|
I also like to take time at Thanksgiving to reflect on all that has gone on during the past year. Even though our year is not over, 1995 has been a good year for me and for OPALCO. Even though we had to raise our rates 2% last month to cover Bonneville's rate increase to us, everything that I hear indicates that we are going to see a major rate decrease from the Bonneville Power Administration in 1996. In addition to the rate decrease, they have promised to hold their rates constant from 1996 to 2001. I don't know if OPALCO is going to be able to hold our rates constant during this period or not but it sure gives us a good target to shoot at. The biggest project that OPALCO faced in 1995 was the repairs to the Lopez to San Juan submarine cable. We have made a video of this repair process and I would be glad to share it with you or come and talk to your organization about OPALCO, our plans for your area, and show you the video. This video has been reviewed by many, both inside and outside of OPALCO and is very highly regarded. If you wonder why it costs a million dollars to repair a submarine cable, this video will help you understand what is involved. Over the past several months there have been numerous personnel changes with promotions, retirements, transfers, and so on. This has brought a new group of employees to work on the problems facing us. I feel very positive about all those who will help me guide OPALCO in the future. I continue to be pleased with all of the comments I get from you about the high quality of the OPALCO employees. All of us here work hard to deserve your confidence and trust. Over the past several years we have made great strides in reducing the outages from high winds as a result of our storm abatement program. We still have many projects left to complete but the improvement is noticeable to me. Even with our great strides in the storm abatement program and the aging underground wire we have replaced, we still have too many power outages and power blinks. I have been thinking about establishing a companywide goal of reducing the number of outages from all causes by 50% over a five year period. This is a particularly aggressive goal and I want to make sure that there is a chance of accomplishing it before we start. I have a lot of other ideas I want to share with you next time. In the meantime I want to wish each of you a very happy Thanksgiving and hope that you are able to share this holiday with family and friends.
Doug Bechtel
|
|
