John Lindsey, a United Cooperative Services area representative, examines HVAC ventilation components in the attic crawl space of a UCS consumer-member’s home. The co-op is offering free energy audits to each of its 50,000 metered accounts. (credit: Mauri Montgomery/UCS)

United Cooperative Services in North Texas has set a long- term goal of making direct contact with each of its consumer-members and showing them ways they can individually save money and energy.

“We’re here to provide our members with the most reliable service at the lowest possible cost,” said Raymond H. Beavers, general manager and chief executive officer of United Cooperative Services, Cleburne.

Beavers said the co-op intends to offer free energy audits to every one of its 50,000 metered accounts, in­cluding homes, businesses and public institutions, in a bid to help members understand how energy is being used and possibly wasted. “Our energy audit professionals can help.”

The co-op, which serves consumer-members in 14 Texas counties in the southwest corner of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, previously conducted about 200 energy audits annually. But last year, Beavers and the co-op board decided to expand the program.

“We now have seven energy experts assigned to audits in addition to their other duties,” said Marty Haught, vice president of communications at UCS. “Each energy audit takes about one hour inside the house.”

Information collected during a site visit is taken back to a co-op office where it is used to generate a report tailored to the consumer-member’s individual needs.

The co-op completed more than 600 audits last year—triple its previous annual average. As many as 1,000 audits will be completed in 2008.

“Many of our new members who are moving into our service area have little experience with co-ops,” said Haught, adding that many local vendors and contractors offer discounts through Touchstone En­ergy’s ® Co-op Connections card. “The direct contact gives us a chance to explain the benefits of co-op membership.”

Reprinted with permission from an article by Derrill Holly in Electric Co-op Today.