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While the calendar says that it’s now spring, that doesn’t mean that snow, ice, high winds, and blizzard conditions brought on by late season storms are over. In fact, RESCO assisted member and customer utilities throughout our service region in March that were impacted by severe weather fronts.

In mid-March, we supplied materials and product to utilities in Iowa and Nebraska, following a blizzard that dumped snow and ice and brought high winds and whiteout conditions to the region.

Later that month, our warehouse crews in Michigan and Wisconsin responded to a historic ice storm that hit northern Michigan, resulting in widespread power outages and a declaration of a state of emergency.

As your trusted operational partner, RESCO is always ready to assist your utility when storms and other weather-related occurrence strike. Our Storm Response service is on call 24 hours a day to deliver the materials your linemen and technicians need to restore power and to make necessary repairs.

Additionally, we recommend to all of our members and customers—whether impacted by these recent storms or not—to conduct a review of your current product and supply levels and work with your RESCO account managers and customer service representatives to ensure you have adequate materials in the event that a weather occurrence impacts your service area.

While no one can predict precisely when and where a storm will hit and the impact it will have, continual preparation can help you and your team better respond when it does. Let our team of professionals review your current inventory supplies to ensure you’re properly equipped to address storm damage and repairs year-round.

In response to the blizzard that impacted parts of the Midwest and Northern Plains last week, RESCO warehouse crews worked diligently to ensure quick delivery of needed supplies and materials to our members and customers impacted by the storm, which dumped snow and brought high winds and whiteout conditions to the region.

Shipments from our Kearney, NE warehouse included wire to Butler Public Power District; cable to the City of Wahoo, NE (to repair downed power lines); and ERMCO transformers to Norris Public Power District.

The team at RESCO is looking forward to meeting with industry friends and colleagues in Atlanta next month, site of this year’s National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s (NRECA) 2025 TechAdvantage Experience.

Held March 9-12 at the Georgia World Congress Center, TechAdvantage is the premier conference and expo for electric cooperative engineering, operations, information technology, purchasing, and supply management professionals.

Conference sessions and activities will help eventgoers identify best practices and products that help resolve engineering, IT, energy services, operations, supply chain management, and business challenges by unlocking the power of innovation and collaboration.

If you’re attending, be sure to stop by our booth to say ‘hi’ (Booth 2001), as well as visit the booths of our manufacturer partners, including:

As our operations in Nebraska expand, so too does our need for additional storage capacity to house our growing inventory.

With that in mind, we’re happy to announce that we’re now operating at a new warehouse location in Kearney, NE at the following address:

714 4th Ave., Ste. B
Kearney, NE 68845

The new facility is located directly behind our former warehouse site (404 West 8th Street, Ste. 2, Kearney, NE 68845).

The RESCO team began moving inventory from its former location earlier this month and started receiving shipments at the new location shortly thereafter.

The RESCO model helps ensure that our members and customers have access to the materials, supplies, products, and equipment their utilities need, when they need them.

RESCO President and CEO Matt Brandrup discussed our cooperative’s pro-active approach to challenging supply chain issues over the past few years, how our partnership with ERMCO Transformer continues to benefit our members, and other timely topics in  a recent National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) Q&A article.

To read the piece, click here.

The devastation inflicted on the Southeastern United States by Hurricane Helene continues to impact those who reside in the region.

To assist in the ongoing relief efforts, RESCO, its Wisconsin electric cooperative members, and the Wisconsin Electric Cooperative Association coordinated a shipment of humanitarian items yesterday to two locations in Aiken and Edgefield counties, South Carolina.

Included in the shipment were portable generators, adult diapers, bottled water, and other essential supplies. These items helped support the work of the United Way of Aiken County and the United Way of Edgefield, who are assisting individuals and families recovering from this disaster.

The shipment was sent from RESCO’s Middleton, WI warehouse.

 

 

 

 

Editor’s note: Robin Doege, who joined our team as EUSCO vice president earlier this year, shares his insights on the EUSCO division and the role it plays in many of our members’ and customers’ operations.

Question: While EUSCO has been a division of RESCO for approximately 25 years, some readers may not be familiar with the service. Could you share with us a brief overview of what EUSCO is and the types of services your team provides to members and customers?

Answer: Electric Utility Supply Cooperative (EUSCO) is primarily the technical equipment and services arm of RESCO. Our team of engineers and technology experts works with manufacturers and utilities to provide equipment and technology solutions. EUSCO has strong connections to the utilities we serve in North Dakota, South Dakota, Eastern Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Western Michigan and Minnesota.

Q: What makes EUSCO and its services unique in our industry?

A: EUSCO is a division of the larger RESCO. RESCO provides EUSCO’s support functions like human resources, information technology, and accounting/finance. This allows EUSCO the ability to focus on our customers and manufacturer partners.

Q: What types of manufacturers do you work with? Any new companies that have recently been added to the EUSCO line card?

A: EUSCO represents 16 manufacturing and technology companies that provide products and services to electrical distribution utilities. We work with our manufacturers to serve electrical cooperatives, municipalities, and investor-owned utilities. Our manufacturers include metering and meter technology, meter testing, substation transformers, SCADA, substation communications, and drone data analytics. The newest addition to EUSCO’s line card is Buzz Solutions, which utilizes drone imagery and AI to develop analytics for maintenance, outage management, and asset management.

Q: Representatives from both the RESCO and EUSCO teams often participate in the same industry events, such as trade shows and meetings. How do members of your team interact and collaborate with members of the RESCO team?

A: Having both RESCO and EUSCO representatives at utility industry trade shows and events assures that RESCO/EUSCO provides all the solutions required for a utility to be successful. Most of the products sold by RESCO/EUSCO are complimentary. For example, RESCO may provide substation components like switches and hardware to a utility. EUSCO can come alongside and provide a substation transformer, substation automation, and substation communications equipment for that same project.

Q: What are some of your focus areas and goals for this year and beyond?

A: EUSCO is always looking for ways to serve our customers better. And work hard to promote our manufacturer and technology partners. EUSCO sales engineers and staff are the connection between the manufacturers we represent and our customers. Our goal is to provide world-class customer service and timely, accurate communications with our customers and manufacturers.

While destructive weather can impact our region at any time during the year, the spring and summer months are historically viewed as the primary storm seasons here in the Midwest and Northern Great Plains.

Tornadoes, lightning, micro-bursts, heat waves, and other weather occurrences can instantly turn normal operations into an emergency response situation at your utility. And when the power goes out at your members’ and customers’ homes, farms, and businesses, having an adequate inventory of equipment, materials, and supplies is essential to get back up-and-running.

Here are three tips from RESCO to help your utility best prepare for damage caused by inclement weather:

When power outages occur, inclement weather or heavy usage during extreme temperatures are usually the first thought that comes to mind. And while weather-related factors tend to be common sources of power outages and disruptions, there’s another source found in nature that can be just as impactful: wildlife.

According to findings from EPRI, a non-profit energy research and development organization, up to 20% of all power outages can be attributed to wildlife contact with energized equipment. Given the frequency of these incidents and the impact they have on your utility’s operations, a comprehensive, precise-fit solution that addresses risk points to the equipment and structures of each substation can dramatically reduce or eliminate these outages.

RESCO MEMBER TURNS TO GREENJACKET FOR PESKY SQUIRREL PROBLEM

Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association, which serves more than 59,000 accounts in rural Wright County and western Hennepin County, experienced recurrent outages from squirrel activity at its Bass Lake substation. Despite vegetation management and repeated attempts to mitigate access to the substation itself, the incidents continued to occur.

A different approach was necessary to solve the substation’s squirrel problem, and the cooperative turned to Greenjacket to implement an asset protection and outage protection solution.

The project entailed full coverage of Hubbell’s Greenjacket substation solution. With a goal to eliminate all potential phase-to-phase and phase-to-ground contact points within the substation, the transformer, GOAB switch, regulators, reclosers, bus, conductors, pot heads and arrestors all received a customer-tailored cover-up to blanket all exposed contact points.

The installation of the cover-up took one full day. During the process, a full team from Hubbell was on-site for training and guidance purposes, as well as to ensure proper fit and troubleshoot any questions.

GREENJACKET OFFERS PROTECTION FOR HIGH-RISK SUBSTATIONS

Formed by an electric utility expert with years of field experience—who had seen first-hand the damage and disruption caused by animal and bird contact with equipment—Greenjacket is a precise-fit turnkey solution that offers the best product for high-risk substations where the substation is either a critical use station or has a history of persistent contacts regardless of attempts to use alternate wildlife guards and covers. A critical use station would be defined as a substation that feeds an airport, a manufacturing plant, a hospital, a nuclear station, a data center, a dense population area or another critical customer.

Greenjacket is a precise-fit, custom made-to-order product that has an exacting fit to within 1/8th of an inch accuracy to the underlying equipment. The exacting fit is achieved through a team of linemen who image customer substation equipment; designers who plot the equipment and design the cover; a patented made-to-order manufacturing process and shipping in a turnkey boxed solution complete with a Site Protection Plan for installation.

To learn more about Greenjacket and its services, click here.

We were very pleased to welcome over 100 representatives from our Wisconsin member cooperatives to our new warehouse in Stanley, WI for yesterday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house. Joining them were representatives from our site’s builder, Market & Johnson, Inc.; its designer, River Valley Architects, Inc.; and local groups and officials, including the Chippewa Economic Development Corporation and the Clark County Economic Development Corporation and Tourism Bureau.
Attendees had the opportunity to take a tour of the new facility, as well as meet and have lunch with industry colleagues and members of the RESCO team.
Situated on 15 acres, the 40,000-square-foot location reflects RESCO’s commitment to providing our electric utility members and customers with exceptional service and reliable inventory, as well as quick response to weather-related and storm damage needs. The large plot also gives us the ability to expand its operations as needed.