South Central Power Company proudly celebrated 85 years of business in 2021. What started in 1936 as a small group of ordinary rural Ohioans coming together to bring power and light to parts of the state where private utilities couldn’t or wouldn’t provide service has today become the largest electric cooperative in Ohio and the 20th largest out of some 900 in the nation.
Through the years, members like you, who elect trustees like me to oversee the business of the cooperative, have remained at the center of everything we do. From long-range planning to new line construction to how we maintain our system and restore power after a storm, we remain focused on you, our members.
One bright spot of 2021 was a return to an in-person annual meeting following a virtual business meeting in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are excited to announce that we will again host an in-person annual meeting in 2022, this time on the campus of Ohio University–Lancaster at 11 a.m. on Aug. 18. We hope you can join us and participate in the business of your cooperative. In the meantime, thank you for allowing me to continue to serve you.
Sincerely,
Ken Davis
Chairman, Board of Trustees
As CEO, I had the pleasure in 2021 of looking back and appreciating the great work that previous generations did in building a strong foundation for South Central Power Company. As leaders of today’s cooperative, your South Central Power team is also looking ahead at addressing the needs of future generations of members. To do so, we’ve invested in a few key areas.
For decades, we operated in five offices that dated, in some cases, to the 1950s. These facilities needed significant improvements and lacked the space we required for our personnel and equipment. By consolidating into three offices, including newly built facilities in Fairfield and Highland counties, we will save money over the long term without compromising service. We also are investing in building our infrastructure. Major projects to build and modernize substations as well as transmission lines will result in a more reliable and resilient grid in the years ahead. These investments won’t go far without maintaining our system, including trimming trees around our rights-of-way, so that’s an area of continuing focus for your cooperative.
Finally, we continue to work with federal, state, and local partners on rural broadband. We appreciate the leadership of our state’s governor and lieutenant governor through BroadbandOhio, which is providing grant funding for broadband expansion in many of the rural communities we serve. We hope to share more with you in the coming months about the role South Central will play in broadband, but this is an exciting time of progress for our communities, and we’re grateful to be part of it.
Together, we are building a bright future for all our members and the communities we serve. Thank you for being a part of it.
Sincerely,
Rick Lemonds
President & CEO
TWO NEW FACILITIES
Facing a rapidly changing industry and explosive residential growth in some parts of our service territory, South Central replaced four ageing facilities dating in some cases to the 1950s with two new ones, and now operates three regional offices, one in the east, west and central portions of our service territory. By consolidating our workforce and operations in central Ohio along with headquarters staff, we’ve strengthened our foundation for the next generation of workers and members who will continue to build strong communities across our state. Consolidating was also the lowest cost option for our future, because the cost of repairing and upgrading facilities we’d used for the better part of a century wasn’t the right investment for our members.
Hillsboro
South Central Power Company opened a new Hillsboro office in May 2021 at 12385 US Route 50 in Highland County. The facility replaced an outdated building on 2.5 acres that was constructed in the 1950s for Intercounty Electric Cooperative with a modern structure on 10 acres that is also more centrally located to South Central Power’s members in the southwest region of the cooperative’s service territory.
lancaster
On Dec. 13, 2021, South Central Power opened its new Lancaster facility, which serves as the cooperative’s headquarters as well as service center for all members in central Ohio. Roughly 180 workers from three central Ohio locations relocated into this consolidated facility, conveniently located near the intersection of U.S. 33 & Hwy. 188.
BARNESVILLE
South Central Power’s Barnesville office provides a central location for members and employees in eastern Ohio and continues to serve the cooperative well. Like Hillsboro and Lancaster, the Barnesville office includes a member lobby as well as space for office employees and field workers as well as vehicles, materials and equipment.
SUBSTATIONS
Substations are crucial to the safe distribution of electricity. They’re the main hub as electricity moves from the point of generation to the homes, farms, schools and businesses on our power lines. At South Central Power, we’re expanding on our strong foundation by investing in our substations to ensure that we can deliver safe, reliable electricity to our members, every day. With 75 substations within our service territory, we’re working to build, upgrade, maintain and repair our substations to meet member needs.
VEGETATION MANAGEMENT
At South Central Power, one of our largest annual expenses is our vegetation management program, an important investment that builds on our strong foundation. Removing vegetation from our rights-of-way keeps our lines clear, which helps avoid outages caused by downed trees or falling branches. Tree limbs coming into contact with power lines can cause safety hazards and service outages. When we conduct trimming or cutting trees, we follow accepted industry guidelines and best practices to ensure minimal impact to the environment.
TRANSMISSION LINES
Out of South Central Power’s 12,000 miles of line, 264 are transmission lines, delivering high voltage power between substations. Of that 264 miles, 142 are targeted to be rebuilt, with 45 miles already completed or scheduled to be completed in the near future. Many of these transmission lines are 70+ years old and by replacing aged wood poles with steel structures we will ensure their viability for years to come.
STRONG FINANCES
As a not-for-profit cooperative, we are different from other utilities. We exist not to generate a profit for investors on Wall Street, but to improve the lives of our members on small town main streets across eastern, central and western Ohio. Crucial to our success in this over the last 85 years is sound and conservative fiscal management of the cooperative’s resources. Despite a challenging year in 2021 as the nation continued to recover economically from a global pandemic, and even in the face of creeping inflation, we maintained a strong balance sheet. Member equity remains high, and strategic management of your capital and resources allowed us to return $6 million in capital credits directly to you, our members, in 2021. We believe this financial position is part of the strong foundation that we we’ll continue to build on in the years to come.
