“Innovation Across Power Cooperative Community”
“Our nation’s electric cooperatives have a lot happening on the innovation front. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association supports its 900 plus member cooperatives with innovation as they serve growing suburbs and local communities in navigating the changing electric industry.” - Public Utilities Fortnightly.
To discuss the latest on cooperatives and innovation, Public Utilities Fortnightly (PUF) magazine brought together NRECA’s Senior Vice President of Business and Technology Strategies Angela Strickland, along with 4 senior cooperative executives, Block Island Utility (RI) President Jeffery Wright, Holy Cross Energy (CO) CEO Bryan Hannegan, Rio Grande Electric Cooperative Program Manager Abraham Vasquez, and SECO Energy (FL) Chief Corporate Service Officer Gregg Morrell.
The following are excerpts from the October edition, in which PUF directed questions to RGEC’s Abraham Vasquez.
PUF: Abraham, why is innovation important for Rio Grande Electric Cooperative and all cooperative members?
Abraham Vasquez: When I came to the cooperative, I heard stories of some 75 years ago when Rio Grande Electric brought electricity to locations that did not have it. I cannot imagine that. Growing up with electricity was a normal, everyday thing. Even back then, the cooperative had the innovation to reach out and get electricity to the members. When that happened, I heard stories of the members being ecstatic to have electricity in their homes.
Those days of members being ecstatic just to have electricity have long passed. Now, it’s an expectation that we not only maintain reliable electricity, but also create new innovative offerings. What can we do to increase the overall quality of life for the members, enhance reliability, and keep the cost down? It is using innovation to maintain that for the members and take the next steps with new technologies, to maintain that reliability. That’s important.
PUF: Abraham, what innovations has Rio Grande Electric Cooperative been developing that are most impactful for your members?
Abraham Vasquez: At Rio Grande Electric Cooperative, we have what I would consider 3 systems. 1 is the native system, which is for our rural members. We also have 2 utility privatized contracts, 1 on Fort Bliss Army Base and 1 on Laughlin Air Force Base. We treat all 3 the same, but the innovations in each area are different. In the native system, we’ve installed solar arrays to reduce the cost for members and to have a cleaner, more sustainable resource there. We also have AMI metering, so we are able to track outages for the members and improve our system. On the Fort Bliss Army Base, they are looking for increased reliability and as our member, we are exploring different ways to help the base with innovative ideas, and outside-the-box thinking. The mission of Fort Bliss is to maintain ready-todeploy soldiers. That means we need to always keep the power on, so at 1 of the mission ranges we’re looking into utilizing capital credits to fund a fully turnkey microgrid system. That way if there are any outages from the transmission side or issues on the line, they can maintain their mission, and keep on with their training. An outage will not interfere with the mission. That is what we are looking at in Laughlin Air Force Base as well, utilizing the existing system. What are their needs, what are their demands, and seeing how we can improve reliability on the military installations.
PUF: Abraham, at Rio Grande Electric Cooperative, how have you developed a culture of innovation?
Abraham Vasquez: It does start at the top with the leadership and our CEO’s very open-minded, wanting to move forward with innovation, and that mentality. Trusting the personnel, the engineers, as well as technology services and operations. Of course, with innovation, there’re always going to be concerns. Cybersecurity, especially with automation and communications. It is creating innovative ideas to overcome those concerns. It is also instilling a mindset of, “How can we get better?” And how innovation will help us to complete the mission. RGEC strives to ensure that the employees are continuously developing, by providing them with proper education and training. It is asking the right questions, “How do we improve to get where we want to be?” Again, it begins with leadership, but everyone within the co-op has to take that step forward, working together, and making sure no 1 is left behind. That’s how we’re creating innovators at the cooperative.