Episode 24, Talking South Carolina Podcast Interview with Tracy Vreeland, PR Specialist for Santee Cooper

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett – “Hey Tracy, thanks so much for being with me today.”

Tracy Vreeland – Thanks for having me.

Angela Barrett – “Now, Tracy, you are the spokesperson for Santee Cooper and, Santee Cooper. For those who don’t know, I don’t know how if they’re around here, don’t. But, one of the largest, in the nation of publicly owned electrical, utility companies. Right? That’s right. That means we have shareholders.”

Tracy Vreeland – So our money goes right back to the public.

Angela Barrett – “And, you guys are Santee Cooper. Just celebrated, 90 years.”

Tracy Vreeland – “This year, right? Yes. Our 90th anniversary is this year. Yes. We started making power with, the Jeffries Hydro station, which we still use. When we built Lake Marion in Moultrie.”

Angela Barrett – “Oh, nice. Now, what did you guys do to celebrate 90?”

Tracy Vreeland – “Oh, we had a big employee picnic, which was great. Just celebrated everybody and their hard work that got us here. It was an amazing event. With. We had, you know, we can’t not watch football. So we had both the Clemson and the South Carolina games on.”

Angela Barrett – “Well, I know what weekend that was a real one. They weren’t playing together, I guess, but they were playing. Okay, good good good idea.”

Tracy Vreeland – “But we have a lot of Clemson engineers here at City Cooper. And then, we have a lot of, a lot of South Carolina grads to myself being one. So yeah.”

Angela Barrett – “A good Cox. So, Tracy, tell me what areas, Santee Cooper covers.”

Tracy Vreeland – “So we provide power for most of the state. We generate the power that goes to all the co-ops. We generally serve, like, direct customers. Three Georgetown and Berkeley counties.”

Angela Barrett – Gotcha. And that is both water and electricity.

Tracy Vreeland – Our water is mostly just the low country. But electricity is those three.

Angela Barrett – “Gotcha, gotcha. Now I understand, Santee Cooper is getting ready to have, a big rate structure, change. Tell me what the rate structure is now. And then let’s talk about how it’s going to change and then why there’s a three part.”

Tracy Vreeland – “No that’s okay. They all, kind of lead into each other. So right now we have a two part rate, which means there’s a customer charge, a flat rate you pay every month that goes towards, infrastructure and things like that. And then an energy charge, which is how much you use. So, you know, so you’re running everything at the same time.”

Tracy Vreeland – “You’re going to have a higher energy charge there. So that was a two part rate. We’re moving to a three part rate. So you’ll have the customer charge, which we’re going to lower a little bit, the energy charge which we’ve also lowered. And then a demand rate. So the demand rate is an $8 charge for one hour of a three hour period for your entire month.”

Tracy Vreeland – “And that’s hard to understand. So say in the winter, everybody’s getting up in the morning taking showers. The heat’s run in. Maybe you’re making breakfast, run in the dishwasher. You’re going to use a lot of energy at that time. Well, us as a as an electric industry have not done a very good idea of explaining a, a they’re a very, very good, way of explaining that when you guys use more or we all use more electricity, we have to spend more because we have to fire up more units to make that electricity.”

Tracy Vreeland – “So the three part rate is meant to kind of move people off the peak. We know not everybody’s going to change their habits, but some people will. And so we’ll kind of flatten that peak out. And then we won’t have to build generation as soon as we would have to. So it ends up saving everybody money in the long run.”

Angela Barrett – “So before you go on and I know I’m interrupting, but I have. No, that’s only makes sense now. Peak. So tell us what you guys consider at the peak times.”

Tracy Vreeland – “So in the winter it’s generally in the morning. And that’s what our hours will be 6 to 9 in the winter. And then at in the afternoon it’ll be three inches in the summer. Sorry. It’ll be 3 to 6 in the afternoon because that’s when people are getting home, turned on the air, turn on the TV, that type of thing.”

Tracy Vreeland – So that’s where that peak generally falls.

Angela Barrett – And so that’s why you’ll encourage people not to do laundry or other things. That require electricity during those hours.

Tracy Vreeland – Right. Like we’re not telling you not to to run and but something like a clothes dryer that uses a lot of energy. Just try to run it outside of those hours.

Angela Barrett – “Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Okay, so that’s what you have now that we’re.”

Tracy Vreeland – “Moving towards with the demand charts right now, we don’t have that demand charge. People are just paying the same rate whenever they use the energy I gotcha.”

Angela Barrett – And so they’re will now. So it’s a three tiered thing until we we know demand for demand.

Tracy Vreeland – “And then the energy charge is just how much you use those other 21 hours. And then the customer charge, which is the flat rate that goes towards infrastructure and those type of things.”

Angela Barrett – So people can expect to pay more for their electricity than they have been possibly.

Tracy Vreeland – “So what we’ve calculated is the average person’s bill will go up about $11. Now, if you are really adamant about moving everything off of those peaks, you can lower your bill. We have somebody that I work with. She’s on a different utility, but they just instituted this rate, and she cut her bill in half. Now she’s doing everything right.”

Tracy Vreeland – She has a timer. Her pool pump. A timer is so.

Angela Barrett – Water even.

Tracy Vreeland – I know.

Tracy Vreeland – “She may have a smart thermostat that they can finagle before they get home. So she’s doing everything right. I’m not going to say that. That’s going to be how everybody’s bill goes, but, there are ways to offset those costs.”

Angela Barrett – So that leads me into that. Y’all have several different programs to help people reduce their bills. Let’s talk about the programs you have you guys serve.

Tracy Vreeland – “We have, rebates for smart thermostats, which will be great in this because you can preheat or pre cool your house before, the peak time. We have rebates for Energy Star appliances. We have a small business energy saver program where we will go in to some of the small businesses and give them LED lighting or, better refrigeration.”

Tracy Vreeland – “And we pay most of those costs just to help these small businesses save on their energy bills. We also have a new program for, some of our, our residents who need some help. I want to say winterizing their home, but it’s not necessarily winterizing, but just, you know, making sure everything’s working properly and is in good condition and like your ceiling, your drafts and your windows and your doors and things like that.”

Tracy Vreeland – And we’re doing that for free. Right now we’re working with the sustainability Institute out of Charleston to get these programs off the ground.

Angela Barrett – “All, you know, some of your, I think, in an already took it down from the website, but it was like store with an EA. Some of these programs.”

Tracy Vreeland – Empower the power of home. Empower business. Yes.

Angela Barrett – “Okay. I gotcha, I gotcha. And so I also think our software and I’m sure like the electrical company that I use that you guys do the same thing, you know, send something out telling you these are tips and advice that will help you. But you guys also go around and do I would say classes, but little talks about and people can come and listen.”

Tracy Vreeland – “Yes. So that is part of our new assistance program. So you have to be income qualified to get free equipment. But as far as coming to the meetings and learning energy tips and energy efficiency, anyone is welcome.”

Angela Barrett – “Gotcha, gotcha. So tell me, the biggest push other than this new rate restructure, which I don’t think I’ve done one since, like what, 2009.”

Tracy Vreeland – 2017 was our last.

Angela Barrett – “Oh 2017. Okay, I misread that. Was the biggest push you guys have right now. Other than this, the right structure.”

Tracy Vreeland – “That’s actually taken up, you know, a lot of our bandwidth lately, obviously. And then these new, energy assistance meetings to, I think are going to be great for the community. It’s such a resource. And I’m somebody who, is so cheap. Like, I like to be energy efficient because I don’t want to pay any more than I have to.”

Tracy Vreeland – “So that’s something that I definitely would have attended had I known, well, you know, had we had these when I was just a customer, I wasn’t working here. We also are going to be rolling out a new marketplace in February where you can buy energy efficient equipment right from our website, and the rebates will already be applied.”

Angela Barrett – “Oh, neat. And so talk to me about some of the equipment that you’re talking about.”

Tracy Vreeland – “We’re talking refrigerators. Clothes dryers again, smart thermostats. I’m not sure what some of the new programs are going to be on there because they’re going to roll out some new ones as well.”

Angela Barrett – “Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Now we’re going to talk about something that you all do outside of electrical and water. You guys are heavily invested in the community. They’ll just did I guess you guys have some part or maybe sponsor the parade. Is it Murrells Inlet? Y’all just had and had the contest, and.”

Tracy Vreeland – “We we came third in the girls in the parade. So we do these parades every year. Our staff loves it. They look forward to it. We love seeing everybody’s smiling faces on the side. It’s Christmas time. It’s great. But yes, we just did a whole bunch of them. I think we got third in Moncks Corner as well.”

Tracy Vreeland – “That was a different float. We were in North Myrtle Beach, Conway, Myrtle Beach, Surfside. And just that’s one of the the most fun things we do. But it’s that’s just one of the volunteer activities. So we we actually have a volunteer goal at Santee Cooper. So you can, leave work and go do something that you’re passionate about.”

Tracy Vreeland – “We don’t have, like, set agencies where you have to volunteer. And, and that’s something that drew me to Santee Cooper was the fact that they were so heavily involved in the community, and they don’t designate what you have to do. You do what you’re passionate about. So we have teams in, like March for dimes, relay for life, and those are all employee led employee fundraising, not necessarily any corporate involvement.”

Tracy Vreeland – “And and so that’s it’s great to see our teams like take that initiative. I volunteer at Community Kitchen here in Myrtle Beach. And so I can use work time to do that. And I mean, it’s not excessive. You know, we’re not all volunteering all the time.”

Angela Barrett – We’re not.

Tracy Vreeland – Much.

Angela Barrett – “I’m not. Yeah, we do.”

Tracy Vreeland – Log those hours and we are incentivized to do that. And that’s just it’s an amazing thing.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. So what would you say I guess because I again looked on the website and Facebook. What would you say. Probably y’all’s biggest cat, Cooper give back is.”

Tracy Vreeland – “The United Ways. So we work tightly with United Way’s across our area because we have a plant in Anderson. So we give to, United Way and Anderson, United Way of Orange County. We are generally, the first or second biggest and Lee campaign they have we were always the biggest until Publix moved into the area.”

Tracy Vreeland – “So and they’re very they do a lot with, United Way worldwide. So but that, we’re encouraged to give to United Way. So we have, a corporate goal, and we’re incentivized to, to meet that goal. And that’s not corporate giving. Those are employees giving out of their paychecks to, and then we also volunteer for the Days of Caring.”

Tracy Vreeland – “Trying to United way down in Charleston has multiple days. Here in Ori County, we have one, but we have, we have a lot of people come out for that. So I used to be the marketing director at United Way of Worry County. It’s kind of how I got to know a lot of people here at Santee Cooper.”

Tracy Vreeland – “Right? And they were always my largest group of volunteers for the Day of Caring. And so that was another reason, when this this position came up at Sandy Cooper, I was like, I can still be really involved with United Way, and all that they do. And so, it was another thing that just made me want to come to this company.”

Tracy Vreeland – “Oh, and we also we, I serve on the allocations committee for United Way of Ori County. So we get to go and meet with the agencies that they’re considering grants for, and we get to help make those decisions about who gets what money.”

Angela Barrett – “Oh, nice. Nice. So quickly headquarters for Santee Cooper is where.”

Tracy Vreeland – Moncks Corner.

Angela Barrett – Marks Corner and all that.

Tracy Vreeland – I’m in Myrtle Beach.

Angela Barrett – “So yes, I saw that. Well, my, I have family and, the North Myrtle Beach area. So I’m down there frequently. I love love. In fact, I was going to say I did not see the Santee Cooper, but I was actually there for the odd, was it the North Myrtle Beach Parade? Was it at odd?”

Tracy Vreeland – “Yeah, yeah. Have you passes down there? Yeah.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. So, we just happened to be in town and didn’t even know there was going to be a parade. And so we got a bonus as we walked where we were going. But I was like, this is cool because I didn’t know they did it at night, which is really neat.”

Tracy Vreeland – “Yeah, it is really neat to see all the trucks all lit up.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Right, right. Which explained the cones throughout the day. I was like, what is going on?”

Angela Barrett – “Made more sense later. So, for people who want more information on how to say we all have a, a place on your website, I believe you navigate me there.”

Tracy Vreeland – “Santee cooper.com. And then you should be able to go under residential programs and you’ll see, all the programs we have, plus just energy efficient tips. And there’s also some blogs on there with really good information that dig a little deeper into to some of those tips. So, check out, check out the website, for all of that.”

Tracy Vreeland – “And then if you want more information on the rates at Cindy cooper.com/rates, study, but that was, it was it was populated for a rate study. We went through a long public process where we got opinions and heard from whoever wanted to to chime in on the rates. So we did change some things. That was we were going through that process.”

Tracy Vreeland – “But that website has all the latest information. So, with some of the changes we made after we heard from the public.”

Angela Barrett – “So before we part ways, other than not using as much as possible during the peak times, tell me your biggest secrets are not so secret, I guess, saving tips that you guys tell everybody or try to.”

Tracy Vreeland – “So the first one is in the winter to keep your thermostat at like 72 degrees. Well, you know what we say 68. Everybody’s different. If you need to bump it up to just do it two at a time. Because if you do more than two degrees at a time, it’s going to run harder. Also make sure you know new drafts on your windows and doors.”

Tracy Vreeland – “Seal those. I do silly little things in my house like I will turn off the oven before it’s done and just let it cook. I do the same thing with the burners. I let my my leftovers cool and then put them all in the fridge at once. So I’m not opening and closing, opening and closing. Just a lot of little things like that can really end up to to a savings.”

Tracy Vreeland – “I’ll brag a little bit because I am so cheap. My bill is usually less than 100 bucks a month. My, My coworkers, it is not. So let’s not comment. But I do all those little things all the time. Just because I am so cheap and I don’t want to spend more than I have.”

Angela Barrett – “To sell books, for sure. Not a bad way to be, especially these days when things are so expensive. We’ll try to sleep. Thanks so much for being here today. This was, very educational. And, I really do want to talk to the girl who.”

Tracy Vreeland – “Up there, like.”

Angela Barrett – She’s helped me out. Yeah. No.

Tracy Vreeland – “Her savings are amazing, so.”

Angela Barrett – “Absolutely. She’s probably got some good other exciting advice as well. Thank you again for, being with me today. And you guys have a very merry Christmas.”

Tracy Vreeland – Yes. You too. Thank you so much for having me. This was.

Angela Barrett – Fun. Thanks.