Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative (MEC) and EMPOWER Broadband, Inc. president and CEO John Lee has been elected to serve as vice chairman of Old Dominion Electric Cooperative’s (ODEC) Board of Directors. The new officers were elected at the Generation and Transmission Cooperative’s annual membership meeting held in Williamsburg on July 30.

mecKent Farmer, president and CEO of Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, was elected to serve as chairman of the board; Lee was elected to serve as vice chair, and Southside Electric Cooperative president and CEO Jeff Edwards was chosen for the secretary/treasurer position. These officers will serve in those positions for the next three years through 2022.

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative is a generation-and-transmission cooperative that provides wholesale power to 11-member electric distribution cooperatives, including MEC, in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. ODEC, which now boasts over $2 billion in assets, is wholly owned by MEC and 10 other Members. Among its Virginia assets are 50% of the Clover Power Station (coal) in Halifax County, 11.6% of the North Anna Nuclear Station in Louisa County and two natural gas-powered peaking stations: Marsh Run Power Station in Fauquier County and Louisa Power Station also in Louisa County.

ODEC also wholly owns Wildcat Point Power Station, a combined cycle natural gas generation facility in Rising Sun, Maryland.

“I was an employee at ODEC for 16 years, and it’s the place where I got the opportunity to join the cooperative family, so I’ve come full circle, and I am really honored to have been elected by my peers to serve as a board officer there. It’s a strong and well-run organization,” Lee said, adding “ODEC is a nationally acclaimed and accomplished organization that very capably provides reliable, affordable and environmentally sensitive power to MEC for distribution to our members...power generated from a wide variety of sources including wind, solar, nuclear, coal, natural gas, landfill gas and hydro; it’s diversified power portfolio is indicative of its contemporary and progressive approach to meeting its members power supply needs, and its continued success is critical to my cooperative’s ability to provide electric service our members can count on and at prices they can afford.”

ODEC’s 11 member/owners include in Virginia, A&N Electric Cooperative, BARC Electric Cooperative, Community Electric Cooperative, Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative, Northern Neck Electric Cooperative, Prince George Electric Cooperative, Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative and Southside Electric Cooperative; in Maryland, Choptank Electric Cooperative; and in Delaware, Delaware Electric Cooperative.

From The Gazette Virginian