Relay • Summer 2020 • Executive Insights

It’s amazing how much has changed in this world and in our daily lives in such a short time period. 2020 was to be a big year of celebrations for me, personally, and my family. My daughter, Avery, graduates high school this year and heads off to Troy University in Troy, Alabama, (a public power town I might add) in the fall. We had a big family trip planned over spring break to London. Canceled. I was also scheduled to take a river cruise to Amsterdam to see the tulips in bloom with my mom and sister — a girl’s trip, checking things off my mom’s bucket list (and mine for that matter). Canceled. Avery was to spend a month in Guatemala this summer on an internship helping to build a house for an indigenous family. Canceled. Her senior prom. Canceled. Senior grad bash. Canceled. The only nine weeks of her entire life she was looking forward to going to school. Canceled. Senior events and celebratory parties. Canceled. And graduation. Well, not exactly canceled. We are now supposed to have a drive-in graduation ceremony in the parking lot of our civic center where each family sits in their car as the name and photo of each graduate is projected on giant screens. (Ask me later how that turns out.) And she was looking forward to ending her summer, before heading off to college, with a week at The Breakers for FMEA’s Annual Conference. Canceled.

Impacts from the pandemic affect my 15-year-old son a bit differently, though. He’s my techy kid — video production, video games, video watching. As a freshman in high school, he was just at the point where he was finding his group of friends with similar interests. While they haven’t been able to “hang out” in person with each other, I think they “hang out” virtually every day — sharing videos, playing games, watching movies. While I wish he had that much enthusiasm for his virtual classes this last semester, I’m glad he’s been able to stay socially connected with his friends like he has. Technology — wow.

The coronavirus has changed every one of our lives in some way — some more drastically than others. All of us at FMEA were disappointed that we had to cancel the Annual Conference this year at The Breakers. Annual Conference is a favorite event for many of us for several reasons, but particularly for the opportunity to network with each other in person. While virtual meetings, webinars and conference calls are helpful for staying connected and sharing information, we look forward to the time when we will be able to gather together in large groups again. Sporting events have been canceled, postponed or held without an audience. Graduations, weddings, conferences and other celebrations have been moved or canceled or held virtually. We wear face masks and socially distance ourselves from others. While we’re sad or inconvenienced by these disruptions and changes, we’re also reminded of other, more unfortunate impacts. Businesses have closed and many people have lost jobs. Families are struggling, as is the economy. People who have lost loved ones during this time have had to say goodbye from a distance or virtually. And tens of thousands of people have been sickened or died from this awful virus.

Fortunately, there has been an important constant in our lives during this time — reliable electricity. My office of late has been my dining room table. My Wi-Fi app tells me there are currently 26 devices in my house connected to our home Wi-Fi. I’m not surprised. There are two adults working full time from home with countless webinars and conference calls between the two of us. And we have two teenagers. Need I say more? Virtual school. Laptops. Cellphones. Video games. Spotify. Netflix. (Have you seen Tiger King?)

While many of us have been working from home of late, many of you have not. You’ve been out in the field, or in the control center, or at the power plant, working non-stop to keep the power flowing. You are critical, essential employees working to provide a critical, essential service — electricity. You are not just keeping the lights on in our homes and businesses, but you are powering our hospitals and important medical equipment, like ventilators, that are saving people’s lives.

I’m proud to be a customer of a public power utility. One of the advantages of public power utilities is the ability to tailor customer policies and programs to best meet the needs of their individual communities. Many of you suspended disconnects or provided rate relief and other customer assistance programs to help your customers during these difficult times. I appreciate the rate reduction my local public power utility is providing me and will pass along that savings to others in need.

Thank you to the many men and women of Florida public power. Thank you for working around the clock to bring that constant to the lives of so many, especially during these challenging times.