News

The Annual Meeting of the members of the above named Cooperative will be held in the gymnasium of the Community Center on Washington Island, WI at 10:00 a.m. on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2023.

The Cooperative is in the process of installing a fiber optic network that will reach every home and business on Washington Island. The Cooperative is collaborating with other Towns in Door County and leveraging County and State organizations and capabilities. We have been successful in receiving grant funding up to this point, however will continue to look at additional funding to offset the cost of this project for our members.

Note to the Members:

The Wisconsin Electric Cooperative Association has created a public resource page with links to the various state and federal information pages. If you are an individual looking for information on unemployment or other assistance that is available, you can go here and find links to resources. If you are a business that is looking for resources regarding small business loans and other programs, you should be able to find a link here.

With the exception of some work involving the fiber optic cable, restoration work on Plum Island is now virtually complete.  The wet spring prevented us from completing this work earlier. While there, we completed installing the new service for the boat house and assisted USF&W in getting the well operational.  We still have some minor restoration work to complete at Northport and some cleanup to do on our own property here on the Island.

Attention:  Washington Island Electric Cooperative Members who are residents of the State of Wisconsin and friends and relatives of Washington Island who are residents of the State of Wisconsin.  Your assistance is needed!!

As you have probably heard by now, our efforts to gain a provision in the Wisconsin Biennial Budget to help offset the cost of replacing the cable have been successful. However, there is still much to do.

Co-ops hail bipartisan disaster response

MADISON, WIS. (March 1, 2019)— The Wisconsin Electric Cooperative Association and its smallest member co-op Friday morning saluted bipartisan cooperation between Republican legislators and Democratic Governor Tony Evers to make state assistance available for costs incurred when winter ice damage cut off Washington Island’s power supply.

Wisconsin Public Service completed the pole riser work at Northport on Friday, February 8th.  We went on engines at approximately 7:30AM and were on them until the work was complete.  We did final phase testing as well as testing the cable itself all the way from Northport to the Island and then energized the cable up to our substation.  We allowed the new cable sit hot for approximately thirty minutes before closing in the substation transformer

Several months have gone by again, and with so much happening it only seems like days. While waiting for permitting, we received preliminary approvals from the Department of Natural Resources, the United States Corps of Engineers and the United States Coast Guard to move forward.

A couple months have passed since our last communication and there has been a whole lot that has taken place during that time.  

First and foremost, we were given permission by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to cross Plum Island.

Disaster declared in power cable failure
Agencies directed to assist

JULY 13, 2018, Washington Island, WI…..Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker today issued a disaster declaration requested by Washington Island Electric Cooperative, directing state agencies to assist with ongoing repair and mitigation activities arising from damage to an underwater power cable that left the roughly one thousand members of the state’s smallest electric co-op dependent on backup generation for nearly two weeks.

With the existing faulted cable temporarily repaired, we want to continue the communication regarding the installation of a replacement cable.

With the exception of some final housekeeping items, the repair portion of this project is now complete.

The first splice is complete and will be lowered to the bottom this morning (Wed).  The other end of the cable will be brought to the barge and the second splice will begin.

We wanted to give you another brief update to let you know where we are with the situation.

Fabick Cat has completed repairs on Engine #8 and both engines have been test ran and are available to carry the Island’s load.

A lot has happened since our last communication.  This one will be quite brief due to the fact that there is still a whole lot going on.  It also will not necessarily be sequential information because many of the things listed were happening at the same time or are being listed together because they are related.

As you may or may not have heard by now, on June 15, 2018 at approximately 2:22 AM we lost power from the mainland.  Power was restored to the Island with our diesel engines at 2:48 A.M. and troubleshooting the problem began.