By Justin LaBerge Becoming a lineman involves years of training and experience. Over the next five years, America’s electric cooperatives expect to hire nearly 15,000 people to fill jobs ranging from information technology specialist to lineworker. Investor-owned utilities, municipal power systems and private power line contractors will also need thousands of skilled workers to keep […]
Our electricity is on almost all the time. You know that. But you might not know the amount of time it’s on is getting better every year. Electricity has become so reliable that the numbers for a typical American home sound crazy. For most people, the total amount of time without power because of an […]
By Paul Wesslund Solar energy is really heating up. Use of photovoltaic cells to make electricity grew 30 percent each of the last two years. Experts expect that pace to continue because of falling prices for solar equipment and December’s three-year extension of federal tax credits for solar energy. As with any new and booming […]
About 3:30 in the afternoon last December 23, operators at three electric utilities halfway around the world in western Ukraine found themselves not solely in control of their computer terminals. Someone from outside the utilities had taken over the controls and started opening circuit breakers at more than 27 substations, cutting power to more than […]
Over the last several weeks, CREA and several of our co-op members have met with various state and federal agencies to develop a pilot energy efficiency project as part of CREA’s Colorado EnergyWise Project. The pilot program will be known as the Colorado Dairy and Irrigation Efficiency Program and will involve four co-ops at the […]