Golden Valley Electric Association

2001 Annual Report

"Power to the People"

PDF Icon 2001 Annual Report - PDF (345KB)

Balance Sheet

A Message from the President & CEO
Steve Haagenson

Power to the People - Today and Tomorrow

President & CEO Steve Haagenson
GVEA President & CEO Steve Haagenson

You probably don’t think about Golden Valley every day. We’re glad you don’t; it means we’re doing our job well. But every day, we think about you–our member-owners.

When you think about GVEA, maybe you picture a light bulb. While the end result of our daily efforts is to provide energy to your homes and businesses, we think of ourselves as being about people. Every day, every decision we make is made with you in mind. Whether taking care of your energy needs today or planning for your needs 20 years from now, our goals are focused to provide exceptional service, to increase value and to provide for the long-term financial stability of your co-op.

We spent much of the last year refining our internal processes and developing tools to help our employees provide you with the best service. Our ongoing investment in technology is allowing us to gather, store and share information more efficiently throughout the company and to provide better customer service to our members.

We recognize that we live in wonderfully diverse communities here in the Interior. While we can’t meet the needs and values of everyone 100% of the time, we do try to understand what’s important to you and to find a way to satisfy those needs. For example, some of our members place importance on continued traditional low-cost power while others support green technologies such as wind or solar power. We’re working on both.

While we currently have the second lowest rates in the Railbelt, we continue to work at driving down the costs you pay for the energy you need. On the green side, we’ve assembled a team of employees to follow developments in alternative energy markets and evaluate their potential for GVEA. We believe that a co-op should be able to address the values of all its members.

From the long-term financial perspective, GVEA regularly commissions professional forecast studies to help us plan for the energy needs of the Interior over the next 5, 10, even 20 years. We’re working today to meet your power needs in 2020 and beyond. The local economy, historic growth and politics are a few of the components involved in planning for the future–components over which we have no direct control.

There are several areas where we do have control in order to be prepared for the future. Power line upgrades and line extensions are one way. Another way is through fuel diversification. We continue to utilize a mix of fuels in order to keep your power on and your energy costs as low as possible. For more than a decade, we’ve planned on incorporating power from the 50-megawatt Healy Clean Coal Plant into our existing generating sources. Work continues to retrofit this state-owned power plant and make it a safe, reliable, commercially viable and economical generating source.

As I approach the end of my first year as your President & CEO, I’d like to express appreciation for the support I have received from the co-op’s employees, Board of Directors and from the community at large. I look forward to reporting on Golden Valley’s progress in the future.

Working For You

GVEA’s Year in Review

The year 2001 was a year of works in progress as many of our projects are multifaceted and take several years to complete. While it’s always satisfying to check a project off the list, we can report that we’ve spent the last year making significant progress on several of our long-term goals.

Safety is one of our primary goals at GVEA. In the interest of all our communities, the Board approved an early defibrillator program and First Aid/CPR training for all employees. This is beyond what OSHA regulations require. This makes GVEA one of the first employers in the Interior to implement an early defibrillator program.

Our folks in finance and power supply worked together to complete a warehouse inventory throughout our facilities. We’ve now begun standardizing the process for locating, storing and managing all inventoried items. This comprehensive project will greatly improve efficiency and reduce stock that ties up our capital.

Work continued on our new mapping system. When complete, this system will combine our electronic maps and two paper mapping systems. By linking to our member services, billing systems and data warehouse, this new mapping system will increase efficiency throughout the company from new construction to maintenance and customer service.

Several major construction projects saw considerable progress as well. Clearing nears completion on the Northern Intertie and work began in late December on pile driving in preparation for the towers. In October we signed a $30 million contract with our Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) vendor, ABB Systems of Switzerland. Both the Northern Intertie and the BESS are projected to be on line during the fall of 2003.

GVEA continues to work with the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority toward a resolution on the inactive Healy Clean Coal Plant. Both organizations are committed to eventual commercial operation of this power plant which will provide jobs and coal sales in Healy.

2001 GVEA Fast Facts