|
|
Doug Bechtel
|
|
By the time you read this, you will have attended our annual meeting, and much of this will be redundant. But, for those few of you who were not able to attend , let me summarize the main points that I made.
OPALCO is really doing well, and we are going to do even better in the future. I think that message carries through in all of our activities. For example, our outage record last winter was far better than those of the mainland utilities. We have made great strides in our system reliability, but we are not finished, and we are not going to be finished until everyone has reliable electric service.
Our construction program (storm abatement, right of way clearing, and replacing bad underground wires) is doing well, and we are going to do even better in 1997, with a construction budget more than twice what it was last year. We cannot sustain this level over the long term, but we will continue to aggressively work to reduce power outages no matter what the cause.
Our Load Management Program is doing well. We currently have over 300 homes wired and several hundred more on the waiting list. Before we are finished, we are committed to having 40 or 50% of you involved in this program.
We are also working hard in the power quality area to reduce blinks and unacceptable voltage levels. We plan to spend a lot more effort in this area in the future, as we are committed to providing a quality product. Many of the problems we are finding are the homeowner's responsibility to fix, but we are not leaving it there. We will continue to work with you until the problem is solved.
In a few months, we are going to be doing our first ever Member Survey in order to serve your needs even better. We need to know what you think of the job we are doing. What are we good at? What are we not good at? Where do we need to improve?
Because of all the changes going on in our industry, OPALCO is increasing our contacts at the county, state and federal levels to insure that our elected officials and their staffs understand the issues and problems facing OPALCO.
In the future, you will be able to choose your electric supplier. Before that day comes, we are committed to making OPALCO so good and so responsive to your needs that you won't need to look anywhere else.
Finally, we are expanding our Member Information Program. We have had OPALCOGRAMs in the three local papers every other week for several years - believe it or not, we are coming up on OPALCOGRAM No. 200. We are expanding our information program through advertising, direct mailings, and brochures explaining our operations. We are also considering changing our postcard billing to a letter format that will provide additional information.
So, OPALCO is doing well. And, if we are going to prosper, we can, we will, and we must do better in the future. If you have any suggestions, please write, call or talk to any of us. We're very interested in hearing from you, because, in the end, we are all in this together.
Doug Bechtel
|