Along Those Lines NRECA

In 2021, Branden Bauer was working at United Electric in Pennsylvania as a journeyman lineman with nearly 10 years of experience. During a system improvement project, he made contact with a live conductor that he'd mistakenly thought was a neutral and suffered devastating injuries. Hear from Branden and his wife, Caitlin, about how he's made a mission of telling his story in the hope that it’ll help others. Graphic content warning: Contains detailed descriptions of high-voltage contact injuries.

A long-simmering dispute over the Lower Snake River dams burst onto the headlines in November with news of a backroom deal between the Biden administration and plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Bonneville Power Administration and other agencies that manage the dams. The deal has raised fears about the possibility of breaching the dams and compromising the availability of reliable, carbon-free electricity. Hear from NRECA's Louis Finkel and Fall River Rural Electric Cooperative's Bryan Case.

The electric utility industry is in the midst of a “skills and people shortage,” brought on by a steady stream of senior leaders reaching retirement age, a marked increase in non-retirement turnover and an evolution toward more advanced technologies that’s making it more difficult to find qualified employees. Electric co-ops are responding with creative initiatives on succession planning and employee development. Learn more from NRECA's Delaine Orendorff and Wells Rural Electric's Clay Fitch.

Artificial intelligence is poised to have a rapidly expanding impact on many facets of our lives—and the power industry is at the tip of the spear. How are electric co-ops already using AI, and how will it shape and change the way we approach operations, member services and our workplace culture in the years to come? Hear from Mike Walsh, a futurist, author and the founder and CEO of the consulting firm Tomorrow as well as a keynote speaker for NRECA's 2024 PowerXchange and TechAdvantage.

The Achieving Cooperative Community Equitable Solar Sources (ACCESS) project, a three-year, Department of Energy-funded effort in which electric co-ops have worked on innovative ways to bring the benefits of solar power to their low- and moderate-income members, is winding down at the end of the year. Learn more about ACCESS from Lisa Slaughter, NRECA research engineer, and Marshall Cherry, president and CEO of Roanoke Cooperative.

A key piece of the broadband puzzle is the “middle mile,” which connects local networks to the broader web—a particularly critical facet for rural areas. Many electric co-ops in the broadband space are finding it difficult to access reliable, affordable third-party middle-mile networks, and some are starting to take matters into their own hands. Learn more from NRECA’s Katie Culleton as well as Steven Bandy, general manager of OzarksGo, the broadband subsidiary of Ozarks Electric Cooperative.