2009 Annual Meeting
NOVEC's 2009 Annual Meeting was held on Wednesday, Sept. 23 at a new location C.D. Hylton Senior High School, 14051 Spriggs Road, Woodbridge, VA 22193 (map).
After receiving meal tickets, customer-owners made their way around the school cafeteria to visit the various display tables from 18 departments within NOVEC. They learned about topics ranging from historic meters to woodpecker-damaged power poles, energy-saving household tips to career opportunities, and took home items ranging from compact fluorescent light bulbs to oven rack pullers.
As attendees began to gather in the auditorium, Mike Curtis, vice president, public relations, welcomed everyone to the 2009 NOVEC Annual Meeting.
“Changing meeting locations this year was a significant challenge, but the Hylton High School staff, students, and parents involved in the various aspects of annual meeting have been great to work with, and we are really glad we’re here,” said Curtis.
After the crowd rose to their feet and said the Pledge of Allegiance, Shantina James, cashier and receptionist, sang the national anthem. Dexter Odin, the NOVEC board counsel, called the meeting to order.
“The total membership is 123,750,” he said. “One can either be here or be here by proxy. There are 508 members physically present and 6,868 members present by proxy. We officially have met quorum of 2.5 percent of the total membership.”
Odin introduced Wade House, board chairman, and House said: “I am pleased that so many of you have come out tonight. I am honored to serve in my first year as chairman, and I thank my fellow board members for allowing me that honor.”
House introduced all the other NOVEC board members — Michael Ragan, Walter Grove, Harry Harris, Ann Wheeler, Cynthia Gilbride, Jim Chesley, William Zilliott, and offered a special introduction of former Chairman J. Manley Garber, who has served on the NOVEC board for nearly 60 years.
“We work very closely with Stan Feuerberg, the president and CEO, and the NOVEC staff,” House told the customer-owners. “All board members are active and take their obligation seriously. You elect us, we work for you, and we do our best to do a good job for you.”
After House’s remarks, Feuerberg delivered the CEO’s executive report.
“Good evening, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to be with us tonight,” he said. “You’ve already heard it said a couple of times; this is your annual meeting and your Cooperative. As part of the Co-op, you are owners of the business and you get to share the results. When I share with you the financials, I think you will be very pleased with how well NOVEC is performing. NOVEC has been the most reliable utility in the entire D.C., metro area for the 11th consecutive year.”
Here is a recap of the executive report:
“We serve 142,500 meters and we’re still growing, despite the recession. NOVEC’s service territory is more than 651 square miles in six Northern Virginia counties. NOVEC’s system now has 6,600 miles of line with two-thirds underground, one-third overhead, and 53 substations.
“Over the last 10 years, each customer has only been out of service an average of 1.3 hours per year. This means reliability exceeds 99.9 percent.
“We accomplish that high reliability by designing a robust system, able to withstand wind, ice, and thunderstorms. The Co-op focuses on a construction mindset that’s called ‘do-it-right-the-first time.’ NOVEC designs it and constructs it so it’s easy to maintain.
“We also have a dedicated staff and use state-of-the-art technology in order to keep reliability as high as possible. The numbers from the J.D. Power and Associates’ Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study indicate we are on the right track. Out of 121 rated utilities, NOVEC ranked sixth nationally. We will do everything humanly possible to keep the lights on, but we will not compromise safety in the process.
“NOVEC has regular company-wide mandatory safety training. Thirty fulltime employees are working in state-accredited apprentice programs to become line technicians, quality assurance inspectors, substation technicians, system operators, or utility designers.
“For those of you who were here a year ago, we talked about the change in power supply and we stated our goals. For the short-term, we have minimized the price swings on power we purchase from the ‘market.’
“The price of electricity changes every hour in the energy market, and the thing that differentiates electricity from every other commodity is that the electricity has to be produced at the same moment it’s consumed. We cannot store it in large quantities.
“NOVEC’s long-term goals are to beat the wholesale power price we would have paid to the former power supplier. We want to minimize the price swings through less dependence on the ‘market,’ develop special offerings for certain customers, and avoid the political controversies surrounding construction of new coal-fired power stations.
“On Jan. 1, 2009, we achieved a seamless transition and assumed full responsibility for all power purchases. As part of that project, we installed new high-voltage metering — delivery-point meters — that gave us more accurate readings of the power we buy, and instituted new internal procedures, because not only do we have to provide for the power in advance, we have to track it.
“NOVEC negotiated a 20-year contract with Cogentrix for output from existing co-generation plants. These facilities have state-of-the-art emission control systems. NOVEC achieved its first short-term objective — price stability.
“The next steps for NOVEC are to negotiate additional longer-term contracts to stay consistent with our goal to optimize the resource mix. We want to analyze the power supply investment options and implement the best ones. In addition, we want to add more power from renewable sources such as biomass, solar, wind, and methane. Many customer-owners want a green power option, and we are looking into that as well.
“To keep costs down, NOVEC continues to build on 30 years of success with our Load Management Program. The goal is to install the 50,000th switch by June 30, 2010.
“In the past year we provided financial support to more than 100 non-profit organizations in the community — arts and education, youth development and sports, health, and chambers and civic groups. Now it’s the customer-owners turn to give to the community through Operation Round Up. Out of 142,500 meters on the system, only 5,500 members have signed up for this program in which people can help other people. In 2008, participants donated $50,000 that helped more than 400 NOVEC families heat their homes.
“We are interested in preserving our environment. We manage the vegetation and the rights of way very carefully, and we employ tree-trimming strategies that minimize damage. Since 2005, we reduced our internal energy consumption by 10 percent. We installed waste-oil heaters in the fleet garage and warehouse, which has reduced our electrical consumption substantially. We recycle wood wire reels, scrap wire, cable, and wood chips. We also installed light-emitting diodes, lighting our Gainesville parking lot. We have reduced our energy consumption, and we want to help customers reduce theirs.
“This year is the second year of the ‘Use It Wisely’ campaign in print ads such as newspapers and magazines, on TV and the radio, and we recently updated our ‘Use It Wisely’ billboard along Interstate 66. NOVEC won a national Silver Telly Award for its 2008 TV commercial on ways to save energy. The Co-op also won a 2009 Eco Award for Excellence in Environmental Communications for energy-saving articles in its magazine, Cooperative Living. All of these included valuable energy-saving tips for customer-owners.
“Our Public Relations division launched a re-energized Web site and now customer owners can request service connects, disconnects, and transfers online, plus report outages through the Web. In addition, there is a mobile version optimized for a Blackberry or an iPhone.
“We have not raised our distribution rates since 1991. In 2008, we invested more than $30 million in capital improvements and returned $26.5 million in CashBack. We did all of this without borrowing a nickel. In addition, we reduced our debt-per-meter ratio to $792.
“NOVEC’s profitable subsidiary operations — NOVEC Energy Solutions and NOVEC Solutions — help reduce our customers’ electric bills. NES has 21,000 natural gas customers in Northern Virginia, D.C., Baltimore Metro, and Pennsylvania.
“We recently ended the fiscal year for NES and made more than a million dollars. After we pay federal income tax on the subsidiaries, the leftover profits roll up to NOVEC and help reduce customers’ electric bills. NS sells backup generators, whole-house surge protection systems, and gas and electric water heaters.
“NOVEC’s primary obligation is to deliver power to customer-owners reliably, safely, affordably, and with concern for the environment, but everything we do would not be possible without teamwork from the board, all of the dedicated and goal-oriented employees, and specialized contractors.”
Proxy Prize Winner List
- Dell Laptop Computer, Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200 - Sheila & John Donnelly
- Vizio 32" LCD/HDTV Energy Star - Katherine Magelitz
- iPod Nano - Michael Porter
- Nintendo Wii Sports Package - Kathryn & David Lacasse
- JVC 30x digital video camera w/tapes - Paul Arena
- Honeywell 5/2 day programmable Thermostat - Charles Sturtevant
- $100 Visa gift card - Henry Bishop
- $100 Visa gift card - Alvin Hochmuth
- $100 Visa gift card - Lynell & Hickson Abbott
- $100 Visa gift card - Lisa & Michael Hoess
