Looking out for You
Affordable, Innovative and Member Focused
2011 Annual Report
Gibson Electric Membership Corporation
Supplement to e Tennessee Magazine
1949 Gibson County EMC Annual Members’ Meeting
Customer Service Centers
Corporate
P.O. Box 47 n 1207 S. College St.
Trenton, TN 38382
731-855-4740
Alamo
402 Egghill Rd. n Alamo, TN 38001
731-696-5961
Medina
112 N. Main St. n Medina, TN 38355
731-855-4660
Trenton
P.O. Box 47 n 1207 S. College St.
Trenton, TN 38382 n 731-855-4660
Tiptonville
1515 Church St. n Tiptonville, TN 38079
731-253-7181
Troy
602 C.C. Gurien Drive n Troy, TN 38260
731-536-5920 n 731-885-5501
731-894-5920 n 731-643-6046
www.gibsonemc.com
A look back at the important dates in our 75-year history
1879
light bulb.
Looking out
for You
Mid-1880s
Electricity is available in many of America’s larger cities, but
private power companies will not extend service to rural areas because the low
customer density makes the venture less profitable.
Affordable, Innovative
and Member Focused
In 2011, we celebrate a milestone in Gibson Electric
Membership Corporation’s history — the 75th anniversary
of the year your cooperative was organized and electricity
became available to the people of this area.
Gibson EMC was formed by a small group of local people
with a shared vision and determination. Because of their
efforts, we all enjoy a better way of life.
Much has changed since 1936; electricity has transformed
northwest Tennessee and America. But the cooperative
business model and Gibson EMC are as viable today as
ever. Granted, co-ops are different, but it’s a good
difference. We’re different because we’re looking out for
you, our member-owner.
Thomas Alva Edison invents a long-lasting, practical electric
“I think that the forward march of
electric cooperatives has an even
more profound significance in
terms of our fight to preserve
democracy. For it represents an
extension of what is perhaps the
most democratic form of business
enterprise, one in which the
individual finds his greatest gain
through cooperation with his
neighbors.”
– Franklin D. Roosevelt,
January 19, 1943
May 18, 1933
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the
Tennessee Valley Authority Act, which helps to bring affordable electricity to rural areas. The Act creates the Tennessee
Valley Authority to oversee the construction of dams to control flooding, improve navigation and create affordable electric power for the Tennessee Valley. Immediately afterwards,
Congressman Gordon Browning (later governor of Tennessee)
Franklin D.
writes his good friend, H. E. Peek of Humboldt. Browning tells
Roosevelt
Peek about the Act and what it can mean to Gibson County.
Peek contacts Tom Wingo, County Agent for Gibson County, and the wheels of
progress start turning. The Farm Bureau appoints a work committee and eventually Gibson County Electric Membership Corporation is formed.
March 1935
With the county agent’s office as
headquarters and clearinghouse, the farmers begin the
tedious job of taking surveys to see who is interested
in securing electric power. These surveys are not easy
since depression years have left most everyone in bad
financial condition, and many farmers cannot see how
they can pay a monthly electric bill.
May 11, 1935
President Roosevelt creates the Rural
Electrification Administration, which makes federal
funds available for rural electric service.
REA Building
Floyd Roberts, former Gibson EMC Director of
Member Services and Economic Development
Our recognition and appreciation are extended to
Floyd Roberts, a devoted employee of Gibson EMC for
49 years, for his account of the co-op’s history. Many
of the words included in our timeline describing our
early years are lied directly from Floyd’s writings.
2
3
Affordable
We’re working together to keep your
electric bills affordable.
This is an uphill battle, but your cooperative’s
board and employees are your diligent advocates.
Here in the Tennessee Valley, we are actively
engaged in ongoing rate discussions with the
Tennessee Valley Authority, Gibson EMC’s
wholesale power supplier. This is important because TVA’s decisions drive the largest part of
your energy cost. Gibson EMC pays about 77
cents of every dollar we collect from our members to TVA for wholesale power. We stretch
the remainder to cover operating costs, including construction and maintenance of the
2,843 miles of infrastructure that provides
power to your home or business.
Fiscal Year 2011 was particularly challenging
because TVA changed its wholesale rate structure from a “flat” to a “demand and energy”
rate. In the past, TVA charged Gibson EMC the
same rate per kilowatt-hour regardless of
when electricity was used. In April, TVA began
charging Gibson EMC variable rates based on
its actual cost of producing and buying power.
However, pricing
risks that were
previously
borne by TVA are now shouldered by
Gibson EMC and other Valley power distributors. To ensure that Gibson EMC successfully managed this risk, we did an
extensive cost-of-service study and developed
a rate structure that enables us to collect the
revenue needed to pay our TVA wholesale
power bill and operate our distribution system.
As part of Gibson EMC’s rate change, the TVA
Fuel Cost Adjustment (FCA) became a Power
Cost Adjustment (PCA). Like the former FCA,
the PCA does not produce additional revenue
for Gibson EMC; it goes to TVA to pay for
wholesale power costs.
Gibson EMC’s residential customers’ rates are
now affected by the time of the year. TVA
charges more for electricity in the summer
(June,
July, August and September) and winter
TVA made this change to encourage energy
months (December, January, February and
efficiency, avoid purchasing expensive energy
March),
so Gibson EMC must pass these
on the open market and delay building expenhigher costs on to our members.
For commercial and industrial
Energy-Saving Tip: Check your HVAC system’s air
filter monthly. If it looks dirty, change it. A dirty
filter makes your system work harder.
4
Rep. Steven
Fincher, second
from le, meets
with Gibson EMC
President and CEO
Dan Rodamaker,
le, and Gibson
EMC Board Member Keith Forrester
and his wife, Kathy.
sive generation facilities. These actions
should benefit Gibson
EMC members in the
long-run.
(C&I) members, the new demand rates do create an opportunity for saving energy dollars if
C&I members’ peak demand times are different from Gibson EMC’s peak demand times.
TVA’s new rate structure and, consequently,
Gibson EMC’s rate structure are a departure
from what we’ve always known. However, if
the changes encourage us to become more
energy conscious, the end result should yield
more affordable power for our future.
To ease the transition and to help accomplish
our long-term objective of affordable power,
Gibson EMC is striving to be your energy efficiency partner. Do take advantage of the energy efficiency information and programs we
provide through our website, gibsonemc.com,
The Tennessee Magazine and your local Gibson EMC Customer Service Centers.
These are things we — Gibson EMC and you
— can do on the home front. But we must
broaden our efforts to make the most
difference. Please join us in communicating
with our legislators about issues affecting
the affordability of electricity.
Rest assured that Gibson EMC’s leadership
actively works as your advocate on state and
national legislative fronts through the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association and
the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. We continuously monitor legislation
and we communicate honestly and often
with legislators to protect your interests.
Even so, new government regulations related to climate change and other environmental issues are likely to increase the cost
of electricity.
We need your help in relaying to congress
how important it is to keep climate-change
legislation fair, affordable and technologically achievable. To make your voice heard,
join the Our Energy, Our Future grassroots
awareness campaign at ourenergy.coop.
January 16, 1936 Enough farmers have the vision to sign up for
the required amount of current
to assure that TVA can build the
lines. Gibson County EMC borrows $25 from the Gibson
County Farm Bureau and secures
its original charter from the
State of Tennessee. The charter names C.E.
Garner, M.O. Zarecor, Denton Fly, H.E. Peek,
A.B. Wade and H.M. Lane as the first
trustees. A picture of some early trustees include, from left, President Garner, Zarecor, V.
F. Lawler, Lane (standing), Travis James, Peek
and A. A. Proctor. Garner serves as President
from August 13, 1936, until 1970.
C.E. Garner
Floyd Jones
March 1936
Gibson County EMC buys the rights to sell electricity from Kentucky-Tennessee Light and Power Company. Obion becomes a TVA customer.
August 1, 1936
Floyd Jones becomes Gibson
County EMC’s first manager and serves until 1958.
Mrs. Sammie D. Campbell, the first office employee, is cashier-bookkeeper, while Ernest (Mike)
Wade is the first lineman. Some of the early
trustees remember borrowing $300 from a local
bank to pay these employees until farmers begin
to pay their electric bills.
TVA’s construction crews build the first 105 miles
of line, stretching diagonally across Gibson County
from the southernmost tip west of Medina to the
Churchton community near the Gibson and Dyer
county lines.
August 13, 1936
Board President Garner, Vice
President Lawler, Secretary Zarecor and Peek sign
the first contract with TVA for electric power and
to repay the cost of the lines TVA has built.
Albert Taylor Jr. of Trenton
is the second customer to
buy a membership from
Gibson County EMC. He
would have held Membership No. 1, but he let his
neighbor, N.L. Dodson, get
in line in front of him.
5
Innovative
We’re improving service and
controlling costs through innovation.
Over our 75-year history, electric cooperatives
have made a name for themselves as trailblazers and innovators. In our early years, Gibson
EMC and other co-ops affordably ran power
lines to parts of rural America when investorowned utilities would not. Co-ops also began
promoting energy efficiency long before it became mainstream.
At Gibson EMC we’re committed to providing
you with affordable and reliable power, and
we are constantly incorporating best practices
and new technology toward this end.
While we can’t stop high winds, lightning, ice
storms and animals, we do operate an aggressive vegetation management program to prevent as many outages as possible.
Even so, outages will occur. When this does
happen, we want to be sure that your call to
our office is answered promptly and your service is restored as quickly as possible. To
achieve this, Gibson EMC strengthened our interactive voice response and automated attendant technologies in FY 2011.
help us to determine the member’s outage location, the cause of the outage and the full
extent of the outage.
The systems also allow members to easily and
conveniently manage their Gibson EMC accounts through an automated attendant. We
designed the systems so that members who
want to use the automated attendant can and
those who prefer to speak with a person can
do that, too.
The automated attendant allows members to
easily retrieve account information at any time
of the day or night and pay bills by e-check
(with only bank account and routing numbers), debit card and credit card. Members
also
can update account information like teleThese new state-of-the-art technologies help
phone numbers. (Gibson EMC needs these
us answer members’ calls more promptly and
phone numbers to provide optimal service
when restoring power.) PAY-Go cusEnergy-Saving Tip: By replacing your five
most-used light bulbs with ENERGY STARqualified bulbs, you could save $65 a year.
6
“I’ve really liked being
on PAY-Go,” says
member Brenda
Patrick. “I pay when I
want, and I can monitor my electric usage
closely with the program. It’s made me
and my whole family
more energy aware.”
tomers receive a call from the system when
their positive account balance reaches an average balance equal to about four days’ use.
PAY-Go customers also can call and retrieve
their balances from the system at any time.
Our outage management and interactive voice
response systems also complement Gibson
EMC’s automated metering system. Integrating them enables us to pinpoint outage
locations, identify the problems causing the
outages and sort and track outages.
PAY-Go is an innovative program that gained
tremendous popularity with our members during FY 2011. Many of our PAY-Go customers
have told us that it has dramatically increased
their energy awareness and helped them become more energy efficient. PAY-Go also has
substantially reduced bad debt for Gibson
EMC.
PAY-Go is made possible through Gibson
EMC’s automated metering infrastructure and
is a pay-before-consumption program that is
an alternative to traditional monthly billing.
The rates are the same as with traditional service, but with PAY-Go, members can track their
consumption and account balances as closely
as they like. Some members opt for an in-home
display that shows the account balance in real
time. Others monitor their consumption and
balance through calls to Gibson EMC’s automated attendant or through e-mail and
text messages.
Gibson EMC saves money
by partnering with area
utilities on fiber and other
projects. At le, Gibson
EMC and Newbern Electric, Water & Gas crews
install fiber.
August 13, 1936
The co-op holds its first Annual Members’ Meeting at the old
city hall on the Trenton court square. Tom Wingo, the Gibson County agent who
worked faithfully with farmers to help get the cooperative started, throws a
switch in the south end of the county, and 86 of the first 163 members to sign up
for electricity receive it for the first time. Children dance with glee in front of
their well-lit homes that night and sing, “We’ve got lights, we’ve got lights.”
Neighbors look at the brightly lit farms of those who are lucky enough to be on
those first lines. They see shiny, new, clean refrigerators and ranges in the
kitchens and an abundance of clean running water. These things create a desire
for this wonderful service by more people and speed up the work to bring the
lines to all of the farm families of Gibson County.
1937
Gibson County EMC begins borrowing monies from the REA to
finance its continued growth. By the beginning of World War II, the Cooperative
is serving about 6,000 members in seven counties.
1944
Gibson County EMC builds a new Customer Service Center on
South Trenton Street in Rutherford.
1945
With WWII and
the scarcity of materials needed for
defense, electric line building almost comes to a standstill. With the
end of the War, however, the Cooperative starts building as fast as
practical.
July 28, 1949
TVA’s millionth
customer is Gibson County EMC
member Chester Williams of Gadsden.
W.J. Neal, REA Deputy Administrator, le,
is with Mr. and Mrs. Chester Williams and
their granddaughter, Kathy Ray as they
turn on a new electric water pump.
February 1953
Gibson County
EMC receives national recognition for serving more consumers than any other
electric cooperative in the United States. On August 1, 1952, the co-op has
20,159 members.
1955
Gibson County EMC builds a Customer Service Center on
Nailling Drive in Union City.
7
Innovative,
First Class
Lineworkers
Will Minton (in
bucket) and
Stacey Nicks
prepare to hang
wire aer replacing a pole
broken during
April’s storms in
Lake County.
PAY-Go is an ideal choice for members who want to take
control of their energy use and avoid the deposit required for traditional service.
To save money while improving service, Gibson EMC
partnered with neighboring utilities on two important
joint ventures — fiber optic and radio communications
systems.
By doing a voice radio systems purchase with Southwest
Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation, we secured
a better price based on quantity, and we strengthened
our business redundancy resources. We also attained
better communications coverage within our respective
service areas, a benefit that is critical to our employees’
safety and to our members’ reliable service.
The mutual radio equipment purchase, coupled with an
agreement to use one another’s communications towers,
enables Gibson EMC and Southwest Electric to have
coverage in one another’s service territories. This can be
advantageous in terms of having a backup communications platform and in terms of responding to large scale
outages.
Energy-Saving Tip: Feel around doors and windows for air
flow. Adding weather stripping or caulk around a leaky door
or window can lower energy bills.
8
Now, if we request assistance from Southwest Electric
during a large outage, their employees will be able to
communicate by radio between themselves and with our
employees while working within our service area. The reverse is also true. This capability will yield faster service
restoration for all of our members. Both systems also will
save through reduced inventory and the sharing of spare
parts and maintenance costs.
continued…
Gibson EMC shares a fiber-optic partnership
with many of our neighboring utilities, enabling our offices to communicate with one
another and with equipment inside our substations. This communications path is key to
our ability to efficiently restore power when
we have outages. The united fiber effort enables us to provide valuable assistance to one
another and back each other up when
needed. It also saves our members money.
For example, if a fiber becomes damaged, our
new communications system can automatically utilize an alternative route — even if it is
through another utility’s system — until repairs can be made.
Moreover, Gibson EMC's fiber optic system
generates revenue that helps us keep our
electric rates affordable
As we move forward, Gibson EMC will more
fully utilize another important technology —
Meter Data Management (MDM). Currently
our co-op is using MDM for internal purposes,
like gathering data to be used in transformer
loading and substation loading studies. The
technology also takes interval data from meters and provides that data for billing. In the
future, MDM also will be used to spot trends
in usage patterns for individual members.
Eventually we may be able to alert members
to drastic usage pattern increases prior to receiving a bill.
October 1955
Manager Floyd Jones announces that the Co-op has received
bids to build a new corporate office and Trenton Customer Service Center.
Lashlee-Rich Lumber Company, Humboldt, submits the low bid of $126,770. The
office is still in use today.
1957
According to “Marks on the Land, the Story
of Obion,“ Gibson County EMC holds an open house in its new
$62,000 Obion Customer Service Center on February 26, 1957.
October 1, 1958
J.C. Milton is named Gibson County EMC
General Manager and serves until January 1, 1976.
1960
Through GEMC’s early years, crews use their
brute strength to perform the challenging job of
building the physical electric system. In the 60s, they
receive much needed help in the form of the co-op’s
first bucket trucks. Their work still is physically demanding and dangerous, but bucket trucks make it
easier and safer to perform work on energized lines.
J.C. Milton
The all-electric home becomes a reality for many cooperative members. Nearly 15% of Gibson County
EMC members enjoy all-electric heat in their homes,
75% have electric cooking, 50% eat food from an
electric freezer and almost 55% enjoy the comforts of
automatic electric water heating.
October 29, 1965 Gibson County EMC opens its new 4,800-square-foot
Tiptonville customer service center. The building is still in use today.
1966
Fifty cents of
each dollar members pay Gibson
County EMC for electricity goes to
pay TVA for wholesale power cost.
August 21, 1969
Gibson County
EMC’s annual meeting is moved
from a large tent to the new corporate office pavilion.
9
Member Focused
We’re continuing to put you, our
members, first.
with the creation of a fully functional, 9,000foot channel port. This was the culmination
of a 20-plus year effort of public-private
partners. It will be a shot in the arm for the
entire region, but particularly for Lake, Dyer
and Obion counties.
From Gibson EMC’s beginning, our singular
purpose has been to serve. We were organized by local people and continue to be operated by board members you elect and
employees who live right here in northwest
Tennessee. We’re not-for-profit, memberowned and democratically-controlled. It’s long
been a recipe for success.
Our goal is continuous improvement. We are
forever challenging ourselves to provide you
with more and better information and exceptional customer service.
In FY 2011, we launched a newly redesigned
website that provides a wealth of useful information and the online tools members need to
manage their electric consumption and accounts. The site enables members to pay their
electric bill, update personal information, learn
about available programs and services and
link to exceptional energy-efficiency resources.
On June 29, 2011, Gibson EMC leadership joined the USDA Rural Development State Director and local officials for a runway ribbon cutting and announcement of funding for improvements to the Everett-Stewart Regional Airport near Union City. A portion of the
infrastructure investment was in the form of a zero-interest USDA Rural Economic Development Loan through Gibson EMC. Airport improvements include adding a 1,500-foot
runway, which allows greater access by large passenger and freight aircra. Pictured
above, from le, are retired Congressman John Tanner, Gibson EMC President and CEO
Dan Rodamaker, USDA-Rural Development State Director Bobby Goode, U.S. Sen.
Lamar Alexander’s field representative Matt Varino, Airport Board Members Jim Bondurant and Mike Holman and Airport Commission Chairman Dr. Chris Gooch.
in Bells. The 12,000-square-foot facility, located off U.S. Highway 412, serves as a satelKnowing the critical need for jobs and job
lite campus of the State Technology Centers at
training, Gibson EMC partnered with the
Ripley and Covington. The Crocett County
USDA to provide Crockett County $1.1 million Center partners with local industries to offer
in loan and grant proceeds for construction of
students in Crockett, Dyer, Gibson and the surthe Crockett County Higher Education Center
rounding counties technical training, specialized classes, career
Energy-Saving Tip: A big slice of your energy bill
counseling and job-placepays for heating water. Take five-minute showers
ment services. Classroom
versus baths and set the water heater temperature
to no higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
10
space also is available for use by Jackson State
Community College, University of Memphis
and University of Tennessee at Martin.
We are proud to be a supporter of another important project in the north section of our
service area — the Port of Cates Landing. In
FY 2011, federal and state grants totaling $20
million were approved, enabling the Northwest Regional Port Authority to move forward
To help us gauge our performance and better serve you, Gibson EMC commissioned a
survey of our residential customers. We were
pleased to learn that you awarded us a score
of “91” in the American Customer Satisfaction” Index. Your feedback put Gibson EMC
a full 19 points ahead of the national utility
industry average, nine points ahead of the
other Touchstone Energy cooperatives for the
same period and two points higher than
Gibson EMC’s 2007 score. We appreciate the
affirmation, but we won’t take it for granted.
We will strive to earn an even better score
next time.
One of the mechanisms Gibson EMC uses
for continuous improvement is the Rural
Electric Safety Achievement program. Gibson
EMC first earned this distinction in 1995. To
maintain it, the co-op must undergo a rigorous evaluation every three years. The program’s greatest value is the self-evaluation
and the systematic process improvement.
Gibson EMC is one of only 15 co-ops in the
state and one of 430 in the nation to hold
this distinction.
1970
For many years, electric cooperatives
host local pageants as part of their annual meetings. In
1970, Miss Gibson County Electric Membership Corporation, Janet Marie Porter, goes on to win the Tennessee
state title and the national title of Miss Rural Electrification in Las Vegas, Nevada. She earns a $2,500 scholarship.
August 20, 1970
W.G. Dement is named
Board President and serves until 1979.
1973
According to “Marks on
the Land, The Story of Obion County,” Gibson County EMC serves five times as many
members as it served in 1940. Those members use about 15 times more electricity
than members used in 1940.
W.G. Dement
J.N. White
January 1, 1976
Jimmy Neal White is named General Manager and Executive
Vice President; he serves until August 2003.
1976
The cooperative signs a
lease-purchase agreement with TVA for the
Alamo, Bells, Maury City and Kenton substations and makes the final payment in
1990. Substation ownership helps reduce
the co-op’s cost of power.
Archie Cultra
Joe D. Hall
August 16, 1979
Archie J. Cultra is named
President of the Board and serves until 1982.
August 19, 1982
Joe D. Hall becomes Board
President and serves until 1987.
1987
Barry Smith operates Gibson County EMC’s new Supervisory Control
and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.
SCADA allows the co-op to remotely control,
operate and monitor its substations from its
corporate location.
11
Member
Focused,
We also are extremely proud of the employees of Gibson EMC’s Alamo and Tiptonville
customer service centers for their contribution to safety. The co-op’s Alamo employees
worked 1,009 days or 51,845 hours without
an occupational injury or illness involving
days away from work between February 25,
2008, and November 30, 2010. Our Tiptonville employees worked 894 days or
45,197 hours without an occupational injury
or illness involving days away from work between June 19, 2008, and November 30,
2010. Safety for our employees and our customers is paramount. It is an area in which
we continually push to improve.
We celebrated Arbor Day in 2011 by planting
trees at the Davy Crockett Cabin in Rutherford
and on the campus of Friendship Elementary
School in Friendship. Gibson EMC operates a
strong and on-going vegetation management
program to keep our service as reliable as possible, but we also are very conscientious about
preserving the health of trees. For this reason,
our vegetation management program is administered according to standards set by the
International Society of Arborists and the National Arbor Day Foundation.
1987
Gibson County EMC signs a lease-purchase agreement with
TVA for transmission lines. This is expected to save members more than $900,000
and improve system reliability.
In March of this year,
Gibson EMC also was
recognized by the Arbor
Day Foundation for its
achievement as a Tree
Line Utility for the second year in a row.
May 1990
Gibson County Electric Membership Corporation changes its name to Gibson Electric Membership Corporation and adopts the National Rural Electric Cooperative
Association logo.
Gibson EMC provides
many other programs and Gibson EMC’s Board of Trustees are, from le, front row, Assistant Secretary-Treasurer Keith Heglar, District 2; Secretaryservices for the benefit of
Treasurer Don Leathers, District 11; Chairman Mack Goode,
our members and commu- District 5; and Vice Chairman Steve Sanders, District 1; and
nities. Examples of those
back row, Rana Buchanan, District 7; Larry Hicks, District 4;
Keith Forrester, District 10; Joan Mouser, District 6; Attorney
available to individual
members include our heat Jim Ryal; Richard Skiles, District 9; President and CEO Dan
pump and water heater fi- Rodamaker; and Bob McCurdy, District 8. e new trustee for
District 3, the position held by the late Robert Patterson, had
nancing program and our
not yet been elected when the Annual Report went to print.
Energy Right Solutions®
new homes program. We also work closely
with local schools and provide scholarships
Gibson EMC has served our members for 75
and educational opportunities for students of
years. Many have personally witnessed how
all ages.
electricity has positively impacted our way of
Our board members and our employees live
life. Your cooperative’s board and employees
and work in your community, and we are
thank you for your trust and your support
proud to say that they also are individually and throughout our history. We promise that no
collectively strong member advocates and
matter what the future brings…
community supporters.
We’ll always be looking out for you.
Energy-Saving Tip: Use a microwave to cook when possible.
It uses 50 to 65 percent less energy than conventional
ovens and doesn’t heat your home in the summer.
12
August 15, 1987
Bobby Warren becomes Board President; he
serves until 2003.
continued…
In Closing…
Bobby Warren
February 1994
An ice storm causes outages for about 14,000 of Gibson EMC’s
30,000 members. Most of the storm-related outages are in Gibson, Crockett and
Madison counties, although there are scattered outages throughout Gibson
EMC’s service area.
In Memoriam
Long-time cooperative
leader Robert “Bobby”
Patterson of Tiptonville
died February 6, 2011.
Bobby was a member of
Gibson Electric Membership Corporation’s Board of Trustees since
1996, representing members in District 3.
He held several leadership positions on
the board, including his service as Vice
Chairman from 2004 until August 2010.
He generously shared his time, his wisdom
and his knowledge, all of which made
Gibson EMC a better organization for its
members.
January 1998
Gibson EMC experiences another ice storm. Of the co-op’s
2,900-plus miles of electric line, 1,600 miles of line in north Madison, south Gibson and Crockett counties are affected by the ice storm. General Manager Jim
White describes the damage as “the worst the area has experienced in at least
25 years.”
June 5, 2000
Gibson EMC consolidates its Rutherford and
Trenton offices into the Trenton location.
December 3, 2001 Gibson EMC consolidates its Obion and
Union City operations and relocates to a new facility in Troy.
August 9, 2003
Mack Goode is elected Board Chairman.
August 18, 2003
Dan Rodamaker becomes President and CEO.
Mack Goode
November 9, 2002 Powerful winds and severe lightning rip
through West Tennessee leaving more than 3,600 of Gibson
EMC’s 33,000 customers without power. Crockett County and
southern Gibson County are the hardest hit.
2005
Gibson EMC begins implementing Advanced Dan Rodamaker
Meter Infrastructure (AMI). AMI allows the co-op to remotely read a member’s
power usage through the power lines and fiber system.
13
The Financial Statement
Gibson Electric Membership Corporation is an
electric cooperative owned by its customers.
Its service area includes parts of Crockett, Dyer,
Gibson, Lake, Madison, Obion, Haywood and
Lauderdale counties.
Assets
Electric Plant ................................ $125,005,031
Depreciation ................................ $(50,665,403)
Net Plant ....................................... $74,339,628
Reserve & Cash Fund .................... $12,407,195
Current & Accrued Assets.............. $12,722,717
Deferred Debits ................................... $329,262
Total Assets ................................. $99,798,802
Liabilities
Current & Accrued Liabilities .......... $9,490,909
Membership Investment .................... $252,771
Long-Term Debt ............................ $26,366,225
Reinvested Earnings ...................... $63,688,897
Total Liabilities ............................ $99,798,802
Revenue & Expense Statement
Operating Revenue ........................ $87,103,124
Purchased Power Expense ............ $65,680,637
Operation Expense .......................... $7,377,532
Maintenance Expense ..................... $3,815,223
Depreciation Expense ...................... $4,243,918
Tax Expense .................................... $1,089,752
Net Margin from Operation ............. $4,896,062
Non-Operating Income .................... $1,921,296
Interest Expense ............................. $1,771,571
Net Margin ......................................... $5,045,787
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Revenue
April 2006
One third of Gibson EMC’s 34,000 members are without
power and about 200 poles are down after a tornado strikes Gibson County.
2011 Revenue (Per $1)
Gibson EMC received $87,103,124 in revenues in the fiscal year that ended June 30,
2011. Our revenues came from several
sources: residential customers, industrial
customers, commercial customers and miscellaneous income, such as outdoor, street
and athletic lighting.
Expenses
Capital Investment
Residential
Customers: 61¢
After meeting expenses, the net margin of
$5,045,787 was used to reinvest in your electric system.
Commercial &
Industrial
Customers: 34¢
Ad Valorem Taxes
Miscellaneous
Income: 5¢
Each year Gibson EMC pays ad valorem taxes
to the towns and counties in which the cooperative has facilities or infrastructure. The
amount of taxes paid is based on the assessed value of the infrastructure, including
buildings, substations, transformers, poles and
lines. The 2010 ad valorem taxes paid to
counties were…
2011 Expenses (Per $1)
Gibson EMC buys power from the Tennessee Valley Authority. In the fiscal year
that ended June 30, 2011, we spent about
77% of our electric sales revenue to pay our
TVA power bill. The other 23% was used for
operations, depreciation, maintenance, interest and taxes and capital investment.
Purchased Power
from TVA: 77¢
Construction,
Maintenance and
Administration
Expenses: 23¢
Statistical Information
2009
2010
2011
Number of Meters
34,667
34,790
34,721
Customer-Owner Equity
$53,227,361
$58,643,110
$63,688,897
Long-Term Debt
$29,130,089
$31,517,892
$26,366,225
Interest Paid
Total Kilowatt-Hours Sold
Average Monthly Residential
Kilowatt-Hour Consumption
Number of Full-Time Employees
Meters per Mile
Miles of Line
Investment per Meter
Tax Expense
Wholesale Power Cost as %
of Electric Sales Revenue
$1,708,068
$1,742,716
$1,771,571
789,650,844
823,423,702
872,211,968
Crockett ..................................$229,957.67
Dyer ...........................................$29,404.00
Gibson .....................................$472,752.91
Haywood ........................................$958.81
Lake ...........................................$96,265.48
Lauderdale .......................................$37.82
Madison ....................................$30,353.00
Obion ......................................$235,848.46
TOTAL...............................$1,095,578.15
1,398
1,432
1,504
83
85
86
11.9
12.2
12.2
2,910
2,844
2,843
$3,419
$3,496
$3,600
$946,317
$1,054,481
$1,089,752
78%
75%
77%
Auditor’s Statement:
Gibson EMC’s books are audited annually by the firm of Alexander, ompson,
Arnold, PLLC, Certified Public Accountants, Union City, Tenn. Copies of the
audit report are on file at Gibson EMC’s
Corporate Office, 1207 S. College St.,
Trenton, Tenn., 38382.
August 2006
Gibson EMC becomes a Touchstone Energy Cooperative, symbolic of its continued
commitment to providing reliable,
high-quality service at competitive
prices. This alliance helps Gibson EMC
bring added value and benefits to its
members.
2007
Gibson EMC opens a new Alamo Customer Service Center and
begins serving members in Medina’s City Hall.
The installation of 130 miles of fiber optic cable in its eight-county service area
marks a first for Gibson EMC. The fiber optic cable improves communications
between its substations and customer service centers.
2009
The cooperative secures $1,840,000 in USDA Rural Economic
Development Loans and Grants for workforce development and job creation in
its service area. The funds are used to help build the Crockett County Higher Education Center in Bells and to support the expansion of Williams Sausage Company in Union City.
January 26, 2009 An historic ice storm causes vast
damage to Obion, Lake, Dyer and Gibson counties.
More than one-third of the cooperative’s members
endured outages, some for as long as 12 days.
July 2009
Gibson EMC launches an alternate
payment system called PAY-Go, allowing members to
pay for electricity in advance. As they use electricity,
their credit balance decreases.
April 2011
A series of storms causes large-scale and recurring outages
throughout Gibson EMC’s service area. The April 20 storm alone causes outages
to more than 12,000 of the co-op’s 35,000 members in Gibson, Crockett, Dyer,
Obion, Lake and Madison counties.
15