The Supplier

2023 Board & Management Strategic Planning Session

The Western United Board of Directors held their annual strategic planning session on January 26th, 2023. The plan focuses on three Guiding Principles:

Responsible Growth Efficiency Preparedness

Details for each of these principles have been developed within the context of Serving our Membership. Responsible Growth was addressed from both Territory growth and new Products & Services. The opening of Western United’s new warehouse in St. George UT will allow the company to expand our territorial presence in the Utah, Nevada and Arizona markets by providing a stocking distributor for the Coops and Power Districts in the region. New products & services are being explored to support our membership in a rapidly changing industry. Western United will support our member utilities as they transition to serving as Distributed System Operators and will focus on supporting new Distributed Energy Resources and the products needed to support new technology. Efficiency improvements will continue to be driven through advancements in WUE’s IT department. New tools and information will be provided on our website. An enhanced EDI system, including a customer barcoding system for consigned inventory is also in development. The company‘s focus on preparedness will ensure that threats are minimized while we capitalize on opportunities throughout the industry. Our biggest opportunity will continue to be listening to our membership to understand their issues and needs in a rapidly evolving industry.

Employee Spotlight

Meet Mindy Nickell

Mindy Nickell joined the Western United team in November of 2020 as an inside sales representative out of the Brighton, CO branch. Over the past couple of years, she has quickly proven herself as a key asset to the team. She is hard working, knowledgeable, and is always willing to go the extra mile to help her members and customers.

Mindy has over 10 years of experience in electric distribution working in residential, utility, and oil and gas markets. Prior to joining Western United, Mindy worked for QED as a project manager for residential and commercial lighting. She then brought her talents to Border States to support their oil and gas efforts and later to support their Xcel alliance, eventually becoming the supervisor of their customer service team. Mindy is a Colorado native and loves to read and take weekend trips with her husband in her spare time. She also loves music and has been to over 50 concerts, seeing some of her favorite artists multiple times.

Be sure to visit with Western United at the TechAdvantage Expo held in conjunction with NRECA’s Power Exchange Conference in Nashville. The Expo will be held Monday through Wednesday March 6th-8th. Western United will share a booth with our Electrical Distributor Association (EUDA) partners and we look forward to seeing you there. Registration and additional details can be found at cooperative.com

Fully Integrated Smart EV Chargers

Electric Vehicle purchases and the corresponding demand for charging infrastructure continue to rise at a rapid rate. It is expected that by 2030, more than 50% of the vehicles purchased in the U.S. will be electric. This naturally creates demand for public charging units, but even more so, residential charging units where over 80% of charging will occur. WUE is excited to be expanding its partnership with ZEF Energy, an EV charging solutions provider that is focused on cooperative and municipal utilities. Being owned in part by 32 electric cooperatives and their employees, ZEF's solutions cover residential charging, along with Level 2 and DC fast charging for commercial and public needs.

ZEF Product Updates:

In November of 2022 ZEF Energy launched its next generation (Gen 2.0) communications board with a number of new features. These new features were implemented to deepen ZEF Energy's grid-grade products and offers extremely resilient connectivity. New capabilities include:

Level 2 chargers now have 4 communication paths: cellular, wifi, ethernet & bluetooth
Store and Forward -- the ability to store over 110 days of metering data locally on the charger when a cloud connection is unavailable
Over-cellular boot-up & firmware update capable
Additional cellular carriers, in early 2023-ZEF will be supported on 5 networks (US Cellular, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint)
Tier 1 contracts with each cellular provider and auto failover when a signal is not strong enough

ZEF Energy is working on a number of additional features that will be released in 2023. These include in-field metering accuracy testing, new certifications, and more! ZEF Energy looks forward to sharing more details in the near future.

Upcoming Initiatives & Offerings:

WUE and ZEF Energy are working together to communicate a variety of emerging demands in the marketplace in order to help make WUE members aware of solutions that will deliver beneficial EV load growth. Among them are the new requirements from auto dealers to have on-site EV charging infrastructure. WUE is looking forward to sharing further information going forward to help you bring proactive solutions to your cooperative, members, and end users.

Substation Wildlife Protection

Hubbell Power

Complete Engineered Solution

The Impact of Animal Outages

As consumers demand for reliable energy increases, the global electric utility industry needs to minimize interruptions and increase reliability. Although outages related to weather or acts of nature are hard to anticipate, animal-caused power outages are preventable.

Significant Economic Impact

According to multiple sources, each year power outages cost the American economy in excess of $150billion. Those same sources indicate animal contact is responsible for anywhere from 12-20 % of all power system outages–a number that translates into more than $18 billion in lost economy in the United States alone.

Fines and Penalties

In addition to lost revenue and equipment repair costs due to animal outages, many companies also find themselves faced with a variety of regulatory fines and penalties relating to animal contact with equipment.

Eroded Customer Trust

In addition to economic losses and potential penalties, power outages can also damage electric utility reputations and public goodwill.

Hubbell’s Greenjacket precise fit engineered solution provides custom fit wildlife protection for all live electrical parts in a substation. The process involves a 3D modeling inside the substation of all critical flash over equipment. Hubbell Power then provides a custom solution of 3D molded Greenjacket and Reliaguard products. The final design provides 100% protection for all wildlife cause flashovers. Contact your Western United Sales Rep for more details.

Volume 16, Issue 1 - March 2023