icate per Membership

Drawing for Twelve $1000 Scholarships for
Bitterroot Valley kids who have pre-applied.

Elections for Board Districts 1 & 5

Great Door Prizes

Ravalli Electric Co-ops
th
Corvallis High School Gym
Registration begins at 9:30 a.m.
Meeting starts at 10:30 a.m.
Some of the
Some of the
Some of the



highlights are
highlights are
highlights are



Please note:
Thanks to a bylaw change approved at the 2006 Annual Meeting, we will not print the
Annual Meeting minutes in the 2007 Annual Report. This will save space for more current
information and defray some of the printing and mailing costs of sending the Annual Report.
So, as a transition to following the new bylaw, we will print the 2006 Annual Meeting minutes
in the June issue of our Watts Up? section of the RURAL MONTANA magazine. Ravalli County Electric Cooperative, Inc.
P.O. Box 190
Corvallis, MT 59828
Phone (406) 961-3001
Fax (406) 961-3230
Richard J. Brown
General Manager
Board of Directors
Robert Bailey, President
Stacy Bartlett, Vice President
Charles Swanson, Sec./Treas.
Wayne Olson, Trustee
Kevin Frost, Trustee
Larry Trexler, Trustee
Mike Deveraux, Trustee
1734027

From the Managers desk...

2
Ravalli Electric
Co-op
will be closed
Monday,
May 28, for
Memorial Day.
A
s most of you are aware by now, Ravalli Electric Co-op (REC) is well
underway in its implementation of Automatic Meter Reading
equipment (AMR). Our plan is to replace all meters on our system with this
new technology. Currently, we have deployed about 2,500 new meters and
hope to have our entire system completed around the beginning of 2008.
The Victor area is done except for a few specialized meters and we are
currently working in the Corvallis area.
Members should be aware that when a REC employee comes to
replace your meter, you will be out of power for a couple of minutes
while the replacement is made. Members that may not be home when
the meter exchange is made will be informed by a door hangar that
will be left at the residence. We will try to keep you advised of the
areas we are working in by posting information on your utility bill
and through radio and newspaper announcements.
This new AMR system allows us to communicate with your meter from our office
through our existing power lines. Pretty amazing technology with many future benefits! Only
a small part of this system is reading meters. Yes, we can read a meter in two to five seconds
from the office, but the other capabilities this system brings to our Co-op are numerous. They
include outage monitoring and logging showing not only any outages that your meter records
but also the date and length of time of the outage. This will be a huge benefit to REC in
troubleshooting problems on our system.
Remote connects and disconnects are also possible with this system by adding an
additional module to the meter. We will be testing these for use in remote areas of our
system. Today, if you call us and need to have your service disconnected because you are
going south for the winter, you may have to wait a couple of days until a serviceman can be
scheduled for your area. In the future, we could complete this process from the REC office in
a matter of a few seconds.
We can also monitor voltage at any of these meters, again giving us notice of any
problems that might exist in your area. Along with recording voltage, we can also setup a
meter to record KW (demand) which shows when and how much energy is being used at a
location over a certain period of time. This is becoming a very valuable tool for us when we
have a member contact us with questions about their energy use. When requested, we can
quickly setup your meter to record this information from the office and give you details of
your particular usage patterns. See the example on the next page of the REC office building.
(Continued on page 3) 14930
3
We open the office at 8:00 a.m. each workday and you can clearly see by the graph that as
employees start arriving in the morning, our usage starts increasing and peaks about 8:00 a.m.
for the day. You will also notice our lowest usage during this 24-hour period was at 8:00 p.m.
when the building is vacant. This is a great tool in helping you understand your usage patterns
and also provides information when troubleshooting a problem.
These are only a few of the capabilities of this system. Of course, with any big project
like this, we will encounter problems that need to be worked out, but we are very excited at
what this system brings to you and the Co-op.
(AMR continued from page 2)
Call 2 days before you dig
1-800-424-5555
You may have heard or read about the new national One-Call
number: 811. We spoke with our One-Call representative in
Helena and he suggested sticking with the 1-800-424-5555 number
for now. The national 811 number eventually gets you to the same
place as the 1-800 number anyway. So, until all the bugs are
worked out with the new national 811 number, we are still
encouraging you to call 1-800-424-5555 two days before you dig! 4
Find the Hidden Number ~ $30 in 2007

We will hide three account numbers this month in the four pages of Watts Up? If you find
your account number, call the office at 961-3001 by the 20th of the magazine month and you
get a $30 credit on your bill.
Safety Tip on Microwaving Water!
A 26-year old man decided to have a cup of coffee. He took a cup of
water and put it in the microwave to heat it up (something that he had
done numerous times before). I am not sure how long he set the timer
for, but he wanted to bring the water to a boil. When the timer shut the
oven off, he removed the cup from the oven. As he looked into the cup,
he noted that the water was not boiling, but suddenly the water in the cup
blew up into his face. The cup remained intact until he threw it out of
his hand, but all the water had flown out into his face due to the build up of energy. His whole
face was blistered and he had 1st and 2nd degree burns to his face which may leave scarring.
He also may have lost partial sight in his left eye. While at the hospital, the doctor who
was attending to him stated that this is a fairly common occurrence and water (alone) should
never be heated in a microwave oven. If water is heated in this manner, something should be
placed in the cup to diffuse the energy such as a wooden stir stick, tea bag, etc., (nothing
metal).
It is, however, a much safer choice to boil the water in a tea kettle.
General Electric was contacted concerning this issue and this is their response:
Thanks for contacting us, I will be happy to assist you.
The e-mail that you received is correct. Microwaved water
and other liquids do not always bubble when they reach the
boiling point. They can actually get superheated and not
bubble at all. The superheated liquid will bubble up out of
the cup when it is moved or when something like a spoon or
tea bag is put into it.
To prevent this from happening and causing injury, do not
heat any liquid for more than two minutes per cup. After heating, let the cup stand in the
microwave for thirty seconds before moving it or adding anything into it.
Here is what a science teacher had to say on the matter: Thanks for the microwave
warning. I have seen this happen before. It is caused by a phenomenon known as super
heating. It can occur anytime water is heated and will particularly occur if the vessel that the
water is heated in is new, or when heating a small amount of water (less than half a cup).
What happens is that the water heats faster than the vapor bubbles can form. If the cup is
very new then it is unlikely to have small surface scratches inside it that provide a place for
the bubbles to form. As the bubbles cannot form and release some of the heat that has built
up, the liquid does not boil, and the liquid continues to heat up well past its boiling point.
What then usually happens is that the liquid is bumped or jarred, which is just enough of
a shock to cause the bubbles to rapidly form and expel the hot liquid. The rapid formation of
bubbles is also why a carbonated beverage spews when opened after having been shaken.
So, be sure to pass this information on to friends and family you could very well save
someone from a lot of pain and suffering!