Member cooperatives award over $100K in scholarships

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For the second straight year, Hoosier Energy member cooperatives awarded over $100,000 in college scholarships to local students.   A total of 94 students were selected as recipients of these scholarships, many of which were funded by Operation Round Up, which allows cooperative members to voluntarily round up their monthly electric bills to the next dollar. The extra change helps support various charitable, educational, community and youth-related programs or events, such as scholarships.   Here are the 2026 scholarship winners:   Bartholomew County REMC awarded a pair of $1,500 scholarships to Braelei Ernest of CSA New Tech High School (Indiana Wesleyan) and Kaelynn Engleau of Columbus North (Purdue). The annual…

Together it all works in member education and engagement campaign

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Since 2024, Hoosier Energy and its cooperatives have been participating in a member education and engagement campaign via streaming audio, streaming video, digital display and social media. The campaign specifically targets audiences under the age of 45, with research showing younger demographics are not as familiar with/positive about electric cooperatives.   “The goal is to let people know they’re part of a community when it comes to their electric utility, and also for them to learn more about the member cooperatives,” said Chad Mertz, Vice President of Strategic Communications for Hoosier Energy.   A custom creative campaign for each member cooperative with co-op specific branding played a big role in…

Hoosier retiree Taylor takes long overdue Honor Flight

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The United States of America recently celebrated its 250th birthday.   People like Ron Taylor are a big part of the reason why.   The retired Hoosier Energy employee and Vietnam Veteran participated in the 50th Indy Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., on May 30, 2026.   “It was really well organized, well done and greatly appreciated,” said Taylor. “For those of us who are Vietnam veterans, it was probably the first time since I came home from there in 1970 that anybody actually said thank you. It was a great trip.”   Indy Honor Flight is a non-profit organization created specifically as a way to honor Indiana’s veterans. Each…

Winter storm emergency sparks change for MISO, Hoosier Energy

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Months after Winter Storm Fern put Indiana in a deep freeze, Hoosier Energy and its member cooperatives are still warming to the lessons learned.   On January 24, 2026, a Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) Maximum Generation Emergency event occurred, a rare event for all involved. This included calling on Load Modifying Resources (LMRs) and even public appeals to conserve energy.   “Effectively, there were a lot of lessons learned from the event,” said Brian Hayes, Hoosier Energy’s NERC Compliance Manager. “We followed our procedures and we followed FERC requirements, so we could check those boxes. We did what we were supposed to do and mitigated risk.”   However, it…

Taking to the skies for static wire replacement project

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It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s … flying linemen?   If you were in the right place at the right time near a 12-mile stretch of transmission lines between Tell City North and Bandon Substation in early April, you might have caught a glimpse of linemen tethered underneath a helicopter, soaring through the air as part of Hoosier Energy’s Bandon Static Wire Replacement Project.   It was the first time using that approach for Hoosier, but one that delivered in efficiency as wire was replaced across 95 structures in less than three weeks rather than six months.   “With the helicopter, everything goes a lot faster,” said construction manager…

PowerClerk aids growing interconnection process

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As a generation and transmission (G&T) cooperative, Hoosier Energy manages larger distributed generation interconnections for its member cooperatives.   Termed the Small Generator Interconnection Process (SGIP), these interconnections are for generating facilities larger than 50 kilowatts but no more than 20 megawatts and interconnected at less than or equal to 34.5kV. The member cooperatives handle interconnections under 50KW.   At one time, this interconnection process at Hoosier Energy was a slow, but small, manual process with only a handful of interconnection requests generated each year. That made handling those requests a one-person job. But when that one person left Hoosier, the duties transferred to Raina Lewis in the Member Solutions…

Donnie Eslinger celebrating 50 years at Hoosier Energy

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Meticulous. Problem-solver. Easy going. Knowledgeable. Sharp. Generous.   These are all words used to describe Donnie Eslinger.   Add them all up, and after 50 years at Hoosier Energy, there’s just one word to describe Eslinger – golden.   The Dugger, Indiana, native is celebrating a pair of golden anniversaries in 2026. He started work at Hoosier Energy in March of 1976 and married his wife, Linda, in July of ’76.   “A lot happened in 1976, so that was a year of change for me,” Eslinger says with a chuckle.   The ability to handle change, facilitate change and welcome change has turned out to be his calling card.…