Press Release: BARC Electric Cooperative holds 86th Annual Member Meeting

Members and guests gathered on July 17 at BARC Electric Cooperative’s Highland Belle office in Lexington, Va., for the co-op’s annual meeting.

Board President Keith Swisher reported a rewarding and challenging year for the utility industry. BARC receives its generation and transmission from Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, which “continues to benefit BARC by planning and forecasting energy demands for our members.” Crews have been constructing a new 3.5-mile transmission route from the solar field in Millboro, Va., increasing our load capacity. He also added how BARC Connects continues to expand fiber broadband with 1,366 miles and now 5,000 customers connected. BARC also went through a major software conversion to allow the cooperative to work more efficiently for our members. We appreciate members’ patience during this transition.

An important note to our membership is that cooperatives operate at cost and can authorize capital credits based on patronage in the event of margins. Each year, the board evaluates the upcoming needs to maintain the system and provide services. The capital credits remain as equity until such a time as they can be retired. For many cooperatives, this can be a 20-to-30-year time frame as that is the typical debt funding term. It is important to maintain reasonable equity ratios to meet Rural Utility Service requirements. “Even though lower equity ratios are slowing down our capital credit retirements, we continue to give back to our membership by right-of-way credits, approved by the SCC. In 2023, this amount totaled $765,000” Swisher commented.

In BARC’s 86th year, “We are focused on maintaining safe, reliable and affordable electricity, as well as expanding broadband and renewable energy services,” said Swisher. “We are proud of our employees and their accomplishments throughout 2023.” He also extended a huge thank you to the lineworkers for their hard work in this difficult heat these last several weeks.

Board Secretary/Treasurer John Quantz reported, “Co-ops across our region battled similar trends throughout 2023 — low kWh sales due to a year of mild weather and continuously rising interest rates. We saw a slight decrease in energy costs from our major power supplier due to a decline in the cost of natural gas. BARC passed these savings on to our membership by reducing the power cost adjustment rate on Aug. 1, 2023. An average residential member consuming 1,000 kWh in a month recognized a total savings of $4.29.”

“Despite the challenges of 2023, I am happy to report that we did end the year with positive margins,” Quantz added. “The new rate structure implemented on Jan. 1, 2023, proved instrumental to this outcome.”

BARC CEO Bill Buchanan spoke about the importance of system reliability from the standpoint of effective right-of-way maintenance, with more than 2,200 miles of overhead line to maintain. He also celebrated the co-op’s milestone achievement of 750,000 hours worked with no lost-time incidents. Buchanan emphasized the importance of cooperatives and the cooperative model. Electric cooperatives were established in the 1930s and 1940s to provide electric service to rural areas that investor-owned utilities deemed too unprofitable to serve. There are nearly 900 electric cooperatives in the U.S.

Buchanan also spoke on the broadband grants and how they are key to expanding broadband to rural areas. Over 300 electric cooperatives have been successful in obtaining funding that has contributed 40-75% of the capital required to build out their fiber networks. BARC has been less fortunate in broadband grants to support these projects. Buchanan noted, “To date, BARC has received less than 5% support on its broadband efforts. The largest challenge we face is the cost per passing is higher than the grants will support due to the sparsely populated areas and the high cost of constructing in rock.”

The following board members were reelected to three-year terms: directors John Quantz, Tommy Ford and Jason Black. More than 1,000 members voted by returning their proxy designation cards and were entered into a drawing to win $150 bill credits. The following members were announced as winners:

BARC is a member-owned utility that provides electric service to about 13,000 connections across five counties in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia including Bath, Alleghany, Augusta, Highland and Rockbridge. The cooperative was formed in 1938 as part of the Rural Electrification Act addressing the need for electricity to residents in rural areas.