In 2022 URE experienced another big year, in terms of growth, while maintaining impressive financial, reliability, and member service metrics. Your electric cooperative continues to invest in our distribution system so that our members will benefit with safe and reliable energy.
2022 distribution operating margins of over $1.1 million dollars, combined with the allocation of capital credit from our generation provider, Buckeye Power, allowed URE to continue exceeding financial targets while retiring more than $2.8 million dollars of capital credits to our members. Refunding patronage capital credit to members and former members is a key principle of the electric cooperative business structure. In total, as of the end of 2022, URE has retired nearly $43.7 million in patronage capital to our members.
URE Board Chairman
URE CEO/President
The number of homes and businesses locating in Union County has led to the highest-ever increase in new services on the URE electric system. For the year, our crews installed 474 new electric services and 40 new gas services for a 3.8% net increase in new services. URE continues to be the fastest-growing cooperative in the state by percentage of new services.
Rates
URE’s rates include 3 components: generation, transmission, and distribution. Generation is the cost to generate electric power using the equipment owned and operated by Buckeye Power, the generation cooperative of which URE is a member. Transmission is the transport of energy from the generating plant to the individual UREowned substations in and around our local communities. Distribution is the transport of energy over URE-owned lines from our substations to your home or business.
Generation rates have three components, with each designed to recover specific costs. The components are demand, energy, and fuel. Fuel costs include the costs of coal, natural gas, and other miscellaneous consumable items. While generation rates have been steady over the past 5 years, the fuel rates in 2022 averaged about 8.2% higher than in 2021. It is expected that coal and natural gas prices will continue to rise over the foreseeable future.
As a member of Buckeye Power, URE has no control over the transmission rates of investor-owned utilities that transport power from generation sources to our substations on the transmission grid. This transmission
cost has dramatically increased over the past several years as these companies make large investments into their transmission infrastructure. It doesn’t look like our transmission costs will level out anytime soon, but we continue to look for ways to control overall costs.
Distribution rates, or the cost charged to operate and maintain our local electric system as well as operate the office in Marysville, remain steady and have not increased since 2014 for the residential class. However, as our costs for materials and labor continue to increase, we will need to increase distribution rates. Fortunately, our strong growth reduces the impact of rate increases.
Safety & Reliability.
URE is committed to the highest standards of safety for our employees, members, and the public. Safety is something we value and work hard to maintain. In 2022, in addition to ongoing training, URE management and operations personnel conducted 114 random safety observations of our field personnel, including after-hours inspections. Within the community, URE personnel also performed 9 hot-line demonstrations to hundreds of children and adults in group settings.
Our members expect, when they flip on light switches, power will be there to light up their rooms. URE maintains an exceptionally reliable system and works hard to keep power outages to a minimum. In 2022, outside of major storm events, URE’s system averaged 99.99% reliability. At URE, we understand that having access to reliable electric power is critical, and when the occasional problem does occur, our operations personnel work as safely and quickly as possible to restore service. When outages occurred in 2022, the average duration was less than 52 minutes. During major storms, the average outage duration was just over 1.5 hours.
Member Satisfaction
In 2022, URE posted an
impressive American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) score of 85. In comparison, the average ACSI score for 2022 in the investor owned electric utility industry was 70. Key drivers of our continually high satisfaction score were our stable costs of electricity, having convenient payment options, having highly trained and professional employees, communicating with members and keeping them informed, supporting our local communities, and having excellent reliability and outage response.
Renewable Energy
We continue to see interest from many of our members in installing renewable energy generation at homes and businesses. We appreciate the opportunity to serve as a renewable energy resource. URE provides members with the option of net metering renewable energy installations, such as solar arrays or wind turbines. As of the end of 2022, we have 2 net-metered wind turbines and 98 net metered solar installations connected to URE lines. If you are interested in installing renewable energy resources at your home or business, please contact our engineering department for information on URE’s costs and requirements. We are happy to help provide you with the information you need to make the most out of your installation.
Because not every home or business is located in a suitable location to take advantage of solar or wind power on site, URE hosts a local community solar project located on Industrial Parkway, just south of U.S. Route 42. Since its installation in 2017, the array has produced more than 100,000 kWh per year. This past year, with our generation partner, Buckeye Power, we began adding additional solar capacity, which will double this energy output, with a system in northern Ohio.
Natural Gas Division
URE’s natural gas division started in 1999 and provides natural gas service in the north and east edges of Marysville. URE owns and maintains 29 miles of natural gas distribution pipeline, serving 1,427 gas members. In 2022, we added 40 new natural gas accounts, for a 2022 growth rate of 2.9%. The natural gas division’s 2022 net margin was $107,616. Our gas division equity at the end of 2022 was 34.5%. Once the gas division realizes financial levels that allow us to retire capital and remain within target levels of equity, we will resume annual billing credits to gas members.
Youth Scholarships & Youth Tour
In 2022, URE awarded scholarships to three high school seniors planning to pursue 4-year college degrees. Caridad Dupote-Fosnot of Dublin Jerome High School, daughter of Vera Fosnot and Osvaldo Dupote of Plain City, was awarded first place and a $2,000 scholarship. Caridad competed in the Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives statewide competition, receiving an additional $1,500 in scholarship money. Alyssa Beeching of Marysville High School, daughter of Tisha and Michael Beeching of Marysville, placed second with a $1,500 scholarship. Elizabeth Lombardi of Jonathan Alder High School, daughter of Maggie and Brent Lombardi of Plain City, placed third, for a $1,000 scholarship.
Area schools have increased programming and curriculums focusing on career readiness, STEM, and other academic programs in high-demand employment fields. We want to make sure our scholarship programs keep pace with the pathways today’s students are exploring, so URE also awards scholarships to students pursuing 2-year degrees. Our 2-year path winners in 2022 were Audrey Ferguson of North Union High School, daughter of April and Steve Ferguson of West Mansfield (first place, $1,500), and Olivia Vollrath of Fairbanks High School, daughter of Melissa and Kevin Vollrath of Marysville (second place, $1,000).
Our Washington, D.C., Youth Tour winners in 2022 were Cannon Moser of the Marysville Early College High School, son of Melissa and Eric Moser of Marysville, and Kennedy Yurkovich of the Marysville Early College High School, daughter of Tiffany and Thomas Yurkovich of Marysville.
Community involvement
A key cooperative principle is Concern for Community, and URE is a recognized leader in the communities we serve through our sponsorships of various organizations and events. URE is proud to support annual holiday and seasonal events, entertainment venues, charitable fundraisers, and numerous youth programs throughout Union County.
Our Employees
Our employees are part of the same communities they serve and are strong supporters of our area schools and community programs. URE and our employees continue to support groups and activities such as 4-H, the Dublin and Union County chambers of commerce, the Union County and Richwood fairs, Memorial Health Foundation, United Way of Union County, the Avalon Theatre, Marysville Public Library, UCO Industries, and a host of other community and youth programs.
Operation Round Up
URE partners with you, our members, to offer the Operation Round Up program, which donated $20,726 in 2022 to various groups, including several local churches for their community projects, Special Olympics, and Memorial Hospital’s Mobile Meals program. In addition, the program helped local individuals with rent and car repair bills. By voluntarily rounding up your electric bill to the next dollar, you and other members in our community have donated $660,000 since the program began in 1999.
In 2022, URE continued to provide safe, reliable, and reasonably priced electricity and natural gas to our members. From our relationship with Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives and Buckeye Power to our local community involvement, the “cooperative difference” is apparent at your electric cooperative.