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Welcome to United’s PowerTalk podcast, a production of United Cooperative Services. We’re a distribution co-op serving 79,000 members, 110,000 meters and more than 34,000 internet subscribers! Tune in to each episode to hear stories about service, power, and the people working behind the scenes to provide our membership with exceptional service and value. Learn more about the cooperative and how we serve our community in North Texas at ucs.net.
John Davis:
Hello, and welcome to United's PowerTalk.
I'm John Davis, and I'd like to thank you for joining us for this
inaugural edition of United Cooperative Service's podcast,
where we tell you the stories of service,
power and the people behind it all.
We'll be coming to you every other month this year,
and I invite you to join each time to learn more about the people
at your co-op and how we deliver exceptional service and value
each day for both electricity and high speed internet.
On this episode, we'll meet with United's CEO Cameron Smallwood
to discuss this year's energy outlook,
as well as what the future holds for the internet project.
And as we discuss electricity and high speed internet,
we'll talk about the opportunities and challenges in the new
year. Cameron, thanks for joining us.
Cameron Smallwood:
Hey, John, thanks for having me.
I'm really excited about participating in our new podcast,
PowerTalk.
I really look forward to how our members are going to receive
this new communications tool,
and I'm really excited to participate today,
so thank you for having me.
John Davis:
Well, thank you for the microphones. This is great. I've wanted
to do this for a long time.
So let's start the conversation with some good news for United
members.
During the last community meeting,
you had mentioned that the power costs may be coming down a
little bit for United members this year,
thanks to the new way that the co-op is going to be purchasing
its power. Can you tell me a little bit about how that will work?
Cameron Smallwood:
Sure, John, but I got to go back a little bit,
and so I'm not going to go back pre-bankruptcy,
but when Winter Storm Uri happened,
it really changed a lot of things for United Cooperative Services
and really all the members of Brazos Electric Cooperative.
John Davis:
Right.
Cameron Smallwood:
As a result of the bankruptcy, you know,
there was a lot of challenges within that.
But when we exited bankruptcy with Brazos,
all the 16 member and owners of Brazos were then responsible to
purchase their own power. And so that was a big change for us
because prior to that point,
we were obligated to buy all of our power through Brazos Electric
Cooperative.
But after the bankruptcy, all of that changed.
Now, with that said, you know, prices were pretty stable prior to
Winter Storm Uri,
for the most part. We had times of volatility here and there,
but ultimately,
Brazos did a pretty effective job of managing that volatility and
risk for us.
But Winter Storm Uri changed everything.
And as a result of that, you know,
we discussed this with our members,
and we had some options through the bankruptcy process as to how
to deal with that problem.
And our members gave us very clear direction that they wanted
United to continue to manage that process for our members.
And so that's what we did. And so coming out of bankruptcy,
we initialized a contract with another energy provider,
Constellation Energy, and they did a really exceptional job for
the first couple of years managing that risk for us.
And our rates were very, very stable during that time.
So we really enjoyed the lack of volatility during that time,
and our members were able to have some really great
rates because of it. We maintained very strong competitiveness
with the market during that time.
John Davis:
Right, right.
Cameron Smallwood:
And ultimately, no volatility. While the market did have some
volatility.
So it was a really good contract for us.
It minimized the risk to the members.
But going forward, we saw that we at times were paying a small
premium to have zero risk.
And we believe that we can do that a little bit better going
forward.
And so starting just a week ago,
January 1st, we entered into a new contract with Constellation.
And they only support a part of our energy needs today.
So we use the market, and we use other providers to supplement
that as we go forward,
which we hope will drive cost out of the portfolio for our power.
John Davis:
So it's a way to kind of make sure that we can shuffle the deck a
little bit when it comes to how much the
energy is going to cost for members?
How does that work exactly?
Cameron Smallwood:
Yeah. Yeah. And so ultimately, we have flexibility now to
purchase at different times,
purchase different products, that may be able to lower costs for
our members going forward.
So that's our focus now.
John Davis:
Who's in charge of all this?
Cameron Smallwood:
So we have a team of folks. But that team is led by Jim Galvin.
He's our senior vice president of power supply and risk
management.
We're really pleased to have Jim on our team.
We hired him about three years ago in preparation for this time.
And so he has been a really great addition to our team.
He's was at ERCOT, an employee of ERCOT when the market was
created.
So he was there when all the rules were set and the foundations
were set for the market.
John Davis:
So he understands all the calculus of this market and how it all
goes together?
Cameron Smallwood:
Absolutely, John. He understands it really well,
and we're really pleased to have him.
From that point, he went on to work for generators and power
suppliers and even consulting around the world on markets and
developing rules for markets, etc.
So we're really lucky to have had him join our team,
and he's done a really exceptional job on our team preparing us
for the future.
John Davis:
How will the new way of purchasing power impact members' bills
and by how much?
Cameron Smallwood:
So that's a great question. At the end of this past year,
our members were paying about 14.6 cents per kilowatt hour for
2,000 kilowatt hours use. And so what does that look like now?
So January, we're under the beginning part of this new process
that we're in,
and our rates have been able to go down to 14.2 cents.
So what does that mean to a member?
Savings of about $10 a month today.
John Davis:
That's money in your pocket. In this economy,
anybody would want that,
right?
Cameron Smallwood:
Correct. And you know our goal is to push that even further.
You know, I can't guarantee that.
You know, obviously we're working on different ways to push price
down even further.
I've talked about that for the last several years with our
members as we've met in community meetings,
and we've had our town hall events.
But ultimately our goal is to push that price down,
and we're really hopeful we can get it below $0.14 a kilowatt
hour. We're working hard at it.
John Davis:
I know everybody's going to be glad to see that happen.
So that's managing power costs. What are other ways that the
co-op is helping members manage energy and energy dollars?
Cameron Smallwood:
John, that's a great question. And it's something I talk about
quite a bit.
For the last almost two decades,
this co-op has been working on ways for our members to use less
energy. And so if you haven't done an energy audit at your home,
we do free energy audits to help you pinpoint areas that you can
improve your home, which ultimately uses less energy for you and
saves you money.
And so if you haven't done that,
please reach out to us, and let us come and evaluate your home
and help you out there. Another thing that we have is the
Community Solar program.
And while it's not open today, we're actually working on an
expansion of that,
and our members have asked us to expand that for some time.
But we have, you know, almost 7,000 members right now,
saving somewhere between $200-400 a year,
being on the community solar program.
John Davis:
That's great. That's great.
Cameron Smallwood:
And we have more coming, and so that's the exciting news.
We're working on a contract right now and the final details.
And we expect to get that over the finish line,
which is going to expand that program greatly and give that
savings to even more of our members.
So stay tuned on that. If you're not a part of the program,
you're going to have the opportunity to join here in the very
near future. And John, I know I mentioned Community Solar,
and I know I mentioned energy audits,
but we also have Energy Solutions team that has some offerings
for our members,
and our members are taking advantage of now.
We've been communicating this in our magazine,
on the website, but we actually install solar on homes today and
businesses today. Batteries, if you want them.
We have solutions for that. So we have a team that we've
assembled.
We've been in I guess, operation for about two years on that,
and we've done a number of installations.
But if you actually have as a member a desire to put solar on
your home,
we've got a process to actually show you what that looks like.
Show you what the results would be and give you pricing,
very competitive pricing,
actually, on a system if you chose to go forward.
But I'm hopeful on a different podcast that you'll bring some of
our experts in on that and have a discussion there too.
John Davis:
Absolutely. I've talked to him several times,
and I know it's a great way for members to get the real numbers
for what a solar system is going to bring to them,
and also not have to worry about getting scammed because that
happens a lot.
Cameron Smallwood:
Exactly. Unfortunately, there's some unscrupulous solar
installers out there that do take advantage of our members,
and so we sure hope that members will reach out to us first if
they're considering adding solar to their home.
John Davis:
Excellent, excellent. And I'd like to put in a pitch for the
website real quick.
Members can go to the website and find out more about that
program as well as energy audits.
So check out ucs.net.
Cameron Smallwood:
Absolutely.
John Davis:
There's another topic, while we're talking about energy,
that I want to cover that's been in the regional and now the
national news, and that's data centers.
With the AI boom and I'm sure you've seen in the news reports
about data center concerns cropping up in states like Oklahoma
and Pennsylvania and Arizona. What are data centers?
And what are the positives and negatives for Texas and United
Service territory?
Cameron Smallwood:
You know, it's an interesting discussion topic,
John.
So a data center is just a large building full of computers.
They're specialized computers that do different things depending
on what they're asked to do.
And data centers have been around for some time.
But with the advent of artificial intelligence and agentic
artificial intelligence and the challenges thereof,
you know, all these large companies that are trying to make money
with this new technology need computing power.
And so there's been this huge, I guess,
growth, if you will, across the country of these data centers to
try to meet the needs of all these different companies that are
competing to create that next big thing when it comes to AI.
John Davis:
I see. And so do we have any of these in our service territory?
Are we going to have any in the near future?
Cameron Smallwood:
So we don't currently today, but we're talking to quite a few
different developers of these projects.
And, you know, whether they come to fruition or not,
I can't really speak to right now,
but there is a possibility that they do.
And when they do, you know, we have an obligation to serve them.
So if they come into our territory,
and I know not all of our members are really excited about that,
I've had some comments from some folks that I don't want to data
center in my backyard.
I don't want this, I don't want this.
And I understand that completely.
But the reality is if a data center is meets all the state and
county and city rules of where they're going to
site, there's really nothing we can do but serve them because
we're obligated to serve them.
But there are some positives about that.
So if a data center does site on United's lines,
there's a possibility of greater rate stability going forward and
maybe even some lower costs for our members.
So that's a really positive outcome of adding one of these data
centers.
Plus, you know, there's a lot of investment there.
So that's a good thing for the tax base of the county and the
city that it sites in.
And it does bring jobs as well,
some pretty high paying jobs because there's technical people
that have to run this place once it's in place.
So you know there are positives.
You know there are some negatives too. You know,
it is land use and a large building,
and it maybe not look all that pretty.
There is some concern about about noise,
but there are some data centers around our territory that we
don't serve that it doesn't appear to be a problem,
the noise issue.
But we do have some bitcoin miners that are close to us as well
where noise has been a problem.
Okay.
John Davis:
But data centers, traditionally what we're seeing really aren't
much of a noise issue.
And so, you know, there's positives and negatives.
But ultimately, you know, if they purchase the property and
follow all the rules,
they have the right to use that property and build that data
center,
and we have the obligation to serve it. Understand.
And hey, if it's going to bring economic growth to the area,
that's always a good thing,
right? Finally, let's talk about the high speed internet project.
And it's about to crest its sixth year.
And in that time we've connected more than 34,000 subscribers.
And it's a pretty sizable chunk of our membership.
How does it feel to have come so far in such a short amount of
time?
Cameron Smallwood:
Well, it's been amazing. I think if I was going to use one word,
I'd say amazing.
What we've been able to do for our communities that we serve,
and a lot of these folks are in some really rural spaces.
They're able to do things they've never thought they'd be able to
do, and that's a pretty awesome feeling to know that we've
changed people's lives by this,
by this technology and implementing fiber to the home.
You know, when we first started,
it's sort of interesting.
We had a consultant that did some study,
and at that point in time they basically studied and noted that
87% of our members lacked access to high speed internet.
John Davis:
That's a huge amount of people.
Cameron Smallwood:
That's a lot of people. And what's interesting is,
you know, those people spoke, and that's why we did this project,
is because our members asked us to solve a problem that no one
else was willing to solve.
And fast forward, you know, five and a half,
six years into the future,
and now 87% of our communities have access to high speed.
So we flopped it completely. And so I'm really excited to be a
part of the solution.
And so the question is how do we move that forward?
How do we get to that last 13%? You know,
we're going to do some,
but other other parties are going to be doing some as well.
And the second thing that's sort of happening there,
because we've done it,
we've been successful, we've met those needs.
We do have some competition that is actually overbuilding us
right now,
which is really interesting to me.
John Davis:
Wow.
Cameron Smallwood:
Ultimately, we've got the best service.
We've got really good pricing, and we do what we say we're going
to do,
and we've got one of the best networks around.
John Davis:
As you've talked to members, what are some of the points of pride
that you've heard them tell you as far as finally getting decent
internet where they live?
Cameron Smallwood:
That's a good question. I've had so many members reach out to me
and discuss just walking down the street,
you know, go to lunch and somebody catches me,
and they give me a story about this,
but they sort of fall in a couple buckets.
One bucket is their ability to basically work from home.
I've had so many rural folks tell me,
you know, I had to drive an hour,
hour and a half into work one way.
John Davis:
Wow.
Cameron Smallwood:
And this has changed my life, you know,
because I only have to go into work one day a week now,
and I can work from home, and my internet is so great.
It's actually better here than it is at the office.
And I've been told that, you know,
what we've done has been life changing for folks working
remotely. The second thing I've heard is,
is about education.
And so the ability for our members to educate their kiddos has
increased significantly with what we've done.
And that's a pretty exciting thing,
too, because we're changing their future as well.
And so those are just two examples.
There's quite a few more that I've gotten over the last several
years, but those are the two really exciting examples.
John Davis:
I know I've talked to several educators at schools in our service
territory,
and they've said that it's completely changed the way that
they've been able to teach kids,
and that's always a great thing.
It's amazing to have that kind of impact.
Cameron Smallwood:
Absolutely.
John Davis:
Now, United applied to a federal grant program called the
Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program,
everybody calls it BEAD, to see if they could receive some of
that money to build out the high speed internet network in the
most expensive areas within the service footprint.
At the end of 2025, United learned it wasn't going to receive any
of that grant money,
but that doesn't mean that members will be left out of receiving
internet.
How did that impact the final years of the build out,
and what does that mean for members who are still wanting to
receive high speed internet?
Cameron Smallwood:
Well, John, you know, as I mentioned a bit ago,
87% of our members have access,
which means about 13% do not. And that's the 13% that we're
talking about right now.
They are the 13% most expensive connections to make on our
network.
And so in order to do that in a financially feasible way for the
co-op,
we've gone out and requested help from the BEAD program.
John Davis:
Okay.
Cameron Smallwood:
And we put forth an application.
It was a really good application,
but it was a real application.
We used real numbers and real information to fill that out.
And ultimately we weren't selected as the most cheap option,
if you will,
to connect those last 13% of our members.
You know, I sort of get challenged with that because,
you know, the federal government basically made some changes last
year to make it the most cheap option to connect those folks to
100 megabit service.
John Davis:
So they moved the goalposts?
Cameron Smallwood:
They did. And from our standpoint,
we want to connect people to multigig service.
But the federal government said,
no, that's not what we want to do.
We want to connect 100 megabit service,
and that's good enough.
And so lower cost providers were able to come in and underbid us
on the BEAD process and ultimately won the awards to
connect those last 13% of our members.
So what does that mean for that 13%?
Ultimately, because we don't have the grant funding to do that,
and somebody else is going to have the grant funding to do that,
we're going to let that somebody else do those connections.
And they've obligated to serve that last 13% of our members.
I'd love to do it, but without the grant funds,
we just can't make it work financially,
feasibly for the co-op.
John Davis:
Well, you got to be fiscally responsible,
for sure.
Cameron Smallwood:
We absolutely do.
John Davis:
All right. Before we close, do you have any thoughts comments
that you'd like to share?
Cameron Smallwood:
Well, I could talk for a couple hours,
John, but we'll save that for a different episode.
How about that? Or different episodes in the future.
I will say this. I'm really excited about the podcast.
You know, I'm looking forward to not only me,
you know, and having future discussions with you,
but also several other of our employees and experts and maybe
folks in the community.
I'm really excited where this is going to go,
going forward.
And PowerTalk is going to be a great resource for our members and
the communities we serve, I believe.
John Davis:
I'm really excited to see how everybody's going to respond to it,
and I'm grateful for the opportunity.
So I'd like to thank you for joining us today and for the
opportunity.
And I'd like to thank the members for listening to PowerTalk. You
can learn more about what's happening at United by finding the
PowerTalk pages inside the March issue of Texas Co-op Power
Magazine,
and make sure you like us on Facebook,
X, YouTube, and Instagram.
We'll see you next time.
Cameron Smallwood:
Thank you John.
John Davis:
Thank you.