MECA News

Earlier this year, Sen. Mike Nofs, chairman of the Senate Energy & Technology Committee, invited Michigan electric co-ops to weigh-in on the state’s current energy statutes and plans regarding renewable energy, contained in House Bill 438. Representing the co-ops, Art Thayer, energy efficiency programs director for the Michigan Electric Cooperative Association (MECA), testified on Sept. 2, with a particular focus on geothermal energy. “We [...]

Photo: Emily Kurburski was Great Lakes Energy’s representative to the 2015 Rural Electric Youth Tour (front row, third from left) and has received a generationOn grant from NRECA for a community service project. Emily Kurburski, a member of Great Lakes Energy, has received a 2015 generationOn grant from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). One of 23 winners, the 18-year-old Kurburski won the [...]

Pictured (L-R) above are Hydaker-Wheatlake employees who played a lead role in gathering materials for Michigan’s “Partners for Power” project in Guatemala: Craig Felos, Kevin Hills, Dan Nelson, Steve Hooker, and Rich Langworthy (not pictured). A 40-foot container filled with transformers, fuse cutouts, wire, tooling and other hardware needed to bring electricity to the village of Buena Vista, Guatemala, was shipped on Aug. 20 [...]

Construction of the Ontonagon County REA’s new Boston Substation has started, and the project is on-target to have contract work completed by Oct. 16. Wolverine Power Cooperative is managing the project, which involves design and construction of the substation and related distribution facilities. “This project would never have happened without Wolverine,” says Debbie Miles, Ontonagon’s general manager. “The substation and related upgrades were needed [...]

This year’s U.P. Energy Summit will feature a Michigan Public Service Commission panel discussion, moderated by Don Ryan, and staffed by MPSC chairman John Quackenbush, and commissioners Sally Talberg and Norm Saari. Other speakers include representatives from MISO, the utility industry, and more. The event will be held Sept. 30 at Northern Michigan University, in Marquette, and will also cover perspectives on local, state [...]

You’ll soon notice a new MECA logo on communications from the Michigan Electric Cooperative association. “Our logo had a tired, dated feel that doesn’t reflect the energy of MECA today,” commented CEO, Craig Borr, about the MECA logo that had been in use since the 1980’s. “MECA has transformed the way it does business in recent years, and we've made significant improvements to the [...]

A tornado touchdown and powerful thunderstorms with high winds damaged the power lines and areas served by nearly all nine electric co-ops and many municipal utilities on Aug. 2. “This storm, much like those from 2012 and 2013, was ‘all-in’, meaning almost every co-op and municipal that the MECA Safety team serves [...]