Dirk: Good evening, and welcome, everyone, to Blue Ridge Energy's telephone town hall for members. We're glad you joined us and we hope you find tonight's call informative. My name is Dirk, and I'll be moderating tonight's call. Now in a moment, I'll turn the call over to Blue Ridge Energy's CEO, Doug Johnson. He has some exciting updates to share about your cooperative. But first, I want to explain the format for tonight's call. If you would like to ask a question during our Q&A session, just press star three on your telephone keypad and you'll be connected with a staff person. If you prefer not to speak live on tonight's call, you'll have the opportunity at the end of tonight's even to leave your question in a voicemail. Please be sure to include your name and telephone number or email address so that we can contact you soon with an answer. Now we'd like to get to as many questions on air as possible in the time available tonight. That's why we're asking for a limit of one question per member. If there are multiple questions on the same topic, we'd like to only take one. That will help us get as many members and their different topics on the air as possible. Again, press star three on your phone keypad at any time during the call if you would like to get in the queue to ask a question later. And remember, you can always reach Blue Ridge Energy by telephone, the district offices, through email, social media, or the website at blueridgeenergy.com. Now, this is an interactive forum and this phone call allows for a number of things to happen. Not only can you ask a question by pressing start three, you can also give us your input and we'd like to do a few poll questions, and I'd like to start with the first poll question right now. So the first poll question is, is this the first time you've participated in Blue Ridge Energy's telephone town hall, or have you joined any of our earlier telephone town halls? Please press one if this is your first Blue Ridge Energy telephone town hall, and please press two if you've participated in an earlier Blue Ridge Energy telephone town hall. So again, this is your opportunity to provide us your input. So the poll question is, is this the first time you've participated in Blue Ridge Energy's telephone town hall, or have you joined any of our earlier telephone town halls? Please press one if this is your first Blue Ridge Energy telephone town hall, press two if you've participated in an earlier Blue Ridge Energy telephone town hall. And now, before we take questions, it's time to hear a brief update. You're going to hear some exciting news from members about your cooperative this evening. And at this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Blue Ridge Energy's CEO, Doug Johnson. Doug Johnson: Thanks, Dirk, and good evening to everyone. I want to say thank you for joining us tonight for this telephone town hall. And I want to talk with you tonight and share some information about two very important initiatives at Blue Ridge Energy. The first one is the COVID-19 business continuity plans, and the second one is something I'm very excited about, and that's our Brighter Future vision. As you know, this has been a difficult year for all of us, met with a lot of different unprecedented challenges, and we have worked our way through this very difficult time and worked with our employees and worked with you as our members. And we're not through it yet, but we are beginning to move back to a little bit more of a normal operation. We did open up our offices and showrooms last week, and that's going very well. We've had a number of members come in and shop in our showrooms and come in to see our employees. Everyone's practicing social distancing and wearing mask and we're very appreciative of that. We've also brought back in to our corporate office most of our employees. We did do some remote work during the first few months of this COVID-19 pandemic, and we found out that we could work remotely pretty well from a corporate office standpoint, but we lack our collaborative ability to get together and work together. So we've brought most of our employees back in, in a safe way. Also wanted just to mention that disconnections for nonpayment have started this week on Tuesday for members that are on FlexPay, that's the prepaid metering, and they'll begin next week for people who are on conventional billing. As of now, we have 2,844 members that are in payment arrangements and that represents a little over $1 million in arrearages. We're doing everything we can to work with people to set up payment terms and arrangements that they can achieve, that they can meet, and find ways to avoid being disconnected. One of the things that we've done is we've worked together with our foundation, the In This Together campaign, and to date this year, we've provided over $195,000 in bill assistance. And out of this total, members and employees have donated an additional $81,000 just since the pandemic started. And if you're one of those who gave their capital credits or sent us a check and felt like that you were in a situation where you are financially okay and you wanted to help others, we want to say thank you. If you haven't yet done that, I would urge you to consider it if you're in a position that you can. We still have a lot of members who have been adversely impacted by this virus. Today, we did learn that Governor Roy Cooper announced a new plan called HOPE, which is a state initiative to give renters some additional income to avoid evictions and to help with their utility bills. Our staff in the front offices and in our contact center have been given information about this, so if you need to call us to find out information, I know there's a lot of things being posted on social media, but the money does not come to Blue Ridge for us to apply ourselves. The member has to apply for the money, and then the money will come to the utility. So anyway, that's a general update. We're still continuing to manage our way through this very difficult pandemic as I know many of you are. And we're still remaining hopeful that we're going to see a brighter future in the days ahead. And that's the name of our new vision, a Brighter Future vision, and we're very excited about some of the components that are in this vision and strategy. There are three pillars that support our vision. We want to have very strong community and member enrichment. We want to pursue low carbon goals. And we want to have innovation, reliability and strong cost management. Let me talk just a minute about each of those and give you a few things that you may expect in the way of initiatives. Under community and member enrichment, you will continue to see and hear and feel from us a strong commitment to excellent service. In every time you have a touchpoint with your cooperative or our subsidiaries, I want members to know that we understand you own this cooperative and that we're working for you and that we're here to serve you at the highest level. We want to continue to provide energy services to you that help you manage your bills, energy efficiency ideas. We want to be very engaged in our communities, with our counties and our towns, and helping to promote the economic development that we want that helps us to thrive and provide good jobs for people in our area. And we're very excited about the number of fire departments that we've been able to help with USDA loans for new fire trucks and fire stations all across the service area by providing money through federal loans at zero interest and favorable 10-year payment plans. That's helping our fire departments achieve better fire ratings and saving you money on fire tax by having zero interest loans. We're very proud to continue doing that. And finally, our youth programs, we know that we need to be a part of developing the future leaders of northwest North Carolina, so we're very engaged with our school-age children and our students in high school and helping them to prepare to be leaders, helping them prepare to be educated for their next job, whether it's technical or something in a four-year or longer degree program. And then in our low carbon, we have embraced a goal of 50% of 2005 carbon levels being reduced 50% by 2030, and net zero carbon by 2050. We all see and hear and there's a lot of discussion that we are going warmer, that we are going through a period of time that the climate has changed, and we're not going to debate now or at all tonight about what's causing this, but we do think that there's a good possibility that we could do some things to reduce our carbon footprint, have an impact on this climate change, and do it in a way that does not increase our cost. So one of the things that we're doing is we're pursuing solar energy options. We've built five community solar gardens and we're getting ready to begin building an 11-megawatt utility scale solar. So that's a very large solar facility that we'll set on about 50 acres in Caldwell County. We're very excited about this. It's going to be something that saves us money, that reduces our carbon footprint and is good for the community. We're also, you'll see us pursuing more clean energy fleet. We're going to be ordering a new line truck soon that has a battery for when you're idling, usually using a diesel. We'll have more demand reduction programs, and we'll continue working with our wholesale power contract with Duke Energy to reduce the use of coal and carbon offsets and other ways that we can find to be more efficient and to cut our carbon footprint. In the area of innovation and reliability and cost, we're going to always continue to pursue anything that we can to keep our rates affordable, to work with you to keep your bills affordable, and also, to invest in our service area, to achieve excellent reliability and resiliency. You've told us over and over how important that is to you to keep the lights on and if they do go off, respond quickly 24/7, and we try to do that. We've also negotiated some new provisions with Duke Energy to allow us to reduce our summer demand and save money. So we're really pleased with that, and that's part of that new solar that I mentioned a few minutes ago and there'll be some other things that we'll do in that area. You'll also going to hear a lot more from us about electric vehicles. We call that beneficial electrification. You'll hear some new rate options, like night time charging of your vehicle at a lower rate, time of use rate, and more information about electric vehicles, because we believe that many of our members are going to grow in more or interested in these because the economics of electric vehicles are getting better and better, and they're good for our climate and overall, good for your cooperative because if we have a pretty good saturation of electric vehicles, it produces off-peak sales for us, and that benefits every member. So, a lot of information coming up in the years ahead in our plan about giving you better information about your usage, helping you manage your usage at your home or business, so we'll be talking more about that with you in the days ahead. That said, we're very excited about a Brighter Future vision. These three pillars, community and member enrichment, lower carbon, innovation, reliability and cost, all must work together, and we must be able to, if we achieve one, it can't be at the expense of the other two. So we look forward to working closely with you. You'll hear more about this. These goals are also being promoted across the state of North Carolina and all electric cooperatives, and we think it helps us achieve our goal to make your life better and our communities grow stronger and safer. Dirk, I'll go back to you and we'll have some time for questions. Thank you. Dirk: Thank you very much, Mr. Johnson. And yes, there's Q&A on the way. A quick reminder, if you have a question you want to ask, please press star three on your telephone keypad to enter the question queue. Again, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star three on your telephone keypad to enter the question queue. Now, from earlier, you may recall, we did a poll question, and we're looking for feedback from you through these poll questions. You can easily answer the question by pressing the corresponding button on your telephone keypad. So here is the next poll question we are looking for you input on. All right. Are you aware of our Brighter Future initiative that will help us contribute to a cleaner energy future? That is our poll question. Are you aware of our Brighter Future initiative that will help us contribute to a cleaner energy future? Please press one for yes, press two for no. Again, on your telephone keypad, if you are aware of our Brighter Future initiative that will help us contribute to a cleaner energy future, press one for yes, press two for no. And now, to the questions and answer portion of this call. We've got Joyce joining us live on the line. Ms. Joyce, go ahead with your question, please. Joyce: Hello? Dirk: Yes, ma'am. Doug Johnson: Hello? Dirk: You're live on the call. Go ahead, please. Joyce: Yes. I'm just wondering if you could tell me where in Granite Falls will the solar panels be located on the 50 acres. Doug Johnson: Well, we're working on that right now and going through what we call a fight plan development. And if you give us just a little bit more time, we'll get back with you. We're working with the county planning people and the county commissioners, and once we get that finished up, we'll have better information and a picture will be better than my words. Thank you for your question though. Joyce: Thank you. Dirk: All right. Moving on, we've got Sandra joining us now. Sandra, welcome to the call. Go ahead with your question, please. Sandra: I've got a tree that's about to fall here, you have to cut it anyway [inaudible 00:14:37]. It's a danger... because then, we'll be in danger [inaudible 00:14:45]. And what can you do more about your bill? Even though you help us out with that check, and I appreciate that, thank you for it. [crosstalk 00:14:53]... Doug Johnson: Okay, Sandra. So what district are you in? Sandra: Huh? Doug Johnson: What district are you in? Sandra: Caldwell County. Doug Johnson: Caldwell. Okay. We've got your name and some of my staff that's on the call do a lot of work in [crosstalk 00:15:07]... Sandra: And sometimes, they cut too far over the trees on my land. [crosstalk 00:15:11]. Doug Johnson: Okay. We'll get back to you [crosstalk 00:15:11]... we'll get back with you and talk to you some more about ways to save on your bill and your concern about your tree. Dirk: All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Johnson. I've got to tell you, as I look at the console here, I'm excited by the number of folks and members that are participating in tonight's call. It's a huge number of members, and... Doug Johnson: That's great. Dirk: Yeah, it's very exciting. And we've also... we're seeing a number of people who are answering the poll questions, which is also fantastic. So, again, just to make sure that we've got everything in order, I'm going to ask the last poll question again, and that is are you aware of our Brighter Future initiative that will help us contribute to a cleaner energy future? Press one for yes, press two for no. And it's very simple. If you're listening to this conversation on your telephone, you just need to press the corresponding key to the answer you would like to submit in the poll question, and your feedback is very important to us. So again, are you aware of our Brighter Future initiative that will help us contribute to a cleaner energy future? Press one for yes, press two for no. And another part of this interactive call is your opportunity to speak directly and ask questions of Mr. Johnson by pressing star three on your telephone keypad. When you press star three, it'll take you to the question queue where a member of our staff will get your name and your question, and then the next time you hear your name, you will be live on the call to ask your question. So again, press star three if you would like to ask a question live on this call. Now with that, I'll go back to another caller. We've got Larry on the line with us. Larry, thanks for your patience. Welcome to the call. Go ahead with your question. Larry: Hey, how are you guys doing this evening? Doug Johnson: Hey, Larry. Doing well. I hope you are. Larry: Yes, sir. First off, I got to compliment your line crews. I live in Jefferson and I live in a neighborhood... I'm 53 years old and I live in a neighborhood of a bunch of 90-year-old widows that I try to take care of, and you guys are very good about when the power goes out, getting to it. So, my compliment and kudos to you guys for that. Doug Johnson: Thank you. Larry: You're welcome. I'm a very unique situation in the sense that I live alone and I'm very conscious about how much electricity I use. So I try to lower the carbon footprint very much. And in fact, my electricity bill runs about $54 a month. So, I called to get on to the solar program, but it was actually going to cost more money for me to rent four solar panels to cover my electricity than to just continue to do electric. Is there any kind of way we could get a program together for people like me that don't use... you were talking about the carbon footprint, that don't use a lot of electricity where we could get a little bit of a break on those solar panels so that we could even more improve the carbon footprint? Doug Johnson: Yeah, we want to look at things like that, Larry, because we're aware that the subscription program on the community solar is more beneficial if you're using closer to 1,000 kilowatt hours a month. But we have this new solar that we're putting in the utility scale. It's going to generate about 19 million kilowatt hours a year, which is more than 20 times as much as the community solar. So I know some of my energy solutions staff are listening in tonight, and we've been talking about are there some things that we could do with those kilowatt hours to get more people engaged and able to buy some renewable credits. So, good suggestion, and we hear you and see what we can do. Thank you. Larry: I want to do more for the environment, but it's just cheaper for me to continue. And then I have one more question, please. On my bill, and I've called and asked about this, and by the way, your staff here in Ashe County and in Catawba County are fantastic. They're wonderful people. Doug Johnson: Thank you. Larry: So I'm not complaining about that at all. There's a new tax... I put new in quotes if you could see me. There's a new tax on there and I called and they said it was passed in the North Carolina general assembly for maintenance. Is that correct? It's just got a weird number next to it, NC da-da-da-da-da. Doug Johnson: The only thing I know, Larry, that should be on there is there's a state tax component and then there's the North Carolina renewable energy program, and that may be the one that you're referencing. It's the North Carolina program that requires us to have 10% of our electricity generated by renewables, but there's an additional cost for that. But we had your name, we'll have our folks in Nash district look you up and make sure we're getting the right information to you. Dirk: All right, Mr. Johnson. Moving on, another poll question. For everybody that's been participating, thank you for your input. And this is the poll question we're looking for your input on now. Are you aware that Blue Ridge Energy now offers outage texting that you can use to report an outage and get power restoration updates? Please press one for yes, and press two for no. The poll question we're looking for your input on, are you aware that Blue Ridge Energy now offers outage texting that you can use to report an outage and get power restoration updates? Please press one for yes, press two for no. Now, let's go ahead back to our next caller. We've got Reggie on the line with us. Reggie, welcome to our call. Go ahead with your question. Reggie: Yes, sir. I'm in Caldwell County, and my wife's got laid off work when this COVID thing hit and hasn't been back at work very long. And I'm on disability, so our power bill is behind. Will you guys work with payment arrangements with us, along with our current bill? Or how will that work? Doug Johnson: Absolutely. Reggie, you need to call us or you could come in the office, but you can do all this by phone and we will work with you, see what your situation is. And we've had no disconnects for almost seven months, as some people have gotten pretty far behind. The governor required us to do six months to spread those cost over six, but we will do more than that if you need it, we just need to deal with you individually and find what you can do, what [inaudible 00:23:31] can you do and we'll get there with you. We'll work it out, because we want people to be able to dig out some of these holes that occurred. So the answer is yes, just call us. Reggie: Mr. Johnson, I just want to say, thank you for inviting us to this town hall and thank you guys- Doug Johnson: You're welcome. Reggie: ... for working with us, there and all this mess going on. We really do appreciate it. Doug Johnson: You're very welcome. Thank you. Thank you for saying that. Reggie: Thank you. Dirk: All right. We've got Ingrid now on the line with us. Welcome to the call, Ingrid. Go ahead with your question, please. Ingrid: Thank you so much for working with people and not cutting off their power, and also for your energy efficiency plans. It's terrific. I have two questions. One, how do I contribute to the fund to help people who are having struggles with their power bill? And number two, we do have some solar panels, but we cannot hook them up because the cost for metering is prohibited, and so would you consider lowering the metering cost so that we can help you in your plan to reduce our energy footprint? Thank you very much. Doug Johnson: Okay, Ingrid, thanks for your question. I think what we'll need to do is have our energy solutions team contact you on what you have and what you're aspiring to do and how our net metering rate would work with you. Your other first question is you can go to our website, www.blueridgeenergy.com, and there's information there on the In This Together campaign for our members foundation, or you can simply just call us and we can... there are different ways. Some people round their bill up each month, some people do roundup plus, they do round their bill up plus an additional amount of money, some people donate their capital credits, and some people simply send a check in to help other people. But either way, you contact us by our website or if you call us, we'll be able to help you achieve that. Thank you. Dirk: Our next caller is Shirley. Shirley, you're live on the call. Go ahead with your question, please. Shirley: Thank you so much. Yes, I'm in the market for a new heat pump or something to keep me warm, and I wondered if you all sell any type of products that would be like a heat pump or some source of heat. Doug Johnson: We sell some heating products in our propane subsidiary, but like a heat pump or something of that nature, we would need to refer you. We have some contractors that we know are reputable people that would do good work for you. And if you call in and ask to speak to an energy specialist that you have questions about a heating system, we'll certainly help direct you in the right way, or we can show you some propane products. Shirley: Now, you say it's in the propane section, is that a separate number or a separate... Doug Johnson: No, you can just call Blue Ridge Energy, and ask about propane and we have people that can talk to you. Shirley: All right. Well, thank you so much. Doug Johnson: Thank you, Shirley. Dirk: All right. Next up, we've got Catherine on the line. Welcome, Ms. Catherine. Go ahead with your question, please. Catherine: Hi, I'd like to know, one person had already asked about solar panels on our own homes, and I'd like to know if there's any plans in the future for incentive, financial incentives to help members purchase solar panels, or if there's any consideration of maybe doing a group buy of solar panels to make it more affordable. Doug Johnson: Well, we're looking at what members want and that's one of the reasons we do these telephone town halls is to hear the members' ideas and thoughts, and all of my marketing and energy solutions team are listening in tonight, so it's good to hear what the members are interested in as we pursue our Brighter Future vision and our low carbon goals. And we're looking at some solar solutions for people. We have some solar installers that we work with already and we're looking at some potential other systems. So, I mean, this area is just going to grow and we're going to be here with you and continue to look at programs and services and how can we help people achieve their individual low carbon goals. So, we don't have a specific- Catherine: Oh, that's great to hear. Thank you. Doug Johnson: ... rebate right now, but we're certainly open to looking at it. Dirk: All right. Our next caller is Edzel. Edzel, welcome to the call. You are live with Blue Ridge Energy CEO, Doug Johnson. Edzel: Hello? Doug Johnson: Hello? Dirk: Yes, go ahead, sir. Edzel: Yes. Last June, was a year ago, I had some renters that had good jobs and they were making in excess of $50,000 a year, and they were warned by Blue Ridge Electric that they were running in the red with their power and you warned them three different times. And then I went and found them loaded up on dope and I caught them going, they didn't change a lot. Then, I realized the power was off and then I got stuck with the bill. Is there any way that you can... what I'm saying is I would like to donate and help somebody, I'm able to, but I'm not going to give it to somebody that's out there, strung up on dope, won't pay their bills because of that, and how can I be sure that money will go in the right hand? Doug Johnson: Okay. What district are you in? Edzel: Sparta. Doug Johnson: In Sparta? Edzel: Alleghany County. Doug Johnson: Okay. If you would just call in and ask to speak to one of our employees in Sparta, we can talk with you. There's also some church groups and other types, social civic groups that are taking up money and paying bills. Most of what comes in to our foundation, we coordinate with the social services organizations across our service area, so we don't personally make the decision on who gets the money. But there are some other ways to get money to help people that truly need it. So, I think our folks in the Alleghany district can give you some ideas. Edzel: Well, in my situation, I charge $700 deposit to cover for payers and things. And most of the time, it does. And I would suggest that- Doug Johnson: Right. That's good. Edzel: ... when somebody comes in to get electricity turned on, that they charge a higher price to keep this from happening anymore and me having to catch the fall. So, [crosstalk 00:30:39]... Doug Johnson: Well, I think we need to get some of our member service people, our energy specialists with you and kind of talk through what's occurred. And sounds like they might have been on our FlexPay program, but I'm not sure. I don't have that information in front of me tonight, but we've got your name and we'll follow back up with you and make sure we get the information that helps you to have a better understanding of what occurred. Dirk: All right. Our next caller is Julie. Julie, you're live on the call. Go ahead with your question. Julie: I'm calling in reference to the solar farm that's going to be located in Grace Chapel. How many members will that solar farm serve? And what's the percentage of reduction in their power bill will they see? Doug Johnson: Okay. Well, the solar farm itself is going to provide about 19 million kilowatt hours, and that benefit will go to all members in all counties. So it's not just a member in Caldwell County that gets the benefit of that, it's the cost of that power is favorable. It helps us to reduce our demand with Duke Energy in the summer and the savings from that are shared with all members of Blue Ridge Energy in all the districts that we serve. Dirk: All right. The next question we've got coming from Mark, who just joined us on the line. Mark, thanks for your patience. You're live. What's your question? Mark: Yeah. There's actually two questions. First, I spent 30 years in the utility, 20 of which was R&D with renewable energy, and that was in New York and Florida. I am unaware of the North Carolina regulations. How much independent power can Blue Ridge generate without getting into contractual problems with Duke Energy? And [crosstalk 00:32:44]... Doug Johnson: That's good question. [inaudible 00:32:44] until this past year two megawatts, and we've been negotiating with Duke that we needed more room. And we changed our contract. Duke was willing to give us eight megawatts now. And in that, we'll grow to nine megawatts after next year. Mark: Okay. Didn't you say you got an 11-megawatt farm? I know it doesn't generate 11 megawatts throughout the year. Doug Johnson: That's correct. We have to look at what kind of demand, and I don't want to get too technical here, but how much capacity it's producing during our peak period. And my engineers and energy solutions team estimate it's probably going to be around seven megawatts during our peak. Mark: Okay. But not to put you on the spot, but in order to meet the 50% objective, how many megawatts are we talking about roughly? Doug Johnson: Well, we're just now looking at getting some assistance in measurement and verification. These goals are just now coming out and we know that we're going to have to do some measuring. So we're talking with some people now that do MMV for carbon reduction. MMV is measurement and verification. So we'll be sharing more information with the membership about that. It is a strategic goal, but we know we got to measure it. And so we'll have more information for you. I don't have it yet, but it's being worked on. Dirk: All right. It seems like now will be a great opportunity to do another poll question. This is where we're looking for your input. And our poll question is as follows. Around 80% of an electric vehicle's charging is done at home overnight, would you consider owning an electric vehicle if a special lower electric rate was offered for overnight charging? Please press one for yes, press two for no. Again, the poll question we're looking for your input on is as follows. Around 80% of an electric vehicle's charging is done at home overnight, would you consider owning an electric vehicle if a special lower electric rate was offered for overnight charging? Please press one for yes, press two for no. Thank you in advance for participating in this poll question. And let's go back to the phone. We've got Ivy on the line with us. Ivy, welcome to the call. Go ahead with your question, please. Ivy: Yes. I was hoping to find out, do you have to own your house or [inaudible 00:35:27] to get that solar electricity in? Doug Johnson: Well, I'm not sure which one you're referencing to, Ivy, but I think it would be good if we had one of our energy specialists contact you and talk about your situation specifically, and we'd be able to give you better information of what you're interested in doing. Dirk: All right. Next up on the line with a question for us is Crystal. Crystal, hello, thank you for your patience. Go ahead with your question, please. Crystal: Hello. A quick thank you for having a town hall like this. It's very impressive to be able to talk directly to a CEO of a company and to find out how involved you are in everything that's happening. Thank you for your time and thank you for allowing this. We have actually been visiting the West Jefferson, Lansing area now for many, many years and have really just fallen head over heels in love with it. Have recently purchased some property in the area and will be moving there as soon as possible to build. And I know that Catherine and Larry have both asked questions about solar panels and rentals and incentives, et cetera, so technically, I guess my question has kind of already been answered or asked at least. We just wanted to kind of pinpoint or piggyback off of those comments and state that we would be very interested in learning more about rebate options and being able to give back to the company and others in the area as well by installing solar panels and providing that extra little leg of clean energy for you guys. Doug Johnson: Okay. Sounds great, Crystal. And I appreciate your interest in Ashe County. It makes us excited here, people want to come back and build homes again in our area, because we went through a pretty difficult stretch there after the recession where our growth dropped a lot. So a lot of good things are happening in northwest North Carolina, and certainly, in Ashe County where you're looking at, and it's just good to hear things that our members are interested in and make sure that we're hitting the mark with things that you'd like for your cooperative to be doing. Dirk: Next up, we're joined by James. Hi, James, welcome to the call. What is your question, sir? James: Hello, thank you for taking my call. I was in Caldwell County in Collettesville, specifically the Wilson Creek area, and I was wondering if Blue Ridge Energy is still pursuing high speed internet in the area. Doug Johnson: Thanks, James. I appreciate that question. We're pursuing a grant for sort of phase one of northern Caldwell County. We're working with a sister cooperative who's headquartered in Ashe County, and their name is SkyLine, and they have a subsidiary that's called SkyBest Communications. We have a subsidiary called RidgeLink. So we're working together through our telecommunications subsidiaries to start the process of getting state grant money and here to help us get broadband in north Caldwell County. This first phase, we've applied for a GREAT Grant, but it will not get to Collettesville. Our vision and our hope is that all of north Caldwell County will eventually be able to get a federal grant, but it's a multi, multi-million dollar undertaking and it's going to take federal and state assistance for it to be economic. We also have some pockets in Watauga County that we're deeply concerned about and we're working with a number of different agencies and county officials up there, particularly in the Deep Gap and Triplett area of Watauga County. And we're trying to find out more and more what other areas do not have access to high speed broadband. So, keep sharing that with us and your schools and county officials because life today, we've learned with COVID-19, without broadband is very, very difficult. And it's a long-term goal of ours to work with others, to work with our federal and state governments and partnering with SkyBest to bring this to everyone, but it's going to take some time. Thank you, James. Dirk: All right. We've got Trey joining us now. Trey, welcome to the call. Go ahead with your question. Trey: Hello, sir. Thank you for having this town hall. This is awesome. I had the same [crosstalk 00:39:58]... Doug Johnson: Yeah. Thank you, Trey. Trey: I had the same question as James. I live back in Buffalo Cove, North Carolina, and I was wondering when it would be possible to [inaudible 00:40:08] high speed internet back here. Doug Johnson: Buffalo Cove's on 268, right? Trey: Yes, sir. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Doug Johnson: Well, you're going to be in phase one, Trey, so you may be happy. Trey: Oh, that's awesome. Doug Johnson: If we get funded. Now we've applied for a North Carolina GREAT Grant. If we get funded, what I'm excited about is you would have access to 300 megabyte, bidirectional, up and down, and you could buy up to a gigabyte of service. That's a service that our folks, our members in north Caldwell have never seen. So, we're excited. SkyBest is excited. These are good people from our service area. They have a heart for service and they want to come to Caldwell County, and we're going to work together. But we're going to have to talk to our elected officials and say, folks, this is many, many miles of rugged terrain and we have about 1,500 homes, and it's going to take some help in order for this to be economic. Dirk: So, I've got to say, it's rather exciting the number of members who are listening in and participating in tonight's conversation. If you've got a question that you would like to ask Doug, please press star three on your telephone keypad to enter the question queue. And throughout the evening, I've been asking poll questions where we're looking for your input. And I've got another poll question for you right now, and it is if Blue Ridge offered a time of use rate, would you be willing to shift some of your electric usage from peak hours, which are typically late afternoon in summer and early morning in winter, to non-peak hours in order to save money on your electric bill? Press one for yes, press two for no. So again, we're looking for your input on this question, please. If Blue Ridge offered a time of use rate, would you be willing to shift some of your electric usage from peak hours, typically late afternoon in summer and early morning in winter, to non-peak hours in order to save money on your electric bill? Press one for yes, press two for no. And now, we're going back to questions, live call from Russell. Russell, welcome to the call. Go ahead with your question. Russell: Good evening, Doug, and thank you very much for taking my call. Doug Johnson: Hey, Russell. Russell: I'm in the Fleetwood section of Ashe County, and we do have an electric vehicle, but I was wondering if there was much more of a plan to get more station, you need station on the network [crosstalk 00:42:59]. Doug Johnson: Yes. We recognize, Russell, that, that's a big need. We've applied for and receiving money from the Volkswagen settlement, so we're going to be putting a DC fast charger at our Watauga district office. We've got one at our Lenoir district office, and we're working with electric cooperatives across North Carolina to get more charging infrastructure, because we know the investor on utilities are going to put it in the cities. But I think over the next year or two, you're going to see a significant growth in infrastructure for charging. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, we're going to begin program in a special rate where you could charge off-peak at nine and save some money compared to just being on a regular rate. But I think it'll be exciting how much we deploy charging stations going forward. Dirk: All right. We've got David joining us now. David, welcome to the call. You are live with CEO Dough Johnson. David: Hi. So, I just want to know, as a coop, are you making any long-term investment strategies for the homeowner to accumulate some kind of share, even the ones on FlexPay, because all it takes is a small, small percentage to get to some kind of annuity [inaudible 00:44:22] or something, not annuity, but investment. And on the vehicles, it seems like if there's going to be a large cushion, everybody needs to get behind it, who's going to lease them as the option, I mean, you could broaden your platform a little bit and do the prepaid on all that, kind of the prepaid on an infrastructure too, but if you can't do that and you got to pay in there to the third party government, well, I understand that too. But I recommend General Motors, and we can partner with GE and [crosstalk 00:45:04]... Doug Johnson: Right. Yeah, there's a lot of manufacturers that are coming out with EVs. There's a number of pickup trucks. Ford's going to come out with an F-150. General Motors is coming out. More affordable cars are coming out than the Tesla cars. So you're going to see a lot in the next two to three years. A company called Rivian is going to come out with a pickup. So I think you'll see some things that are very, very cost effective. As for your first question, you may have been talking about capital credits. We are cooperative. We operate on a not-for-profit basis, so any money that we make above our operating cost goes in to capital credits and it gets retired to you over a period of years. So that applies to everyone that's a member of Blue Ridge, whether you're on FlexPay or conventional billing. Thank you. Dirk: All right. Next up, we've got Lucy. Lucy, welcome to our call. Thank you for your patience. Go ahead with your question. Hello, Lucy? Lucy: I'm sorry, gentlemen, I had it on mute. I apologize. Dirk: No. Lucy: Good evening, Mr. Johnson, and your staff. Doug Johnson: Good evening. Lucy: Thank you again for allowing me the opportunity. And this isn't even in our area, it's from another state, but I just wanted to know if there's a contingency plan with all [inaudible 00:46:26] are working at home remotely and me, myself, who was sent home to work as well, I did get the high band internet that the federal government requires me to have, but I have my family members living out of state, trying to wonder, when there's school, their power goes out, they're having the kids, they're not having [inaudible 00:46:45] plan to go to summer school because of power outages and they're not just able to do that learning tool. I just didn't know if you guys have always been likely [inaudible 00:46:54] with power outages, I didn't know if you had something in the plans in the workbooks with everybody working at home, for those of us who are working at home and our kids are at home studying. Any plans you guys have for how do we get back online sooner so our kids don't have to plan on going to summer school? Thank you. Doug Johnson: Yeah. I'm not totally sure, Lucy, what you're asking, but I think you're saying if you have an outage, that we get back on? I wasn't clear if that was [crosstalk 00:47:23]... Lucy: Yeah. Like I said, we don't have that trouble... yes, that is. We don't have that trouble here, but I'm hearing it from relative in other states and friend, it seems that they're having issues and that their children are having to [crosstalk 00:47:35]- Doug Johnson: Yeah. Got it. Lucy: ... plan on going to summer school. So, I just didn't know. To me, you guys do a fantastic job each and every time... Doug Johnson: We're going to continue to be very diligent. And our line technicians amaze me. They are so willing to get out there and get it put back up. And we get literally thousands of calls and emails and letters and notes from our members who notice that, and I know they see their commitment of being out there in all kind of weather, middle of the night, and I'm constantly just thanking them because we ask them to do that, but they do it. And that we know people want their power on. We live in an area, whether you have cold weather or tough winters and winds like we do or not, people want their power on. So we've made it a very, very big strategic commitment to invest in that area to keep the lights on. Thank you, Lucy. Dirk: All right. Our next question comes from Jerry. Hello, Jerry, welcome to the call. Go ahead with your question. Jerry: Yeah. This is Jerry. I was just wondering if you all help with insulation of individual, of engineering and stuff. These electric vehicle batteries are going to allow you to power your house with a battery and I figure with ideal storage for 240 watt, or 240 volt wind generators with ideal storage will furnish enough power for my house for an entire day, including [inaudible 00:49:18]. Doug Johnson: Yeah. Jerry, you're right, and we're watching that technology. There's also some talking about if you have an electric vehicle and you can actually sell some power to us during the peak and help reduce peak power cost, that, that maybe something that happens in the future. And it's not here today, but I think people are thinking and talking about grid charging and selling back to the grid during peak periods. They're also talking about having enough capacity in your car to run your home, as you just said. So, that's accurate and all those things are coming. Dirk: But, Doug, if it's okay with you, I'd like to take a quick detour and do another poll question. Doug Johnson: Sure. Sounds good. Dirk: Wonderful. And I want to thank everyone because you've been Johnny-on-the-spot. Everyone's been chiming in. It's so wonderful to get such tremendous response, and it certainly does help us. And here is our latest poll question. Are you aware that we're trying to build a utility scale solar site to produce renewable energy that will help control rising energy costs? If so, press one for yes, press two for no. Again, the poll question is are you aware that we're trying to build a utility scale solar site to produce renewable energy that will help control rising energy costs? Press one for yes, press two for no. Now, let's go back to callers. We've got Mike on the line with us now. Mike, welcome. What is your question? Mike: Hey, it's about the 50-acre site you just mentioned, where's the money coming from to build it? Do you have an estimated breakeven timeframe for it? And then, one other part of that is that I think solar panels degrade. They have a limited life, and so your return is going to diminish. What kind of considerations do you have for that? Doug Johnson: Yeah. Let me just give you a couple facts here that are important. Number one is Blue Ridge Energy is not going to own that solar site of the solar panels. We're entering in to a power purchase agreement with another company, excuse me, that will make all of those investments, so there's no cash outflow for the cooperative. With that, there's another company that will put the capital up for that, so we get no cash outlay and we get an immediate benefit. Solar facilities like this have roughly a 20-year life and you have to have a plan in place included in your plan with the PPA for it to be returned to a grassy field and all the panels recycled at the end of the agreement. So we're pretty confident, Mike, with the plan that we have in place, that it's a very solid plan and it will not do any harm to the environment, that it will produce good for our environment and do good for us economically. Thank you. Dirk: All right. Next question comes from Bessie. Hello, Bessie, welcome to the call. Go ahead with your question, please. Bessie: Thank you very much for having this. And my question's totally unrelated to any of the subjects, but what I'm concerned with is I live out of state, my mother passed away, I am keeping the power on in her home because I had hoped to come there to start fairing out some possessions. But then COVID-19 hit. So of course, everything is delayed, delayed, delayed. And I found that if I dropped the service, I will have to incur the costs all the way back to when I dropped it to even start it up again so when I'm in the home, I can have lights on. Is there any kind of programs that are being considered that if you're in an unusual circumstance, something else could be worked out? Because I don't know when I'll get to be there with the circumstances of COVID-19 right now. I have no idea. And I know [crosstalk 00:53:43]- Doug Johnson: Yeah. What you're talking about is our basic... Bessie: ... to do. Doug Johnson: Right. Bessie, you're talking about our basic facility charge, and that's the $24.17 per month. You can turn the power off and you won't be charged for any kilowatt hours, but you're [inaudible 00:54:01] at the breaker. But you will be charged that monthly facility charge because all of the investment that we have to your home, all of the wire to serve your home, the meters to serve your home, that's all in place and has been spent. And if we don't ask members to pay that facility cost even if they're not using power, then the rest of the members would be subsidizing that cost. So, as a cooperative, we try very much to have everyone pay their fair share, and that's why that's the way that, that is. Thank you. Dirk: And I'm looking at the clock, it looks like we have time for just one more question. And so we've got Amanda joining us on the line right now. Amanda, welcome to the call. What is your question? Amanda: Thank you. My question you have touched earlier was about the internet, the high speed internet in the northern Caldwell County. I too am from Buffalo Cove area, so I'm excited to hear about SkyBest, but you said we're currently in phase one. So what does phase one mean for us? What's the next step? Are we still in waiting period? Doug Johnson: We have applied to North Carolina for the North Carolina GREAT Grant program. If we're selected and funded, we should know that this year, and then it's a two-year construction process for us to build Blue Ridge, with our subsidiary, RidgeLink, will build a backbone fiber into the community, and then SkyBest will build the fiber to the home. And the build-out, it's over 400 homes that's in that area that would be able to purchase this, but there's a lot to be done. But step one is to get the money. So that's why we're saying phase one is going to take a couple of years. Dirk: Thank you very much, Mr. Johnson. As I mentioned, we are going to wrap up this call. Do you have any final comments to make, sir? Doug Johnson: Well, I would just say, this has been a really good telephone town hall. The members, you really engaged. You asked some really good questions. You gave us a lot of things to think about as we make plans for the future, things that you would like to see us thinking about. So, I'm going to leave this call tonight very excited and feeling good about the engagement that we've enjoyed this evening with our member owners. Dirk: There you have it. You've had been the hot seat all night, Blue Ridge Energy CEO, Doug Johnson, answering your questions. Want to thank everyone for participating in tonight's telephone town hall for Blue Ridge Energy members. And we do want to hear from you, so if you have questions or comments that you didn't get to hear during this forum, please stay on the line, you'll have a chance to leave a voicemail for Blue Ridge Energy. If you include your name and your telephone number or email address, a Blue Ridge Energy representative will return your call and question as soon as possible. We hope you stay healthy and safe, and have a fantastic evening. Thank you again.