the prior year. “From a balance sheet perspective, we had a good year in 2024. RECORE’s continued growth is having a positive impact on its operations and on those of the Cooperative.”
Meeting attendees learned that their peers are well pleased with the services that CEC’s work force is providing. A customer satisfaction survey conducted earlier this year found that CEC’s member-owners strongly believe that CEC’s performance merits recommending it to a friend of colleague. The survey was conducted by Inside Information Inc. of Smithville, Mo. In the survey, CEC’s “Net Promoter Score” stood at 75, 12 points higher than the average Promoter Score for rural electric cooperatives nationally.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the dedication that our team members exhibit day in and day out,” Harmon said. “I’m pleased that their efforts are recognized, and that our members feel they are being well served.”
The meeting also featured the election/re-election of these board members:
- City of Suffolk: Jason Carr
- Isle of Wight County: Diana Beale
- Southampton County: Jeannette Everett
Approximately 30 members attended the business meeting, two-thirds of them virtually via Facebook live. CEC awarded raffle prizes to 23 member-owners and two members – Jeffrey May and Laura Migliore – won Fizz Fusion and AirBnb gift cards respectively – from the Paperless Billing raffle. CEC spends about $200,000 annually to mail bills and Cooperative Living to members. Going paperless helps CEC and, in turn, its members, save money.
Vendors that supported the prize drawing are River City Construction, Helena Agri-Enterprises, Briggs & Stratton, the Tarheel Electric Membership Association, TMS, Koppers Inc., DeWitt’s Automotive Center, Xylem, CEEUS, ERMCO/NTS and Carter Machinery.
