Electricity powers our existence. It is the one product on which we have become the most dependent. Almost every item we use in our daily lives is powered by electricity, and without it, we practically shut down.

It’s hard to imagine where we would be today without electricity- it heats our home, puts food on our table, puts clothes on our backs and helps heal our sick. It boosts our economy and helps in the development of our communities.

Where would we be without electricity?

Below is a listing and brief description on where the energy you consume is created. 

Generation and Transmission

Charles R. Lowman Power Plant

The Lowman Power Plant consists of three generating units. Unit 1 was built between 1965 and 1969, with commercial operation starting in 1969. Construction began on unit 2 in 1976, and the unit began commercial operation in 1979. Construction began on unit 3 in 1976, and the unit became operational in 1980. Each year, the Lowman Power Plant burns approximately 1.5 million tons of coal to produce the steam needed to make electricity. Coal is transported to the plant by rail and by barge on the Tombigbee River. From the coal yard, a conveyor moves the coal inside the plant where it is pulverized and carried to the boiler. The coal is burned at temperatures greater than 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit to produce the steam required to generate electricity.

The Lowman Power Plant is the recipient of the Air Conservationist of the Year Award from the Alabama Wildlife Federation. The award was the result of Alabama Electric Cooperative’s proactive approach to environmental protection. The plant’s three operating units are equipped with electrostatic precipitators, which preserve air quality by preventing particulate matter from entering the atmosphere. Units 2 and 3 are equipped with a high-technology system to remove sulfur dioxide from smokestack emissions. Only one other coal-fired plant in Alabama is equipped with this type of equipment (scrubbers).

Maury A. McWilliams Steam Power Plant 

The McWilliams Power Plant is the first generating plant built by AEC. It is a familiar landmark to travelers crossing the Conecuh River at Gantt on Highway 29 north of Andalusia, Ala.

Since the plant’s first two units became operational in the mid 1950s, and the third unit in 1959, the plant has provided a reliable source of power to AEC’s 21 member-owners. The plant’s original 43 megawatts of peaking capacity, combined with its reliability to generate energy during peak loads, has proven to be vital during weather extremes.

Having used the plant to its full life expectancy, AEC repowered the plant during 1995 and 1996 to help meet future generation needs. The repowering included the installation of a natural gas-fired 107-megawatt combustion turbine-generator and a heat recovery system that recycles exhaust heat to create steam, which is used by the plant’s three original generators to produce additional electricity. The repowered plant provides 151 megawatts of intermediate and peaking capacity. 

McIntosh Power Plant

AEC’s generating units at McIntosh, Ala. include the compressed air energy storage (CAES) unit and twin gas-fired combustion turbines.
Designated McIntosh unit 1, the CAES unit was declared commercial May 31, 1991, and officially dedicated Sept. 27,1991. The 110-megawatt CAES unit uses air—compressed and stored in a huge underground cavern— in the generation process. Compressed air is stored until the unit is needed, and is then mixed with natural gas in a combustion process to generate electricity. The plant uses off-peak electricity to pump air into the cavern, then uses the air in the generation process during peak periods.

In June 1998, contractors completed work on two single-cycle combustion turbines at the McIntosh site. The gas-fired units have a combined generating capacity of 226 megawatts, and are designed as McIntosh units 2 and 3.

Point A and Gantt Hydroelectric Plants

The small Point A and Gantt hydroelectric plants combine for a generating capacity of eight megawatts. The hydroelectric plants were AEC’s first generating resources and have demonstrated an ability to provide a reliable source of capacity. Located on the Conecuh River, the plants only operate when river levels allow an adequate supply of water to turn turbines.

The plants are operated and monitored using modern computer equipment, and can be operated from on-site control rooms or a centralized control room at the nearby McWilliams Power Plant.

The Gantt Hydroelectric Plant is located in the town of Gantt at the site of a former grist mill on the Conecuh River, and the Point A Hydroelectric Plant is located about five miles downstream near the town of River Falls.

Portland Combustion Turbine

The Portland CT was built in 1964 to serve the back-up power supply needs of the radar facility located at Portland, Fla., on Eglin Air Force Base.
The generating capacity of the CT is 11 megawatts.

James H. Miller Jr. Electric Generating Plant

AEC purchased 8.16 percent of the Alabama Power Company plant near Birmingham, Ala., in 1992. AEC’s owner-membership interest represents approximately 110 megawatts of capacity.

At full capacity, the plant can burn 24,000 tons of coal a day. The Miller Plant can generate about 2.69 billion watts of electricity—enough to serve the needs of about 885,000 homes.

Unit 1 became operational in 1978; unit 2 in 1985; unit 3 in 1989; and unit 4 in 1991. Total generating capacity for the plant’s four units is 2,664 megawatts.

James A. Vann Jr. Plant

The James A. Vann Jr. Plant dedicated on December 4, 2001 is located in Gantt, Ala. The 500-megawatt combined cycle plant is equipped with two combustion turbines manufactured by Siemens Westinghouse. Combined cycle plants are currently the most cost-efficient forms of electric generation capacity available because of their heat recovery features, and they have minimal impacts on the air and water. The Vann Power Plant has been designed to incorporate the most environmentally friendly equipment available to generate affordable electricity. It will be the cleanest and most efficient power plant built by AEC. 

Springhill Regional Landfill Gas-to-Energy Facility

Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative is proud to offer its Green Power Choice program.  Through this program, GCEC members have the option of voluntarily purchasing blocks of "green" power.  "Green power" is electricity generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, including decomposing garbage.  As organic waste decomposes, it produces methane as a natural by-product.  To protect the environment, we use pipes to collect the gas to fuel Waste Management's Springhill Regional Landfill gas-to-energy facility to generate 4.8 megawatts of electricity -- enough to power 4,000 homes for a year.

Green power may be purchased in 100-kilowatt-hour blocks, equivalent to about 8 percent of a typical household's monthly energy use, for only $2.00 per month.  To put things in perspective, the environmental impact of buying just two blocks of green power per month for a year is equal to recycling 480 pounds of aluminum (15,322 cans) or recycling 1,766 pounds of newspaper.  You can purchase as many blocks as you'd like.  The minimum participation period is one year. 

Click here for the Green Power Choice program registration form.  Helping the environment today is vital to protecting our resources for tomorrow.

 

About Alabama Electric Cooperative

Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative is a member-owner of Alabama Electric Cooperative (AEC). GCEC relies on AEC to help in many aspects of providing you with services. The most important role of AEC is to generate and purchase power on behalf of its 21 member-owners. If you read the following and still are interested in learning more about AEC, please go to www.powersouth.com.

The Past . . .

One of the initial goals AEC’s incorporators faced during their initial meeting on June 20,1941 was a personal one -- they wanted the cooperative to be a success. For years, urban areas had celebrated a residential and economic boom due largely to the benefits of electricity. Rural communities sought a leader willing to spearhead the economic and residential movement of their area. Thus, AEC was born.

“We were formed to specifically provide power to the rural areas of Alabama and Florida and enhance the standard of living in those areas,” AEC president and CEO Gary Smith said. “Cooperatives have always had a responsibility to provide power and improve life in rural America –- it is the reason we exist.”

AEC employees and distribution members continue to exhibit high work standards, fueling their desire to be a success. In the 1940s, the innovative use of electricity -– and later, technology –- was slowly incorporated into homes and businesses.

AEC’s image as a “power pioneer” has been berthed over several decades. In the late 1950s, AEC became one of the first to use high-voltage air-blast circuit breakers in the United States. Thirty years later, the co-op became one of the first utilities to use a satellite system to transmit data from remote substations to its energy control center. In 1991, AEC further affirmed its pioneer status when it introduced the compressed air energy storage (CAES) generation process at its McIntosh (Ala.) Plant.

The early leaders recognized a risk of being dependent upon others for the production of electric power to serve their needs. They recognized that the needs, goals, profitability and customers of the entities producing the power would always be placed above the needs of the rural consumers. They saw the need to aggregate their power supply requirements to gain the benefits of economies of scale in building generation and contracting for capacity.

Sixty years ago community leaders decided that if the rural areas of Alabama and northwest Florida were to be electrified, it would be up to them to do it. Those community leaders formed rural distribution systems to provide that electric service.

The Present . . .

Currently one of the nation’s most successful generation and transmission (G&T) cooperatives, AEC is constantly pioneering into new territory. Along with the distribution members, we are breaking traditional mindsets of the rural electric co-op, forging new business alliances, exploring value-added opportunities and excelling at what we do best – providing quality and reliable service and products. In early 2000, The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s Rural Electrification magazine profiled “The Tech Ten” -– the electric utility industry’s “technologies to watch” -- as we enter the new millennium. AEC has already implemented many of the top-10 technologies into its operations, including:

Distributed generation – AEC entered the fuel cell market in March 2000 as a purchaser when its board of trustees agreed the co-op should join a pilot program to test fuel cells powered by propane.

Substation monitoring – In 2000, AEC completed installation of telemetry equipment at 228 areas system-wide for use in remote readings of revenue meters at substations. The telemetry project allows AEC and its distribution members to use real-time data for billing.

Modular equipment – System-wide, AEC is eliminating extra hardware and using standard, packaged assemblies as often as possible – reducing inventory costs, simplifying work orders and speeding up construction and maintenance.

Automated meter reading (AMR) systems – Last June, AEC fully implemented AMR systems, allowing daily readings from substations across the system. The automated process saves time and reduces error.

Power quality – AEC’s energy control system receives real-time data from the cooperative’s AMR systems and other forms of monitoring equipment. As a result, power-quality problems can be pinpointed and corrected more efficiently.

Online services – AEC began implementation in April of a new rebate software package. A web-enabled application, the software was created by AEC’s information systems department to make energy rebate processes easier for distribution members.

Satellite technology – Starband, a two-way broadband satellite Internet system, is being tested at AEC, courtesy of the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC). Testing has been very successful and could soon bring distribution members and their consumers Internet service that is 10 times faster than dial-up service.

GPS/GIS mapping – AEC’s land management and acquisition department is currently implementing global positioning systems (GPS)/ global information systems (GIS) mapping to keep better records on rights-of-way, transmission lines and substation facilities. All of AEC will eventually evolve into GPS/GIS mapping, replacing most paper maps.
To a large degree, AEC remains what it has always been -- a wholesale power supplier for a group of rural electric distributors. The only reason AEC exists today is to provide for the aggregated needs of its distribution owners.

More specifically, AEC's objectives and responsibilities remain focused in central and south Alabama and northwest Florida. Its employees continue to come from within its service area and are entrenched in activities of the local communities. Therefore, AEC is about to identify with consumers’ needs, desires, successes and problems.

Working with the distribution systems, AEC projects retail growth and ensure that the distribution systems’ needs will be met in the future. They construct and operate large generation plants, as well as monitor and balance loads with generation every three seconds across the entire service area. They maintain more than 2,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines and more than 250 substations to ensure our service is reliable. They purchase millions of dollars of fuel and power each year, hedging those purchases to ensure that the distribution systems’ cost of service is protected from market fluctuations to the greatest extent possible.

AEC also performs services that are not as apparent. They’re committed to the economic development of the rural areas they serve. They inject millions of dollars of loan and grant funds into rural communities each year to develop jobs and opportunities. They support programs that help develop rural Alabama and northwest Florida. They have supported and invested in enhancements in telecommunication capabilities and infrastructure for rural communities, the education levels and facilities for those communities, community infrastructure and the general economic viability of the rural areas we serve.

Finally, they have a great interest in the people who live in our service areas. Whether it’s providing electric service, promoting economic development, sponsoring Relay For Life programs, setting light poles on ball fields, or getting trees off houses after storms, they have an interest in the communities and the people we serve. That's what truly makes them unique in the current electric utility industry.

Growth patterns in our service area have been strong, and Smith thinks that the area will continue to grow even faster in the future. Our area has a great climate, natural beauty, abundant natural resources and a comfortable lifestyle as community infrastructure in rural areas improves.

Growth will put pressure on AEC’s ability to serve and our cost of service. Its most valuable generation assets are the three Lowman Plant coal-fired units that were constructed in the 1970’s and 1980s. As its load grows, low-cost energy from those units is diluted, causing costs to increase on the average to our distribution systems. However, their cost of power remains below the national average, they have a lower cost of service than most of the G&Ts in the region, and they are competitive. They are located near substantial resources of natural gas and coal, providing us with a competitive advantage for fuels generation facilities will need in the future.

The Future . . .

We have a great foundation of low-cost generation resources, a growing service area with great potential for economic growth, good location near fuel resources, and the potential for an expanding economic base. AEC recognizes that their soul reason for existence continues to be to serve its distribution members. They also realize that they must continue to provide a very high level of reliable power at a competitive price to the distribution members. They cannot lose focus that our primary obligation is to provide reliable service at a reasonable price.

But, Smith thinks that they have a greater obligation. That obligation is much harder to define and measure. Cooperatives were formed by leaders of local communities.  We serve areas that no one else would in order to bring the standard of living up to modern standards. That obligation continues for AEC today. It is our obligation as rural electric providers to provide the services others are not willing to provide in our service areas and to ensure that the people who live in rural Alabama and northwest Florida have all the benefits and opportunities of people living in more urban centers.

In 1998, AEC entered into partnership with more then 560 local, consumer-owned utilities in 39 states under the umbrella of the Touchstone Energy® brand. The brand has been embraced by AEC employees, distribution members and consumers in every aspect of AEC’s operations -– due largely to Touchstone Energy®’s core values of integrity, accountability, innovation and commitment to community.

Providing value-added services remains at the top of AEC’s list, and one way to do that is through Cooperative Propane. In 1999, AEC purchased Bullock Propane, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AEC now called Cooperative Propane. One year later, Cooperative Propane purchased Price Brothers Gas Company. Propane, or liquid petroleum gas, is one of the nation’s most versatile energy sources, serving as a fuel for more than 60 million people in the U.S.

“It’s Cooperative Propane’s goal to form an alliance with AEC and its distribution members, evolving into a full-service energy company, offering a variety of services with value-added energy products and related services to consumers at the best possible prices,” Cooperative Propane General Manager Benny Gay said. The electric utility industry has undergone major changes and AEC realizes that in order to maintain its successful image, the co-op must plan for the future and capitalize on its strengths.

While it is unclear how electric utility restructuring will affect the AEC system, the cooperative continues to monitor national restructuring and legislative activities. AEC supports a slow and cautious approach to restructuring -– while simultaneously positioning itself as rate competitive.

AEC realizes the need for additional generation resources as it nears completion of the James A. Vann Jr. Power Plant in Gantt, Ala. This plant began commercial operation on December 10, 2001, adding 500 megawatts of base load power to AEC’s distribution system.

The future of AEC and its distribution members depends largely on the human element. In 1941, representatives present at AEC’s first organizational meeting realized the right for rural citizens to have a better quality of life, and today that is a reality. However, the cooperative’s status as a power pioneer does not stop here -– we’ve just begun.

 

AEC Member Systems

A Touchstone Energy® cooperative, Alabama Electric Cooperative is a $1 billion generation and transmission cooperative headquartered in Andalusia, Ala. Its member owners include 16 distribution cooperatives in south and central Alabama and northwest Florida, and the Alabama municipalities of Andalusia, Brundidge, Elba and Opp. AEC’s 20 member owners distribute energy to residential, commercial and industrial customers in 39 counties in Alabama and 10 counties in northwest Florida.

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