Jeff Benfield Named Caldwell Operations Manager for Blue Ridge Electric
For Immediate Release
Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Corporate Communications, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383 ext. 3213; Pager:1-800-471-1323; or E-mail: Renee Whitener
Lenoir, North Carolina (January 30, 2003) – Jeff L. Benfield has been named operations manager for the Caldwell district office of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, a not-for-profit member-owned electric utility serving over 64,000 members in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe,Alleghany, Wilkes and Alexander counties.
Benfield worked for the past 17 years as a lineman in Caldwell district, serving as crew leader for the past four years. He worked as a meter reader for two years when he first joined Blue Ridge Electric in 1986. In 1988 he was named an apprentice lineman and after completing the apprentice line technician program at Wake Technical Community College, he was promoted to lineman in 1991, soon afterwards attaining the “A” lineman designation.
In his current position, Benfield supervises a team of 11 linemen and two field service technicians, as well as two staking engineers, a warehouseman, and a vehicle mechanic at the utility’s Caldwell district office.
Benfield said one of the major focus areas in Caldwell County for 2003 will be construction of additional transmission line and a substation in the Grace Chapel community. This addition is necessary to maintain reliable electric service for southern Caldwell County, an area that’s become one of the fastest growing on the Blue Ridge Electric system with an annual increase of 5 percent in membership for the past few years. Much of the growth is due to developing communities on or near Lake Hickory and the Grace Chapel community.
The substation serving the area will be located on Falls Avenue, with the transmission line starting at South Caldwell Access Road and traveling to the Grace Chapel Road where it meets Falls Avenue. The substation will be serving much of southern Caldwell County.
Even though the cooperative delivered a 99.97 percent power reliability rate in 2002, “there is also a system-wide renewed focus on reliability in 2003,” he said. While much of an electric system is computerized and information is available over computer networks linking the substations to central dispatchers at the cooperative, some problems are better detected visually or can be eliminated by manually examining the electric plant system, Benfield explained. “Our linemen will walk every mile of our transmission line during four designated time periods during the year. Because some areas are better viewed and accessed from above, we will also be examining the system with the help of a helicopter twice each year,” he explained.
Caldwell County’s current transmission line runs from Dry Ponds to Hudson and from Lenoir to Patterson to Kings Creek to Elk Creek.
Benfield gives credit to the linemen when talking about how Caldwell district will serve its members.
“As a lineman, you take very seriously your job of responding to members’ needs for reliable power and working with our members is one of the most enjoyable parts of the job,” said Benfield. “As a cooperative utility, we are owned by the members—consumers—we serve. We take a lot of pride in serving our members. Cooperatives like Blue Ridge Electric are here solely to provide reliable, safe power at the most affordable price possible.”
“Our linemen are always ready and prepared to respond to any emergency or any routine call, at any hour of the day or night,” he continued. While linemen receive a lot of credit during storms such as the recent wind and snow storms that damaged power lines resulting in power outages, some of their most important work goes on every day as they work to maintain the system and prevent outages from occurring in the first place, he added.
A coach for Little League Baseball for eight years and a youth basketball coach, Benfield lives in Lenoir with his wife, Tammy, and their two sons, Zack and Jake.
