005: Delivering Life-Enhancing Services: Beyond the Power Lines
Co-Op Heroes: Stories from Electric Utility Operators
Release Date: 07/22/2025
006: Beyond Borders: How Indiana Co-Ops Are Electrifying Rural Guatemala (with Mandy Barth - IEC)
Co-Op Heroes: Stories from Electric Utility Operators
In this inspiring episode of The Co-Op Heroes podcast, host Pablo Fuentes sits down with Mandy Barth, Vice President of Communication at Indiana Electric Cooperatives (IEC), to explore an extraordinary international mission that has been transforming lives for over a decade. What began as a one-time project in 2012 to celebrate the UN's International Year of the Cooperative has evolved into Project Indiana—a sustained effort to bring electricity to remote Guatemalan villages that have never had power. Mandy shares how Indiana became the first state to send an all-state team on an...
info_outline
005: Delivering Life-Enhancing Services: Beyond the Power Lines
Co-Op Heroes: Stories from Electric Utility Operators
In this episode of The Co-Op Heroes podcast, hosts Pablo Fuentes (CEO of Bloom Spatial) and James Tanneberger (CEO of South Central Indiana REMC) explore how electric cooperatives go beyond traditional utility services to improve their members' lives. James shares South Central Indiana REMC's mission to "improve the lives of our members" and how this philosophy has led them to provide services that investor-owned utilities typically don't offer. The conversation covers their journey from early dial-up internet services in rural Texas to their current $100+ million fiber-to-the-home project...
info_outline
004: Manager on Call: The Day the Line Exploded
Co-Op Heroes: Stories from Electric Utility Operators
In this episode of The Co-Op Heroes podcast, hosts Pablo Fuentes (CEO of Bloom Spatial) and James Tanneberger (CEO of South Central Indiana REMC) explore real-world utility emergency response through personal experience. James recounts his early days as an electrical engineer when he was assigned to the "manager on call" rotation. During a severe storm, a 69kV transmission line took a lightning strike and, instead of safely tripping as designed, the line exploded—destroying 30 spans of critical transmission infrastructure and leaving scattered aluminum fragments across the landscape. What...
info_outline
003: Surviving 2023: Tornadoes, Derechos, and a Global Crisis to Boot
Co-Op Heroes: Stories from Electric Utility Operators
2023 was supposed to be a manageable year for SCI-REMC. Instead, it became a masterclass in crisis management when two of the worst weather events in the co-op's history struck within three months of each other. In this episode, James Tanneberger walks us through the devastating tornado outbreak in late March that left 12,000 members without power, followed by an even more destructive derecho in June that knocked out service to over half their territory – 18,000 members – in just 10 minutes. But Mother Nature wasn't finished: the global energy crisis triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war...
info_outline
002: Winnebago to the Rescue: When Electric Utilities Get Creative During a Crisis
Co-Op Heroes: Stories from Electric Utility Operators
What happens when a hurricane threatens to flood your electric utility's control center and you have just 12 hours to evacuate? For James Tannenberger and his team during Hurricane Rita in 2005, the answer was a 1997 Winnebago converted into a mobile backup operations center. In this episode, James shares the harrowing story of their 32-hour journey from Houston to Fort Worth – a drive that should have taken 3.5 hours – as 1.5 million people fled Hurricane Rita's path simultaneously. Armed with a mechanically-questionable RV that had previously served as the company's marketing vehicle,...
info_outline
001: Beyond the Bunny Hop: SCI-REMC's Path to Improving Member Satisfaction
Co-Op Heroes: Stories from Electric Utility Operators
When James Tanneberger became CEO of SCI-REMC, his co-op ranked 17th out of 18 electric cooperatives in Southern Indiana for member satisfaction, with a score of just 68 out of 100. Eight years later, that score has climbed to 74 and continues rising. In this episode, James shares the innovative strategies that transformed his co-op's relationship with its members, from deploying fiber-to-the-home technology that enables remote outage management to ditching expensive annual meetings in favor of connecting with members at county fairs complete with deep-fried Twinkies and "bunny hop" electrical...
info_outline
000: Co-Op Heroes: Introduction
Co-Op Heroes: Stories from Electric Utility Operators
Welcome to the show! Hosts James Tanneberger and Pablo Fuentes give a quick overview of the show. We will share stories and interviews with utility operators, highlighting the trials and triumphs of the people who bring power to our homes and businesses.
info_outlineIn this episode of The Co-Op Heroes podcast, hosts Pablo Fuentes (CEO of Bloom Spatial) and James Tanneberger (CEO of South Central Indiana REMC) explore how electric cooperatives go beyond traditional utility services to improve their members' lives.
James shares South Central Indiana REMC's mission to "improve the lives of our members" and how this philosophy has led them to provide services that investor-owned utilities typically don't offer. The conversation covers their journey from early dial-up internet services in rural Texas to their current $100+ million fiber-to-the-home project serving over 12,000 users.
Services discussed:
- High-speed fiber internet and its impact on rural communities
- Early dial-up internet provision when no local options existed
- Security services (15-year operation before strategic exit)
- Propane delivery (discontinued due to risk considerations)
- Future considerations for water service delivery
Key insights:
- How the cooperative business model enables innovation that profit-driven utilities might avoid
- The strategic decision-making process for entering and exiting non-electric services
- How fiber infrastructure improvements enhance both internet service and electric grid reliability
- The role of cooperatives in rural economic development and infrastructure
James explains how the cooperative structure allows them to take calculated risks on services that improve member lives, even when the immediate financial return isn't guaranteed. The episode highlights how electric cooperatives often become innovators in rural service delivery, filling gaps that other providers won't address.
Whether you're interested in cooperative business models, rural infrastructure development, or utility innovation, this episode demonstrates how mission-driven organizations can expand their impact beyond their core services.