Dear Members,

Your SECO Energy Board of Trustees unanimously approved a Capital Credits retirement of $2.9 million to current and former members. Look for your Capital Credits retirement amount on your November billing statement.

Sumter Electric brought electricity to rural residents of Central Florida through the Rural Electrification Act (REA). In 1938, the cooperative energized its first 400 meters. Now doing business as SECO Energy, we have grown into a regional utility that serves over 225,000 homes and businesses in seven Central Florida counties. We pay tribute to our cooperative founding – rooted in serving impoverished, disenfranchised and hard-to-reach residents who were not provided with electric service by investor-owned utilities.  

Capital Credits are a unique financial component of cooperatively structured, not-for-profit businesses. As a member, you are a partial owner of the cooperative. Since our founding, we have regularly retired/returned a portion of the cooperative’s equity to current and former members. SECO Energy has retired over $80 million to its membership.

Your monthly energy purchases build patronage capital – you own a portion of SECO’s equity. Ownership is defined through the annual process of allocating each member’s share of the co-op’s margins from the prior year. Individual Capital Credit allocations represent the percentage of the annual amount of electric service purchased by each member.

After the co-op meets its operating costs and expenses, the prior year’s revenues are accumulated as Capital Credits. These credits are allocated pro-rata to each member’s account as Capital Credits. Yearly, SECO examines the cooperative’s financial position and recommends the “retirement” of Capital Credits. Your Board of Trustees reviews the recommendation and determines the approval of the Capital Credits return. This year’s $2.9 million retirement means SECO is returning a portion of the cooperative’s equity to its membership.

A line item appears on November billing statements labeled “Capital Credit Ret.” Active commercial account members with retirements over $600 will receive a check. Former members who receive a retirement over $10 will receive a check. If you move out of SECO’s service area, keep your mailing address updated so we can mail future retirements to your new address.

SECO Energy is one of the fastest-growing cooperatives in the nation. We are the third-largest distribution cooperative in Florida and seventh largest in the country. Though we are no longer a rural utility, we remain consistent in the not-for-profit practice of returning Capital Credits to our members.  

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, thank you for your SECO Energy membership.

Sincerely,

Mike Muffett

District 6 Trustee

Safety Corner-Decorating Safely

Members who live in neighborhoods with area light posts and poles must refrain from using these to display your holiday decorations. This is a safety hazard. Light poles and posts are not made for or rated for the added weight of decorations, signs or banners. 

Do not affix signs, advertisements, banners and sports equipment to SECO poles. Nailing, stapling or tacking items to poles increases wear and degrades their structural integrity. Protrusions can injure or puncture an employee or contractor’s protective equipment. The pole’s ground wire can also be damaged. Most important, we don’t want our members injured while hanging lights or decorations from a pole not meant to support the weight of the décor or ladder leaned against it.

Learn about our “Keep It Clear – We Work Here” safe clearance requirements around poles, meters, transformers and secondary enclosures at SECOEnergy.com > Safety > Keep It Clear.

Area Light Outage Reporting

If you notice an area light that is out, flickering, or on during the day, report the malfunction online using LightFinder on our StormCenter platform. LightFinder is available to report outage light issues 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – even on weekends.

To report, visit SECOEnergy.com > StormCenter and choose LightFinder. Enter the pole number or closest address in the search bar in the upper left. An icon represents each light. Working lights are shown as a green icon, while a red icon is a light that has already been reported as malfunctioning. The icon is orange if the light has been repaired in the last 24 hours. A gray icon represents inactive lights and a blue icon is a member-owned light. 

Complete the short reporting form and submit your email address to receive updates about the light’s repair status. Most area light issues are repaired within 24 hours.

Vehicle Accidents And SECO Energy Facilities

The National Safety Council (NSC) estimates over 46,000 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2021. Deaths have increased by 8 percent from 2020 (42,338) and 17 percent from 2019 (39,107). This trend is going in the wrong direction. 

Vehicle accidents affect electric service as well. Between January and August this year, vehicle accidents accounted for 52 separate outages, interrupting electric service for 22,576 accounts. Car accidents involving SECO facilities occur almost twice a week on average in our service area. 

In 2020, the number of car versus pole/facilities accidents began to rise. That year, 91 separate outages caused by vehicle crashes affecting our facilities interrupted service to 31,170 homes and businesses. In 2021, the number increased again to 99 separate outages affecting 37,907 homes and businesses. 

The NSC finds that drivers’ behavior must change to save lives. Drivers may be distracted by passengers or their phones or under the influence of drugs or alcohol.  

SECO pursues reimbursement for property damage caused by vehicle accidents through our insurance carrier. But these accidents cost the cooperative and its members. Extensive damage to facilities or a law enforcement investigation creates longer restoration times and member satisfaction suffers. Cooperation with law enforcement and emergency services at a crash scene is a priority. 

If you are involved in a crash with downed power lines – stay in the vehicle, if safe to do so, and wait for rescue. Downed lines may be energized and can kill. If you must exit the car, jump away from downed lines, land with both feet on the ground then shuffle and walk away.  

DON’T BECOME A STATISTIC. For more ideas on how to be safe around electricity, visit SECOEnergy.com > Safety > Electrical Safety. 

Santa’s Coming!

SECO Energy employees are lending a hand to spread Christmas joy and cheer to local children. Our employees generously take part by donating new, unwrapped toys for our annual corporate Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots drive. 

Members can donate new, unwrapped toys as well. Our five Member Service Centers in Eustis, Groveland, Inverness, Ocala and Sumterville serve as public drop-off locations between November 1 to December 2.

Retired Marines and other volunteers operate Toys for Tots and pick up donations to distribute the toys to children in need. All donated toys are distributed in the local area where they were collected. Members who want to register to receive toys donated through Toys for Tots can visit ToysforTots.org > Request a Toy.

SECO Energy’s Pennies from Heaven program has pledged $5,000 this year to complement employees’ Toys for Tots donations. Our Pennies from Heaven program is transitioning to the SECO Energy Foundation in January 2023. We are excited to expand the giving in our communities. 

SECO Energy Foundation Enrollment Change – January 2023

Update your SECO Energy Foundation enrollment status before December 31, 2022. The Pennies from Heaven program is transitioning to the SECO Energy Foundation. All SECO members will be automatically enrolled in the Foundation at year-end unless they have pro-actively unenrolled.

The SECO Energy Foundation’s goal is to increase community outreach and member bill payment assistance. The Foundation will round enrolled members’ bills up to the nearest dollar. The average donation per member whose bill is rounded up is $6 annually. 

To update your SECO Energy Foundation enrollment status, visit SECOEnergy.com > Contact >  SECO Energy Foundation. Send an email to CustomerService@SECOEnergy.com, call (352) 793-3801 or write to SECO Energy, Attn: Corp Comm, P.O. Box 301, Sumterville, FL 33585 by December 31, 2022.

Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) of 1978

PURPA was enacted to encourage investments in conservation, efficient use of facilities by electric utilities and equitable electric rates. In 2009, PURPA required qualified electric utilities to consider three new 111(d) standards pursuant to the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA).

Recently, the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) requires non-regulated cooperatives (such as SECO Energy), municipal utilities, and state regulators (for regulated utilities) to consider adopting two new standards under Section 111(d) of PURPA.   

Following direction from NRECA, SECO does not presently intend to conduct a live hearing but will, via its comment and response periods, along with the opportunity for member attendance at Board meetings where they are allowed to be heard on matters affecting the Cooperative, enable our members to be heard throughout this process. Consideration of standards need to focus on how implementation is consistent with the purpose of PURPA: 

• the promotion of energy conservation 
• optimization of the efficiency of use of facilities and resources, and  
• equitable rates to electric consumers 

SECO Energy’s Board of Trustees approved a Resolution at the October 24 Board Meeting to enact the process to consider the two new standards and to engage in a public comment period to consider our members’ input on the topic. 

SECO will seek public comments online or via USPS from members beginning April 1, 2023. 

Read the full November 2022 SECO News online.