Utility decisions, explained from inside the co-op.
Co-op Energy Talk explains the operating decisions behind Cherryland's electric service, from board updates and metering projects to drones, rebates, and storm recovery. It keeps the language practical, with enough shop-floor detail to make utility planning feel understandable.
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Co-op Energy Talk is Cherryland's utility explainer, built around the practical work of keeping power reliable while managing costs for members. It is less a news show than an operating-room view of an electric cooperative. Board meeting briefs turn governance into plain language, covering meter replacement, financial audits, member input, facilities planning, dashboard metrics, power supply, and reliability. The episodes often connect a single update to a larger cooperative question. Why does a new metering system matter? Because outage reporting can become faster, service data can improve, and crews can be deployed with better information. Why do FEMA rules matter after a major ice storm? Because disaster restoration creates costs that can otherwise land on member bills for years. That kind of cause-and-effect structure gives the show its value. Courtney Doyle's conversations with staff and leaders make technical subjects feel accessible without flattening them. Rachel Johnson's board briefs are direct and detail-heavy, especially on power supply, storm performance, equity, margins, and cost control. The show also spends time with the people doing physical and technical work. Journeyman linemen Kyle Griffin and Brad Norton talk through training, apprenticeships, safety authority, and storm questions. Zach Endres and Rachel Johnson explain drone inspections as a tool for inventory, outage prevention, post-storm surveys, and focused line imagery. Tammy Hayworth walks through energy waste reduction programs, rebates, appliance categories, heating and cooling options, and member questions. Brad Pawlowski joins a metrics episode that turns Key Ratio Trend Analysis into a story about financial stewardship. The language stays grounded in members' lived experience: outages, bills, rebates, storm damage, board access, and service reliability. There is occasional office warmth, including oddball closing questions and light jokes, but the center of gravity is accountability. Co-op Energy Talk works because it does not treat electricity as invisible infrastructure. It shows the paperwork, poles, policies, crews, dashboards, drones, and dollars behind the switch. For a listener trying to understand how a local electric cooperative thinks, it offers unusually concrete context.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants clear context on electric service, rates, reliability, board decisions, and member programs. It also fits people who like operational detail without industry jargon taking over.
What sets it apart: The show pairs local cooperative accountability with specific utility mechanics: linework safety, FEMA paperwork, drone inspection data, metering upgrades, KRTA metrics, and rebate design. Similar energy shows may discuss policy broadly; this one keeps returning to how decisions touch Cherryland members.
Join us as we discuss the latest energy news and issues that affect Cherryland Electric Cooperative, your northern Michigan member-owned utility.
An ice storm leaves a paperwork trail, and your electric bill has a stake in it.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear, grounded conversation about linework, safety habits, and the people behind the gear.
Co-op Energy Talk brings the work of line crews into clear, human scale as Cherryland journeyman linemen Kyle Griffin and Brad Norton talk through the job during Lineworker Appreciation Month.
FEMA's role is clearest when storm recovery becomes a long documentation job.
Co-op Energy Talk uses a northern Michigan ice storm from about a year ago to look past the spectacle of storm damage and into the systems that make recovery possible.
Cherryland's drone work makes line inspection feel clearer, safer, and more practical.
Cherryland's drone work gives utility maintenance a grounded, practical frame: see the grid more clearly before small problems become outages.
Tammy Hayworth turns Cherryland's compliance update into a clear look at broader home rebate options.
Cherryland's energy waste reduction mandate gives Co-op Energy Talk a practical way into policy: it turns a utility requirement into choices members can make at home.
Cherryland's metrics frame the tension between competitive rates, lean costs, and member stewardship.
Cherryland's annual KRTA discussion treats operating metrics as a window into how a utility weighs choices when costs are tight. Courtney Doyle, Rachel Johnson, and Brad Pawlowski walk through controllable cost per consumer and electric revenue per consumer, tying those measures…
A Hendricks County station, collected.
Specialists walking through software's tradeoffs, one system at a time.
Founders and engineers on AI coding agents like Claude Code, and supply chain security.
Courtney Doyle, Cherryland Communications and Member Relations Manager, talks with Cherryland journeyman linemen Kyle Griffin and Brad Norton during April Lineworker Appreciation Month.
Rachel Johnson recaps the March 2026 board meeting, covering the meter replacement project's near completion, new outage reporting and data features, and the system's performance during a winter storm.
Co-op Energy Talk examines how the 2025 northern Michigan ice storm turned into a FEMA case study for Cherryland, the Michigan Electric Cooperative Association, and their members.
Rachel Johnson updates listeners on the February 2026 board meeting, focusing on the restart of Palisades Nuclear Plant and the co-op's performance during winter storm Fern.
Co-op Energy Talk follows Cherryland CEO Rachel Johnson and Communication Controls Field Engineer Zach Endres as they explain how drone inspections help Cherryland keep the lights on.
Rachel Johnson shares five key updates from the January 2026 board meeting, including a new member onboarding email campaign, a strategic impact plan, a board dashboard with KPIs, and progress on new facilities.
Co-op Energy Talk S12E1 explains Cherryland’s new energy waste reduction setup, including a 1.5% annual-sales savings target, about 6 million kilowatt hours, and a compliance surcharge of roughly $2.25 a month for the average member.
["Co-op Energy Talk S11E16, \"By the Numbers: What Cherryland\u2019s KRTA Metrics Reveal,\" focuses on Cherryland\u2019s annual Key Ratio Trend Analysis report.", "Courtney Doyle, Cherryland\u2019s Communications and Member Relations Manager, hosts Cherryland CEO Rachel Johnson and CFO Brad Pawlowski, the people explaining how the metrics are used.", "The episode asks what KRTAs are for: measuring reliability, member rates, and operational efficiency at Cherryland.", "Brad says every distribution co-op files a Form 7 with financial statements, sales data, employee counts, consumer counts, revenue figures, and energy waste reduction numbers.", "He says CFC, the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation, compiles submissions from about 815 of the country\u2019s 900 co-ops into a 145-ratio report.", "The report covers five years of history and breaks performance into five peer groups, including national, state, consumer size, growth size, and major power supplier.", "Rachel says the August board meeting used this data in depth because Cherryland prefers six to eight actionable ratios over a 145-ratio spreadsheet.", "She says the key question is whether each number helps Cherryland serve members with reliable power, controlled costs, and operational efficiency.", "Rachel also says Cherryland looks at its own five-year trend lines so it does not confuse an industrywide pattern with a Cherryland-specific problem.", "Brad describes a 2023 decision to move some 2024 expenses forward after weak sales so Cherryland would not have two straight mediocre years.", "The controllable-expenses ratio strips out power costs, depreciation, property taxes, and interest, leaving labor, maintenance, right-of-way clearing, and transportation.", "Cherryland\u2019s controllable expenses came in at $343.63 per consumer, ranking 69 of 70 in its consumer-size peer group and 8 of 9 in the state.", "Rachel says the same peer group is closer to roughly $500 to a little under $550 per consumer, which means Cherryland spends about $200 less per consumer each year.", "The electric-revenue-per-consumer ratio shows a similar gap, with Cherryland at about $1,570 a year versus roughly $2,300 in the peer group.", "Brad says Cherryland\u2019s consumer growth rate was 1.45% in 2024, first in the state and 25 of 65 in its consumer-size group, and Rachel links that growth to a new facility that can store transformers and avoid 22-week delays.", "Brad says new metering and SCADA help Cherryland learn about outages faster and reroute power behind the scenes, supporting SAIDI of 65 minutes all-in and 60 minutes for controllable outages versus 267 and 485 minute medians.", "The tone is practical and numbers-heavy, with Rachel and Brad openly saying they like to \"nerd out on metrics\" and comparing growth to \"country mice\" moving beyond Traverse City.", "The style is a straightforward interview with Courtney prompting clear explanations, concrete examples, and member-focused translation of financial ratios into rate and reliability decisions.", "People who care about electric cooperative finance, reliability, and rate-setting will get the most from it.", "Listeners wanting a personal story or entertainment-first conversation will probably skip it."]
Courtney Doyle says Public Act 169 of 2024 adds a $1.25 monthly charge to Cherryland Electric Cooperative bills starting in September.
Cherryland CEO Rachel Johnson and Michigan Electric Cooperative Association CEO John Cran describe how rural co-ops carry member concerns to Lansing and Washington.
Cherryland Electric Cooperative CEO Rachel Johnson and COO Frank Sipker discuss the co-op's 2025 system upgrades to enhance electric reliability.
Cherryland Electric Cooperative's CEO and board president discuss the past year's challenges and new projects, focusing on cybersecurity and grid resilience.
Cherryland Electric Cooperative CEO Rachel Johnson and Wolverine President Eric Baker discuss the cooperative's plan to achieve 100% carbon-free energy by 2030, highlighting their long-term strategy and commitment to reliability and cost stability.