Consolidated Electric Cooperative

Consolidated Electric Cooperative is small, but thinks big!

A not-for-profit energy-providing company with 16,000 members in eight counties located mostly in rural central Ohio, near the state capital of Columbus, Consolidated Electric Cooperative maintains nearly 2,000 miles of power lines and 15 substations, with another substation under development.

As a non-profi t cooperative, the 70-plus year-old company is owned and controlled by the members they serve. Members have a voice in the operation and control of the cooperative through their elected Board of Trustees. This means that Consolidated Electric’s members are more than just passive customers. They are very discriminating.

“We had a tree-trimming ‘system’ in place for years,” said Pam Hawk of Consolidated Electric, “And it worked well during that time, but we were on a rotation, and didn’t have a system to adequately manage it. The system worked well for about 15 years. Since then the needs and requirements of our members have changed greatly.

“They are more discerning and concerned about vegetation clearance to maintain reliability. In short, they are more concerned today about just keeping the lights on.”

To address the increasingly sophisticated requirements of its members, Consolidate knew it had to adapt to those needs.

“We knew that we didn’t have a good feel for the total workload of our vendor,” said Hawk. “Also, we wanted to take our vegetation management process to the next level and provide a higher quality of service to our members.”

That’s when they went looking for a company that could meet or exceed the new requirements of their customers/members. “We talked to several other utility and energy companies and also conducted a Web search,” said Hawk. “After our extensive research, we selected ACRT.”

Since selecting ACRT, Consolidated Electric has been able to establish a timetable and, with the assistance of an ACRT arborist, begin the process of workload assessment, evaluating the operating structure and the tree-trimming specs to design an internal system for complete vegetation management. “We will begin in earnest in early June,” said Hawk. “We anticipate a long-term significant savings and significant improvement in our member satisfaction. It’s not often that you can reduce costs and increase satisfaction at the same time!”