From gains in reliability and efficiency to unique workforce skills and even newfound political leverage, electric cooperatives that have deployed broadband are uncovering a wealth of synergies from their fiber networks that are benefiting the electric service side across the board.

“We’ve done this [fiber] project not just to serve members internet but to increase the availability, reliability and efficiency of the electric system,” says Cameron Smallwood, general manager and CEO of Burleson, Texas-based United Cooperative Services, which has over 9,000 miles of fiber and 30,000 broadband subscribers. “When we look 10, 15, 20 years out, we’re going to be able to effectively show why that was such a great decision for the members because it will pay back in dividends.”

More than 200 electric co-ops have entered the broadband space in recent years to deliver high-speed internet where no other provider would, and most have done so at the fastest speeds, greatest reliability and lowest cost available.

Leaders at these co-ops say they’re realizing advantages in both electric and communications operations through system upgrades and improved communications that minimize outages, hold down costs and boost member support.

“Co-ops entered the fiber broadband space to serve their members high-speed internet or deploy future-proof grid communications,” says Cliff Johnson, director of NRECA Broadband. “What they’re seeing beyond that is multiple additional benefits around safety, reliability, workplace culture and other facets.”

Reliability

Before deploying fiber in 2020, United Cooperative Services relied on wireless communications for reclosers and other devices across its 12,000 miles of distribution lines, supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) and substations.

That proved “very unstable, very unreliable and sometimes costly,” Smallwood says. United has since moved those devices over to the fiber network with great results.

“We have access to the full set of features of the devices and data now,” he says.

Oklahoma Electric Cooperative also struggled with grid reliability before building a fiber broadband network to bridge the digital divide for its members. Now OEC is pursuing an adaptively controlled energy system (ACES) for a “self-healing” grid.

“The broadband really unlocked that,” says Patrick Grace, CEO of the Norman-based co-op, which has connected 41,500 subscribers since 2019 across 3,500 miles of fiber. “Once we realized that we’re going to have fiber at almost every pole, then we were able to spin up SCADA communications throughout our whole system.”

And these fiber-electric synergies help all members regardless of internet subscription.

“The main benefit is reliability. Outage times have decreased,” says Grace. “Whether it’s self-healing grid technology or all the make-ready work done to help build the system, all members are benefiting from those efforts.”

The fiber build “expedited a lot of our work plan projects to fold into the broadband deployment timeline,” O’Neill says. “We made a lot of decisions around really practical reliability issues, and it’s paying dividends today in what we’re seeing for reliability metrics on the electric side.”

Efficiency

Leaders say fiber communications are also reducing response times and operating and maintenance costs on the electric side with unparalleled data access and accuracy.

“We used to have to roll trucks just about every day to fix wireless issues on our distribution network. We don’t do that anymore,” says Smallwood.

HomeWorks plans to reap all the efficiencies of fiber on its electric distribution system from real-time system monitoring by setting up SCADA, fault location, isolation and service restoration (FLISR) and conservation voltage reduction (CVR).

“Those things will help bring our operating costs down, because we can essentially put intelligence to those devices so that when a fault is detected, they can isolate the fault so it impacts the fewest members and pinpoints where to send a crew,” says O’Neill.

Fiber updates “will help us reduce operating expenses, which will ultimately take pressure off rates in the future,” he adds. “The outage that never happens, especially on overtime, is a cost-savings.”

These efficiencies support a positive cashflow and profitable fiber business whose only “investor” is the co-op member, says Grace.

“The return will go to the members. This helps keep rates flat for longer.”

Safety

Fiber communications across the distribution network “leads to more safely operating the system, because we can use safety features in those devices that maybe we couldn’t fully utilize before,” Smallwood says.

“We get information so quickly now from all those devices that it aids in basically making it a safer response; you actually know what you’re walking into,” he says. “When you have less data, you’re having to make assumptions.”

To prepare for its broadband project, HomeWorks examined every pole, relocating some out of swamps or other risky areas. Old poles were replaced with larger ones to hold communications technology. Some lines went underground.

“In the future, we will be able to reduce the likelihood of a lineman being directly exposed to fault. They can close a breaker in the office or the lineman can do it out in the field without trying to use a switch stick,” says O’Neill. “To the extent that we can do things like FLISR, like SCADA, like conservation voltage reduction, broadband expedites return and keeps folks safe.”

Workforce

Electric and broadband synergies are proving valuable for co-ops in building, training and retaining a talented team.

HomeWorks staff learned how to reconfigure its network for efficiency and security plus set up various backup strategies. O’Neill likens the multiskilled employees to “a bunch of Swiss army knives.”

“We started to bring on folks specific to broadband, then we realized that we could leverage these skill sets to improve the things that we did over on the electric side,” says O’Neill. “It’s a very technical skillset, and it seeps into almost every job and department. We are much more technically focused than we’ve ever been.”

Customer service reps can troubleshoot Wi-Fi and set up modems as well as answer meter or billing questions. The finance staff works with bankers to secure funds for electric projects and also prepares a financial analysis of a broadband expansion into a municipality, he says.

With broadband thriving, OEC’s staff has grown from 130 to 230 within five years, inspiring the co-op to build a new headquarters. Recent hires are largely for fiber jobs, but human resources, accounting and other jobs on the electric side are growing to accommodate the new business.

“We now have multiple business lines” serving an expanding suburban population, says Grace. “If there wasn’t great broadband, I don’t think that these areas would be growing as fast.”

The synergy between the electric and broadband is also leading to more job opportunities and mobility within co-ops.

“We have a lot more talent to choose from internally,” says Grace. “It used to be that you started off trimming trees, and now there’s multiple paths in multiple places. We have one person that started out as a fiber tech then went to our safety department. There are certainly more advancement opportunities. It’s a better place to work.”

Member relations

Co-ops are seeing a boost in member engagement from their electric and internet services, and the payoff, from demand charge savings to increased political clout, is boundless.

“All of a sudden you got this new fan that you never had before,” says Smallwood. “They’re reading your content, whether it be operational, safety issues, outage issues or whatever.” With a fiber connection to Internet of Things devices, members are participating in demand response programs involving smart thermostats, in-home appliances, batteries, solar panels and more.

“Our members are engaging with us more now than they were prior to broadband, because they didn’t really have the capability to do it,” says Smallwood. “It’s a fully integrated network, not just for the co-op purposes, but for the members purposes as well. If we work in concert with our members, with a good reliable connection, we can do things to affect our power supply.”

Many co-ops in their ninth decade are also experiencing a resurgence in political relevance, fueled in part by broadband/electric synergies.

Co-ops, often lumped in with for-profit, investor-owned utilities by policymakers, are getting a chance to retell their story with each broadband deployment in rural, unserved communities, CEOs say.

“The co-op story is so old that it gets forgotten,” says O’Neill. “Broadband has given us the opportunity to reintroduce ourselves.”

That paid off when OEC faced major pole attachment challenges.

“For everyone to understand who we are and why we’re different, broadband made a big difference when we were fighting,” Grace says. “It really put us in a good spot to get a lot of traction at the state capital.”

Scores of OEC Fiber subscribers rallied behind the co-op in a grassroots campaign to defeat the regulation.

“We would not have gotten that response 10 years ago to a call to action like we do today,” says Grace. “Because of broadband, we get a lot more political resonance.”

Synergy for the future

Whatever the future brings regarding energy resources, quality of life and communications, leaders say electric co-ops in the scalable, “future-proof” fiber broadband market are ready.

“It just takes high-speed internet off the table for any challenge that we might see,” says Grace. “We are well positioned, because we have communication basically to every inch of our service territory.”

The combined effect of electricity and broadband services is also foundational.

By connecting people to the internet, the electric co-op can “reinforce the mission of member service: improving the quality of life,” says O’Neill. “We’re hooking people up that never have had service before and getting that emotional response of, ‘Wow, now I can participate in the modern economy.’”

Smallwood expects today’s broadband subscribers will remember when the co-op delivered internet service just like co-op members from the 1930s and ’40s recall the lights coming on for the first time. “Members are going to have a story to tell 20 years from now about how we brought fiber to people’s homes when nobody else would,” says Smallwood. “And how it changed their lives in ways that we can’t even imagine.”

Learn more about the advantages offered by NRECA Broadband.