Power to the People

For linemen from White River Valley Electric Cooperative, three weeks this summer have been business as usual – 1,800 miles from home.

Bill Gyger, Ray Roy and Cory Sanders are among 28 linemen representing 18 U.S. cooperatives working June 15-July 3 in southwestern Haiti to build the country’s first electric co-op. The team of domestic co-ops has sent linemen to Haiti since November to develop a $4.5 million electrical grid to power 1,600 homes and businesses in three coastal towns.

White River spokeswoman Cris Swaters said the Branson-based co-op previously sent a small team to assist in relief efforts after a magnitude-7 earthquake struck the Caribbean nation Jan. 12, 2010. This summer is White River’s first participation in the co-op project, focused on assisting Third World countries with developing electric utility systems and organized by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s International Foundation.

“Rather than disaster relief, we’re helping the country progress,” Swaters said of the Haiti Rural Electric Cooperative. “This particular area of Haiti has sparse power here and there, and what we’re doing is connecting their electrical structure to tie this entire area under one co-op.”

Around 300 of the NRECA’s 900 members, including White River, have donated money, equipment or manpower to international projects bringing power to 110 million people in over 42 countries since the foundation’s inception in 1962, spokeswoman Zuraidah Hoffman said. The foundation serves as a philanthropic arm for the information and lobbying organization.

Staff members conduct feasibility studies for planned sites to determine the necessary hardware and appropriate costs for service, advise governments on increasing electric rates and assist burgeoning co-ops with forming boards and training employees.

“Not all of the projects we’re involved in are electric co-ops, because the model doesn’t necessarily work in some countries,” Hoffman said, adding while the NRECA helped to establish 119 co-ops in the Philippines, in countries such as Liberia it works with the government to establish utility systems with net-neutral operating costs.

International partners
Funding in Haiti comes through the United Nations Environmental Programme, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Inter-American Developmental Bank and the government of Norway, Hoffman said.

“There’s always interest in helping Haiti build and develop, but this is one, if not the only, time we’ve had this many members involved in building one co-op,” Hoffman said.

The end result will be an electrical grid connected to two solar-diesel hybrid generators, designed by the Solar Electric Light Fund. Some 700 current members pay annual dues of 55 Haitian gourde – the equivalent of about $1.07 – and another $1.50 per month when service comes on-line.

The HREC volunteers have installed three transformers, 272 utility poles and nearly 5 miles of medium-voltage line. White River’s linemen are being paid for their standard 40-hour workweeks, said Chief Operating Officer Rod Romine, and travel expenses are covered by the international partners.

“It’s as if they were doing their day-to-day activities, so the cost doesn’t change for us,” Romine said.

According to World Bank data, only 34 percent of the country’s 10.2 million population had access to electricity between 2010 and 2014.

“For the most part, access to energy is readily available, but without other countries and organizations assisting, it’s just not a reality in Haiti,” Romine said, noting a push for clean water in the country has led to opportunities to convert hand-pumping well stations to electric pumps.

He said the implications of electrical infrastructure extend to health care, education and economic development.

“That would certainly change the quality of life in these areas,” he said.

According to a U.N. report on relief in Haiti, since the 2010 earthquake, roughly $13 billion has been pledged through 2020. As of 2012, an estimated $6.34 billion was dispersed, along with $3 billion in private donations.

Among the active contributors is Springfield-based humanitarian relief organization Convoy for Hope. With a presence in Haiti since 2007, Convoy raised $1 million in 2012 to build a 36,000-square-foot food warehouse, and it now feeds 60,000 Haitian children at 264 sites, according to its website.

Down the line
Gyger, Roy and Sanders, all journeyman linemen, have a combined 35 years of experience with White River. The 126-employee company plans to send at least two more teams of similar size in July and August.

At home, White River serves about 38,000 members and provides electricity to around 44,000 meters in Christian, Douglas, Ozark, Stone and Taney counties.

Hoffman said in addition to installing infrastructure and connecting existing electric utilities, the volunteers and NRECA are training three local linemen to run the system, due to come on-line around November.

“There is a lot of safety training going on, not just from the lineman’s perspective, but on stuff that we’ve learned in school here forever,” Hoffman said, adding member communities are included in the educational process. “You’re talking about a town where people have never had reliable electricity, so they don’t know if a line is down to not touch it.”

Hoffman said the Haitian co-op currently employs seven, with the employee count expected to reach a dozen once the generator is fully functional.

“Establishing this co-op won’t create many jobs, but establishing access to electricity will,” Hoffman said. “With its onset, there is huge potential for job creation and economic growth.”

Other post-earthquake electrical improvements included solar-powered street lights and a Canadian-built power plant in the capital of Port-au-Prince.

In May 2013, the NRECA and USAID constructed an electric utility powering 1,800 homes in the northern coastal town of Caracol. That system was part of a $20 million USAID program to bring electricity to an industrial park employing 6,000 people, according to U.S. State Department.[[In-content Ad]]