PEC Year in Review: 2024

In the heart of the Texas Hill Country, where a history of rugged self-determination meets a future of ample possibility, PEC continues to fulfill our one and only purpose: serving our members.

As the years go on, the populations of our communities continue to grow. As proof, we added a total of 20,583 meters in 2024, taking us to more than 420,000. We welcome our new members and are constantly making improvements to best serve all our members.

• Nearly 17,000 Hill Country residents became PEC members.
• PEC crews completed 22,323 line extensions, more than last year’s 19,886.
• Our teams added 595 miles of distribution line over the past year, bringing us to a total of 25,569 miles in our service area. We also operate 315 miles of transmission line.
• Underground line grew to make up 30% of the miles in our distribution system. Over the past 10 years, that number has increased by 10%.
• We processed more than 38,500 member applications.

PEC earned Top Workplace honors in 2024

To continue supporting our growing membership, it’s more important than ever that we foster a strong, supportive workplace for our employees. We’ve been able to do this successfully, and as proof, we were designated a 2024 Top Workplace in Austin, a national 2024 Industry Top Workplace in Energy & Utilities, and named National Top Workplace for Cultural Excellence. The award categories include top workplaces for Employee Well-Being, Professional Development, Appreciation, and those that are Women-Led.

These awards recognize us as an employer of choice and celebrate the people-first workplace culture we’ve created. Winners were selected based solely on feedback gathered through an anonymous employee survey administered by an outside firm.

We completed the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Meter Project

To continue meeting the needs of our members in an ever-changing industry, we enhanced service by completing our AMI meter exchange campaign.

These radio frequency (RF) meters boost system reliability by allowing PEC to more readily detect outages and improve billing accuracy while greatly reducing maintenance costs. To wrap up this project, we deployed 174,667 RF meters between December 1, 2023, and December 1, 2024, ending with more than 403,000 units installed.

Ensuring the reliability and safety of our electric system

But serving our members means more than just building new infrastructure. It’s about ensuring the reliability and safety of our equipment and facilities that power lives daily. To keep our system performing strongly, we covered every corner.

We completed 100% of our annually scheduled maintenance and repair jobs, including 1,640 inspections and 1,020 scheduled and unscheduled repairs. Work included maintenance, recalibrations, upgrades, and equipment replacements. Using LiDAR technology, we targeted vegetation management on over 22,000 individual spans of line.

• More than 43,271 poles were inspected.

• • 3,000 poles needed replacing or restoring. About 60% were restored by adding steel braces around poles at the ground level, which saved the cooperative between $5-7 million on pole replacement.
  • 33,916 poles were treated to strengthen and lengthen their lifespan.
• Crews responded to over 11,564 outage reports, including 9,992 after-hour callouts.
• Our fleet maintenance department completed 5,441 service entries, 92% of our unit inspections, and 9,979 labor entries. These included routine service inspections and non-routine work on electrical equipment, engines, HVAC units, mechanical equipment, and more.
• In 2024, we performed over 1,000 unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) flights, inspecting more than 1,200 miles of line and capturing over 8,100 images.
• Our technical services team inspected 1,720 pieces of field equipment.

Taking control of our transmission system

In a milestone years in the making, we took control of our transmission system in March. This achievement will strengthen our ability to continue providing reliable service to our members for years to come.

Because it’s your cooperative, you can now find us at myPEC.com

In our mission to serve you, we’re committed to staying up to date with the technologies our members use most. That’s why we launched a new outage map to make reporting outages and finding outage information as painless as possible.

The new map allows members to report outages online, search by address to see if the outage at their home has been reported, see details about their outage, which may include cause, estimated time of restoration, and crew status, and check the weather.

Our goal with this revamped map was to allow members to easily find what they need during an outage. You can check out the new map here.

We also updated our URL to reflect the cooperative spirit that unites us. Because PEC belongs to you, you can now find us at myPEC.com. The more common “.com” domain is a globally recognized standard that makes us more readily identifiable. Our website has everything you need and more, including the ability to connect to your account, a rates calculator to estimate your monthly costs, energy-saving tips, and information on PEC’s many community programs.

Member relations team earns positive satisfaction ratings

In an organization where our members are our owners, it’s important we meet their needs and serve them with gratitude. Our member relations team maintained an outstanding rapport with our members in 2024, earning a 4.58 out of 5 Member Experience Satisfaction Rating over 268,314 calls and 14,657 online chats.

Finance and power supply

Thanks to our finance team’s efforts, we’ve expanded our commercial paper program to a $300 million capacity, helping keep member costs low. This program lets us cover short-term expenses and capital needs without immediately turning to long-term debt. It gives us the flexibility to wait for favorable market conditions before issuing larger long-term debt and ensures we have the liquidity to avoid frequent borrowing at potentially higher interest rates.

Fitch reaffirmed PEC’s strong AA-credit rating, and the team looked to improve our procurement policies and processes and automated remittance processes.

Growing the Power of Change
A big ‘thank you’ to our members who helped us grow the Power of Change Program by volunteering to round up their bills to the nearest dollar each month, helping us raise over $200,000 in 2024! Since the Power of Change was founded in 2016, 32,000 members have enrolled, contributing $873,000 and helping 102 local organizations.

This program helps many people in our communities, including those who need assistance with their electric bills through our Member Assistance Program, educators and students, and nonprofit organizations that empower every town in our service area. At the end of 2024, we awarded $38,500 in grants to nine of those nonprofits.

Those grants funded projects that were critical for these organizations to further
their important missions. For around just 50 cents a month, your change can make a change. Enroll today or make a one-time donation.

Supporting our growing communities

At PEC, we are proud to support our students and teachers in our communities because we believe that education is the foundation for a bright future. Through hosting outreach programs and providing classroom resources and hands-on learning opportunities, our employees are making meaningful impacts in our communities year-round. A few ways they showed up for the students and teachers we serve include:

• For the 25th straight year, we awarded 25 scholarships to students across the Texas Hill Country. The scholarships ranged from $3,000 to $4,500. The state returns unclaimed property to PEC to fund these scholarships.
• Gave $24,000 to 21 education foundations and school districts and three qualifying community libraries, funded with Power of Change dollars.
• Donated giveaway books and toys to 33 libraries’ summer reading programs.
• Grew our Camp Save-a-Watt summer youth program to 675 campers and saw 100 total participants and families at our annual Solar Car Derby in June.
• PEC employees spread their cheer over the holiday season by donating more than 800 toys, 11 bicycles, and seven scooters during our holiday toy drive. The toys benefited eight organizations throughout the service area.
• Our Fill the Bucket School Supply Drive was fruitful for students and teachers in 2024, as more than 2,000 school supplies were donated by PEC employees to schools in our service territory.
• We launched the Teacher Spotlight Program to recognize educators who go above and beyond to make a difference in our students’ lives. In the fall and spring, 544 teachers were nominated, and 12 exceptional educators were recognized.
• We created our Literary Expedition Library, a free online resource with a collection of video book readings for pre-K through fifth-grade students.
• We hosted Winter Weather Roadshows across our service territory and Texas Power Connection events at our Technical Training Center in Marble Falls to help senior members and government officials be better prepared for winter weather and educate them on how we respond to outages during emergency situations.
• PEC promoted the lineworker trade as a potential career option for students to 11 local educators at our Safety and Technical Training Center in Marble Falls.

International Lineman’s Rodeo

For the third straight year, Canyon Lake Lineworker Apprentice Zack Gough earned first place overall and first place in the Rural Electric Administration (REA) division at the International Lineman’s Rodeo. His performance, dedication, and leadership are things everyone at PEC strives for. Journeyworkers Darren Donhauser, David Hernandez, and Michael Thyberg took fourth in the REA division and fifth place in Hurtman Rescue.

Looking ahead
No matter how big our membership grows or how our technology evolves, we’ll never forget our roots and our commitment to maintaining reliability, affordability, and safety for our members.

Together, we balance our rich history with the expanding demands of today as a cooperative with a culture built on authenticity and transparency. Our members’ best interests are our top priority in everything we do.