WEMC opens new service center

Tuesday, April 7, Wake Electric held an all-day grand opening and open house celebration for its new office building on Franklin Street. The new is building one of the largest recent development projects in downtown Wake Forest.

Members of the cooperative, community leaders, project participants, employees and their families came out for a ribbon cutting and to take tours of the new building and learn about how technology is changing the utility industry at lightning speed.

There were refreshments, music and lots of oohs and aahs about the building and its furnishings, including the wall hangings that are pictures of Wake Electric customers and future customers from the 1930s and 1940s. L.K. Stephenson and others recorded the need for electricity in the rural areas of Wake, Franklin, Granville and other counties and the changes when the lines reached those farms and houses.

The four-story building was designed with expansion needs in mind as many areas in Wake Electric’s service territory are booming in growth.

The following facts about the building and Wake Electric were provided by the cooperative:

1. The building is 28,000 square feet. It was designed by Wake Forest architect Matt Hale.
2. It officially opened for business on Monday, Feb. 16. The new building currently houses the customer call center, customer service operations, and an energy control monitoring center that will serve as a back-up to our control center located in Youngsville. Our energy control center currently monitors 20 substations and 3,000 miles of power lines.
3. The total cost to build the building was $6.5 million.
4. Three solar “trees” have been built by Spotlight Solar and installed by PowerSecure Solar. Each array is expected to produce enough energy each day to power an electric vehicle for 40 miles. The battery storage systems will direct electricity into the new office building during times of peak demand, like on hot summer afternoons or on cold winter mornings.
5. Wake Electric has purchased renewable energy credits (the equivalent of more than 10,000 residential-scale solar installations) from 23 large solar farms in North Carolina to meet the state requirement that at least 10 percent of utilities’ energy come from renewable resources. Our current energy resources are 50 percent nuclear, 20 percent coal, 20 percent natural gas and 10 percent renewable.
6. Wake Electric also continues to operate its Youngsville facility, where engineering, operations, and communications are housed.
7. The former downtown Wake Electric office building and property are still owned by Wake Electric and that office space is being leased out.
8. Wake Electric will have meeting space available for area non-profits to meet. Announcements will be made when that meeting space becomes available.
9. The top floor of the office building will be unused for the time being – and the building has been designed to plan for future growth as membership in our service territory grows.
10. Wake Electric is a non-profit electric cooperative serving 39,000 members in parts of Wake, Durham, Granville, Johnston, Nash, Vance and Durham counties.
11. We have built in extensive kitchen facilities in case major storms/disasters call for us to bring in line crews from other areas so that we can feed them for long periods of time.
12. There are two public charging stations for electric vehicles located at the south-western side of the building.
13. The address of the new office building is 100 S. Franklin Street in downtown Wake Forest. The old office address was 414 E. Waite Avenue.
14. The office building has a back-up generator with a 400 KW capacity with a 700 gallon fuel tank to carry entire building in emergency situation.
15. The cashier’s station takes approximately 3,500 payments per month. There is also a self-serve kiosk at the front entrance and a night drop box outside the front entrance doors.
16. The parking lot has LED lighting – we will install a control system to operate the lighting including off/on, dimming and usage.
17. In 2015, Wake Electric celebrates 75 years of providing electric service to our members.