Aiken Electric Cooperative, Inc.

Mission (statement) Accomplished

FOR MANY COMPANIES,having a mission statement is just protocol, which is why they normally end up as meaningless words that are often forgotten. However, at AEC, we made sure we created one that aligned with our cooperative values and principles—“empowering communities by providing reliable, competitively-priced energy and other services desired by our membership,” and since we’ve opened our doors in 1938, it has been our mission to fulfill that statement.

Empowering Communities

While our first priority is delivering safe, affordable, reliable electricity to those we serve, we also feel strongly about supporting and contributing to the development of our communities.

AEC undertakes a variety of projects, from our Annual Meeting to our yearly RUN UNITED race, which raised $30,000 for the agencies of United Way of Aiken County in 2018. We have also been able to empower members through the Help My House program. Aiken Co-op is in fact leading in the state for participation with our members saving an average of 36 percent monthly on their electric bills. Additionally, on page 5 you’ll even see where our partnership with the SC Power Team has recently benefitted our community, too.

Providing reliable, competitively-priced energy

In addition to making an impact in our local area, we are focused on keeping costs down and implementing technologies to increase service, reliability and efficiency.

We are frugal with our dollars. We know the more we save, the more we’re able to give back to our members. Last year, we returned $1.78 million to you through Capital Credits—our highest dollar amount ever! We encourage you to help us save even more by enrolling in our E-billing program. See page 5 for information on how to sign up. Most importantly, we can keep energy bills low. Our track record with this is quite notable. We have continuously been able to keep our rates stable and have not had an increase since 2014! This is due to the commitment of our Board members and staff and their ability to put pressure on costs and find ways to save your cooperative money.

As an effort to keep costs down in the future, we have been making technological upgrades to our system. In 2018 alone, we installed over 10,000 new meters, upgraded five substations to fiber optic connections, updated the power load control process to save on wholesale power costs, replaced security systems in North and Edgefield, and met our corporate safety goals of preventing costly accidents. These system upgrades have also increased our reliability.

Focused on member service

Through a grant from Aiken Technical College, our employees completed supervisory, business writing and Spanish training to improve our customer service. To add to the list, we received good marks on our annual audit report, transitioned to new franchise agreements that will streamline our membership process for larger businesses, conducted our annual pole inspections, as well as other analyses to strengthen our operations.

As you can see, we have accomplished much more than our mission statement once again, all thanks to our hard working and dedicated employees and Board of Trustees. Although you’ve rated us a 93 in the American Customer Satisfaction Index survey for seven consecutive years, we will continue to enhance our service.

In the last few months we’ve been collaborating to create a strategic plan that incorporates more ideas of how we can serve you better in 2019 and beyond. Let’s just say, you’re in for a treat!

Gary L. Stooksbury, Chief Executive Officer