Outage Map
Co-Op’s Annual Meeting Focuses on Growth
Story and photos by Brent ten Pas
With the sun shining on a cool spring afternoon, Central Electric Cooperative (CEC) members lined up early to attend the co-op’s 84th annual meeting at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds.
Once inside, CEC members warmly greeted each other before enjoying exhibits, food, and the anticipation of winning raffle prizes. The grand prize was a $500 bill credit.
Ridgeview High School’s premier singing group, RavenSong, contributed to the family atmosphere with an a cappella rendition of the national anthem. Realms High School senior Atticus Lau shared highlights of his participation in last year’s Washington, D.C., Youth Tour.
President and CEO Brad Wilson’s annual report was the program’s centerpiece, covering familiar themes as Central Electric continues to experience, build, and plan for future growth.
Growth
The Cascade Business News recently reported Central Oregon has outperformed most of the country in economic growth, citing new residents as the key driver over the past few years. CEC continues to benefit from this migration, seeing a 10.5% increase in its service accounts. The co-op projects another 10% over the next 5 years.
Brad provided the Stevens Road development in southeast Bend as the most visible example, highlighting the ongoing construction of residential, multiunit housing, commercial units, and the new Deschutes County Library. West Redmond and the Sisters area are also experiencing new residential and commercial builds.
“CEC welcomes these developments as they increase revenue, allowing fixed costs to be allocated across a wider number of service accounts, helping to stabilize rates and bring greater benefits to its members,” Brad says.
Keeping Pace
While the cooperative continues to expand its infrastructure, it has the simultaneous task of rebuilding its more than 80-yearold legacy infrastructure.
Midway through a decade-long strategic investment initiative, CEC continues to replace underground power cables and aging power poles, update and modernize existing substations, and rebuild transmission and distribution power lines.
Last year, crews installed and replaced 510 power poles and 42 miles of underground and overhead power lines while completing 167 miles of tree trimming for wildfire management.
More capital-intensive projects include increasing transmission capacity in the Redmond and Prineville areas, while engineering and construction work has begun to expand infrastructure in the Bend, Redmond, and Sisters areas.
Resource Adequacy
Brad addressed several news reports in the past few months, justifiably expressing concern about future blackouts in the Northwest and what it means for CEC.
Feeding those concerns were utility industry leaders, the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee, the Western Electric Coordinating Council, and Bonneville Power Administration, which projected load growth to increase from 25% to 30% during the next decade.
The key drivers are large loads, including data centers and cryptocurrency mining, pending coal and natural gas facility retirements, and delays in constructing new renewable energy projects due to permitting, siting, and labor shortages.
CEC has been working on several initiatives to secure long-term energy for its members to meet this continued growth. For years, CEC has advocated for BPA to expand its infrastructure in Central Oregon. In 2023, BPA announced 4 projects in the area that will provide increased capacity for CEC and interconnection points for new renewable energy projects in the region.
CEC, a Pacific Northwest Generation Cooperative member, continues working closely with its 25 members to develop a 40-megawatt renewable energy project, including battery storage in Central Oregon.
PNGC also secured 280 MWs of renewable energy through power purchase agreements to ensure long-term generation and to help mitigate against future rate increases.
Wildfire Mitigation
CEC continues to do everything within its control to reduce the chance that its electric system contributes to a wildfire in its service territory. Brad highlighted ongoing wildfire mitigation efforts, including ambitious vegetation management, extensive system hardening, infrastructure upgrades, increased inspections, and the deployment of new technology.
Director Elections
3 CEC board of directors positions were up for reelection this year, and the incumbents ran uncontested. CEC members unanimously elected Kelly McFarlane (District 4—Powell Butte), Bev Clarno (District 6—Redmond), and Sam McKenzie (District 9—Prineville), who serve until April 2028.