Congratulations to the City of New Bern, Greenville Utilities Commission, and New River Light and Power for earning the Smart Energy Provider (SEP) designation for 2024 from the American Public Power Association!
The SEP designation lasts three years and recognizes public power providers for demonstrating leading practices in four key disciplines:
Smart energy information.
Energy efficiency and distributed energy resources programs.
Environmental and sustainability programs and initiatives.
Communication, education, and customer experience.
Achieving SEP designation doesn’t come easy—only about 110 utilities have it. This is the first SEP designation for the City of New Bern, the second for New River Light and Power, and the third for Greenville Utilities Commission.
“While the Smart Energy Provider designation is relatively new, we have long known that our member communities are leaders in how they engage with their customers,” said Dale Odom, Manager of Retail Energy Services at ElectriCities. “These latest SEP designations confirm that, recognizing these communities’ exceptional efforts in customer service, communication, and providing sustainable energy for the future. Well deserved!”
Erin Miller, Vice President of Programs and Sustainability at American Municipal Power, Inc., and Chair of the SEP Review Panel, presented the designations on Oct. 28 in Louisville, Kentucky, during APPA’s annual Customer Connections Conference.
“SEP-designated utilities have demonstrated their leadership in smart energy programs and services,” Erin said. “This designation celebrates utilities that are committed to serving their customers while taking the extra step to plan for the future. Communities served by utilities that have earned the SEP designation should be proud of their utility’s accomplishments.”
No doubt, mutual aid is a major strength of public power.
We’ve seen it up close as crews across the ElectriCities membership have worked together over the past few weeks to restore power after Hurricane Helene’s devastation. And we’re seeing it as crews head further south to help with restoration and recovery from Hurricane Milton.
“We’re in the midst of wrapping up one and heading into another,” said Craig Batchelor, Manager of Safety & Training at ElectriCities.
But whatever the storm, public power providers in our region show up big time.
At the peak of outages from Helene, about 48,000 public power customers in North Carolina were without electricity. After five days, crews had reduced that number to about 10,600. Six days later, major restoration efforts in our North Carolina member communities were complete.
That’s thanks to huge efforts from people across our membership who worked together—those who requested help on behalf of their customers and those who provided help by sending crews, equipment, and materials.
A heartfelt thank you to:
Communities that Provided Mutual Aid
Albemarle
Apex
Clayton
Concord
Fayetteville PWC
Gastonia
Greenville Utilities Commission
High Point
Kinston
Lexington
Lumberton
Monroe
New Bern
Newton
Rocky Mount
Statesville
Tarboro
Wake Forest
Washington
Wilson Energy
Communities that Received Mutual Aid
Abbeville, S.C.
Cherryville
Drexel
Easley, S.C.
Forest City
Greenwood, S.C.
Kings Mountain
Laurens, S.C.
Morganton
New River Light & Power (Boone)
Newberry, S.C.
Prosperity, S.C.
Shelby
Crews from the City of Albemarle help restore power after Hurricane Helene.Crews from Wilson Energy help restore power after Hurricane Helene.Crews from Greenville Utilities Commission help restore power after Hurricane Helene.
As you might imagine, working through disasters like this takes an all-hands-on-deck effort by ElectriCities’ Safety & Training team as well.
Nick Whitley, Mutual Aid Coordinator and Supervisor of Safety & Training at ElectriCities, said as some of their team members accompanied members to provide support and safety oversight, others stepped in to ensure scheduled lineworker training classes could continue.
“Just like any good line crew, we work together to do what needs to be done to support our community,” he said.
We can’t thank everyone enough for coming together to show the strength of public power in action. From the lineworkers, customer service representatives, and other utility staff, to first responders and neighbors near and far, thank you for your hard work and dedication to keeping the lights on.
The ElectriCities Safety and Training team brings many careers’ worth of experience and expertise to help lineworkers, meter technicians, and substation technicians throughout ElectriCities member communities gain the skills and expertise needed to work safely and to advance their careers.
To give you a peek into that experience and expertise, we’re introducing you to each of our instructors.
Now let’s get to know Bryan Robertson, Senior Safety & Training Specialist.
Though Bryan is the newest to the ElectriCities team, he has been a lineworker for 20 years. He began his career in 2004 with the Town of Tarboro, working through the ranks up to Crew Leader. In January 2023, he became an instructor for Nash Community College’s lineworker program before joining ElectriCities in March 2024. Bryan is a lifelong resident of Tarboro. He and his wife, Emily, have two daughters, ages 7 and 10.
How did you get into linework?
Bryan Robertson, Senior Safety & Training Specialist
My grandpa retired from linework after 30 years, and he has always had a huge impact on my life. After being around linework for most of my childhood, I knew I wanted to follow in his footsteps. So, once I graduated high school, I was able to get on with the Town of Tarboro.
What do you like best about teaching?
Interacting with the students and seeing them learn something new.
Do you have a favorite moment from class?
Watching the students from different areas collaborate and work as a team to get the assigned tasks accomplished.
What’s the most important thing you want students to take away from class?
No matter how long you have been doing linework, there is always something to learn. And always remember that safety is the No. 1 goal.
Bryan also tells students to call him if they have questions—even if that’s after they’ve completed training. “They can reach out to me anytime,” he said. “I’m just a phone call away.”
Bryan will be teaching Basic Underground School (ELT 211), Oct. 7-11 and Oct. 28-Nov. 1. Both classes are at Nash Community College in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
Each year at the ElectriCities Annual Conference, we recognize individuals for their outstanding contributions to public power.
At the 2024 conference:
Linda Story from Granite Falls received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Jackie Rushing from Concord received the Distinguished Service Award.
Mariana Greene from New River Light and Power received the Rising Star Award.
Let’s meet the 2024 Public Power Rising Star Award recipient, Mariana Greene.
The Rising Star Award recognizes up-and-coming leaders who have less than 10 years of experience and who, in that relatively short time, have made significant and sustained contributions to the electric utility industry and to public power.
That perfectly describes Mariana.
2024 Public Power Rising Star Award recipient Mariana Greene with Matt Makdad, General Manager of New River Light & Power
As the Public Communication Specialist for New River Light and Power, Mariana shines. She is committed to NRLP’s mission of educating and engaging customers while providing safe and reliable energy. That shows through her passion for empowering communities through effective outreach and strategic advocacy.
Since joining NRLP in October 2022, Mariana has excelled in managing communications, especially during the 2023 North Carolina Utilities Commission rate case, where she played a crucial role in addressing issues and ensuring positive media coverage.
Mariana spearheaded the creation of NRLP’s 2024-2028 strategic plan, which was crucial for the utility’s applications for APPA’s Smart Energy Provider designation and ElectriCities’ Public Power Awards of Excellence.
As NRLP’s “one-stop shop” for all communications, Mariana handles everything from marketing campaigns to fostering key stakeholder relationships. She’s a graduate of the Boone Chamber of Commerce’s Watauga Leadership Development program, and she’s active on ElectriCities’ Communications Committee, providing valuable experience and insight to the benefit of fellow member communities.
Mariana doesn’t only shine at work. She’s an Army spouse with thousands of hours of volunteer service to Army and civilian organizations. She’s involved with the App State community as a member of the Military Affairs Committee and Staff Senate, and she volunteers with the ROTC program.
Mariana, congratulations on being this year’s Public Power Rising Star.
Each year at the ElectriCities Annual Conference, we recognize individuals for their outstanding contributions to public power.
At the 2024 conference:
Linda Story from Granite Falls received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Jackie Rushing from Concord received the Distinguished Service Award.
Mariana Greene from New River Light and Power received the Rising Star Award.
Let’s meet the 2024 Public Power Distinguished Service Award recipient, Jackie Rushing.
The Distinguished Service Award recognizes leaders with 10 or more years of experience who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and dedication to public power, brought their organization to a new level of excellence, led by example, and inspired their employees and staff to improve processes, services, and operations.
That describes Jackie Rushing perfectly.
There’s a saying that if you love what you do, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. Jackie loves linework and serving his community. In fact, he loves doing both of those things so much, he’s been doing them for more than 43 years.
2024 Public Power Distinguished Service Award recipient Jackie Rushing with fellow City of Concord staff (left to right): Lloyd Payne (City Manager), Andrea Cline (Deputy Electric Systems Director), and Alex Burris (Electric Systems Director)
In 1981, Jackie began working on Concord Light and Water’s tree crew. Soon after, he joined the overhead lineman division of what would become the City of Concord’s Electric Systems Department. He served as a lineworker for 28 years before moving into management in 2009.
For Jackie, the life of a lineworker is more than a career, it’s a calling. Working the lines, training the next generation, and making things better for the community—that’s Jackie’s passion.
He’s quick to respond to calls for help. During local outages and storm responses, he’s a leader in the control room, triaging outages, assigning crews, and planning restorations. His top priority is the well-being of his team and making sure they return home safely. And his generosity and expertise extend beyond Concord. He has traveled to at least 15 communities across multiple states to help restore power after major weather events.
Having spent most of his career in the field and knowing first-hand the dangers of linework, Jackie has made it his mission to educate and train the next generation. He has served on the North Carolina Association of Municipal Electric Systems (NCAMES) Safety & Training Committee for over 16 years and has been a board member for the past four. That has enabled him to help write the safety standards that lineworkers across the state use every day.
Through his work with NCAMES, Jackie led efforts to create the first rodeo team in Concord, seeing the rodeo as an opportunity to motivate and inspire lineworkers to keep improving their skills and to better understand safety practices.
Jackie completed ElectriCities’ lineworker career development program, and he has taught ElectriCities Climbing Schools. He encourages coworkers to pursue opportunities to advance their knowledge and skills.
Jackie knows that to continue delivering exceptional service and reliability to the community, we must continue to embrace new technologies. He’s an advocate for adopting robust electronic communications, mapping, monitoring, and metering systems. He knows it’s essential for lineworkers to be equipped with the tools necessary to meet the demands of an ever-evolving industry.
Believing that public power truly is community driven, when Jackie’s not at work, he looks for more ways to give back. He has organized softball tournaments to raise money for coworkers with ALS, and he assists with various fundraisers, including the annual Fallen Linemen Foundation fundraiser.
Presenting the award at the Annual Conference, Troy Lewis, Chairman of ElectriCities’ Board of Directors, said, “Jackie Rushing is an exemplary leader who inspires excellence, dedication, and teamwork in all that he does—truly deserving of this year’s Public Power Distinguished Service Award.”
Each year at the ElectriCities Annual Conference, we recognize individuals for their outstanding contributions to public power.
At the 2024 conference:
Linda Story from Granite Falls received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Jackie Rushing from Concord received the Distinguished Service Award.
Mariana Greene from New River Light and Power received the Rising Star Award.
Let’s meet the 2024 Public Power Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Linda Story.
First, a bit about the award. The Public Power Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes sustained long-term outstanding leadership, public power service, innovation, and creativity.
Enter Linda Story.
ElectriCities CEO Roy Jones and Linda Story celebrate her Public Power Lifetime Achievement Award
When we talk about someone being a go-getter, that can sometimes be a little negative—maybe bringing up stories of them throwing elbows and knocking people out of the way. But not Linda Story.
She’s the best kind of go-getter: Someone who does the work with a fierce compassion and respect for others that matches her unstoppable drive.
Randy McCaslin, who’s a long-time High Point city leader and who served as chairman of ElectriCities’ board last year, met Linda when he was an undergrad at Appalachian State.
As part of a class project, he got to visit Granite Falls. Linda was the town clerk there at the time, handling everything, Randy said.
Even during that brief visit as a college kid, Randy could see that Linda was exceptional. As she became interim town manager of Granite Falls in 1981 and then town manager in 1982, and Randy went into local government in nearby Hickory, his first impression of her never changed.
Randy isn’t alone in seeing Linda’s excellence.
Everybody we found—town employees, council members, former and current Granite Falls mayors and managers, the ElectriCities board—raves when Linda Story’s name comes up.
They talk about her having star quality and being a steady force.
They talk about her being firm and sticking to her guns, while also being friendly and professional.
They say she’s always worked well with employees of all types and with people of all types.
There’s no pretense with Linda. What you see is what you get. And it turns out, you get a lot.
Linda was one of the first female town managers in the state.
Current mayor of Granite Falls, Dr. Caryl Burns, grew through the ranks along with Linda. Like others, Mayor Burns saw that spark in Linda early on, saying she did her work with absolute excellence.
Mayor Burns said Linda was persistent and would hold her ground while keeping a smile on her face, no matter who she was talking to. She was patient beyond belief and cool as a cucumber.
She tenaciously pursued and secured grants to ensure the town could continue providing the best services to its citizens.
Barry Hayes worked with Linda during his 14 years on the town council and 24 years as mayor. He said Linda didn’t whitewash anything. If the council voted to raise rates, she would explain why to citizens in a way that everyone could understand.
In a small town that provides all the services Granite Falls does, there’s a lot to manage, and Linda did it tremendously. Along with being a good manager herself, she hired well—a trait that’s especially valuable in a public power community.
Small towns are full of small-town business owners and people who have been here all their lives. As Barry said, if you get on their bad side, your time as a town leader will be limited. But in all his years on council and as mayor, he never heard a business owner have anything but positive experiences to share about Linda.
As Mayor Burns said, “When you see someone who is super great at what they’re doing, you watch them because you learn from them.”
We’re sure there have been plenty of people watching and learning from the way Linda Story has supported and continues to support her community and public power.
Congratulations, Linda. You are truly an inspiration and an incredible role model for all of us. Thank you for your years of dedicated service.
Two ElectriCities Smart Sites were recently selected for development in the public power communities of Wilson and Greenville, both in North Carolina.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper shakes hands with a Nipro Medical Corporation representative as they announce Nipro’s new 500,000-sf manufacturing facility, located on the ElectriCities Smart Site in Greenville.
An entire ElectriCities Smart Site in Greenville, North Carolina, will be home to a manufacturing facility set to employ more than 230 people. Nipro Medical Corporation, a Japanese medical device manufacturer, will invest $397 million in the Smart Site to build its 500,000-square-foot facility.
In Wilson, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc., a global leader in pet healthcare innovation, selected an ElectriCities Smart Site for its manufacturing plant. The facility will create 275 jobs, and IDEXX will invest $147 million in Wilson.
“These announcements represent the latest in a trend of our state’s economic wins landing on ElectriCities-designated Smart Sites,” said Carl Rees, ElectriCities Manager of Economic and Community Development. “With Smart Sites, ElectriCities takes the guesswork out of site selection so companies can confidently invest in public power communities.”
ElectriCities created the Smart Site program to help its public power member communities in North Carolina—cities and towns that own and operate their electric systems—prepare shovel-ready sites for economic development.
Smart Sites must meet specific requirements and undergo an extensive review process that makes the sites ready for industrial permitting at the local, state, and federal levels. Each site must have municipal electric service, water and sewer access within 500 feet, and be within 5 miles of an interstate or interstate-quality highway. ElectriCities markets Smart Sites at trade shows and industry events around the world to get the word out about prime industrial development sites in local public power communities.
To learn more about the Smart Sites program or economic development in public power communities in North Carolina, contact Casey Verburg, Senior Economic Developer at ElectriCities, or visit http://www.electricities.com/EconDev.
The ElectriCities Safety and Training team brings many careers’ worth of experience and expertise to help lineworkers, meter technicians, and substation technicians throughout ElectriCities member communities gain the skills and expertise needed to work safely and advance their careers.
To give you a peek into that experience and expertise, we’re introducing you to each of our instructors.
Nick Whitley (white hard hat) teaches “Personal Protective Grounding – Underground Applications” at the 2024 Public Power Lineworkers Rodeo in Lafayette, Louisiana. He taught the class along with other members of the ElectriCities Safety & Training team. At the rodeo, Nick also served as a judge for an Apprentice event, “Single Phase Conductor Tie In with Armor Rods.”
Now let’s get to know Nick Whitley, Supervisor of Safety & Training.
Nick has been a lineworker for 26 years and an instructor at ElectriCities for four. Before joining ElectriCities, he served the City of Wilson. Nick is a lifelong resident of Middlesex, North Carolina, and he has two daughters, ages 12 and 14.
How did you get into linework?
Just stumbled into it by chance. I knew a guy who was friends with someone at the City of Wilson. I wasn’t even sure of the department—just figured that working for a city would have good benefits. I interviewed and got the job. Luckily, it was with the electric department, and I’ve enjoyed it ever since. It’s a very demanding job but rewarding as well.
What do you like best about teaching?
Making an impact on up-and-coming lineworkers.
Do you have a favorite moment from class?
Watching the camaraderie between the guys and seeing how willing they are to help each other.
What’s the most important thing you want students to take away from class?
That there is usually more than one way to do something, so keep an open mind and watch how others do things. I tell them that I still learn things from our classes just by seeing how other towns and cities work.
A Smart Sites designation guarantees that this prime industrial rail-served site has met stringent requirements and is shovel-ready for new industrial development.
“The Smart Sites designation simplifies the selection process for industrial locations,” said Carl Rees, ElectriCities Manager of Economic and Community Development. “Throughout the Smart Sites certification process, we conduct thorough due diligence, which includes environmental reviews, geotechnical evaluations, preliminary infrastructure studies, and facility siting studies, ensuring the site is prepared for industrial permitting at local, state, and federal levels.”
Zoned for general manufacturing and commercial construction, this Smart Site in Cherryville is located on W. Academy Street and Lester Street in Gaston County. The site has the added benefit of on-site rail access served by CSX Transportation.
ElectriCities created the Smart Sites program to help its public power member communities—cities and towns that own and operate their electric systems—prepare shovel-ready sites for economic development.
Smart Sites must meet specific requirements and undergo an extensive review process by site selection experts. Each site must have municipal electric service, water and sewer access within 500 feet, and be within 5 miles of an interstate or interstate-quality highway. ElectriCities markets Smart Sites at trade shows and industry events around the world to get the word out about prime industrial development sites in North Carolina public power communities.
A Smart Site designation guarantees that this site has met stringent requirements and is shovel-ready for new industrial development.
“Investing in a Smart Site comes with peace of mind, as these locations are certified ready for industrial development,” said Carl Rees, ElectriCities Manager of Economic and Community Development. “Smart Sites have undergone exhaustive due diligence, including environmental reviews, geotechnical reviews, preliminary infrastructure studies, and facility siting studies, so the sites are ready for permitting at every government level.”
ElectriCities created the Smart Sites program to help its public power member communities—cities and towns that own and operate their electric systems—prepare shovel-ready sites for economic development.
Smart Sites must meet specific requirements and undergo an extensive review process by site selection experts. Each site must have municipal electric service, water and sewer access within 500 feet, and be within 5 miles of an interstate or interstate-quality highway. ElectriCities markets Smart Sites at trade shows and industry events around the world to get the word out about prime industrial development sites in North Carolina public power communities.
