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Month: December 2017

$36,000 in SECO Scholarships Up for Grabs

SECO Energy is renewing its commitment to young scholars through its 2018 Scholarship program. Apply today, as SECO will award up to twelve $3,000 scholarships to graduating high school seniors in late April.

 

SECO’s Board of Trustees has authorized a total of $36,000 for SECO’s 2018 Scholarship program. For more than two decades, SECO has awarded scholarships to deserving, local students. During the program’s tenure, SECO has awarded over $500,000 in scholarship assistance to more than 250 high school graduates seeking further education.

 

To be eligible, applicants must be a high school senior graduating in 2018 (May/June) who live in a home served by SECO Energy. Scholarship recipients must be enrolled full-time in an accredited college, university or vocational/technical school located in Florida by the end of 2018 to receive scholarship disbursement.

 

CEO Jim Duncan stated, “Last summer, SECO was proud to offer an internship in our Engineering department to Megan Elliott, a 2016 SECO Scholarship awardee. We hope to cultivate new relationships and attract future employees through our scholarship program. SECO offers high-skill, high-wage positions in beautiful Central Florida, so that students who grew up in this area can find a promising career path and stay close to family and friends.”

 

SECO’s Board of Trustees President Ray Vick stated, “On behalf of the Board, it is an honor to continue the scholarship program. Our local communities abound with bright, talented young scholars who are poised to be tomorrow’s community and business leaders, and I am looking forward to meeting this year’s group of recipients.”

 

Scholarship applications are available at all SECO Member Service Centers beginning January 2, 2018. Applicants can also visit our Scholarship page to print an application or check with your local high school guidance counselor. SECO must receive the completed applications with all required components before March 30, 2018 at 5 pm.

 

As a not-for-profit electric cooperative, SECO adheres to the seven key cooperative principles. SECO’s long-standing scholarship program exhibits the cooperative’s Concern for Community and belief in Education, Training and Information by offering educational assistance to local young people.

 

Learn more about SECO’s community involvement by visiting SECO’s Community page. “Like” SECO’s Facebook page and “follow” the company on Twitter for news releases and cooperative updates.

SECO News, January 2018

 

Duncan’s Digest

Reliability, Raptors and a River

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2018 marks SECO Energy’s 80th year as a not-for-profit electric cooperative in Central Florida. The cooperative has grown alongside the counties it serves, and now provides safe, affordable, reliable power to 200,000 homes and businesses.

 

63,000 of our 200,000 members reside in Lake County – famous for its vast number of waterways. In fact, almost 20 percent of the county is covered by water. SECO’s Operations crews responsible for building and maintaining SECO facilities must adapt to the unique watery landscape. In the past, crews sometimes installed poles and lines using the most direct route possible, spanning small bodies of water and poles were often installed in standing water.

 

Duncan's Digest January 2018

 

Reminding us of by-gone construction standards, a concrete pole supporting a main feeder line rises out of Tavares’ Dead River. An osprey nesting dish at the top has offered a home for raptors inhabiting Lake County waterways. The longstanding nest on this dish was inactive and had collected years of debris. Recently, rotting debris falling off the dish made contact with the feeder line and caused an outage for 250 members. Operations crews restored power to the affected members in under an hour by temporarily rerouting (aka backfeeding) through a different feeder line.

 

To permanently fix the problem, we needed a complex plan. Crews would replace the damaged equipment and remove the burned debris from the nesting dish – all while suspended 45 feet above the river. Multiple support personnel would be on-site and a rescue boat would be launched in the river. Standard bucket trucks aren’t equipped for this type of job – SECO needed heavy equipment, including a 75-ton crane.

 

Access to the pole was limited and stationing a crane of this size near the marshy river bank was impossible. The pole would have to be accessed from the river overpass on Highway 441. With assistance from the Florida Highway Patrol and permitting from Lake County, the right two lanes were closed after 7 pm. The crane rolled in while SECO personnel set up a roadside job site. The line was grounded and de-energized for safety.

 

Line techs from SECO’s Eustis Operating Center – Nathan Rioux and Brandon Blackmon – volunteered to work from the crane basket suspended over the river while Sumterville line tech Logan Land observed from the rescue boat.

 

Before work commenced, SECO’s Safety Manager was on-site to oversee the security of the crane and basket’s connection. Nathan and Brandon donned their personal protective equipment and inspected their safety harnesses. The basket’s maneuvers were tested while empty and with the team in the basket.

 

Once testing was complete, the hard work began. The team replaced the damaged insulators and spliced in 20 feet of overhead conductor before installing new animal protections. The old nest debris was removed while Logan observed the work from the rescue boat below and watched for alligators and fishing boats.

 

The project took hours but was worth the wait and effort. The power line is reliable again, and with a cleaner, safer dish available, ospreys will soon build anew. Future plans are in the works to redesign this feeder line as an underground service. This enhancement requires a St. John’s Water Management District permit, as SECO plans to bore under the Dead River. The pole will remain in its current location to support existing communications cable and fiber lines belonging to other entities.

 

The pole and nesting dish will stand available for future generations of roosting osprey making their home near the river. This project is just one of many examples of SECO’s support of environmental protection.

 

Sincerely,

 

Jim Duncan

Chief Executive Officer

 

SECO Energy Home Energy Assessment

 

Home Energy Assessment – Increase Your Energy Efficiency IQ

 

MAKE A RESOLUTION to increase your energy efficiency IQ in 2018 and save money on your monthly energy bill with SECO’s online Home Energy Assessment, a whole-house energy audit you can complete from the comfort of your home.

 

SECO’s Home Energy Assessment will help you identify energy wasters. Get started by visiting our Home Energy Assessment page and input the specific details of your home and your family’s lifestyle.

 

In just minutes, SECO will send you an email with low-cost energy-saving tips tailored to your home. Review the energy-saving tips and implement those that best apply to your home and lifestyle. Increasing your home’s energy efficiency will decrease your energy use and ultimately lower your monthly energy bill.

 

For a more in-depth audit of your home’s energy wasters, SECO offers in-home energy audits at no charge. To request an on-site energy audit with one of our Energy Services Specialists, visit our website or give us a call.

 

 

Scholarships 2018

 

2018 SECO Scholarship Program

 

SECO ENERGY is proud to renew its commitment to local, young scholars through its 2018 SECO Scholarship program. SECO will award up to 12 $3,000 scholarships to graduating high school seniors who live in a home served by SECO Energy. Our not-for-profit cooperative has awarded scholarships for more than 20 years, contributing over $500,000 to 250+ local students seeking higher education.

 

Who is eligible to apply? High school seniors graduating in the current year (May/June) who live in a home served by SECO Energy. Recipients must be enrolled full-time in an accredited college, university or vocational/technical school located in Florida by the end of 2018.

 

Applications are available beginning January 1 at all Member Service Centers or on our Scholarship page online. Completed applications must be received by 5 p.m. Friday, March 30, 2018. Mail the application to:

 

SECO Energy
Attn: Corporate Communications
P.O. Box 301
Sumterville, FL 33585

 

Applications can also be delivered to a Member Service Center. If you have questions, email Communications@secoenergy.com or call (352) 569-9561. Winners will be notified by phone or mail in late April.

 

 

Correction

 

In December SECO News, January’s Board of Trustees Meeting date was incorrect. The correct date of January’s Board Meeting is January 29, 2018.

 

Read the full January 2018 SECO News here.

 

Nature’s Reflections – Florida’s Cabbage Palm

Many uses and the heart is considered a delicacy

The cabbage palm (sabal palmetto) was designated the Florida state tree in 1953 thanks to the Federation of Garden Clubs, who convinced the legislature that this palm was representative of all of Florida. The sabal palm, commonly called a “cabbage palm” is the most commonly found palm throughout the state.

 

One reason for its selection was its history. Early Floridians found a variety of uses for the sabal palm. The leaf bud of the tree provided food, the fibrous trunk was used for shelter materials and the fronds were used for thatched roofs. In fact, Seminole Indians are well known for constructing “Chickee huts” with thatched roofs made from the palm fronds. Chickee is the Seminole word for house, traditionally constructed using cypress logs and thatch leaves woven together with vines or thin ropes.

 

The leaf bud portion at the tree top is considered a delicacy by many. It is often sold in local restaurants under the name “heart of palm” or “swamp cabbage.”

January 2018 Cabbage Palm Nature's Reflections

 

Additionally, the tree provides food for wildlife. Florida’s black bears enjoy eating the heart of the palm, while the cabbage palm’s fruit, black colored berries, are eaten by gray foxes, squirrels and raccoons. Birds watch for the fruit to reach that “just right” ripened stage for eating. And, butterflies drink their fill of nectar when the small white flowers appear in early summer.

 

Cabbage palms provide shelter for fox squirrels, raccoons, frogs, lizards and insects. The palm thatch is used in nest building. Cavity nesters, such as flickers and red-bellied woodpeckers carve out homes in its trunk while others hide their nests among the fronds.

 

These prolific native palms with their fan-shaped fronds are widely used in landscaping. They are an erect tree that grows to a height of about 65 feet. Found throughout Florida, they are very adaptable to wet or dry conditions and transplant easily during any season of the year, although the warm, rainy summer months are best. It is a tree that weathers Florida’s seasons well.

 

Column & photos by Sandi Staton – sandi.staton@gmail.com

 

Read the full Nature’s Reflections article in the January 2018 SECO News.

 

SECO Delivers for Yearly Toys for Tots Drive

SECO Energy employees performed the role of Santa Claus for SECO’s annual Toys for Tots toy drive. The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program collects new, unwrapped toys and distributes them as Christmas gifts to local children in need.

 

SECO employees were especially generous this year as they shopped for and donated hundreds of toys for the Toys for Tots Program. Each of SECO’s five Member Service Centers were open to the public as local drop-off locations for Toys for Tots, and charitable SECO members contributed toys as well. Toys collected at our Member Service Centers and Operations Centers will be dispersed to children in Sumter, Lake, Marion and Citrus Counties.

 

 

As a not-for-profit electric cooperative, SECO adheres to the seven key cooperative principles – one of which is Concern for Community. SECO employees reflect this principle by remembering the youngest community members through their Toys for Tots donations.

 

CEO Jim Duncan stated, “During the Christmas Season and beyond, SECO employees are a perpetually generous group. Our employees donate toys to support SECO’s Toys for Tots drive and willingly pledge a portion of their yearly salary to endow service programs in nearby communities through United Way.”

 

Employees donned their Santa hats and smiled for the camera while displaying the toys gathered across the cooperative. The toys collected through Toys for Tots will bring joy to thousands of local children who will wake up to presents under the tree on Christmas morning.

 

Duncan added, “I am extremely fortunate to work with employees who actively share their good fortune with those in need and aspire to make a difference in our area.”

 

Learn more about SECO’s community involvement here. “Like” SECO’s Facebook page and “follow” the company on Twitter for news releases and cooperative updates.

Reliability, Raptors and a River

SECO Energy first electrified homes and farms in Lake, Sumter and Marion Counties in 1938. The not-for-profit electric cooperative has grown alongside the counties it serves, and now provides safe, affordable, reliable power to 200,000 homes and businesses across Central Florida.

 

Currently, 63,000 of those members live in Lake County, famous for its vast number of lakes, rivers and streams in its 1,100-square mile area. In fact, almost 20 percent of the county is covered by water. SECO’s Operations crews responsible for building and maintaining SECO facilities must adapt to the unique watery landscape.

 

Years ago, linemen attached climbing spikes to their boots and scaled poles on a daily basis, and facilities were installed using the most direct route possible. Lines would span small bodies of water, and poles were sometimes installed in water. Currently, one such pole rises out of Tavares’ Dead River, and a SECO crew was recently transported to work on it using a 75-ton crane.

 

 

This particular pole is concrete, supports a main feeder line and has an osprey nesting dish installed at the top. Dishes offer nesting space for raptors that inhabit Lake County waterways. The longstanding osprey nest on this dish was inactive and was collecting debris from years of inactivity. The rotting debris was falling off the dish and making contact with the feeder line and caused a feeder outage for 250 SECO members.

 

CEO Jim Duncan stated, “Improving reliability for SECO members served by this feeder was the cooperative’s immediate concern. Operations crews restored power to these members in under an hour by temporarily rerouting or backfeeding power through a different feeder line, but a permanent fix was needed. To complete this system improvement project, crews needed to replace the insulators, add new conductor line, and remove the rotting debris from the osprey dish – all while suspended 45 feet in the air above the Dead River.”

 

SECO Energy places a top priority on Safety – a cooperative Core Value. Safety was the first consideration during the planning and execution of this project. Standard utility bucket trucks aren’t equipped for this type of work. To comply with safe work practices, SECO needed heavy equipment, employing a 75-ton crane and attaching a crane basket for the team’s 45-foot ascension over the river to safely access the facilities.

 

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U1uGCfBhDc[/embedyt]

 

Stationing a 75-ton crane near the marshy river bank was impossible. The pole would have to be accessed from the river overpass on Highway 441. With assistance from the Florida Highway Patrol and permitting from Lake County, the right two lanes were closed after 7 pm. The crane rolled in while SECO personnel set-up a roadside job site.

 

Line techs from SECO’s Eustis Operating Center – Nathan Rioux and Brandon Blackmon – volunteered to work suspended over the river while Sumterville line tech Logan Land observed from the rescue boat. Previously that day, the line was grounded and de-energized for safety.

 

Before work commenced, SECO personnel and crane operators secured and tested the connections from the crane to the basket that would hold the men aloft. Nathan and Brandon donned their personal protective equipment and inspected their safety harnesses that attach to the crane basket. The basket’s maneuvers were tested while empty and with the men on-board.

 

Once testing was complete, the hard work began. Nathan and Brandon replaced the damaged insulators and spliced in 20 feet of overhead conductor before installing new animal deterrents. Logan observed the work from the rescue boat below – keeping an eye on the alligators and fishing boats. The team removed all nest debris that caused the power outage. With a cleaner, safer dish now available, ospreys will soon build anew.

 

SECO’s Safety and Risk Manager was on-site to oversee the project from beginning to end. Additional safety measures for this project included directing traffic away from the work site, a rescue boat staged in the river at the base of the pole and multiple SECO personnel observing the project from ground level.

 

Duncan added, “In the future, SECO is proposing a redesign of this feeder as underground service. This enhancement requires a St. John’s Water Management District permit, as SECO plans to bore under the Dead River.”

 

This project was critical to immediately improving reliability to the area and providing a safe nesting dish for osprey. The pole will remain in its current location to support existing communications cable and fiber lines belonging to other entities. The pole and nesting dish will stand available for future generations of roosting osprey making their home near the river.

 

View the entire album of video footage and photographs on SECO’s Flickr page.

 

“Like” SECO’s Facebook page and “follow” the company on Twitter for news releases and cooperative updates.

Sunshine State Stats, November 2017

November 2017 was slightly warmer than the previous November, so members may have been running their HVAC units more frequently than last year at this time. Thus, your November bill this year may be higher than last year’s November bill. The average temperature came in at 69°, while November of 2016 had an average temperature of 68°. Rainfall came in at 1.51 inches compared to last November at 0.03 inches.

 

There were 132 cooling degree days and 7 heating degree days for November 2017, while last year there were 118 cooling degree days with 27 heating degree days. The Degree Days are based on how much warmer or cooler the average temperature at a particular location is than 65°F. In other words, if the average temperature is 60° degrees outside on a particular day, there are 5 Heating Degree Days for that day in that location.

 

Sunshine State Stats November 2017 Temperature layout

This December is forecast to be similar to last December with precipitation being higher than normal. At the time of this writing, a cold front is forecast to creep into Central Florida around December 7 with lows in the 30s. Therefore, heating costs will increase electric usage and bills. Per ENERGY STAR, you can save 3-5% annually on heating costs for each degree lower you set the thermostat during the winter. And you can save up to $180 annually with a programmable thermostat.

 

If you want to check historical usage, log into SmartHub to view past bills and charts. If your usage is high, SECO offers several energy-efficiency tools to help you identify energy wasters. Take the Home Energy Assessment to receive a detailed email tailored to your home’s features and lifestyle. The energy-saving advice will provide low-cost ways to decrease your usage – and your electric bill.

 

To easily calculate how much energy your appliances, lighting, electronic devices, and other energy-using items in your home consume, use the Energy Estimator. If you want a member of our Energy Services team to come to your home to perform a free energy audit, contact us today to book an appointment.