West Oregon Electric Cooperative held its annual meeting Saturday, August 15, at the Cabin in Vernonia.
Board President Patricia Jordan opened the meeting by welcoming the members and introducing the WOEC Board of Directors and co-op staff. Patricia told members the co-op is facing some of its greatest challenges as the costs of power, materials, and maintaining the organizational structure continue to rise. Mandates from Salem and Washington, D.C., and the impact of climate change on potential wildfires in WOEC territory are major challenges.
“Your board remains dedicated to supplying you, our members, with reliable, affordable power,” Patricia said.
To help members understand what happens at monthly board meetings, Patricia explained some of the work the 7 elected directors do on behalf of the membership.
“Guiding the discussions and always on our minds is, ‘How will this impact our members?’ and ‘How will we meet the rise in cost of power without creating hardships for our members?’” Patricia said. “Your board is knowledgeable and up to the task of representing you in the boardroom by asking impactful questions, seeking reliable solutions, and maintaining the strength of our organization, all in an effort to meet the growing power needs and expectations of our members.”
Ted Case, executive director of Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association and a regular guest speaker at WOEC’s annual meeting, provided an interactive presentation that explored the number of electric co-ops around the country, how innovative WOEC’s leadership is, and how diverse and clean WOEC’s power supply is.
General Manager Billi Kohler highlighted the upcoming metering infrastructure project that will replace outdated meters with Advanced Metering Infrastructure, starting with a pilot project at the end of this year. The pilot project will provide information to improve outage management and communication before full deployment, which will take 2 to 3 years.
Billi also discussed the importance of system reliability and how the co-op continues to invest in poles, wires, substations, equipment, and technology.
Billi informed members that the co-op successfully received a grid resiliency grant to bury power lines in 1 of the co-op’s highest fire risk areas.
Demand for electricity continues to grow across the region, although WOEC is not experiencing the same level of growth as other utilities.
Billi also announced that longtime Chief Financial Officer Dan Huggett is retiring this year.
In his financial report, Dan reported mixed results. Sales in 2025 increased by $245,000 compared to 2024, aided by 14 new meters. However, the increased cost of power, declining interest rates, and a winter storm cut into profit margins.
The LSN sale allowed the co-op to continue its program to retire patronage capital on a two-year cycle, with a payment in 2025 and another planned for 2027. Dan said system improvements over the past 10 years are starting to show a reduction in expenses, and overtime is down this year. He noted weather, as always, plays a big part in determining the co-op’s expenses and revenues. As a co-op, Dan said WOEC strives to provide service to customers at cost and does its best to keep costs as low as possible while also maintaining and improving the system and making upgrades and repairs as necessary.
WOEC will implement a rate increase of 4% to 5% in 2027 in anticipation of increased labor and power costs. The board is considering changing the rate structure to an inclining block rate, meaning members who use more energy will be charged a higher rate.
In conclusion, Dan said cybersecurity, fraud, and protecting members’ information are major concerns. Technology, including technology used to communicate and transact with members, all have associated costs.
Operations Manager Andy Larson told members his priorities are to mitigate fire risk, increase reliability and manage vegetation. The co-op spends between $1.5 million and $2 million on vegetation management each year. Crews are installing more programmable breakers with protection settings for fire season. Andy said they will continue to add these devices and modify settings as a way to help limit the size of outages.
Crews continue to work on overhead lines and underground line work to help reduce outage time, overtime hours, and wildfire risk. Andy said his teams are piloting a project to use weather prediction software to anticipate Public Safety Power Shutoff conditions and change settings accordingly.
Administrative Services Manager Laura Hein told members she has completed a certificate for Human Resources Management, which allows her to perform HR duties for the co-op. These include onboarding, offboarding, monitoring succession planning, and ensuring WOEC remains in compliance with policies, procedures, and employee notices regarding benefit and labor changes.
WOEC has 21 employees. Half of them have worked at the co-op for 5 years or less, and 2 for 20 years or more. Laura said 17 employees are members of the IBEW Local 125 union, while the 4 managers are nonunion.
She also noted that purchaser Phylis Krieger retired this year after 34 years of service. New hire Riley Foster will fill the meterman substation technician position, and new hire Kevin Johnston will fill the purchasing warehouse position.
Laura reminded members to register for SmartHub to receive planned outage and Public Safety Power Shutoff communications.
Before the meeting ended, the director election results were announced. Incumbent Directors Jim Buxton, District 3 (Vernonia East); and Mark Ludeman, District 7 (Washington, Yamhill counties), both ran unopposed and were reelected.