Message from the CEO

Executive Vice-President and CEO - Curtis Wynn | Email

Letter from the CEO

Maintaining our Customer Focused Perspective

In the 21st century, your world is bigger no matter where you live.

Rural communities like ours are now are linked to the global economy through the Internet, through giant chain retail stores, through cell phones and email, and through a myriad of automated on-line and phone systems that are intended to make life easier for both consumers and businesses.

And while all of these new technologies and innovations are helpful, all too often Americans feel swallowed up.  Reduced to a faceless credit card or phone number.  Just another account number. 

It's called big business and it's what makes the world turn today.   Long gone are the mom and pop shops where store owners knew your name and knew that your father was a cotton farmer or that your son was in tenth grade and turning out to be a great quarterback for his high school football team.  These shop keepers cared about you - not just as a consumer, but as a person.

Roanoke Electric Cooperative, like all cooperatives, still operates on those mom and pop principles of caring for our customers.  And while we use the most innovative technology available to bring power to you, we recognize that it's the little things that count for our members. 

Our employees are your neighbors.  They go to your church.  The see you at the grocery store.  Their children play on the same little league team as your children.  And they are here to help you.

This warm family approach is what sets REC apart.  It's what makes a cooperative special.  And it's what lets you know that as a member - YOU are special. 

That's why we contribute thousands of dollars each year to your local schools, athletic organizations, non-profits, youth programs, and give out a scholarship for high-school seniors.  This money goes to people and places you know. 

2006 Accomplishments

 To me, being one of the best utilities in the industry means having a relentless focus on what we do well. It means listening to our members.  And it means getting power to you efficiently and at the lowest possible costs.

It also means keeping up with growth in our region and offering up-to-date services.  That calls for major investments of time and money by your co-op.  In 2006 we focused on the following:

• Continuing to closely monitor and manage system growth with the multi-million dollar entertainment complex Carolina Crossroads in Roanoke Rapids and the Innsbrook subdivision in Bertie County. 
• Planning and managing resources to provide power to these two major developments.
• Implementing new billing and reporting systems for our customer service staff so that we can access your bills much more quickly and create comparative reports to help you manage your usage.
• Training and developing an effective team of dedicated employees who come to work every day with the purpose of earning the right to serve you.  

Looking to the future - 2007

In addition to continuing to manage growth and investments in 2007, we are working to ensure that your costs, as well as our own, are kept at a minimum.  Unfortunately, however REC’s cost to distribute power to you have skyrocketed.

Power for the electric grid that lights, heats, and cools your home comes from some of the most advanced gas, coal-fired, hydro and renewable resource power plants in North America. Getting that power to you costs millions of dollars in operational and investment costs.  In order to ensure that this power continues to get to you, Roanoke Electric is currently doing a comprehensive study of our rates to confirm our suspicion that a rate adjustment is needed.  Once the study is completed, we will know exactly where we stand with our rates.  With the right information in front of us, we will be able to properly adjust our rates to allow us to meet our financial obligations and at the same time create the least impact on our members as possible.

No one likes a power cost adjustment.   There are, however, utility companies across the United States, that have already had to raise their own rates by sometimes as much as 20% and have done it two and sometimes three times in a very short span of months.  Therefore, you can clearly see that we are not alone in our challenges to maintain our power costs and our rates.

Only with adequate resources, are we able to maintain the level of service that you deserve.  Your cooperative family makes the following pledges in 2007 to our members.  Roanoke Electric will:

• ·        continue to be an excellent energy source.
• ·        offer programs that help customers save money and energy
• ·        remain committed to reliability and plan to invest on utility infrastructure in the our service territory

With these things in mind, we stand ready to usher in a new year as your electric service provider.  As the year progresses we will continue keep you posted our activities, accomplishments and our challenges.  But, in the meantime, we wish you a Happy New Year!

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