Power of Community

WEC’s 85th Annual Meeting

At Wiregrass Electric Cooperative (WEC), we have always believed in the power of community — not just the one we’re part of, but the one we actively build every day.

“We intentionally get up each and every day to help this community have a better quality of life,” says CEO Brad Kimbro. His words encapsulate the cooperative’s duty to its members and serve as a reminder that at the end of every line is a family, a home, and a story.

With this in mind, we evaluated WEC’s operations and progress over the past year, focusing on areas in which we make our community stronger and detailing steps taken in each of those areas.

We Leverage the Strength of Our Leadership & Teams:

• We welcomed our new CEO, Kimbro, formerly our chief operating officer, who brings a wealth of knowledge of the electric utility industry and a deep commitment to our mission and community.
• Through our lean team of 58 dedicated professionals, we continued to deliver world-class service to our growing membership.
• We maintained relationships with legislators and stayed aware of potential policy changes, ensuring members’ interests were understood.

We’re Enhancing Our Member Experience & Engaging With the Community:

• We achieved a 91% member satisfaction rate, higher than the average for other electric cooperatives.
• Embracing technology, we introduced text notifications via our outage management system to keep members updated about power restoration.
• We invested in advanced infrastructure to improve system reliability and efficiency.

We’re Addressing Challenges in Managing Costs:

• Recognizing issues with peak demand due to our residential-heavy service area, we implemented strategies to manage peak demand during winter, encouraging members to reduce energy usage between 6 and 9 a.m.
• Through effective financial management, we maintained competitive retail rates despite higher wholesale power costs.

We’re Investing in Our Future:

• We collaborated with PowerSouth Energy Cooperative and supported new businesses like ISA Corporation to attract industrial loads and balance energy costs.
• We partnered with local officials and organizations to support infrastructure projects to grow our economy.
• We recently partnered with Alabama ONE Credit Union, providing services in our Dothan and Samson offices.

WEC is your partner in the community, committed to enhancing your life. By embracing the power of community, we’ve strengthened connections, improved our service, and laid the path for a future that is brightly lit. With every action and decision, we power through challenges and celebrate our successes as one community.