I am Proud of Our Progress

Letters to the Editor
Written By Barney Smith

By Cyndi Wellman

To the editor:

As Chair of the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative (NHEC), serving over 110 towns with electric and fiber internet services, I am proud of our progress in delivering affordable, reliable services to our members. This year, three of our eleven governing board seats are up for election, and I urge members in Grafton County to vote to sustain this momentum.

While I speak personally and not on behalf of the NHEC Board, I ask for your vote to re-elect Bob MacLeod and me. In the last six years, the Board has kept rate increases below the rate of inflation, has consistently been the lowest-cost energy supplier, and, this year, reduced the fixed monthly rate by 16%.  This especially helps the elderly and those with smaller homes or with seasonal second homes, who use less electricity.  We have also doubled our annual reliability expenditure on tree trimming and invested many millions in substations and devices that reduce the duration of member outages. 

NHEC has built over 3,000 miles of high-speed fiber internet, potentially serving 40,000 underserved members. I was instrumental in securing a $50 million broadband grant.

NHEC has also been environmentally sensitive, offering members the option to receive 50% or 100% renewable energy, adding batteries to our Moultonborough solar project, and having more long-term renewable energy contracts than any electricity provider in the state. Solar net metering has also doubled since 2020.

I am also proud of our transition to a new, highly competent CEO, Michael Jennings, and the increased emphasis on affordable and reliable services.  I urge you to keep our strong team of Board members and consider voting for one of the non-incumbent candidates, Carl Knowlton. Voting starts on May 14.

Bill Darcy

Benton

Barney Smith
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