2018: A year to be PEC Proud
How we grew, gave back, and served you
In 2018, PEC celebrated 80 years of serving the Texas Hill Country. And what a year it was! The cooperative experienced record growth, continued to strengthen reliability, and received recognition on the global stage. Throughout it all, PEC and its employees took every opportunity to give back and enrich the communities we serve.
See it all for yourself in our 2018 year-end video.
PEC Proud
Providing excellent service is more than a philosophy: It’s a cooperative value, and a point of pride. We were grateful this year to be recognized for our dedication to excellence, both nationally and internationally.
- J.D. Power named us the 10th best electric utility in the nation for member satisfaction.
- We were named the 2018 Best Electrical Company in the Austin American-Statesman’s annual Best of the Best Awards.
- PEC ranked No. 89 in the National Cooperative Bank’s Top 100 Co-ops for strong financials, up 7 spots from the year prior.
- We maintained a AA- rating with Fitch Ratings.
- Team PEC swept the International Lineman’s Rodeo, bringing home eight awards.
- We launched a new website to communicate with our members better than ever.
- We returned $12.1 million in capital credits to our membership.
Community engagement
For 80 years, we’ve been giving back to our communities, and today, more than 1 million neighbors call our service territory home.
- The cooperative sponsored eight volunteer events for employees, including opportunities with Read Across America, the Central Texas Food Bank, LCRA Steps Forward, and more.
- We awarded $100,000 in scholarships and took 10 students to Washington, D.C., for NRECA’s annual Youth Tour.
- We awarded more than $32,000 in PEC Community Grants to 11 area nonprofits.
- Our PEC United Charities organization donated nearly $270,000 to 262 local charities.
- We held our largest ever PEC Annual Meeting, bringing in more than 700 attendees.
- PEC executives and staff met members at the Community Partnerships Dinner and Junction Member Appreciation Dinner.
- We lit up our Johnson City Headquarters once again with our PEC Holiday Lights, an event that reached almost 1 million people on Facebook.
Emergency and flood response
In October 2018, historic flooding swept Central Texas. With our expertise and proactive approach, our team was ready to respond.
- The Llano River and Highland Lakes floods created 31 outages affecting 4,190 members.
- PEC staff proactively disconnected, and later reconnected, nearly 500 meters to avoid hazards and damage.
- PEC employees donated $5,321 to flood recovery efforts in Junction.
- Employees donated time and supplies to help residents of Marble Falls affected by flooding.
Growth
It was another year of record growth at PEC. We welcomed a historically high number of new members, and made powerful system-wide upgrades.
- We started the year with just over 300,000 accounts and ended with more than 314,000
- We continued a 4 percent growth rate for the third consecutive year.
- November 2018 marked the highest growth month the cooperative has experienced in over a decade with a net increase of 1,921 accounts.
- We built more than 323 new miles of distribution line.
- We opened our new Marble Falls District Office to the public, and upgraded offices throughout the territory to safely serve you.
Reliability
We won’t leave you in the dark. During our historic growth, we’ve improved our infrastructure to bring you greater reliability than ever.
- Our SAIDI and SAIFI (industry-wide metrics measuring number of, and duration of, outages per member) saw year-over-year improvement.
- SAIDI (system average interruption duration index, or duration of outages) improved 7 percent from 2017, and 25 percent from 2016.
- SAIFI (system average interruption frequency index, or number of outages) improved 6 percent from 2017, and 37 percent from 2016.
- PEC’s voltage control efforts saved an estimated 13.1 megawatts over the summer peak season.
- We completed three substation conversions in Junction and Oak Hill to increase area reliability.