Meeting the test
8,200 service calls in 24 hours tests mettle of Adams Electric Co-op
By Steve Thompson, writer-editor
USDA Rural Development
Editor’s note: This article concludes a
three-part series focusing on rural electric
co-ops that deliver exceptional service and
which have expanded their traditional
duties to better serve their communities.
ith its well-groomed
farms and verdant
countryside, the area
of southern
Pennsylvania served
by Adams Electric Cooperative looks
as if it could have been painted by
Norman Rockwell. But the scene was
anything but idyllic late last summer
when Hurricane Isabel came calling.
Co-op employees who thought they
had seen Mother Nature dish out her
worst say it inflicted more damage
than any other storm in three decades.
But the co-op came through with flying
colors for its 28,000 consumermembers,
restoring all power within
72 hours when many other areas hit by
the storm took weeks to get everyone
back on line.
Changing service area
Although still an agricultural area,
the four counties around Gettysburg
served by Adams Electric Cooperative
are among the fastest growing parts of
Pennsylvania, home to a growing
number of new bedroom communities.
It is also a haven for retirees.
Despite these changes, the area
retains a sense of community and
neighborliness, a characteristic mirrored
by the co-op that provides it
with electrical power.
Adams Electric, like other power
distribution cooperatives, sees itself as
more than a utility. It is an active participant
in the communities it serves, and
has earned a reputation for service and
efficiency across its service area and
beyond. That reputation is based on
hard work, community involvement, a
commitment to its members’ interests
and a friendly, “can-do” attitude.
Hurricane puts co-op to the test
Hurricane Isabel put those qualities
to the test. By the time the storm
ripped through southern Pennsylvania,
it had been downgraded to a “tropical
storm.” But Isabel still packed a wallop,
with 40- to 60-mile-per-hour
winds that brought down trees and
power lines all over the region. The
storm hit the night of Thursday,
September 18, uprooting trees and
snapping off others like matchsticks.
Rural power providers such as
Adams were especially hard hit. Many
of their lines run through heavily
forested, mountainous areas in which
the trees are dozens of feet taller than
the power poles. Lines were often
downed in hard-to-reach places, making
merely finding the breaks difficult,
especially in the rain, wind and dark.
“Hurricane Agnes was bad,” says
Ron Plank, the co-op’s manager of
operations, referring to the 1972 storm
that caused 48 deaths and more than
$2 billion worth of damage in
Pennsylvania. “But this was the worst
storm I’ve seen in 30 years.”
Power utilities had their work cut
out for them, rerouting power lines
and replacing downed lines. Some
nearby investor-owned utility companies
still had customers without electricity
as much as a week after the
storm. Even though Adams Electric
Cooperative’s lines suffered the full
brunt of the storm, every one of its
members was back on line by Sunday
evening.
On the day of the storm, linemen
and other employees put in a regular
eight-hour workday, then prepared to
do battle. Once the storm hit, it didn’t
take long. By 7:30 p.m. power outage
reports started to trickle in. Soon calls
were flooding in 8,200 in the first
24 hours.
“They were coming in as fast as we
could answer them,” says Wanda
Spahr, the member/office services
supervisor for the Gettysburg District
office. The cooperative encourages
everyone who has a power outage to
call in. “That’s the only way we can be
sure we’ve restored power to everyone,”
she points out. “If you assume
that because your neighbor called in,
you’re covered, your power may not be
restored because you’re on a different
circuit, or because there’s a fault on the
line to your house.”
Account representatives staffed the
phones 24 hours a day in eight-hour
shifts. But for the linemen, there were
no shifts at all. They worked for 24
hours straight before taking four or five
hours off to grab some sleep sometimes
they had to sleep in their trucks.
That Saturday morning they were out
at first light, working until 10 p.m.
Trees topple like dominoes
During the night of the storm, the
wind often blew so hard that workers
had trouble keeping their feet under
them. Falling trees and branches were a
constant hazard, both during the storm
and afterwards. But lineman Mitch
Orchowski says that the hardest part of
the job was getting ready to move on
after restoring a break, only to see
another tree topple and take the same
lines out again.
“Sometimes the trees would fall like
dominoes,” Orchowski recalls. “One
would fall over, push another one over,
and so on.”
Plank says that the quick restoration
of service resulted from the dedication
of Adams employees and the workers
detailed to Adams by four other electric
co-ops.
“The journeyman linemen and the
phone workers have the two toughest
jobs in the co-op,” he says. “Without
their commitment to the co-op way of
doing things, we would have had five
to six days of power outages instead of
only three days.” The night of the
storm, Plank learned from an area
investor-owned utility that it wasn’t
planning to send out its crews until the
next morning.
Close relationship with firefighters
Adams’ close ties to the local communities
it serves is exemplified by the
ways its crews cooperate with volunteer
fire departments. Co-op line crews
and fire companies often work closely
during outages caused by lightning
strikes, vehicle crashes and fires.
Jim Krut, the co-op’s manager of
communications and community services,
says that firefighters have told
him they’re glad when the affected
lines belong to Adams, because of the
co-op’s fast response. The co-op also
supports fire companies by hosting
informational dinner meetings at their
fire halls. A fire company ambulance
provides emergency services at the coop’s
picnic-style annual meeting.
When a huge ice storm felled trees
and power lines in the Buchanan
Valley in March 1996, Adams and the
local fire company worked as a team.
The firefighters cleared fallen trees to
open roads while co-op linemen
repaired the downed lines. Adams provided
two-way radios to the fire companies
to help speed the work.
The emergency brought out the
best in the rural community, says
Duane Kanagy, Adams Electric’s communications
coordinator. “Everybody
pulled together,” he says. “People
brought in chainsaws to help clear
downed trees. And the fire department
fed everybody.”
USDA, co-op help
purchase fire truck
When the village of Arendtsville
needed a new fire truck for its all-volunteer
company, it was only natural
that they looked to Adams for help
with the financing.
A year before, the co-op had assisted
with the purchase of a new, automated
external defibrillator (AED).
Using a $400,000 Rural Economic
Development Grant (REDLG) from
USDA Rural Development, the co-op
established a Community
Development Fund. The fund was
used to offer the Arendtsville Fire
Company a $100,000, low-interest
loan to be used toward the $165,000
purchase price of a used tower truck.
Finance manager Joe Cole and Jim
Krut processed the loan and presented
it to the cooperative’s board of directors
for approval.
In addition to carrying a number of
portable ladders, the tower truck uses a
telescoping arm equipped with a highpressure
pipe and nozzle with two
buckets on either side to carry firefighters.
The nozzle can be directed
from the buckets, or from the ground.
Firefighters say they feel much
safer using the tower than a traditional
ladder. “Having this truck helps out
the whole county,” says Arendtsville
Fire Co. Captain Jack White. “No
local fire department can have everything
they need, so we all cooperate.
Some departments have rescue trucks,
while others have tankers or ‘brush’
trucks that can go off-road. They go
where they’re needed.”
The Arendtsville firefighters were
so grateful for the co-op’s Community
Development Fund that they put a
sign on the truck: “Financed in part by
Adams Electric Cooperative.” The
truck got a fresh paint job and was displayed
at the co-op’s annual meeting
last June. Hilda Legg, administrator
for the Rural Utilities Service of
USDA Rural Development, was guest
speaker at the meeting.
Other fire companies have also benefited
from the cooperative’s Community
Development Fund. Four loans have
been made, including one for $125,000
for the construction of the Bendersville
fire hall and community center. Another
was to Buchanan Valley Fire Company,
which assisted the cooperative during
the 1996 ice storm.
Dry hydrant program
makes rural areas safer
Less visible, but also important, is a
program started in 1995 to make it
easier for firefighters to draft water
from ponds and streams in rural areas
where there are no pressurized
hydrants. Adams Electric’s dry hydrant
program enlists the labor of local fire
companies and the excavation equipment
of local municipalities to construct
the dry hydrants. Sections of 6-inch PVC pipe are buried underground
between a water source and the
road. A strainer at the water source filters
out debris, and a hydrant-head at
the road enables firefighters to make a
quick connection to their pumper
truck and begin to draft water. This
avoids chopping through the ice in
winter or getting fire equipment
bogged down in a muddy field in the
spring, and speeds the delivery of
water to the fire.
The installations, for which the coop
provides the hardware at no charge
to fire companies or at cost to businesses
or homeowners, are called “dry
hydrants” because they are unpressurized,
relying on suction from the
pumper to draft the water. Since the
program began, 125 dry hydrant kits
have been donated, providing quick,
potentially life-saving sources of water.
Adams has even created a manual for
the installation and care of the hydrants.
The close relationship between
Adams and local fire companies was
highlighted when Hurricane Isabel
came to town. The house of Adams
lineman Guy Gorman who was
working with a line crew at the time
on storm-related repairs was
destroyed by fire. Members of his family
were injured in the blaze, which was
not caused by the storm.
Firefighters responded by starting a
collection, to which many Adams
employees and members contributed.
“The whole community pulled together
to help them,” says Plank. “And we were
able to get Guy to the hospital before
the ambulance arrived with his family.”
Adams is involved in a number of
other community-service efforts,
including electrical safety demonstrations
and electricity lesson plans for
local schools, a program that installs
free street lights in small communities
and various individual projects, including
raising the funds, designing and
installing a lighting system for a local
high school’s soccer field.
The co-op hasn’t limited its efforts
to its service area. It has a sister co-op,
Coopelesca, in Costa Rica, to which it
donates engineering assistance and
training. Adams also recently donated
surplus maintenance vehicles to the
Costa Rican cooperative, as well as the
national electric company in
Guatemala.
Promoting business, creating jobs
Despite growth in the Adams service
area, it is not heavily industrialized.
However, outside the town of
Shippensburg stands a huge, 650,000
square-foot factory and warehouse
that is home to the Beistle Company
the oldest and largest manufacturer
of paper party goods in the world.
With a payroll of over 450 people, the
company is vital to the local economy.
Ken Strayer, plant facilities superintendent,
and Ron Parr, assistant supervisor
of the maintenance department,
say the co-op goes beyond supplying
power by providing energy efficiency
and safety advice. “I could not imagine
a better relationship,” says Parr. “If we
have a problem, they’re right here or
on their way.”
Strayer and Parr say a good example
of how the co-op goes beyond supplying
power is its energy-efficiency
advice and safety services. Power utilities
use infrared detectors to scan
switches, lines, and other equipment
for hot spots, indicating faults or
potential problems. When Adams
crews are doing scans in the area, they
stop by Beistle to check the plant’s
electrical junction boxes.
The biggest benefit Beistle enjoys
from being an Adams member, according
to Parr, is the help it receives in
keeping costs down. “They analyzed
our heating and air-conditioning needs
and suggested a new work schedule to
minimize power usage at peak times.
At the time, we had a four-day, 10-
hour work schedule. We tried their
suggestion, an eight-hour day ending
at 2:30 p.m.”
Management originally presented
the new schedule to the employees as
an experiment. “They agreed to go
along with it because we’re a profitsharing
firm, and they benefit from
any money we can save,” says Parr.
After trying it for a while, the workers
actually preferred the new hours. “A
lot of our people are mothers with
school-age children. Now they can be
home with their kids after school. And
we’re saving about $12,000 a year by
avoiding peak power-demand periods.”
The co-op also studied the plant’s
lighting requirements using a software
program called Lighting Technology
Screening Matrix (LTSM). The software
looks at each lighting fixture in a
facility and suggests more economical
alternatives. As a result, plant management
spent $140,000 to switch to more
efficient lighting systems. The changes
paid for themselves in only two years,
Strayer says.
Even minor items, such as exit
signs, have come under scrutiny. The
company used to spend four hours a
week checking each one and replacing
burned-out light bulbs. At the suggestion
of Adams staff, the signs were
replaced with units that use light-emitting
diodes (LEDs). These not only
last far longer, but also save the company
$1,000 worth of energy per year,
in addition to labor savings.
“Most vendors encourage you to
buy more from them,” says Beistle
president Tricia Lacy. “Adams encourages
us to save more money. They
work with us to make us stronger. It’s
very much a partnership.”
Co-op members reap
$11 million patronage
In part due to its load-management
efforts, not only has the cooperative
managed to keep power prices down,
it has also returned more than $11 million
in patronage refunds to its 33,000
members since 1991, including a record
$1.29 million in December 2002.
Adams’s efforts to go the extra mile
for its members are repaid by loyalty
and friendship.
“People often go out of their way to
stop by and chat, instead of dealing
with us by mail or telephone,” says
Spahr. “And during the storm almost
everybody was polite and considerate
when they had to call in.”
The co-op and its members have
the kind of relationship most urban
utilities can only dream about.
Co-op strives to help members
reduce power use, lower bills
Helping members reduce their power use is the key to
keeping a lid on their electric bills. Adams Electric CEO
and General Manager Dan Murray points out that, unlike
investor-owned utilities, the co-op has no incentive to sell
members more power.
“Our goal is to provide excellent service at the best
prices possible, not to increase our sales,” Murray says.
“When members reduce energy use, it makes their electric
bills more affordable. If conservation measures mean
we can defer some capital expenditures, it means we can
save money for members. Keeping down power use also
reduces the need to purchase supplemental power, which
is usually coal-fired and can be costly.”
Scott Wehler, the co-op’s engineering manager, says
that load management is the key. “Traditionally, utilities
have concentrated on their large customers when it
comes to controlling power use,” he says. “But we sell 85
percent of our power to residences, so we had to find
ways to save power in the home.”
Electric water heaters of customers can be controlled
remotely from a computer in the Adams Electric dispatch
center at co-op headquarters outside Gettysburg. Eighty
percent of co-op members have electric water heaters, so
they represent a sizeable proportion of the base load.
The co-op sells the $350, 80-gallon units for only $80 to
members, who also get a break on their electric rates.
About 10,000 of the co-op’s 28,000 members currently have
load control switches on their water heaters. “Half the
benefit goes to the customer, half to the co-op,” Wehler
says. “They get an inexpensive water heater and a lower
rate.” Resulting reductions in peak-demand costs mean
that the water heaters pay for themselves within three
years.
When loads get too high, some or all of the heaters can
be turned off. “They can be off for as long as four hours;
most people never even notice,” Wehler says.
Some customers also have air conditioning and heating
units that can be remotely controlled to reduce power use
at peak times.
Co-op’s technology helps poultry farm
Remote control also contributes to the bottom line for a
large chicken farm. With a million birds in seven large
chicken houses each of which draws a peak load of up
to 150 kilowatts farmer Jim Bailey has a strong incentive
to control his power consumption.
Power failures also pose a major threat to his flocks, so
the farm maintains its own emergency generators – a significant
capital investment. Bailey and Adams Electric
have an arrangement under which the utility can remotely
start the generators at times of peak demand. In return,
Bailey gets a $9-per-kilowatt-hour rate break.
Several golf courses in the service area also have
remote controls on their irrigation pumps, while others
have timers restricting their use to non-peak hours. All of
these power-saving programs are completely voluntary.
Using the load-management tools at its disposal,
Adams can control 10 percent of power use without inconveniencing
any members. Load-management programs
have won environmental stewardship awards for the coop,
including one each from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
and the local Chamber of Commerce.
These power-management efforts extend to the co-op’s
own headquarters. Its air conditioning system uses three
1,600-gallon tanks containing an anti-freeze and water
mixture that turns to icy slush when cooled by a large
compressor during off-peak periods.
When air conditioning is needed, the compressor is
turned off and small, circulating pumps which use
much less electricity than the compressor during demand
peaks help to cool the building.
By Steve Thompson
