Supply chain challenges that have impacted the ability of electric cooperatives to maintain and expand their grid systems over the past two years are finding their way into the operations of co-ops working to close the digital divide. Now, as tens of billions of dollars in federal and state broadband funding comes online, the nation’s supply co-ops are taking unprecedented steps to expand their inventories of critical communications hardware.
“When government money is available, that perks up everybody’s interest,” says Dan Bell, an outside sales representative for General Pacific Inc., a Fairview, Oregon-based member-owned logistics and supply cooperative serving co-ops and public utilities in the Pacific Northwest.
Bell says customer interest in broadband began to ramp up around 2007 and grew steadily with the rise of online commerce and advances in entertainment and gaming. But as telework and remote schooling took hold amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the pace skyrocketed.
GenPac is one of nine members of the Electric Utility Distributors Association, or EUDA Group, a network of vendor services providers committed to meeting the equipment needs of electric co-ops, municipal utilities, and public power districts.
The growing demand for broadband and digital communications components have driven EUDA members to rapidly expand their inventories and add new product lines to ensure that co-ops now developing broadband networks have the parts and equipment they need.
“Fiber components are seeing long lead times, up to a year, due to the high demand,” says Phil Clark, vice president of sales and operations for United Utility Supply Cooperative. “The material went from being readily available to high demand and long lead times due to federal funding, fiber-to-home, global supply chain dependence and more rural development.”
Louisville, Kentucky-based UUS is run by Kentucky Electric Cooperatives. Clark says that field representatives and sales staff are spending a lot of time listening to co-op leaders and tailoring logistics plans to meet their needs.
“When you have a co-op that is changing out poles for a broadband buildout, that adds to the existing high demand for all other co-op construction,” says Clark. “That’s a lot of crossarms; nuts; bolts; wood poles; everything that goes on the pole. And there are only so many manufacturers.” — NRECA
