Thayer Appointed To MEEA Board
Art Thayer, MECA’s energy efficiency programs director, was elected May 21 to the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) Board of Directors. “This partnership with the Alliance will help our electric co-ops because it is the largest voice advocating for change in energy optimization targets and policies – especially policies that don’t recognize the member-owned uniqueness [...]
ACSI Scores Show Electric Co-ops Are Tops in Consumer Satisfaction
The 2014 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey released in May shows that members belonging to electric co-ops are more satisfied with their utility than consumers served by either investor-owned (IOU) or municipal utilities. Touchstone Energy® Cooperatives received an overall customer satisfaction score of 81 - the highest for any electric-only utility. Co-ops not affiliated [...]
Michigan Co-ops Lobby On Capitol Hill
A team of nine Michigan electric co-op representatives spent May 5-7 in Washington, D.C., at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s (NRECA) Legislative Conference. Team members included Ken Swope, Dave Allen and Bob Hance (Midwest); Rachel Johnson (Cherryland); Brian Burns (Presque Isle); Nancy Gardner-Platt and Tom Harrell (Alger Delta); Kim Molitor (Wolverine), and Craig Borr [...]
Midwest honored with Award for Best Mobility Implementation
Midwest Energy Cooperative was honored this week with the Expanding Excellence Award for Best Mobility Implementation. The award recognizes outstanding contributions, innovations and excellence in utility customer service. The Cassopolis-based utility’s submission featured the 2013 upgrade of their customer self-service portal to SmartHub, and implementation of the SmartHub mobile application. SmartHub is an online and [...]
HomeWorks Kicks-Off Community Solar Project
HomeWorks Tri-County Cooperative has added a new renewable option to their portfolio- a community solar garden. A solar panel dedication kicked-off the project on April 22 as employees, member-owners and the board of directors gathered at the Portland office to witness the ribbon cutting and learn more about the program. The cooperative will retain ownership [...]
New Metal Theft Law in Michigan
Under a new law to fight copper theft in Michigan, not only are scrap dealers forbidden to pay sellers in cash, but any transaction of $25 or more requires that the check be mailed. That check has to be sent to the address on the seller’s legal I.D., not to a post office box. “Michigan [...]