BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Telegraph Staff Writer
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS—Clay Electric Cooperative held its 85th annual meeting at the Keystone Heights High School football stadium Saturday morning.
Trustee President Carl Malphers paid tribute to former trustee Carl Hagglund who died last October. “He served the cooperative as an employee for 49 years from 1958 to 2007 and driven by his commitment and love for Clay Electric, he returned as a board member in 2013,” Malphers said. “Carl’s legacy at the co-op will always be remembered.”
Malphers also announced the results of the co-op’s trustee elections, in which he said over 13,000 members voted by mail or the internet.
First-time candidate Cindy Loose of Keystone Heights was elected to the District 1 seat. Incumbent Kelley Smith of Palatka retained the District 2 seat. Malphers of Alachua held onto the District 4 seat and co-op retiree and current District 6 trustee Jimmy Wilson was also reelected.
My Clay Electric and capital credits
Malphers highlighted upgrades to the co-op’s mobile app and online internet portal: My Clay Electric.
“Last summer, we began sending proactive outage communication messages to all of our members who are registered with the My Clay Electric app,” Malphers said. “This means anytime there is a system outage, registered members will receive an email or text message notifying them that we know their power is out.”
Malphers added that the notification includes an estimated time for when the power will be restored.
The trustee board president also pointed out other features of the My Clay Electric mobile app, including members looking up their power usage, viewing bill statements, paying bills and voting for trustees.
Malphers also reminded the crowd of another benefit of co-op membership: capital credit refunds.
“If you look on your bill statement this month, you will see a credit based on the amount you were billed for electricity during a certain set of years,” he said. “Your board of trustees approved a $12 million capital credit return for this year. This refund is available to members because Clay Electric is a not-for-profit organization.”
New meeting format and power cost adjustments
The utility’s CEO and General Manager Ricky Davis began his report by noting that the annual meeting was being held for the second time at the high school stadium.
“Last March was the first year Clay Electric successfully held a newly formatted annual meeting at this location on a Saturday,” he said. “This was new for the employees. It was new for the members, but through collaborative efforts the event was successful.”
Davis said the change in meeting format is one way his organization is learning new ways to do things and embracing change as it adapts to a changing world.
Davis also addressed the co-op’s changing power cost adjustment, which it raised last year due to increasing natural gas prices.
He added that those same prices are now falling, and the co-op is responding by lowering the power cost adjustment portion of its bills to members.
He announced that members would see a decrease in rates in their March bills, followed by a second decrease in April.
“Power costs will be reduced from $146 per thousand-kilowatt hours this month to $130 per thousand-kilowatt hours in April,” Davis said. “This rate will again be one of the lowest rates in the state.”
Davis said the co-op is focused on providing reliable power to its members, adding that crews performed 784 inspections of the co-op’s 52 substations last year. He also said the organization completed a five-year distribution work project schedule for its entire system.
Davis added that the co-op took on around 6,000 new accounts in 2022. “Thirty-two years ago, Clay Electric billed 100,000 accounts,” Davis said, “and today, we are billing over 190,000 accounts.”
Employee accomplishments
The co-op’s CEO said supply chain challenges created by the COVID-19 Pandemic remain in 2023.
“We have had a hard time getting transformers, poles, wire, and vehicles, not to mention the cost of these items are three and four times what they were just a couple of years ago,” he said. “With shortages like these, our employees have had to come up with alternative construction solutions to address these issues.”
Davis said co-op line workers participated in the state lineman competition in February 2022 and scored several top-place finishes.
“Earlier this month, crews participated in the event for 2023 and brought home six trophies,” he said. “This shows the skill and expertise of our line workers.”
The general manager said that after Hurricane Ian barreled through southwestern and central Florida in October 2022, 18 Clay Electric employees traveled to southwest Florida to help the Lee County Electric Cooperative restore power to its members.
Davis added that co-op employees participated in the Strides Against Cancer Event in Gainesville, the third-largest fundraising team out of the event’s 97 teams.
He added that co-op employees continued their 20-year tradition of participating in Holiday Helpers, which assists co-op members in need during the holiday season.
“In late November and early December of 2022,” he added, “three Clay Electric employees volunteered to participate in Power Guatemala. This was an inaugural NRECA international trip sponsored by Florida co-ops, and its purpose was to bring electricity to a village in Guatemala.”
Davis also highlighted the co-op’s Operation Roundup program, which he said donated $892,000 to 92 organizations last year and over $5.3 million since its inception in 2017.
Davis said 26 apprentices graduated last year from the co-op’s job training program.
“This included 24 apprentice line workers, one tree trimmer and one power system operator,” he said. “These graduates are the future of Clay Electric.”
Davis concluded by emphasizing that while the utility is constantly undergoing change and is far different from the vision its founder initially saw in 1937, the organization will continue to focus on its founding principles: working safer, putting the member first and providing excellent customer service.
