A Message from Claiborne Electric’s General Manager & CEO:

As your electric cooperative, Claiborne Electric Cooperative, Inc. (“Cooperative” or “Claiborne”) is committed to providing safe, reliable electric service every day.  We know how disruptive power outages can be, and we understand the frustration many of our members served from the Crossroads Substation have experienced over the past several weeks. If it seems like your power has been interrupted more often than usual lately, you’re right.  During the last 60 days alone, the Crossroads Substation has lost its incoming transmission supply more times than it did during the entire five-year period from 2021 through 2025. That level of disruption is unacceptable, and we want to explain what has been happening and what is being done to address it.

I am writing today to share with you what has caused the outages at Crossroads Substation over the last two months and what steps the Cooperative is taking to resolve the situation.  Claiborne has twenty distribution substations in service to meet the needs of its members across our six-parish service territory.  Each substation receives power through subtransmission or transmission lines operating at voltages from 34.5 to 115 kV. The transmission line serving the Crossroads Substation is a 34.5kV line that is owned, operated, and maintained by our regional transmission provider, not Claiborne.

When outages occur on facilities owned by the Cooperative, our crews respond immediately to identify the problem and restore service as quickly as possible. In this case, however, the outages have occurred on subtransmission facilities that are owned, operated, and maintained by the transmission provider. Because the Cooperative does not own or control those facilities, only the transmission provider’s personnel can perform the repairs or switching necessary to restore the transmission supply. Although the underlying cause is outside of our direct control, we recognize that distinction offers little comfort when you’re waiting for the lights to come back on.

Our staff has been in regular communication with the transmission provider and has provided detailed outage information with its senior management. They have acknowledged that the frequency of these outages is unacceptable and are evaluating corrective measures to improve the reliability of service to the Crossroads Substation and other substations served from this transmission system.

Please know that we will continue to press for a permanent solution and advocate for our members until these reliability issues are addressed. As we receive additional information about the transmission provider’s mitigation plan and implementation schedule, we will share those updates with you.

Thank you for your patience, your understanding, and your continued confidence in Claiborne Electric Cooperative. We value the trust you place in us and remain committed to doing everything within our authority to provide the reliable electric service you expect and deserve.

Sincerely,

Michael Marcotte

General Manager & CEO

Claiborne Electric Cooperative, Inc.