People my age will remember the spokesman for Motel 6, Tom Bodett, who ended every commercial spot with a folksy, “We’ll leave a light on for you.” In 2020, this is exactly what residential members of Cherryland did in a big way.
It has now been about 15 months since the beginning of the pandemic. It goes without saying that 2020 was a terrible year for all the reasons you have heard far too many times. However, residential meters were a bright spot to our bottom line during this dark time.
Cherryland serves approximately 37,000 meters, with 95% of these belonging to residential homes of all shapes and sizes. While our commercial accounts are few, the electric sales they provide are quite large and have been very critical to our annual financial success in past years.
Well, when the virus shuttered almost every business in March 2020, everyone at Cherryland took a collective gulp as commercial sales declined like no other time in our history. Small commercial sales in 2020 ended up almost 10% below 2019, while large commercial sales declined by nearly 16%. In reality, the large commercial drop would have been greater if not for one large data center (large computers in an empty building) that was not affected by the shutdown.
Month after month, the commercial decline continued until slowly, some businesses began to reopen. As you know, this was a bit of a roller coaster as we shut down and reopened more than once last year. Regardless, small and large commercial sales never quite got back to 2019 levels.
The silver lining was indeed the residential members who kept multiple lights on for us. In hindsight, we should have seen this coming. Everyone was forced to work from home, and then their kids were required to stay home too. How could sales not go up?
It wasn’t a meteoric rise, but it was absolutely the saving grace in a very difficult year. Residential sales went up by almost 11% and were not affected with the openings and closings like the commercial side of the business. Think of just the workday hours. In a time slot when homes were historically dark across our system in previous years, the stay-at-home order had them buzzing with activity, lights, computers, hot water, heat and air conditioning in 2020.
We have to give the weather some credit. The months of June through August were considerably hotter than other years while everyone was at home. This added to the meter spin and increased the good-news portion of our bottom line.
Because we are a cooperative, this good news comes back to the membership. We gave back $2.5 million in the form of a bill credit in October 2020 and an additional $3 million in a capital credit retirement just two months later. In true co-op fashion, we kept what we needed and gave back what we did not.
In the future, I believe we will see more work-from-home jobs than ever before (obvious, I know). We have learned and adapted, and some people will not go back to the office. We are blessed to live in a region where people will always want to live and work from home. This “new normal” could make the residential part of our business a continued and growing success story.
In the years ahead, I will join the chorus that sings songs of all the truly bad things that were 2020. Inside, I will be forever grateful that our residential members “kept a light on for us.”
Interesting report Tony, you truly “enlightened “ every Cherrylandelectric.coop member! Thank you! Electric consumption certainly was not on my list of downsides of this pandemic. You realize that restaurants, theaters, schools, businesses, etc being closed affects the economy, but the power to light up, cook, refrigerate, heat, and maintain the status quo has a huge “effect” on many services not being used as usual! Something we need to think about! I’m grateful for being able to turn on lights as usual, cook dinner, bake a cake, etc. thankfully,,
E.C.Allen, Traverse City coop member
I love the way you write….in a world innundated with text, I always read Tony’s messages because he sees what right and good with the world regardless of our collective challenges!
This heightened use of energy in residential properties is exactly why Cherryland should be ramping up efforts to help people make their homes more energy efficient. Creating “new” energy by helping people use less energy is the cheapest energy (by far). Cherryland should be working hard to increase energy efficiency for all its members. Insulate, installing efficient lighting, installing better windows…these are super cheap ways to make energy – by helping people use less. Also, we need to vastly increase the deployment of large & small scale wind & solar so that more energy comes from clean sources. Cherryland is doing a lot, but not nearly enough to address climate change.
I will have to respectfully disagree. Cherryland has a power supply portfolio that is 66% carbon free. There isn’t a utility in the state or region that is better. We helped Habitat for Humanity start a priority home repair program that is fixing the building envelope for low income members. We also have a very aggressive energy conservation rebate program. Please check out any environmental group in the state to see what they are doing to pass legislation that makes siting wind and solar power easier. You will not find one proposed bill. It is my opinion that the utilities are the ones actually taking action and not just talking about climate change. Thanks for the comment.
I would have to respectively disagree…….Cherryland electric says and I quote “give us a call and we will work with you during this time ‘ so I call and I get “a supervisor will call you back “… to no call back several time’s and told I am lying about a supervisor calling me back because they always call …. then guess what my power gets shut off….. and now the bill is so great that no one can help get the power back on because we are told we need the full balance before the power can be turned on and we are because they are a coop Cherryland electric are able to do whatever they want …so for the past almost year my two year old, my one year old ,my fiancé and her four children and myself have been living off of generator power because we cannot afford to get the power back on…….so thank you Cherryland electric and Tony Anderson for making this pandemic even worse for me and my family …… we have tried to get power on by other companies but because Cherryland electric own the lines around my area they can not help.
You do know that electricity is a service provided by Cherryland for a price, right? If you can’t pay for the service, no electricity. I don’t know what tragic circumstances led to a couple with 6 children unable to afford electricity, but I hope you’re able to improve your financial conditions quickly.