In Roman mythology, the two-faced god Janus represents beginnings and transitions and can see the past and future. This first month on our calendar — January — takes its name from Janus.
As we turn the calendar to 2024, you might be excited about what the future holds. You might also be apprehensive about challenges or unknowns facing you in the upcoming year.
Through change and uncertainty, your local electric cooperative works diligently to be a constant. This demands a deliberate and intentional effort by all our employees. The electric grid is a complicated system that needs constant attention and maintenance.
To deliver energy members across the state, Tennessee’s electric cooperatives maintain more than 102,000 of miles of line. Like Janus, our crews need to be able to consider both the past and the future. How has our infrastructure held up under past weather events, and what maintenance or upgrades need to be performed to ensure safe and reliable service into the future?
Many times, it requires that we replace poles and transformers and build new substations. You will also find our crews and contractors performing right-of-way maintenance, clearing existing vegetation and looking into the future to prevent encroaching limbs from threatening delivery of electricity to you.
Co-ops across the state work together to monitor legislation in Nashville and Washington, D.C., that could affect the safety, reliability or affordability of our electric service. As the Tennessee General Assembly and Congress reconvene this month, we will remain watchful for legislation that could pose issues for your co-op or your community.
By looking back and ahead, your local electric cooperative strives to provide you with the critical services you and your family will need in 2024. I hope you will join us in this exercise. What blessings of the previous year fill your heart with gratitude, and what opportunities in the future fill you with hope? The turn of the year is a great time to think about both the past and the future.
The team at your local electric cooperative wishes you a safe, happy and prosperous new year.
