Rodney Metcalf knows the value of innovation and its wide-reaching impact on the Valley.
Leading Mountain Electric Cooperative as General Manager, Rodney is focused on bringing
innovation to his community to improve his members’ lives.

“Fiber is the foundation for everything that we’ll be working on over the next couple of
years. Implementing SCADA and the AMI automated pieces of equipment out in the
field—all of it contributes to our reliability factor and being able to get the power back
even faster. Seeing real-time readouts on the meter and everything being connected
often allows us to fix problems before the member even knows about it. That’s been a
huge help for us.”

With all the changes taking place in his LPC footprint, Rodney wants his members to know
that their success and wellbeing are at the forefront of every decision he makes.

“So many people are relying upon technology and the internet for their livelihood, and
there are even folks in our community who provide medical care to others from their
home offices. The more reliable we are as a power provider; the more people are able to
work and even receive valuable care. It impacts everything, and my goal is to make sure
we’re doing everything we can to operate our system proactively, and fiber and smart-
grid technology ensures that reliability stays at the forefront.”

When asked what advice he’d give to new managers, Rodney shared that keeping an open mind and
embracing innovation is key.

“You have to change any mindset that incorporates the phrase, ‘That’s the way we’ve
always done it.’ You have to ask yourself instead, ‘How can we help serve our
community?’ The answers to that question often require investment and infrastructure,
but we have the technology to help our community succeed—and somebody’s got to do
the work and ensure that it gets done right. That’s what we strive to do every day.”