Jeff Conrad, President and CEO of Wabash Valley Power
Summer has a way of drawing our attention to the things right in front of us. The county fair. An evening ballgame. A weekend at the lake. A family reunion. These are memories of my Indiana summers growing up. What we rarely think about are all the things working quietly in the background that make those moments possible.
That’s true in almost every part of life. We admire a healthy crop but don’t always see the months of planning, preparation, and hard work behind it. We appreciate a smooth trip without thinking much about the roads, bridges, and crews that keep us moving. We enjoy a cool home on a hot July afternoon without considering everything required to make that comfort feel routine. The better a system works, the less attention it tends to receive.
In fact, success can make important things almost invisible. When something becomes dependable enough, we stop thinking about it altogether. We simply expect it to be there when we need it. Electricity is a good example.
Most people don’t spend much time thinking about electricity when it’s doing its job. We flip a switch, adjust the thermostat, charge a phone, or power equipment needed to get through the day. That’s exactly how it should be. But dependable electric service doesn’t happen by accident. I think about it every day, all day. That’s my job.
Reliable power takes long-term planning, ongoing investment, and people willing to think years into the future. It also takes cooperation. While your co-op serves members directly, it is also part of a larger network working together to ensure reliable, affordable power. That is where we at Wabash Valley Power Alliance come in. I like to say that we are a cooperative of cooperatives. We provide the power to 21 member electric cooperatives serving communities across Indiana and Illinois. By working together, those co-ops can plan for future energy needs, invest in reliability, and accomplish things collectively that would be more difficult to do alone.
Reliability isn’t built in a single day, a single year, or by a single organization. It is the result of people working together over time with a shared commitment to the communities they serve. That is the essence of who we are as cooperatives. And because your electric cooperative is member-owned, you are not just served by this system, you are part of it.