We were in the studio with Casey Hollins, Director of Communications and Public Relations for Rappahannock Electric Cooperative to get a quick tutorial for setting up REC outage alerts via text message.

Due to a recent system upgrade, if you signed up for REC outage alerts via text before March 2020, you will need to sign up for them again either on the website or via the SmartHub app on your mobile device. Be sure to have your account number handy.

On the SmartHub mobile app:

We were in the studio for a conversation with Cindy Musick, Director of Vegetation Management for REC about their vegetation management program. We talked about how & why they schedule their maintenance; how it works & who the people are in the trucks and on the front lines for clearing right-of-ways. We discussed how many of those on her team are certified arborists and foresters; some strange things she’s seen in her travels to member properties; and even learned about how members can acquire wood chips from their local maintenance crew.

Our conversation today with Josh Johnson, Key Accounts Executive with REC, included an overview of a typical day. Josh works with large corporations and industries to ensure reliability and serves, in many cases, as a liaison between the company and Rappahannock Electric Cooperative.

We were in the studio with Cindy Musick, Director of Vegetation Management for REC about what member owners should do if they find or see dead/dangerous trees or vegetation on their property or in their travels. 

We were in the studio with Cindy Musick, Director of Vegetation Management for Rappahannock Electric Cooperative. Our conversation included an explanation of the Tree Line USA program, REC’s continued & recent recognition, as well as a brief chat about how trees and their proper care factor into our everyday lives.

Click here for more information about the Tree Line USA program: https://www.arborday.org/programs/treelineusa/

We were in the studio with Ryan White, Digital Media Specialist with REC for a conversation about video and the introduction of drones to the REC fleet. Ryan explained all the ways using drones for inspections and storm outage/restoration will decrease outage times and increase safety protocols for REC workers and members.

We were in the studio with John Arp, Operations Manager of the Western Region for REC to continue our conversation about Rappahannock Electric Cooperative’s commitment to reliability. Today we talked about year-round practices to prevent outages, a bit more about storm prep, and John answered a few questions like why power lines aren’t all underground and what causes power blips.

We were in the studio with John Arp, Operations Manager of the Western Region for REC to talk about the impact various weather scenarios can have on reliability. We talked about different storms, different seasons and discussed how each year brings a new weather challenge.

We were in the studio for a conversation with Rappahannock Electric Cooperative CEO, Kent Farmer & Board Member, Chris Shipe. We discussed their community involvement, expanding renewables, energy efficiency, and reliability.

We talked about the the history of cooperatives, the importance of member involvement as well as the technology available through MyREC SmartHub.

Our conversation continued after the show wrapped on-air; you can hear the entire conversation here.