MEA survey says members like co-op’s service

PALMER — The results are in: Matanuska Electric Association members like their cooperative.

At least that’s what MEA reports as the results of a survey the power supplier commissioned from the Loyalty Research Center in June.

The survey asked 801 members a list of questions relating to energy costs and general feelings about the co-op. MEA Assistant General Manager Tuckerman Babcock said it was the only such survey the co-op has conducted in at least 10 years.

“Forty-two percent of the members contact MEA in a year. That’s a lot of people,” Babcock said. “And we were very pleased that when they do they are satisfied with their contact.”

Babcock was referring to survey results that show 60 percent of members who called customer service reported being treated “very well” and 19 percent reported being treated “somewhat well.” Only 6 percent were “not treated very well” and 5 percent “not treated very well at all.”

But that doesn’t mean the survey was all kudos and accolades for MEA.

Babcock identified a number of places where the utility has some work to do. A question about whether residents knew that an MEA-provided generator at KNBQ allows the station to broadcast during a power outage showed only 29 percent knew they could get news from the station during blackouts.

Babcock said that means MEA should be working harder to get the word out.

Another area of concern is that 41 percent of respondents had no opinion about the co-op’s board of directors.

“We see we need some work to make the members more aware that they are a part of a cooperative and they have a board of directors,” Babcock said.

Lastly, there’s the question of outages. Only 12 percent of those surveyed reported having no outages in the past year and 13 percent having just one. That leaves 56 percent who had two to five, 13 percent with six to 10, and 7 percent with more than 10 power outages over the past year.

“In our rural areas we do have outages because of trees and squirrels and long distances,” Babcock said, pointing out that MEA has more miles of line than all of Anchorage. But, he added, “That still seems like it’s something we should work on.”

The results still show improvement in cutting down on outages, he said.

“The old hands here … are really happy with that result, because MEA used to have just dozens of outages, dozens and dozens of outages,” Babcock said.

In addition to rating performance and customer experience with MEA, a couple of survey questions touched on issues that have been controversial in recent years.

A majority — 54 percent — of respondents said state and federal regulations are enough in the power generation industry and the Mat-Su Borough’s regulations, enacted last year, are unnecessary. The question relates to a power plant ordinance the Borough passed last summer. MEA has submitted a successful petition to put the ordinance’s repeal on the next Borough ballot, Babcock said.

Then there’s the question of coal.

“If it once again becomes affordable, would you support MEA constructing a clean coal power plant?” one question asked.

Sixty-six percent said they would.

“It’s a signal that members want cost-effective generation,” Babcock said, noting that a question on renewable energy fell along those lines as well, with 43 percent saying they would not support any hike in power bills to pursue alternative energy and 27 percent saying they’d pay less than $100 per year.

As of now, though, Babcock said there are no plans to resurrect MEA’s plans to build a coal-fired generation plant, which the board of directors tabled in December for at least five years.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.