President's Message

Welcome to our 2010 website! ODEC has completed two outstanding years of achievement and accomplishments and we look forward to the opportunities of 2010 and beyond. In 2008 we successfully completed the task of downsizing our organization from a 12 member group to 11 unified distribution cooperatives. These cooperatives serve over 500,000 members throughout Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. Simultaneously, we entered into a new 40-year Wholesale Power Contract with these 11 members that set the course of power supply needs and direction beyond 2050.

With these two major accomplishments in place as we began 2009, this past year has given us the direction to focus on power supply needs and opportunities. During this year, we have pursued two major baseload projects: North Anna III and Cypress Creek. The North Anna III project involves the expansion of the current North Anna Nuclear facility with a third reactor. We continue to work closely with Dominion Virginia Power, the majority owner and operator of North Anna. Cypress Creek is a proposed coal facility to be built in Eastern Virginia. We are working on obtaining zoning and permits on sites in Surry and Sussex Counties.

Additionally in 2009, we issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) looking for the best and lowest cost baseload power available. This process was extraordinarily successful as we received over 60 bids. These were narrowed to a list of the top 6 and we have already closed on two of the bids. Due diligence and negotiations continue on other opportunities.

In 2009, we also greatly enhanced our load forecasting process, which is critical for power supply planning. We coordinated efforts by ODEC and our members for the enhancement of demand response and energy efficiency programs. This has involved expanding existing programs and working to institute new activities. Finally, in 2009, two of our member distribution cooperatives successfully entered a bid to purchase the distribution territory of Potomac Edison in central and northwestern Virginia. Once completed, this acquisition will add over 100,000 consumers to our demand for electricity service.

ALL OF THIS ACTIVITY LEADS US TO 2010.

Our mission continues: To provide our members and their consumer-owners reliable, environmentally-balanced power at the lowest possible cost. We believe we best meet this responsibility by maintaining a good balance of owned power generation resources, purchased power contracts and market purchases. We also believe that our supply portfolio needs to be diverse in terms of our fuel mix, as well as the type and location for our generation resources. Finally, we believe that we must continue to encourage and challenge consumers to reduce their demand for electricity and to use this resource as efficiently as possible.

2010 should be a year of major decisions by ODEC as we look at various power supply opportunities. The first quarter will probably involve major decisions regarding the expansion at North Anna. The second quarter will then lead into significant decisions regarding the work on the Cypress Creek project. Additionally, the first three quarters of the year will likely bring conclusion to the various projects that we are researching from our RFP process. Simultaneously to these actions, we will be investigating opportunities to expand our renewable portfolio by possibly adding wind generation or developing possible biomass projects. Finally, our Board of Directors authorized significant new dollars to greatly expand our demand response and energy efficiency activities.

This New Year will be full of decisions regarding power supply planning, generation and purchasing. These will be decisions that will set our course for the next 40-plus years and will assure our members of continued electricity usage and reliability. After all, that is our job!

As you explore our website, we look forward to your feedback. Again, welcome!
 
Jack Reasor

Jack Reasor