CEO’s Message – March 2025

Take Control & Getting Results

Some things we just cannot control — other people’s behavior, the economy, the passage of time, even the weather.

We can control how we react.

On January 22, the Wiregrass saw 5 to 8 inches of snowfall plus frigid temperatures in the days before and after that record-setting event. All winter, Wiregrass Electric Cooperative (WEC) sent peak demand alerts out through social media, our mobile app, emails, text messages, and our website, asking members to adjust their power usage during anticipated peak demand events. You listened, and we’re thankful.

With the historic snowfall and the extremely low temperatures experienced in our area, we expected to see a higher demand expense in our wholesale power cost due to these extreme conditions. After crunching the peak usage numbers for all of PowerSouth Energy’s member systems, the financial impact of this historic cold weather peak event for WEC didn’t add any additional cost to our forecasted budget, in large part due to members hearing our plea to help control peak demand.

As a cooperative, our 2025 peak demand for the system came in at 142 megawatts — that’s 2 MW less than our peak demand record set in December 2022, when the coldest temperatures then were warmer than what we experienced this January, and there wasn’t any snow in 2022 like we had with this year’s cold weather.

WEC is historically a winter-peaking system, which may seem like a contradiction given our hot summers in the South, but it’s true. We hit our peak demand for electricity usually on the coldest day of the year, between the hours of 6 to 9 a.m.

We hate to sound like a broken record, but an important message bears repeating: Peak demand does impact what the cooperative pays for wholesale energy and eventually what you pay on your monthly bill. We send alerts to give you some control over what you pay each month. The capacity peak demand, the fixed cost portion of our wholesale power cost, is impacted by just a few hours on that coldest day of the year. Those few hours impact us all because when the peak demand happens, there must be the capacity in place to meet that demand. Capacity equals reliability, if the capacity isn’t there at the peak time, then the lights don’t come on. Designing an electric grid for peak demand has a cost and in theory, the lower that peak demand, the lower the cost will be.

While we may only use the maximum needed — or the peak — once a year, we still must pay for it for the rest of the year. Otherwise, our wholesale partner, PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, couldn’t cover the cost of the capacity to provide us with energy when we hit our peak demand, and we wouldn’t be able to provide our members with electricity when they need it most.

However, because of our members’ efforts, WEC’s peak set in January remained below the cooperative’s peak capacity demand record set back in 2022. Members listened to our message and took steps to lower their usage during possible peak demand times, helping offset what was feared — as much as $1.5 million additional demand cost.

I want to thank our membership for their efforts and encourage all members to continue to listen to our communications on peak demand, taking steps to keep their demand lower and, in turn, help us keep our costs as low as possible. For more information about ways to reduce peak demand, visit the Fixed Demand Charge FAQ page.

Members want and deserve a reliable system that is also affordable. However, reliability that doesn’t sacrifice affordability requires a delicate balance, and there are external cost pressures WEC simply cannot control: federal policy, power plant mandates, ongoing supply chain struggles, and inflated prices.

We have mitigated local rate increases by addressing expenses we can control on the distribution side. We’ve kept our employee numbers down when it made sense, using technology and new training for our employees so that we can do more with fewer people. We carry a larger inventory of supplies to avoid paying higher prices later or facing the possibility that we can’t get certain supplies in a timely manner.

WEC’s load is mostly residential members. More commercial and industrial members would help spread the fixed load and costs during off-peak times. WEC works with local economic development boards, chamber representatives, county commissioners, and other community leaders to recruit new businesses and industries.

Such efforts, when fruitful, are good for our members by providing jobs and for the cooperative by helping diversify our load. And, yes, we will continue to ask for your help when peak demand times occur.

We work for our members, facing the challenges this world presents and we appreciate our members hearing our message about peak demand and doing your part to help us keep costs as low as possible.