Mark Malone knows that innovation and long-term planning are paramount in his industry.

During his tenure as General Manager and CEO of Sand Mountain Electric Cooperative, Mark learned early that continuously implementing innovative technology is the key to the sustained success of his organization. We asked him to share how he’s preparing his LPC’s infrastructure for the future:

“Our most significant technology adoption has been the implementation of our TWACS AMI system about 11 or 12 years ago. The savings with automated meter readings, elimination of slow mechanical meters, and reduction of reading errors have been extremely valuable. Members have also benefited from prepaid billing options, customer portal information, and robust usage data, which allows our team to pinpoint usage. Several months ago, I also decided we should move forward with an outage management system. We recently added another engineer to ensure this project’s success, and it’s been tremendous. Our members appreciate the real-time data map that’s featured on social media and our website.”

Mark wants his community to know that Sand Mountain Electric Cooperative’s mission is to ensure that they are prepared for the technology of the future so that their members’ lives are continuously improved.

“The most impactful technology changes over the next five years will be the computer software and AMI systems required to handle complex time-of-use billing rates and tracking distributed generation sources on our grid. The AMI and software systems will need to be capable of capturing, transmitting, and processing huge amounts of data. LPCs must be ready to meet those needs in order to deliver the best possible service to the Valley.”

Mark’s advice to new managers who aren’t sure about where to start when it comes to implementing innovation is to rely on the help of others’ knowledge and experience.

“New GMs should understand that they will never have all of the answers. Use the expertise within your company. Most LPCs will have hundreds of years of experience within the walls of their utility. By all means, use it, and don’t worry about who gets the credit. Hire good people, let them do their jobs, and be sure you recognize their efforts.”