VEA discusses changing industry at annual meeting

The electric utility industry is about to undergo significant changes, Valley Electric Association Inc. officials said at the co-op’s 2016 annual meeting.

The conversation about the future of the electric utility industry prevailed throughout most of the co-op’s annual meeting that brought several technology experts and hundreds of VEA members and employees to Pahrump Valley High School on Saturday.

Tom Husted, chief executive officer at VEA, talked about the company’s ongoing projects at the opening of the event.

“We believe and we know that the electric industry is about to go through some very significant changes and those changes are driven by technology,” Husted said.

VEA is on track to have a fiber build-out for wireless Internet connection in six rural areas within its service territory by the end of 2016. The company launched its optical fiber broadband communications service in Pahrump in October 2015.

“Who would have bet, that the first all-fiber communities in the state of Nevada would be Sandy Valley, Pahrump, Amargosa Valley, Beatty and Fish Lake Valley? How many of you would think that would happen?” Husted asked the audience.

“Yeah, I probably wouldn’t either,” he said in response to several of the laughs.

Husted said the electric industry is moving toward a “decentralized electric utility.”

“So, the old one-line concept is going away. Your utility, utilities across the United States and across the world will no longer be the dictator,” he said. “We will be the conductor of the order, so to speak.”

Jason Mendenhall, executive vice president of Cloud at Las Vegas-based Switch Communications, also touched on the future of technologies.

“Via partnership with VEA, we want to bring that vision to your communities, we are excited about the opportunity, but we are also excited about the partnership. And we are excited about this future that we can all be a part of,” he said.

Mendenhall oversees the SUPERNAP, that delivers comprehensive technology and Cloud ecosystem in the market to SUPERNAP clients. VEA has a partnership with Switch Communications in shared fibers.

“We want to see the communities along the way get all the tools, all the assets necessary, you would normally get in any major metropolitan area. Because if we can enable that, it opens up the world to everyone,” Mendenhall said.

A keynote speaker at the event, Nevada Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison, said the expansion of wireless connection in the VEA’s service area will create economic opportunities for more jobs. He said VEA had made “the expensive and risky” investment of connecting the communities.

“You are the envy of rural Nevada, who would desperately want to have this kind of connectivity,” he said. “And before Valley Electric decided to make the investment, there was no commercial enterprises willing to do this.”

With the new expansion, communities along the 250-mile stretch of the company’s service area will have access to Internet speed of 25 megabites, five times faster than what’s currently available.

“You are on the forefront of cutting-edge technology,” Hutchison said.

Contact reporter Daria Sokolova at dsokolova@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @dariasokolova77