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Co-ops offer scholarships

A scholarship program to financially assist students among electric cooperative members is seeking applicants for the 1999 awards. This is the fourth year that the fund has been made available to high school seniors pursuing a college education in Illinois. The application deadline is Jan. 1.

The IEC Memorial Scholarship Fund was established in 1994 to provide financial assistance to deserving students in the "electric cooperative family." Northern Illinois University administers the fund.

One scholarship a year will be awarded to a student in each of the following categories: (1) a son or daughter of an Illinois electric cooperative member/consumer; (2) a son or daughter of an Illinois electric cooperative employee or director. A scholarship applicant is eligible for consideration in only one of the two categories.

The applicant must be a high school senior who will enroll in a full-time undergraduate course of study at an accredited, two-year or four-year college, university, or vocational/technical school in Illinois.

Recipients are selected according to grade-point average, college entrance test scores, work and volunteer experience, school and civic activities, and knowledge of electric cooperatives as demonstrated by a short essay.

Information on the IEC Memorial Scholarships is available from your local electric cooperative, or from the AIEC at (217) 529-5561.

Correction — Grants alert

We published the wrong phone number for the the Illinois Commission on Intergovernmental Cooperation in the November issue. The commission lists federal grant notices for local governments and community agencies. The monthly Grants Alert includes a synopsis of each grant and explains how to obtain more information. To be added to the mailing list, write to the Illinois Commission on Intergovernmental Cooperation, 707 Stratton Building, Springfield, IL 62706, or call (217) 782-6924.

Satellite TV outscores cable in customer satisfaction

Despite recent challenges, the DBS industry continues to grow. Nearly a million new homes have been added each year and DIRECTV alone has nearly 4 million subscribers. Customer satisfaction is probably the reason for the 30 percent growth rate. DBS service continues to outperform cable in customer satisfaction surveys according to J.D. Power and Associates. Satellite TV scores an average of 29 points higher than cable.

Because most rural residents do not have access to cable TV, rural telephone and electric cooperatives have been very involved in providing satellite TV service. NRTC, formed by 900 electric and telephone cooperatives, serves as a strong consumer voice in the industry. NRTC cooperatives provide 22 percent of the total accounts for DIRECTV.

Electric co-ops ready for competition

Electric co-ops are prepared and eager to expand and jump headlong into the competitive fray, a recent survey found. "Municipal and Cooperative Utilities Decision Maker Survey," was conducted by research firm Frost & Sullivan in Mountain View, Calif.

While co-ops and municipals once may have been viewed as being slow to respond to market changes, they now are thinking expansion and competition in a big way.

"Municipals and cooperatives are important utilities that are somehow overlooked with respect to deregulation," says analyst Kim Ninassi. "It is daunting that such a substantial number of utilities are overlooked."

Responding to market forces, electric cooperatives and municipals are cutting the terms of bulk power supply contracts and plan to contract out energy services, provide value-added services and enter the telecommunications market.

The survey also pointed out that coops and municipals plan to focus on value-added services as well as a reinforcement of their commitment to customer satisfaction.

Ninassi said 270 cooperatives and municipals were surveyed. Among the key findings were:

• 49 percent plan to offer paging and short messaging services, 41 percent plan to provide voice mail notification and 24 percent plan to compete in the telecommunications industry within the next five years.

• 96 percent say that they will be using fuel cells within the next five years, 86 percent say they will use turbines or micro turbines, 82 percent say they will use photovoltaics, and 34 percent say they will use external sources to operate and maintain distributed generation assets.

6 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING DECEMBER 1998

Tri-State Summit on transportation, education and tourism

The third annual Tri-State Development Summit, a pow-wow for business, tourism, government and other leaders interested in regional development along the Mississippi River, brought nearly 500 people together recently in Quincy.

Task forces working together during the year focused on the river, all forms of regional transportation, education and tourism.

Those focusing on transportation identified several regional highways as critical to regional development. They included completion of Highway 336 as a four-lane expressway from Highway 61 to U.S. 67 at Macomb, construction of U.S. 34 as a four-lane expressway from Burlington to Des Moines, and completion of the Avenue of the Saints, a four-lane corridor linking St. Paul, Minn., and St. Louis.

Also at the conference, leaders of three community colleges, John Wood Community College in Quincy (which is served by Adams Electric Cooperative), Southeastern Community College of West Burlington, Iowa, and Moberly Area Community College of Moberly, Mo., signed a pact to open their training programs to students from outside their respective geographical boundaries to help meet regional work force needs.

Also reviewed at the summit was draft legislation, the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which would authorize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop a comprehensive plan for the Upper Mississippi and the Illinois River, including navigation, environmental, and sedimentation issues. WRDA also would include expansion of five locks on the Upper Mississippi and two on the Illinois River.

Additionally, each state is working to develop the Mid-America Intermodal Port Authority, and other projects, including an erosion protection project for the Sny Island Drainage District levee and the construction of the South Quincy Pump Station.

A couple of degrees here, a couple of dollars there

A degree here and a degree there and pretty soon you're talking real money! Lowering your thermostat by one or two degrees in the winter can mean real savings on your heating bills. Raising the temperature can also result in much larger heating bills.

For example, lowering your thermostat to 68 degrees from 70 degrees will save you 6.2 percent on your heating bill. Lowering the thermostat just one degree will save you 3.1 percent. However, let's say you like to keep your home toasty warm in the winter. Cranking up the thermostat to 76 degrees will jack up your heating bill by 18.6 percent.

Remember: each degree you raise or lower the thermostat from 70 degrees F. means you will pay 3.1 percent more or less on your heating bill.

If you need more information on how to cut your winter heating bills, call your local electric co-op for more assistance. As a not-for-profit electric utility, your co-op will be happy to help you save money.

One word of caution, hypothermia is a danger during the winter, especially for the very young, those who are ill and the elderly. Don't risk your health to save a little on your heating bill. The National Institute on Aging recommends keeping the thermostat above 65 degrees at all times. For those over 75 a temperature of 70 degrees is recommended. Wear sweaters and plenty of warm clothing during the day. At night an electric blanket will keep you warm for less than 5 cents a night.

Mega-utility control could stifle real competition

Restructuring the electricity industry has the potential to reduce costs, but only if policy makers ensure that a few large firms do not end up controlling prices, a group of leading energy analysts report.

The report, issued in May by the Stanford-based Energy Modeling Forum, is intended to advise legislators and others involved in creating new rules for electricity markets in various states, regions and countries.

The 50-member group focused on the potential impact of regulatory changes that would affect how electricity is produced and transmitted to customers. Discussion emphasized three key areas of concern: control of market prices by industry participants, making transmission capacity more readily available and the environmental impacts of electricity generation.

In its focus on market power issues, the report warns that "in any market there will be opportunities for one firm or a group of large firms to sustain prices above the least-cost level." The best strategy to avoid large firms controlling the market, the panel concludes, is to establish a sufficient number of participating firms in the market as early as possible.

A second problem, the analysts warn, involves the fact that competitive power markets depend on ready access to transmission and distribution lines. These lines can become very crowded and congested, making it difficult for generators to send their power to the customers. This means that consumers in one area could pay substantially more for electricity than consumers only a few miles away if they are purchasing electricity from a non-local utility.

"None of these problems are insurmountable, but they do need to be addressed in designing competitive markets," said Hillard Huntington, executive director of the forum.

DECEMBER 1998 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING 7

Determine your true energy costs

Would you like to find out how much you are really spending on energy for your home or business? Here are some tips from the U.S. Department of Energy for figuring your energy costs:

Energy costs can vary greatly with the seasons. As a result, look at your energy costs on an annual basis over a 12-month period. Gather your electric and gas bills for one year and add them together. Remember to include bills for propane, oil, wood or other heating fuels that you may have purchased.

Remember that a mild or harsh winter and/or summer can significantly affect your energy costs. How to handle this? Add up several years' worth of bills and then divide by the number of years to get an accurate figure.

Want to go hi-tech? Or perhaps you want to find out how much energy your dream house would use? If you have access to the Internet, you can use the Virtual Home Energy Advisor, which you can access on your computer at www.eetd.lbl.gov/ HES. This program, created by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, uses detailed information from you to estimate your home's energy usage and annual energy costs. The advisor includes detailed calculation of all your energy uses, including heating, cooling, hot water, lights and appliances.

Do you have questions about home energy costs? Are you looking for ways to save money by increasing energy efficiency in your home or business? Call your local electric co-op.

Co-ops work to preserve network TV service for satellite viewers

Today, advances in satellite technology allow millions of American viewers who cannot receive broadcast television signals via a conventional antenna or cable, to get a television signal. But on July 10, a federal judge granted an injunction prohibiting satellite TV providers from selling CBS and Fox to subscribers in certain areas. The judge's order would have blacked out network service to 1 million satellite viewers.

NRTC filed a petition with the FCC to stop blackout. Facing a consumer backlash, a compromise was negotiated between the satellite and broadcast TV industries. United States District Judge Lenore Nesbitt signed an order delaying enforcement injunction until February 28,1999.

"When 75 percent of Americans get 100 percent of their news from television, the FCC ought to do everything it can to ensure that every household in America has the option to receive network service, rather than perpetuating a policy that would keep rural Americans unplugged from the world," said NRTC's Chief Executive Officer Bob Phillips.

Unfortunately, none of the bills addressing satellite television were acted upon this year. The bill proposed by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was effectively scuttled because the broadcasters demanded so many changes to the bill. NRTC sent a letter to Sen. McCain formally withdrawing support for the bill after the changes because it favored the broadcasters instead of consumers. Other bills were stalled as well.

The NRTC will continue to work for a legislative reprieve with next year's Congress. In the meantime, satellite TV providers must prepare to disconnect around one million subscribers from receiving network TV services as of February 28, 1999. Subscribers are encouraged to continue to let their lawmakers in Washington, D.C. know how they will be affected by this issue. For more information contact your local DIRECTV provider or this NRTC website: www.tvaccessnow.com.

Inexpensive kits make halogen lamps safe

Do you have one or more halogen torchere lamp in your home or office? If so, remember that you should attach a simple wire guard that keeps flammable items from contacting the hot lamp. You need to obtain one of these guard kits because halogen torchere lamps have an uncovered bulb on the top of the unit and this 300-watt bulb burns at 970 degrees! (A particularly dangerous thing to do is to place a halogen torchere lamp next to curtains or drapes.)

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), there are more than 40 million floor lamps in the United States. CPSC says there have been more than 150 fires and 11 deaths in this country since 1992.

Installing the guard is simple and you can do it yourself at home. The lamp is fit with a bulb-protecting wire guard that keeps flammables from contacting the hot lamp. The guards are available from Ames, BJs Wholesale Club, Hechingers/Home Quarters, Home Base, The Home Depot, IKEA, Kmart, Lowes, Montgomery Ward, Office Depot, Target and WalMart.

Another option is to replace the halogen bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb. A compact fluorescent produces the brightness of a 300-watt halogen but uses only 67 watts of power. It also burns cooler. Compact fluorescents cost about twice as much as halogen bulbs but last seven times longer.

For more information on halogen torchere lamps, visit the CPSC website at www.cpsc.gov/, or call the CPSC toll-free hotline at (800) 638-2772.

8 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING DECEMBER 1998