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Industry helps hold down rates for all
This story concludes our series about how your co-op is handling record growth
August, 2006
By Walter Allread
If you followed Senior Staking Engineer Billy Jenkins over the past six and a half years, you'd get an idea of how York Electric became the state's second fastest growing co-op.
Jenkins and other staking engineers meet with builders, homeowners and construction companies to coordinate and design York Electric's lines and facilities. They set the path for co-op power to flow to huge new office buildings, industries, sprawling residential communities and new schools as well as individual homes and farms. In other words, they get around.
For Jenkins and York Electric, the 19th-Century call to opportunity, "Go west, young man!" needs a 180-degree adjustment. He's been "going east" of the co-op's York headquarters to track high growth within the service area, particularly in the Charlotte metropolitan area.
Progress personified
Jenkins sounds like progress personified when he describes his work over the last decade: "I was around York most of the time. Then, I gradually moved toward Fort Mill. Now, I'm gradually moving into Indian Land. There's just so much going on over here — and there's going to be more."
"Here" is the eastern corner of the co-op's service territory, in the Lancaster County panhandle, where expansion of the Charlotte metro area is attracting newcomers by the thousands. New roads, including the Interstate 485 outer belt will encourage continued growth, bringing not only new residential member-owners into the cooperative but, also, thanks to special efforts by the co-op, significant commercial and industrial members.
Another co-op employee has beaten a path similar to Jenkins' in recent years. Director of Marketing / Government Relations Marc Howie coordinates the cooperative's economic development efforts, working with local, regional, state entities and electric cooperative organizations to attract and retain large commercial and industrial customers. Those efforts include developing industrial parks, like the East York Industrial Park, home of Hella Lighting, and helping to finance speculative buildings.
As Howie notes, "Large companies use large amounts of power, which help to hold down the cost of service for all co-op members." Serving commercial and industrial accounts has helped York Electric go without a rate increase for more than 12 years, he points out.
Jenkins' and Howie's paths crossed March 7 at the construction site of HSBC Mortgage Service's headquarters building. HSBC is relocating most of its operations from Charlotte to the EdgeWater Corporate Center, a 90-acre, one-million-square-foot office park. The company, including subsidiary Decision One Mortgage, is one of the nation's largest lenders.
In addition to the 182,000-square-foot, four-and-a-half-story headquarters building and a two-deck parking garage, the EdgeWater center will include a 250,000-square-foot office building, Jenkins says.
"It is going to be a good load for us," he adds, referring to the amount of power the cooperative will deliver. Even residents of the other side of the co-op's service area, still predominantly rural, will benefit, Jenkins notes. "Our cost to serve here, per kilowatt delivered, is not nearly what it is in the western part of the service area," he says. "When you start building a lot of line to serve that one house, the cost is much higher."
Jenkins notes that building service to customers such as HSBC is far more complex and demanding. Just for the construction phase, the cooperative moved quickly to build three-phase underground service to the site, he notes. (HSBC moved into the facility in July.)
Jenkins tells Howie that everything's on track to move two large transformers to the site in April — one is rated at 2,000 kilovolt-amps — and "have them hot," or energized, by mid-month.
The cooperative plans to build a new substation in the area, Jenkins notes, to augment service from its existing Van Wyck substation. Because companies like HSBC cannot afford to lose power even briefly, the co-op has arranged to provide what's known as a "redundant feed." In the event of problems affecting a substation or its feeder lines, HSBC will be able to receive power through another substation and different feeders. It's the type of arrangement that Howie coordinates with Jenkins and other co-op engineering and operations team members in order to secure the account.
The fact that they chose York Electric indicates confidence that the co-op can meet their power needs, Jenkins agrees. He says the builder at EdgeWater, Charlotte-based Lauth Property Group, worked with the co-op on a previous project, Transpoint Business Park.
 'We always get it done'
"They were on a tight schedule and completed the work quickly," Jenkins says. "I think they feel comfortable about us."
He and Howie take a quick tour of other nearby areas the co-op is serving, including a variety of new subdivisions. One is the enormous Edenmoor development in Lancaster County, which will include 1,990 lots. The co-op is also welcoming new members in other Lancaster subdivisions such as the upscale Bridgemill community, which will add 64 lots in spring 2007 to meet demand.
The list of jobs for co-op line crews and contract utility companies is daunting, but Jenkins is confident. "We're going to find a way. We always do. We always get it done," he says.
Related links:
Part 1: New systems, approaches help co-op handle growth »
Part 2: Inside and out, your co-op is really wired »
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