MECA News

Most co-op field workers have experienced the frustration of returning to the office to find a service order waiting for them at a location they have just been. That’s why Great Lakes Energy has installed a mobile workforce management (MWFM) system to help connect operations and field workers with supervisors and dispatch in real-time. By replacing paper and radio with electronic communications, the new [...]

A six-day project scouting trip has brought a team of Michigan electric co-op employees home with details they’ll need to help bring electricity to a remote area of Guatemala. Jim Carpenter, Cherryland Electric line superintendent; Matt Monroe, Wolverine Power safety coordinator; Kevin Evans, Great Lakes Energy engineering analyst; and Dan King, MECA safety & loss control instructor, traveled June 22-27 to inspect the project [...]

Matt Miller, operations manager for HomeWorks Tri-County Electric Co-op, now has some different job titles: “retiree,” “Grandpa,” and “traveler”. An Ionia native, Miller started his line apprenticeship in 1974, working for contractors out of the IBEW Local 876 union hall, and earning journeyman status in 1979. A few years later, he started at Wolverine’s small Portland power plant, attached to the HomeWorks office. In [...]

An EF-1 tornado ripped through the town of Portland on June 22, ripping across the property and facilities of the headquarters of HomeWorks Tri-County Electric Co-op, and causing major damage to about 11 other businesses, 70 homes, and four churches. About five people received minor injuries, with no fatalities. The HomeWorks Tri-County office in Portland was damaged in several areas, but the Co-op was [...]

More than 1.6 billion people in the world remain without electricity. We know that clean water, improved healthcare, better education, safer streets and economic growth all start with power. That’s why Michigan’s electric cooperatives are partnering with the NRECA International Foundation to bring safe, reliable and affordable electricity to remote villages in Guatemala. “Michigan’s work in Guatemala will bring electricity to about 700 people [...]

Student representatives from Michigan co-ops joined approximately 1,700 students from across the country at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Youth Tour to Washington, D.C. (June 13-18). Michigan was represented by 18 students from eight electric co-ops, including Cherryland, Cloverland, Great Lakes, HomeWorks, Midwest, Presque Isle, Thumb and Wolverine. While in Washington, the Michigan students traveled with a local tour guide who provided valuable history [...]

On June 3, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) approved a request by Midwest Energy Cooperative to be designated as an eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC). This affords Midwest’s fiber division, Midwest Connections, access to federal sources of capital designed to support their rural southwest Michigan utility communications and data and voice project. In March 2015, Midwest was awarded $211,532 through the Federal Communications Commission [...]

Karen Alholm, New Director for District 2 Nearly 750 people were at the U.P. State Fairgrounds in Escanaba June 13 for Alger-Delta Cooperative’s 77th annual meeting. About 50 people attended in 2014. The co-op’s members elected Karen Alholm to represent District 2 (Harvey/Deerton). Alholm is a retired attorney and a volunteer mediator who also sits on the Marquette County Board of Commissioners [...]