NISC’s Post

Transcript

I think GDC is probably one of the more progressive coops that Nic has as a customer, and I feel like instead of pushing back against that, I feel like they welcome it. Not only do I feel like our voices heard, I feel like our voice is sought out. It's probably the most exciting time to be involved in the electric industry with all the new technologies that are being developed and more and more of our members now want to have more control of their energy usage. The industry itself is there's the transition that we're going through that. Brings its own challenge, being able to meet the demand that is being put on our systems with some of the ongoing concerns about generation. Those are big challenges for GBC and all cooperation across the country. We here at GBC believe that every home in the future, it will have solar, will have a battery, will have a smart thermostat and will be a smarter consumer. And we're looking for ways to partner with our membership in order to kind of incentivize that kind of behavior. And our members trust us. They trust us that we are looking out for what's coming and the industry. And making sure that those rural customers have the same opportunities that the urban ones do, whatever that technology is or whatever that product is, that they have it available to them. Bringing this dorms platform together with an ISC is critical as we look toward the future because our members, they want to have these devices inside their homes. And so we're trying to learn and understand how we can now use those devices to better serve our members and meet our electrical loads. All the integrations around the DERMS platform, I think is very important. From a seamless integration as to how the member actually enrolls in the program, if we can do that through Smart Hub, if we can send push notification through Smart Hub to promote the program, to be able to use a company like Bijoli, which already has the integration to identify where these assets are and better target those types of folks, that kind of help from an IC is going to be important. So the impact on the system is going to be really interesting. There's going to mandate that we change the way that we design our system from an engineering standpoint. So the battery programs, that EV programs are going to be hugely important. Because the cost of procure power is going to be a very cheap when the sun is out and it's going to be very expensive when the sun goes down. Interconnections really became a monster for us. So it was a very, very manual process. Emails would come in, individuals would handle them. We call the customer back. There was really no process that followed it all the way through. There are some risk there if someone interconnects a solar system that's not up to our standards. And let's say we have a line outage and the members is still producing electrons and feeding back onto the system we have. Flaming out there that are working on sections of line that are not live and it happens to be live and, and you know, there's that's a risk that we're taking if we don't have the incorrect process and we're not ensuring that everything is connected correctly. And it turns out I think, and I SC is going to be able to help us get there with their product to be able to manage that better to make sure that all the boxes are getting checked and everyone is filing the same thing. So now it will be automated and trackable for everyone having access to NCIC and having a platform that IC is developing. It's going to be even more valuable as these resources continue to grow. For us to try to keep track of all the members who have these devices inside their homes and be able to work directly with them is a critical part of this deranged platform. It helps that Nic is also a cooperative because they understand us and they understand the way that we want to do business. Whereas if you're working with kind of a for profit entity, you know they're there to make profit and they don't necessarily understand the same kind of concepts that we're looking at. For me, the thing about it is just that they're focused on doing. Right by their customers and spending their members money to make their product better. I work with a lot of vendors and a lot of different parts of the company and I have never worked with one that is so transparent, that is so forthcoming. I trust them. They tell me they can do, they can do. And I trust that if they can't, they'll tell me they'll help me work on finding a solution for what we're looking for. But as we look toward the future and the relationship that GBC and and IC have, I think there's a lot of opportunity for us to continue to be partners, strong partners. We all have the same purpose and the same focus and same mission that is ultimately to serve our members in. IC does a very good job of that, staying focused on its members, which then allows GV, EC and other cooperatives stay focused on theirs.