SEC Directors Approve 2022

Retirement of Capital Credits

Members Will Receive Benefits in December

Southside Electric Cooperative member-owners are about to receive one of the benefits they enjoy from being part of the Cooperative.

SEC is retiring $2.75 million in capital credits this year, and that means eligible members will receive credits on their electric bills or will get checks in the mail. The distribution will take place in December. The SEC Board of Directors approved the retirement in August.

“Capital credits is one of the things that makes receiving electricity from a cooperative different than receiving it from an investor-owned power company that has shareholders and customers,” says Carol Myers, SEC’s chief financial officer (photographed below).

Economic participation by all members is one of the Seven Cooperative Principles that SEC follows. As a not-for-profit and member-owned organization, SEC provides electric service at cost. This is unlike any for-profit electric utility, where a portion of the monies collected from customers is used to increase the wealth of shareholders. A fundamental practice that SEC takes to achieve operating at cost is the retirement of capital credits.

“I think that is one of the things that makes the cooperative business model such a great model,” Myers says.

Day in The Life of a Lineworker

Returns to SEC

Once again, SEC is offering the popular Day in the Life of a Lineworker career series to high school students across its 18-county service area. The program began in 2014, but halted in 2020 due to COVID concerns.

Based at each of SEC’s district offices in Altavista, Crewe, Dinwiddie and Powhatan, the program allows students the opportunity to experience the day-to-day expectations, challenges, compensation and rewards that lineworkers face. Importantly, students learn the safety aspects of the profession.

The morning session has a PowerPoint presentation dedicated to the history of electrical linework at the Cooperative, and the skills and training needed for the profession. It also addresses the lineworker apprenticeship program. After lunch, students go out in the yard for hands-on demonstrations, such as the opportunity to try on the heavy tool belt that lineworkers wear when climbing, as well as the importance of equipment like reclosers and the importance of an insulated extendable stick.

Led entirely by lineworkers, the program lights up the career eyes of those attending.

Energy Alert!!!

Did you know that the typical space heater, 1,500 watts, will

cost $4.68 for a 24-hour period? At that rate, the monthly

cost for a space heater would be over $135!

SEC Offers Valuable Energy Efficiency Tips

Did you know that SEC provides essential tips on becoming more

energy efficient to help lower your electric bill? Tips such as a Virtual

Energy Button, Saving Tips, an Appliance Energy Use Calculator, etc.

To access these tips, click on the button below. Here you will find

a few virtual tools that can help change your electric

consumption habits, resulting in changes to your bill.

SEC's Finance Team Shows

Concern for Community through the

Amelia Christmas Mother Program

The finance team at Southside Electric Cooperative recently volunteered for the Christmas Mother program in Amelia. Concern for Community is one of the seven principles that govern the Cooperative. Photographed are (top, left to right) Billing Analyst Amber Lashway; Director of Finance Carly Bullock; Chief Financial Officer Carol Myers; Accountant Lori Mitchell: Billing Assistant Shiane Saeger; (bottom, left to right) Supervisor of Accounting Katlyn Moseley; Supervisor of Billing Lisa Thompson and Accountant Lynn Page.

Please Vote!