Kiwanis Club of Laurel members heard an interesting and educational presentation on the operations of Dixie Electric Power Association and the history of the company at the club’s August 28 meeting at the Laurel Country Club. Randy Smith, Dixie EPA general manager, discussed the Dixie EPA service areas, which encompass parts of seven counties with 4,980 miles of lines and 38,934 meters served. Smith noted that Dixie Electric Power Association is a not-for-profit, member-owned electric cooperative. He also discussed the affiliation with Cooperative Energy, which is a generating and transmission cooperative based in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Cooperative Energy serves more than 427,000 homes and businesses through its 11 member distribution systems, including Dixie Electric Power Association. Dixie Electric purchases all wholesale power from Cooperative Energy.
Lydia Walters, communication/human resources manager, discussed the history of rural electrification which was undertaken on May 11, 1935, when President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order to electrify rural areas. Congress approved the Rural Electrification Act on May 20, 1936, making the Rural Electrification Administration a permanent federal agency. His Act allowed REA to receive funding and in turn offer low interest loans to rural residents who created electric cooperatives and brought power to rural America. On July 15, 1938, Jones County Electric Power Association (the original name before the association expanded to Wayne County and was renamed Dixie Electric Power Association) received one such REA loan. Seven months later, Jones County EPA began offering electric service to rural areas of Jones County, as well as surrounding areas.
Blake Remy, Dixie EPA system engineer, demonstrated the outage reporting system that Dixie Electric uses which displays every electrical meter, fuse, transformer, electrical line and other important data on a mapping system. When a caller reports an outage via the company’s toll free outage center at 1-888-465-9209, the system records and displays that outage on computer displays at the Laurel District Office. Company officials are also able to “ping” the meters to determine if power is on or off and to connect or disconnect electrical meters remotely. Dixie EPA has offices in Laurel, Petal and Waynesboro.
Kiwanis members had a number of questions for General Manager Randy Smith including his memory of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Dixie Electric Power Association power grid fourteen years ago on August 29, 2005.
“It was bad, really bad,” Smith replied. “We had an unprecedented amount of damage to our system and we basically had to start over with replacing downed poles and lines. Our employees hit the ground running and got to work restoring power along with other crews from across the country to get our customers back on line.”