Electricity is only thought of when the monthly bill is paid or when the power goes out. On an average day, electricity is behind the scenes – powering nearly every element of daily life, with little thought from the consumer. As a consumer or business owner, knowing how energy works, and who ensures it says reliable, is powerful knowledge.
Michigan based utility, Cloverland Electric Cooperative, recently created a new position with the goal to strengthen relationships between key consumers and the cooperative. Cloverland’s management team knew the new position would take a specialized skill set to thrive in the role. The position required technical skills, an operations-based mindset and ability to work directly with cooperative’s key account customers, including commercial and industrial members. The goal of this new position is to strengthen communications with key accounts, foster new energy solutions and proactively manage their energy needs. The cooperative hired Jake Brown to fill the role in March 2020.
Brown, a Michigan Technological University alumnus with a biomedical engineering degree and a Master of Business Administration, is an ideal fit for the role. The combination of engineering and business was the specialty blend of talent that Cloverland’s management team desired. Furthermore, Brown’s competitive spirit as college football player influences his work ethic and ability to take on the challenge of managing projects that require intense research and technical calculations.
Brown just completed his first anniversary at the cooperative with an impressive record of innovative energy solutions to reflect on.
Brown’s first major project was working directly with Cloverland’s President and CEO, Mike Heise, on the cooperative’s potential opportunity to receive funding for broadband through the Rural Development Opportunity Fund (RDOF) reverse auction. Brown spent months researching the opportunities and challenges of bringing broadband to the Eastern Upper Peninsula (EUP). Financial cost, business opportunities and the overall benefit to members were key factors analyzed in his research. The cooperative applied to the RDOF auction in July 2020 but unfortunately did not receive RDOF funding.
For another new cooperative initiative, Brown researched the benefits a drone program would bring to the cooperative. Drone programs are popular at electric cooperatives across the nation and benefits include increased electric reliability, decreased storm outage restoration times and the ability to efficiently inspect Cloverland’s 4,000 miles of rural power line. As a result of Brown’s analysis, the cooperative purchased two drones and an internal drone task force is developing a strategic plan for use in cooperative operations.
Although Brown’s role is primarily focused on key accounts, he also spends much of his time working on projects with the Cloverland’s Communications Department. One of his major communications roles is assisting with outage communications. The communications team uses a rotating schedule each week, with one member of the team working as the on-call reporter.
“Every outage is basically a crash course in crisis communications,” Brown describes. “At first it felt stressful to report outages to Cloverland’s members – now I feel confident in reporting and updating both members and Cloverland’s Management team on outage communications.”
Electric cooperatives commonly accomplish a wide variety of communications with a small communications team. Many communicators also have multiple roles at the cooperative, as illustrated in Brown’s position. As outages can occur at any time, the on-call responsibility is a big one. The on-call reporter must be prepared to report an outage day or night. One of the most difficult parts of outage reporting is the lack of information available on the cause of the outage and when members can expect to have the outage restored.
Cloverland’s Hydro Plant Manager, Scott Ellis, boasts over 14 years of experience in power outage situations crisis situations. Ellis manages the cooperative’s controllers, who are tasked with tracking all crews, outages and dispatching crews to an outage.
“Power outage communications can be a challenge,” Ellis describes. “Members want a specific time frame for when the power will be turned back on, living in the rural Upper Peninsula of Michigan makes providing a time frame nearly impossible.”
One of the most difficult parts of outage reporting is the lack of information available on the cause of the outage and when members can expect to have the outage restored. While most outages are restored in a few hours, the Michigan based cooperative is no stranger to the effects of Lake Superior during storm season. Some storms have left members without power for multiple days.
“While we never want our members to experience a power outage, living in the rural E.U.P. it is bound to happen.” Ellis states. “Members should always be prepared with extra food and supplies in case a storm strikes.”
Ellis describes that social media is a tool for connecting members with information, but sometimes less information is more. Ellis suggests the best advice is to provide the essential information to assuage member concern, while ensuring the cooperative is working as quickly and safely as possible to restore the outage. Social media has allowed the cooperative to connect and engage with members – but that engagement does come with a price during an extended power outage.
“Social media messages and comments from members experiencing a prolonged power outage can feel like a personal attack,” Brown explains. “It’s important to overcome that feeling and not take it personally.”
Looking ahead, Brown has many goals to accomplish in 2021. One goal is continuing to develop relationships with the cooperative’s key accounts. Cloverland’s rural service territory spanning across five counties provides unique energy opportunities for key accounts both large and small. Brown’s vision is to work with each key account to address energy needs and potential for infrastructure upgrades. Another goal is to continue personalizing outage communications.
“Outage text messages, communicating with members before the outage strikes and increased communications or animated crew tracking during restoration efforts would increase personalization with our members.” Brown states.
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