SmartHub & the New Outage Management System Make It Easier for West Oregon Electric To Communicate With Members
New tools at West Oregon Electric Cooperative will improve efficiency, make it easier for the co-op to share information with members, and streamline member communication with the co-op.
Online account management system SmartHub allows members to pay their bills online, check their energy use, register to receive electronic notifications by email, text, or phone call, and report power outages without having to talk to someone on the phone.
SmartHub’s messenger feature allows the co-op to contact members electronically.
The outage management system provides a digital map on the co-op’s web page so members can see where an outage has occurred, how many members are affected, notify members when a crew has been dispatched to an outage that impacts them, and update the member on the progress to restore their power.
SmartHub was officially rolled out to WOEC members at the 2025 Annual Meeting. OMS has been available for members to use for several months.
“Improving member communication has been part of the co-op’s strategic plan,” General Manager Billi Kohler says. “Members have been asking for better communication as well. This all ties into our plan to try to improve member communication.”
Members must register for SmartHub and select their preferred contact methods.
Upon doing so, WOEC can provide bill payment reminders, send planned outage notifications, and inform members of bills online, which improves efficiency and saves the co-op money, Chief Financial Officer Dan Huggett says.
“Everything that we can do in SmartHub saves money because we don’t have to have a staff member do it,” he says.
“Particularly in our after-hours support, we get charged for every call or get an additional surcharge for taking a payment.”
Operations Manager Andy Larson is excited about the potential of OMS and the ways it will help crews out in the field. It will also improve communication with members if they choose to enable notifications from the co-op.
“OMS allows us to manage an outage in our system, which is what will push those notifications out to the members,” Andy says.
“The OMS will tell SmartHub what we’re doing, and SmartHub will tell the members what we’re doing.”
Here’s how it will work:
- A member notifies the co-op by text or email that their power is out.
- The system uses the member’s phone number to add their location to the outage management system. If it is after business hours, the notification goes to the after-hours dispatch service.
- A line crew is activated, and the outage information is reflected on the outage map.
- The member receives an email or text that acknowledges an outage has occurred at their address and efforts are underway to restore service, even if they didn’t report it. Members will also be notified when a crew is dispatched and when their power is restored.
Andy notes that the outage management system does take some human interaction and predictive software for it to be accurate, but it is an improvement to the efficiency of the overall system.
“You won’t have to wonder—you can look on the outage web map and see if your home is included in an outage,” Andy says. “If you are not at home, you will be notified if your power is out. You can see if you’re the only one or if 1,200 people are out. You can see what’s happening in real time. Everybody is so used to instant data now, and with OMS, they can get pretty instant data.”
All of the information SmartHub and OMS use is still input by humans, but plans are underway for another tool that will make the systems even more efficient.
This year, WOEC will begin a pilot project implementing Advanced Metering Infrastructure, or smart meters. These meters provide the co-op with energy use data and indicate when there is an outage.
“We’ll receive notification that there’s an outage before a customer can pick up the phone and make a call,” Billi says.
Andy says AMI will reduce the need for human intervention and predictive software, ultimately making the process more cost-effective and efficient.
“The meter is going to create its own outage notification and provide data to create reports from SmartHub that feed the outage map,” he says.
WOEC joins co-ops across the nation that have turned to AMI for efficiency. “Getting AMI in place is going to allow the co-op to reach new levels of service,” Dan says. “Doing proactive response and repairs in regular time is a whole lot cheaper than having to do them after hours when we’re paying crews overtime.”
Billi highlights the benefits of the new tools.
“AMI, OMS, and even SmartHub and Messenger give us the ability to be proactive in our outage management and communication with our members, instead of just reacting to the phone calls that we get,” she says.
“I’m pretty proud of where we’re at right now,” Andy adds. “We’re catching up to some of the utilities in the technology we’re using and even passing some of them that I talk to. We’re doing very well.”