November 29, 2011
SWRE to sponsor Essay Contests
In keeping with a longtime
annual tradition, Southwest Rural Electric Cooperative will sponsor two
student essay contests for 2012!
Eleventh grade students who
attend school or live within SWRE's service area may enter the Youth
Tour Essay Contest.
Eighth grade students who
attend school or reside within the co-op's service territory may enter
the Energy Camp Essay Contest.
Youth
Tour Contest for 11th Graders
Southwest Rural Electric
Cooperative
will provide two area high school juniors with the trip of a lifetime
next
summer. Top prize in SWRE’s annual youth tour contest for one Oklahoma
student and one Texas student will be
an
all-expense-paid trip to Washington,
D.C. for a
close-up look at our nation’s
government in action.
All contest finalists will
receive a
cash prize of $250.
The contest is open to all
11th
grade students who attend a high school or reside in the SWRE service
area. Eligibility
is not limited to students whose families purchase electricity from
SWRE. Any
student may enter.
In Texas,
SWRE area schools include Chillicothe,
Crowell,
Electra, Harrold, Northside, and Vernon.
Oklahoma schools in the SWRE
service area are Altus, Blair,
Davidson, Frederick,
Navajo, Snyder, and Tipton.
To enter the contest, 11th
grade students must write a 500-750 word essay on a specified topic
that
relates to the importance of electricity in rural America.
Essays must be received at
the SWRE office in Tipton, Oklahoma, by Wednesday, February 15.
Based on the essays, eight
finalists
will be selected. The eight students will be invited to SWRE’s
Tipton
headquarters in late March to meet with contest judges and present the
information from their essays. At that time winners of the Washington, D.C.
trips will be named and cash prizes will be awarded to the finalists.
The winning Texas student
and Oklahoma
student will travel to Washington, D.C. in mid-June 2012 with state
delegations
of youth tour winners. In the nation’s capital they will tour the
U.S. Capitol,
meet with elected officials, and visit important monuments and
locations,
including the White House and Mount
Vernon.
Complete information
resource packets
for entering the contest have been provided to schools throughout the
SWRE
service area.
The contest entry packets
may also be
obtained by calling Southwest Rural Electric at 1-800-256-7973, or
downloaded
in PDF format from the SWRE web site (see below).
Energy
Camp Contest for 8th Graders
One Oklahoma 8th grade
student and one Texas 8th grade student will win trips to the 2012
Touchstone Energy Camp, to be held after Labor Day near Western
Oklahoma's Red Rock Canyon.
Winning students from
co-ops throughout Oklahoma gather at the camp every year to have fun
while also learning about the cooperative way of doing business!
Swimming, games, a trip to Celebration Station, and many other fun
activities ensure that contest winners will have a great time.
To enter, 8th grade
students who attend school or reside within SWRE's service territory
must submit a 350-500 word essay on a specified topic. Essays are
evaluated to determine eight finalists, including the two contest
winners. Each finalist will receive a $50 cash prize.
Essays for the 2012 Energy
Camp Essay Contest are due on February 29, 2012.
“Service to the youth
of our area has
been a Southwest Rural Electric tradition since the cooperative was
established
in 1937,” said Mike Hagy, SWRE CEO. “Since 1964 our
cooperative has sponsored
the annual youth tour contest and sent two students each year to our
nation’s
capital. For many of those young people, the trip has been an
incredibly
positive, life-changing experience. I encourage all 11th
grade
students in area schools to participate in the 2011 contest. Their
reward may
be great.”
In addition to the youth
tour contest
for 11th grade students, SWRE also sponsors an energy essay
contest
for 8th grade students. Information about the 8th
grade contest
has been sent to schools. It is also available by calling SWRE at
1-800-256-7973.
Eighth grade contest
materials may
also be downloaded in PDF format from the SWRE web site (see below).
2012 Youth Tour Contest Materials
2012
Eighth Grade Energy Camp Contest Materials
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March
23, 2011
2011 Youth Tour Winners Named
Joe
Hatfield of Electra High School and Ashton Davis of Navajo High School
have
been named winners of Southwest Rural Electric Association’s 2011
Youth Tour
Contest.
As
Youth Tour winners, Hatfield and Davis will receive all-expense-paid
trips to
Washington, D.C. this summer with delegations of other co-op students
from
their respective states.
Joe
is the son of Trey Hatfield of Electra, Texas.
Ashton
is the son of Gary and Darlene Davis of Altus, Oklahoma.
During
their trip to Washington, D.C.,
the two Texoma youth will visit the U.S. Capitol, the White House, the
capital
city’s many memorials and museums, and Arlington National
Cemetery.
They will also
have the opportunity to visit with numerous elected officials.
Runners-up
in the contest are Ashtin Holmes, Tipton High School, and Alyssa
Hickenbottom,
Vernon High School. Ashtin is the daughter of Kimberly Holmes of
Tipton, Oklahoma.
Alyssa is the daughter of Kendel and Elizabeth Hickenbottom of Vernon,
Texas.
As
runners-up, Ashtin and Alyssa will have the opportunity to represent
SWRE at
the 2012 high school Touchstone Leadership Summit to be held next
January in
Oklahoma City.
Other
2011 contest finalists are Tanner Anderson, Vernon High School, son of
Paul and
Tandy Anderson; Mattie Martell, Frederick High School, daughter of
Deedra and
Brad Martell; Chris Milner, Northside High School, son of Chris and
Carolyn
Milner; and Scotty Scott, Blair High School, son of Roy Lee Scott and
Beth
Scott.
All
finalists have received certificates and cash prizes.
The
SWRE Youth Tour Contest is open each year to all 11th grade students
who live
or attend school in the SWRE service area.
Students
were required to write a 500-750-word essay on the topic
“Renewable Energy and
Me.”
The
annual SWRE Youth Tour Essay Contest for high school juniors is an
annual
tradition that began in 1964.
More
than 100 essays were received this year,
exploring many conservation practices and technologies.
Essays
were evaluated to determine eight finalists – four from Oklahoma
and four from Texas
schools. The eight finalists were invited to a March 22 event at SWRE
headquarters in Tipton to present their essays as extemporaneous
speeches for a
panel of judges who determined the contest winners.
Southwest
Rural Electric Cooperative is a non-profit member-owned electric
utility that
serves a 6,000 square mile area in 11 counties of north Texas
and southwest Oklahoma.
It was organized in 1937, and maintains its headquarters in Tipton, Oklahoma.
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October 20, 2010
Rocky Ridge Wind
Farm
will supply Energy to WFEC
Western
Farmers Electric Cooperative (WFEC) and TradeWind
Energy, LLC have entered into a long-term renewable energy purchase
agreement that
will bring economic development and new jobs to Kiowa and Washita
counties in Oklahoma. The Rocky
Ridge Wind Project will deliver clean,
low cost electricity to WFEC member customers in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas
and New Mexico.
Southwest
Rural Electric Cooperative is one of 23 WFEC member cooperatives. WFEC
is
SWRE’s electricity provider.
TradeWind
Energy is one of the largest independent wind project development
companies in
the U.S.,
while WFEC is a generation and transmission cooperative that provides
electric
service to 23 member cooperatives.
The
125 megawatt Rocky Ridge Wind Project will consist of about 75 wind
turbines to
be constructed across 11,000 acres of leased land in the two counties. Construction is expected to begin within six
months, with commercial operation anticipated for January 2012.
Approximately 150
workers will be hired during the construction phase.
Upon completion, nine to ten full-time workers
will be employed to monitor and maintain the facility, which will
produce
enough electricity to power the equivalent of 40,000 homes.
The
project is expected to contribute over $3 million annually in direct
payments to
the local community via property taxes and rent payments to
approximately100 landowners
whose properties will host the turbines or easements.
“Rocky
Ridge allows TradeWind to meet the growing demand for affordable electricity
produced from this inexhaustible Oklahoma
resource,” said Frank Costanza,
TradeWind’s executive vice president corporate
development. “Rocky Ridge is one of
the
most energetic sites in our portfolio and its location allows us to
take
advantage of existing transmission lines to deliver power to
WFEC’s customers at a reduced cost.”
“As a
member-owned and operated rural
cooperative, WFEC is committed to providing clean, efficient, reliable
and
reasonably priced power to our customers,” said Gary Roulet, WFEC
chief
executive officer.. “This purchase
agreement with TradeWind provides the ability to lock-in a very
favorable price
for the electricity generated by the Rocky Ridge Wind Project for a
long period
of time,” Roulet explained.
Roulet
noted that this helps WFEC to hedge against volatile fossil fuel prices
and to
be a partner in the sustained economic development for rural Oklahoma for years to
come. “This power purchase agreement between
TradeWind and WFEC is truly a win-win situation for all of us,”
he added.
TWE and WFEC Oklahoma Wind
Project
“When the
Rocky Ridge Wind Project is operational and added to WFEC’s three
other wind
energy purchase agreements, approximately 15 percent of WFEC’s
total annual
electricity production will come from power purchase agreements with
wind farm
generators in Oklahoma,” Roulet pointed out.
“The
Rocky
Ridge Wind Project is a great example of economic and environmental
policies
working together with private industry to benefit the people of Oklahoma,”
said Lt.
Governor Jari Askins. “Our state is
blessed with an abundant wind resource. The
development of this sustainable resource continues and diversifies Oklahoma’s
leadership position
in energy production and positions our state for greater economic
growth in the
21st century. I commend
TradeWind Energy and WFEC for their foresight and extraordinary
investment in Oklahoma.”
ABOUT TRADEWIND ENERGY: TradeWind
Energy, LLC,
is one of the largest independent wind project development companies in
the U.S.
Founded in 2003, the Lenexa, Kan.,
based company partners with local utilities, cooperatives,
environmental
groups, municipalities and landowners to develop mutually beneficial
wind
energy projects. TradeWind Energy, the 2009 recipient of the Kansas
Governor’s
Energy Achievement Award, takes great pride in its ability to deliver
low-cost
wind energy while maintaining an uncompromising commitment to long-term
project
quality. The company is actively developing 8,000 MW of clean,
renewable energy
in 11 states throughout the central United States. TradeWind
Energy developed
the 250 megawatt Smoky Hills Wind Project located in central Kansas –
the largest wind project in the
state. For more information, visit www.tradewindenergy.com.
ABOUT WESTERN FARMERS
ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE:
WFEC is a
generation and
transmission cooperative headquartered in Anadarko, Okla. Additional
plant
facilities are located in Hugo, Okla. and Mooreland, Okla.
Member-owners
consist of 23 distribution cooperatives, located in Oklahoma and New
Mexico,
and the Altus Air Force Base, which, in turn, serve the total electric
needs of
more than half a million people. WFEC owns and operates generating
plants at
three locations and maintains more than 3,600 miles of transmission
line. The
cooperative has a combined capacity of over 1,700 megawatts, including
hydropower allocation and, with the addition of the Rocky Ridge Wind
Project,
purchases all of the electricity produced from four wind generation
projects in Oklahoma.
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October 18, 2010
Four
New Mexico
Cooperatives Join WFEC
Four
New Mexico Cooperatives have been added as members of Western Farmers
Electric
Cooperative. Addition of the four cooperatives expands WFEC membership
from 19
to 23 member distribution cooperatives.
The four
cooperatives are Farmers
Electric Cooperative, Clovis, NM; Lea County Electric Cooperative, Lovington, NM;
Central
Valley Electric Cooperative, Artesia, NM; and Roosevelt County Electric Cooperative, Portales, NM.
Southwest
Rural Electric Association was an original member of WFEC when it was
formed in
1941, and remains a WFEC member cooperative today. Western Farmers
Electric is
SWRE’s power provider.
The
long-awaited regulatory approvals for addition of the four New Mexico
cooperatives were received
recently following several years of talks and negotiations. WFEC has
only added
new members one other time, nearly 40 years ago.
“We are very
excited about this opportunity for new growth,” said WFEC Chief
Executive
Officer Gary Roulet.
“WFEC and its
member cooperatives look forward to working with these new members in
the
future. We feel they are a good fit for our organization,”
The overall
process involved with this beneficial relationship has been a challenge
for
both sides, with many regulatory hoops to go through for final
approval. “The
efforts put in by both WFEC staff and the New Mexico delegation was
tremendous,
leading to a favorable and timely conclusion,” said Bob Allen,
president of the
WFEC Board of Trustees.
The addition of
these new members will not only increase
diversity for WFEC, but will also allow for a fixed cost rate base to
be divided
among more members, with additional power supplied as WFEC becomes
larger.
Another
advantage for WFEC will be in terms of peak
load as the New Mexico
cooperatives are located in a different time zone, which will help
shift peak
hours. Diversification of renewable energy sources, including an
increased
availability of solar power, will also be an advantage, as there is a
greater ability
to locate those resources in New
Mexico.
Benefits for the New Mexico cooperatives include an
opportunity to be a part of decision-making, with each cooperative
having a seat
on the board of trustees as members of a generation and transmission
cooperative. Previously, as a contract power purchaser of an
investor-owned
utility, they had no involvement with decisions and did not participate
in the
direction of their power supplier. It will also provide them a
long-term, stable,
cost-based power supply agreement.
The
respective service territories of the four cooperatives are adjacent to
one
another in southeastern New
Mexico.
Together, these four cooperatives have a total of approximately 400
megawatts
(MW) of load. They will continue to own and maintain their respective
transmission and distribution systems, just as they do now. WFEC will
continue
to maintain its own system.
Several
years ago, these four cooperatives were notified that their long-term
power
supplier, Southwestern Public Service Company (SPS), would not be
renewing
their purchase power agreement (PPA) past the 2015 expiration. WFEC was
among
the possibilities due to the fact that WFEC and the four cooperatives
are each
in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the Regional Transmission
Organization
footprint. This fact greatly facilitates obtaining transmission service
which
will be provided through the SPP Open Access Transmission Tariff.
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Online
Bill Pay
is Available at SWRE
To
set up online payments, SWRE members need to complete the following
steps:
1. Provide
a current e-mail address and
telephone number to SWRE for posting to the co-op’s records for
your
account(s). This can be done by sending
an e-mail with your name, account number(s), telephone and e-mail
address to swre@swre.com, or by calling the co-op at 1-800-256-7973
to provide the info to Jonnie Partida or Chris Petty. This correct
information
must be entered into SWRE’s records before online registration
can proceed.
2. Go
to SWRE’s website: www.swre.com. Click “On Line Bill Pay”
at the lower center of the page. This will
open a new screen. Choose “New User”
3.
Enter
the
following information:
·
Account
Number
·
Last four
digits of telephone number
·
User ID
(you create)
·
Name
·
Password
(you create)
·
Password
confirmation
·
Password
hint (which you create for your future use,
if needed)
Hit “Submit”.
4. When
the information has been received, a
computer confirmation e-mail will automatically be sent to the e-mail
address
that you have provided. In that e-mail there will be an “Activate
Account”
link. Click “Activate Account”.
5. This
will take you to the screen where you
can pay on-line with a credit card or bank withdrawal. NOTE: If it does
not
take you to the bill pay screen, call the SWRE business office at
1-800-256-7973.
Once
your online payment account is set up, you can go to www.swre.com
to pay
your SWRE bills with one easy click.
The
process is easy and secure.
Of
course, for SWRE members who choose to pay their bills in the
conventional way,
the co-op will continue to accept payments through the mail, at the
Tipton
office, or at traditional bank locations throughout our service area.
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Co-op
Connections offers
Prescription Benefit
Co-op Connections
cards can be used for discounts with
participating
area and national businesses. A new pharmacy discount makes Co-op
Connections better than ever! The pharmacy benefit will allow
co-op members to save as much as 10%-60% on many prescriptions at more
than 48,000 independent and chain pharmacies.
With soaring prescription prices, the
new discount pharmacy program will work for your family and you.
The pharmacy discount program IS NOT insurance and cannot be used
in conjuction with insurance. For
co-op members that do not have insurance that includes prescription
benefits, though, it will offer significant savings.
Once you have signed the back of the new card, it may be
used at participating pharmacies locally and nationwide. This is NOT a credit or debit card.
Search for Participating Pharmacies and
Check Prices
To find out which pharmacies are participating and to look up the
discount prescription price, co-op members can visit www.rxpricequotes.com
or call 800-800-7616
toll free.
This is just one more way you win from being a cooperative
member. Simply present your Co-op Connections card at a
participating pharmacy with your prescription and receive a discount at
the time of purchase.
SWRE is proud to be a member of Touchstone Energy
Cooperatives, which
is a national alliance of local, consumer-owned electric cooperatives
that provide high standards of service to customers large and
small. More than 640 Touchstone Energy Cooperatives in 46 states
are delivering energy and energy solutions to approximately 22
million customers every day. Touchstone Energy Cooperatives serve
their members with integrity, accountability, innovation and
longstanding commitment to communities.
More than 9,500 discount deals available to co-op members
just by using
the Connections Card. To check out the other great discounts you
can receive with your Connections Card go to the SWRE home page at:
www.swre.com. A link from the SWRE site will allow you to search for
deals in your city or area.
This is just one more way that Southwest Rural Electric
and Touchstone Energy are looking out for you!
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Copper Theft is Growing Problem
The escalating value
of copper is resulting in costly problems and potential outages for
utility companies and can even lead to the death or injury of the
thieves themselves. Western Farmers Electric Cooperative (WFEC),
headquartered in Anadarko, Okla., like the state’s other electric
utilities, is experiencing problems due to rising copper thefts.
Since June 1 of this year, 30 of WFEC’s substation
and switch station facilities have experienced vandalism and thefts. Of
this number, 20 have been copper thefts, while 10 have been acts of
related vandalism. The monetary figures to date for these crimes,
including both losses of materials, as well as additional labor costs
to make repairs, have reached between $30,000 and $40,000, according to
Bobby Barrow, manager, transmission and distribution services.
WFEC, along with other utilities, is apprehensive about
these great monetary losses for supplies and labor, as the additional
replacement costs are typically passed on to the company’s
consumers. In the end, utility customers are paying for these needless
criminal acts. Also, these same customers are the ones affected by the
possible outages.
Some thieves are so
intent on getting copper they have risked injury and death when trying
to strip the metal from live electrical components in substations or on
transmission lines. Thieves and vandals are entering energized
substations without the proper equipment and are taking their lives
into their own hands by attempting to gather the copper from the
facility and even from under ground. Any contact with equipment inside
a substation or an electric power line is extremely dangerous given the
very high voltages present in any such facilities.
Nationwide, numerous
deaths have occurred this year related to copper thefts from electric
utility facilities. Other theft attempts across the nation have caused
power interruptions and thousands of dollars of damage. Outages are
certainly not a welcomed experience by those in the affected areas.
Copper is used for
the grounding of equipment within electrical substations and along
electric power lines. It serves as a protection for the crews working
on equipment within an energized substation. Without the copper, crews
would not be able to work at a substation facility without halting the
flow of power, which in turn would lead to maintenance outages.
Even though WFECT has
experienced great losses of both time and equipment, the primary
concern is safety. “Our primary interest lies within our concern
for the lives of these thieves,” explains Ron Cunningham, WFEC
treasurer and financial risk officer and general manager, transmission
and distribution services.
“These thefts are a nuisance to customers, are expensive for WFEC
and can be deadly to the thieves,” comments Cunningham.
The majority of
WFEC’s incidents hav been fairly statewide in nature. The Norman
and Moore areas, as well as areas in southeasten Oklahoma, have been
among the hardest hit.
Residents are
encouraged to contact their local law enforcement officials if they see
suspicious activity around WFEC’s transmission lines and
substations. WFEC officials are working closely with area law
enforcement agencies in an effort to stop these thefts and acts of
vandalism.
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TRADING POST available on the Web
The co-op's Trading Post
in now available on the SWRE web site. The following link will take you
directly to the Trading Post page.
Link to TRADING POST
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