As we conclude 2020, the year of disruption, I find myself focusing on what I can depend on—those constants in life that never change: family, faith and the constant pace of time. I believe these constants ground us and serve as the foundation for long-term happiness and success in life and business.
This is the good news for GVEC as we look out over the next five years: We are starting from a strong foundation. This foundation empowers us to meet the challenges we face as the industries we represent, technologies we use and offer, and the people we serve continue to change more quickly than ever in GVEC’s 82-year history.
Despite 2020’s uncertainties, we believe we can still predict our priorities for the next five years with a high level of confidence. First, the electric industry power supply mix, especially in Texas, will continue transitioning to a greater percentage of renewable resources—primarily utility-scale solar and eventually battery storage. Second, the adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) like consumer-level solar and battery storage and other electric technologies (e.g., electric vehicles—“EVs”) will continue expanding as prices decline and performance improves. Access to fast, reliable and affordable broadband must continue to grow, too, as it forms the backbone of the connected lifestyle society is building. And lastly, we know that customers will continue expecting greater levels of convenience and access to information and services that enhance their quality of life.
GVEC is well positioned to meet these challenges. Self-managing our power supply mix using staggered contracts gives us the flexibility to add renewable resources as they become more available and competitively priced. Due to growing consumer interest in greater control over energy usage, GVEC now offers both residential and commercial solar and battery storage options. We are supporting EV adoption through education as well as plan to add more fast chargers to our service area in addition to the two already established in Seguin. We also offer installation of residential and commercial EV chargers and are discussing potential rebates to encourage consumer implementation.
Our fiber internet expansion is planned to pass over 30,000 homes by the end of 2025. For those homes we cannot yet reach with fiber, we are strengthening wireless speeds where possible. Where applicable, we will also implement new technologies over the next few years to ensure the customer touchpoints with us are easy and convenient to access and use.
Our plan for the next five years starts a new journey to add additional value to the services you already know and trust. We have faith in our direction and genuine, creative, compassionate employees willing to work hard to get the job done. I hope you are as excited as I am about the quality of service you can continue to rely on from GVEC as we work toward our vision of delivering more value to the people and communities we serve.
I am always interested in your comments and feedback. Contact me by phone at 830.857.1152, by email at dschauer@gvec.org or by mail at P.O. Box 118, Gonzales, Texas 78629.
