During the past year, every facet of our daily routine has been altered in response to the global pandemic. Many schools and churches have suspended activities, restaurants and retail establishments have limited occupancy and hours of operation, and masks and hand sanitizer have become as integral to leaving home as keys and a cell phone were just a few months ago. At Brunswick Electric, we’ve also had to incorporate some changes to our operations, but we will continue to maintain the service and reliability you depend on as we all adjust to the “new normal” in our routines.
In the past couple of months, Brunswick Electric acted in the interest of public health and made the decision to again close the lobbies in all district offices. To reduce the risk of a disruption of service and the spread of COVID-19, the majority of our employees began reporting to work remotely. To ensure we were meeting your expectations, the drive-thru at each office remained open in addition to Bill Payment Terminals (BPTs) located throughout the service area to allow for member payments. Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) have answered your calls and our dedicated line crews have been remotely deployed for service calls, repairs and outages; they will follow all safety guidelines to protect your health when visiting your property.
Implementing a comprehensive pandemic response plan has been key to keeping our essential workers and members safe and ensuring efficient operations.
Our experience in planning for and responding to crises gave us an advantage as the pandemic emerged. Implementing a comprehensive pandemic response plan has been key to keeping our essential workers and members safe and ensuring efficient operations.
Many in our community have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and many community members who have kept employment are now working from home. Our CSRs have assisted members who find themselves at home more often and are looking for ways to be more energy-efficient, recommending items such as the Ecobee programmable thermostat and monitoring energy use through SmartHub.
Though the pandemic response has slowed or stopped many activities in our community, the need for reliable electric utility service has never been higher and continues to increase. BEMC stands ready to meet that need now and in the future. Our service territory’s rapid growth over the past several decades stayed on pace in 2020. We will continue to work toward returning to normalcy while being well-equipped for future growth and well-positioned to meet our membership’s needs.
Everyone has made changes to their routines, us included. As a part of this community, we are looking forward to brighter days ahead. We look forward to working with you, our membership, to meet additional challenges as we work through this pandemic TOGETHER.