by Rick Lemonds, president & CEO of South Central Power
Each October, cooperatives around the world celebrate National Co-op Month. There are all kinds of cooperatives — agricultural, retail, banking, insurance, and of course, electric co-ops. Across this country, there are more than 900 electric cooperatives, most of which trace their roots, like we do, to the 1930s, when electricity was available in cities but not in rural areas. Electric cooperatives stepped up to serve these areas, and soon, all Americans had access to power at home, a concept that is hard to imagine today.
There’s no longer an urban-rural divide when it comes to access to electricity. America’s electric cooperatives filled that gap. That’s why it’s exciting today to see electric cooperatives stepping in to provide a service that will become as important to rural communities as electricity is today — fiber internet.
At our annual meeting in August, we announced a new service, connectSCP, fiber internet to the home, which will be available next year to some of our unserved consumers in the far west and far east portions of our service territory. Just like when we hung the first power lines to connect rural Ohioans to the power grid, this fiber internet project will be life-changing to people in these rural areas of our state. It will make services like telehealth, remote work, online education, e-commerce, streaming, gaming, and more possible for people who have limited or no access when it comes to high-speed internet. We are excited to see how this service adds value to the lives of our members and helps build up these underserved communities.
We also know that many of you who desperately need high-speed internet won’t get it in this initial deployment. That’s why we are actively seeking the right mix of grant and other funding for additional projects, as well as working with other providers, where appropriate, to expand coverage in other areas. Our long-term goal with our fiber internet project is simple: We want 100% of our members to be able to get high-speed internet if they want it — either from connectSCP or another provider. Today, too many of our members have no options at all, and this digital divide is hurting our communities and our economy, and dampening our prospects for a brighter future.
But as someone who has spent his entire career in the electric business, I would be remiss if I didn’t also share the good news about what this fiber project will mean to our electric consumers. Many of the nation’s most progressive and successful electric utilities don’t sell fiber to the home, but they do build and maintain their own fiber networks for the benefit of their electric systems. Fiber will help us stay connected with our employees in the field and in outer offices. It will help us monitor and remotely operate equipment in our substations and on our lines. It can help us with everything from shortening outages to ensuring power quality. As we continue to deploy more technology across our electric system, a fiber backbone connecting substations and other key locations will be critical to our success.
So this October, join me in celebrating the work of cooperatives. We are proud to be owned and governed by you, and we are excited about this next chapter beginning with connectSCP. Stay tuned to this magazine and our website for frequent updates, and remember you can sign up for email notifications about our broadband project online at southcentralpower.com.
From the October 2023 issue of Ohio Cooperative Living.