There’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all billing, which is why South Alabama Electric Cooperative (SAEC) offers a variety of payment options for our members. Do you prefer making a payment in person? We can help you. Would you rather set up Prepay Billing? We would love to get you started.

At SAEC, we understand everyone is different. We strive each day to help our members live brighter lives, and we offer several options for ways to pay your SAEC bill.

In person

If you prefer to do business in person, SAEC has you covered. Our Member Services representatives are happy to help members at the SAEC office, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you need to make a payment after hours, our night depository and kiosk are available at the front entrance of our office.

Payment is also accepted at several banks and convenient stores within SAEC’s service area, including:

• Regions Bank
• Troy Bank and Trust
• First Citizens Bank, Luverne
• Buy Rite, Banks
• Country One Stop, Honoraville

Prepay Billing

Set your own schedule with Prepay Billing. You can monitor your electric use by month, week or day and compare it to previous years to avoid any unwelcome surprises. Add money to your account and receive notifications when funds are running low.

E-billing

Are you afraid your bill might get lost in the shuffle? Remedy that and sign up for e-billing to get rid of the clutter. Just have your account number and email address ready and download the application from our website. You’ll have a paperless digital bill arriving in your inbox in no time.

SAEC Connect App

Stay updated on your bill and all of your account information from any mobile device with the SAEC Connect app. With the SAEC Connect app, you can make payments and change your billing method with a few easy clicks. Never stress about forgetting a payment again, because you can set notifications to let you know when your bill has posted.

Bank Draft Direct Payment

A bank draft direct payment automatically deducts your SAEC bill amount each month from your account. Setting it up is simple: Just sign up with the checking account of your choice to pay your bill without the hassle of writing a check or buying postage.

Levelized Billing

Say goodbye to surprise bill spikes with levelized billing. During extremely cold or hot months, you may notice your bill spike. Levelized billing is a way to spread out the expense over the whole year by averaging your monthly kilowatt-hour use.

Visit our Billing / Payment Options page.

South Alabama Electric Cooperative is a proud supporter of our local students and their plans for higher education.

Each year, the cooperative shows support through its Electric Cooperative Foundation Scholarship program for graduating high school seniors who plan to enroll in a vocational school, technical school, accredited four-year university or community college.

This year, 18 seniors were chosen to receive $1,000 ECF scholarships, and one student was awarded the SAEC Employee Scholarship to help with their college education.

For more information about the Electric Cooperative Foundation Scholarship and how to apply, look for information later this year in Alabama Living and on our SAEC website.

More than 150 outstanding high school juniors from all over Alabama recently spent time in Montgomery, visiting the state capital and enriching their lives through new experiences.

In March, South Alabama Electric Cooperative chose 11 delegates from the area to attend the 2023 Alabama Rural Electric Association Montgomery Youth Tour.

The annual trip gives high school juniors an inside view of how the state government operates, a history of cooperatives and how they function, and other experiences. Youth Tour delegates participated in exercises on how to manage finances and even met some state politicians.

The tour took students to notable sites in Montgomery, including the Alabama State Capitol, Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, the Alabama State House and the Alabama State Archives.

From the 11 delegates, Jackson Cleveland and Ian Herbert were chosen to represent SAEC and attend the 2023 Washington, D.C., Youth Tour.

Herbert, a junior at Zion Chapel High School, applied for the Youth Tour because a friend recommended it. “They were talking about what a great time they had, so I figured it would do me some good to get out here and see how the world works. The experience was way more than I could have ever asked for,” he says.

Cleveland, a junior at Pike Liberal Arts School, received an application at school. After some encouragement from his mother, he decided to apply to be a delegate. After learning he was selected, Cleveland says he was excited and anxious.

“I didn’t know what to expect. I would say I’m a very social person and I like to get to know new people. I was stressed about it at first, but ended up making a lot of new friends,” he says.

While he doesn’t quite know what he wants to do career-wise, Cleveland says the budgeting simulation session at Youth Tour helped open his eyes to how money works.

“It really showed me how hard you have to work in the real world just to make ends meet,” he says. The students were assigned jobs, complete with salaries and fake debit cards. They had to figure out how to budget their money in order to live.

Herbert says his favorite part of the tour was listening to Cea Cohen Elliott, a motivational speaker. She spoke about a variety of topics, including how even though everyone is different, people still deal with the same struggles.

“She really motivated me to do more. I’m probably going to start doing some community service projects,” he says. Elliott’s speech also highlighted the importance of taking action to help others. “The way you treat people can really impact others, and you have to be the person who is willing to stand up. I’ve never been one to really step in — I usually just mind my business. Now, I feel more of a sense of responsibility,” Herbert says.

Some of the discussion took a turn toward heavier topics around mental health.

“My heart felt so heavy,” Herbert says. “I’m a believer, and I know it’s our job as believers to be bold in our faith. I needed to let anyone know that I’m a safe place if they need to talk, and I’m willing to pray for them.”

Andy Kimbro, SAEC’s vice president of member services, gets to see firsthand how Youth Tour can inspire students in such a short period of time. “We truly believe we are forming leaders for the future,” he says. “It’s important that they get to learn about how our government works and how cooperatives work. SAEC is proud to play a role in helping these students develop leadership skills they will take into life.”

The Youth Tour delegates met with state Reps. Marcus Paramore, Chris Sells and Rhett Marques; Sen. Josh Carnley; Secretary of State Wes Allen; and former U.S. Rep. Martha Roby.

The idea to form the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour came from then-senator Lyndon B. Johnson’s speech during the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association annual meeting in 1957. He said, “If one thing comes out of this meeting, it will be sending youngsters to the national capital where they can actually see what the flag stands for and represents.”

To be considered and chosen for Youth Tour, candidates had to apply and go through an interview process with an independent panel.

Cleveland and Herbert are both excited to represent SAEC at the 2023 Washington, D.C., Youth Tour in June. “It’s gonna be Montgomery on steroids,” Cleveland says.

“I don’t know what to expect, but I’m excited to see somewhere that’s not Alabama or Florida,” Herbert says.

Both students are thankful to SAEC for the opportunity to experience these trips. “It’s really just an honor,” Cleveland says.

“I’m grateful to everyone who gave us this experience and especially to my mom, who made sure I didn’t procrastinate and turned my application in on time,” Herbert says.

Honoring Impressive Students

In 2022, Keldric Faulk and Jordan Saunders were selected as the Washington, D.C., Youth Tour winners. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 restrictions, they were unable to attend the Youth Tour that year. In lieu of the trip, both students were awarded a $3,000 scholarship from SAEC. Congratulations to these two outstanding students!

During the March SAEC Board of Trustees meeting, the board approved the following fee adjustments, effective May 1:

A $10 delinquent fee will be charged to a member’s account that remains unpaid after the due date shown on the bill. The delinquent fee will not apply to the prepay billing option. After the due date, members will have a 10-day period before their account is subject to disconnection.

An arrangement fee of $5 will be charged to the account of a member who has made an arrangement with SAEC to extend their bill payment terms.

Outdoor lighting rates will change to the following:

• 50/100-watt LED outdoor light: $9.50
• 166/175 LED floodlight: $21
• 250 watt outdoor light: $16.50
• 400 Watt floodlight: $21

The weather is warming up, which means it’s time to start planting flowers, tilling gardens and taking on those projects around the house you’ve been planning all winter.

April is National Safe Digging Month, and it’s a great reminder to call 811 before getting your hands dirty on any home improvement projects that require breaking ground.

Based on your location, your call will be sent to the correct 811 call center. If you do plan to do some digging on your property, once you notify 811, you can make a request that underground utilities be marked with flags to avoid any incidents.

Utility lines are often located only a few inches below the ground’s surface. Digging before calling 811 risks not only disrupting service for yourself and your neighbors, but you are also putting your own safety in danger.

Before beginning your project, check out this useful info for determining which col-or flags represent underground utility lines. These are used as a universal marking guide by the American Public Works Association.

Notify — Call 2 to 3 days before starting to dig, or make a request online at the Alabama Safety website, to notify your local call center about your plans. They will let you know if there are any affected utilities in your area.

As an electric cooperative, South Alabama Electric is always looking for ways to better serve its members. To help with this, SAEC members can expect to receive an email survey from PowerSouth Energy Cooperative in the coming months.

PowerSouth, SAEC’s wholesale energy provider, is facilitating the 2023 Residential End-Use Survey to better gauge your energy needs. This information will be used to forecast how much energy will need to be generated and also help in other areas, like planning substations.

“This information is critical,” PowerSouth Member Services Coordinator Mike Majors says. “It serves as the basis for generation, transmission, substation planning, the financial forecast and various other member services programs.”

SAEC encourages all members to participate in this survey. Please remember that your feedback is valuable.

“At South Alabama Electric our goal is to serve you with reliable electricity, and to do this we need to look to the future,” says SAEC General Manager David Bailey. “We are thankful to PowerSouth for facilitating this survey, and we encourage all of our members to participate. This feedback will help us provide you with reliable electricity for years.”

The 2023 Residential End-Use Survey will gather information in the following categories:

• Housing characteristics
• Space heating and cooling
• Water heating
• Quantity and age of appliances
• Energy sources
• Energy efficiency practices
• Customer demographics

Sample Questions May Include:

• How old is your home?
• How old is your primary air-conditioning system?
• What type of residence do you live in?

What began as a baseball and softball training facility has been transformed into a training center for life.

Butter and Egg Adventures is a retreat center and aerial adventure park located in Troy. It offers team-building exercises, outdoor recreation, guided aerial tours and overnight retreats for individuals, families and groups of all kinds.

Owners Ron and Susan Pierce met while both were working at Troy University. Now retired, they devote their time to helping families and groups bond.

After Ron retired from Troy University, he decided to teach baseball and softball lessons. His son was playing baseball, so Ron — who had been on the baseball team at Troy University — decided to build a training center that included a batting cage.

Ron continued the baseball and softball lessons for about 14 years, eventually running some summer day camps on the property — baseball lessons in the morning and outdoor recreation activities in the afternoon. “The second year of running the camps, we built a climbing wall and then a zip line,” Ron says.

But, the Pierces soon realized that they needed to choose to either grow the athletic training program or pursue their new venture, a retreat. “We chose the retreat,” Ron says.

Since then, Butter and Egg Adventures has continued to expand. Set on 48 acres, it now offers more than 30 activities for visitors. “Everything just started growing. As the need presented itself, we realized we needed a place to prepare and serve meals and have overnight camps and accommodations, so we added a bunkhouse,” Ron says. The bunkhouse, formerly the training facility, can accommodate 52 guests.

In 2007, after retiring from Troy University, Susan joined the Butter and Egg Adventures staff full time. She felt that her experience in counseling would be beneficial to the variety of groups they would be serving at the retreat center.

Susan also led the way in developing the team-building low ropes challenge course. She received the proper training to operate the course, and Ron used his talent for building to make it a reality.

“It’s really fulfilling to be able to work with groups where so many kids have not had exposure to a lot of challenging outdoor activities,” Susan says. “Some children have never been in a paddleboat or canoe, and they’re afraid because they can’t swim.”

But, that’s what Butter and Egg Adventures is all about — helping enrich lives and building confidence.

”We have a facility that’s very unique to this part of Alabama,” Ron says. He describes Butter and Egg Adventures as a “challenge by choice facility,” meaning guests will not be forced to do something they don’t want to do. “For example, if you’re at the top of the first zipline and you decide you don’t want to do it, we aren’t going to just push you,” he says.

Butter and Egg Adventures is certainly a unique name, and there’s an interesting story behind it. Butter and Egg Road is the actual location of the business, and it’s a road that existed long before the Pierces settled there. Susan says some locals in the area informed them that in the old days, when the area was mostly farmland, if the farmers were having trouble selling crops, they would line up the length of the road to sell butter and eggs.

“When we first started the baseball and softball camp, we didn’t realize the name would have much staying power, but it did,” Ron says.

One of the most memorable moments the Pierces recall involves a girls basketball team from northern Alabama that came for the team-building program. Those girls went on to win the state championship that season and mentioned the time they spent at Butter and Egg Adventures during a post-game interview. “It’s good to hear that it really did make a difference and that they could apply what they learned here to their lives,” Susan says.

Quick Facts

• Team building is an opportunity to get your group together and work through solving problems creatively and effectively.
• Butter and Egg Adventures hosted 13,357 visitors in 2022.

On January 12, SAEC hosted the most recent Grow Southeast Alabama-sponsored Elected Officials Day, a luncheon to thank officials and update them on the status of economic development projects in the area.

“It is so important that we be involved with the community, and being able to have all of these bright minds under our roof is really an honor for SAEC,” says David Bailey, SAEC general manager.

Grow Southeast Alabama is an 11-county coalition for economic development. For Elected Officials Day, the organization invited local mayors, county commissioners, elected state representatives, senators and others representing those counties.

The counties represented by Grow Southeast Alabama are: Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Coffee, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston and Pike.

The event took place in SAEC’s community room, and several elected officials — including Sens. Donnie Chesteen and Billy Beasley, Reps. Marcus Paramore, Berry Forte and Steve Clouse, and Secretary of State Wes Allen — were present.

“SAEC is very thankful for our strong local and state government representation. We are proud to support these legislators, and this luncheon is just one small way we can show our appreciation for all the progress we’ve seen in this area and the progress we know is going to come,” Bailey says.

Melody Lee, executive director of Grow Southeast Alabama, hopes this remains an annual event.

“This is our way of both updating legislators and recapping the last year’s progress, but it’s also thanking them for going to bat in economic development situations to get extra funding. They’ve been phenomenal to our organization over the last several years,” Lee says.

David Padgett, president of Grow Southeast Alabama, has been involved with the organization for the last two years. He has also served as the economic development director for Bullock County since 2019. Before that, he served on the county economic development board for 12 years.

As someone who has always called Bullock County home, Padgett knows about area’s struggles with finding good-paying jobs. He believes Grow Southeast Alabama is important because it joins smaller counties with the resources of larger ones.

“My goal is to help employ and give citizens of Bullock County a better choice of jobs to work. For example, if an industry relocated to Troy and it’s a 30-minute drive, that’s great. In reality, it just pools the resources of all the counties and workforces of this area, and it builds a cohesive message for Grow Southeast Alabama,” he says.

Economic development goals for the coming year were also discussed during the meeting. Among the attendees who spoke was Alex Cate, the director of entrepreneurship for the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology.

In 2022, the Huntsville-based institute partnered with the city of Dothan to create HudsonAlpha Wiregrass. Its focus is genomics education, the study of DNA within organisms and humans, agricultural research and economic development.

“Specifically, this will help local farmers create stronger crops, like peanuts and cotton, that are more resistant to droughts and other factors. This is not genetic modification, but it’s achieved through studying genomics and DNA,” Lee says.

HudsonAlpha Wiregrass is also developing an education division in local high schools to spark an interest in students who love science, with the hope they can remain closer to home.

“Formerly if you worked in those fields you had to go to a large city to do so,” Lee says. “We would lose a ton of local students and potential workers because they would leave the area. So, not only will this will help our farmers, but it will help us retain those bright minds so they have a future in the Wiregrass area.”

Lee says electric cooperatives, especially SAEC, are important to economic development.

“Our utility partners really are the back-bone of our organization. They are fantastic about serving on our board and helping guide us, but they’re phenomenal about getting us resources,” Lee says. “They’re always on board with our plans and they’re as excited about economic growth as the developers are. We literally could not do it without them.”

When it comes to ensuring economic growth for Southeast Alabama, Padgett considers it an honor. “I want to see advancement and better opportunities for people in my home county, and I take a lot of pride in helping build this brick-by-brick and seeing the little things we’ve implemented make a difference,” Padgett says.

Brooke Sanford began working at South Alabama Electric Cooperative as the human resources coordinator in April 2022. She works behind the scenes with employees making sure everything functions efficiently on a daily basis.

Sanford grew up in Opp, and graduated from Opp High School. She attended Troy University, where she graduated from the Sorrell College of Business with a degree in human resource management.

What are your responsibilities?

Sanford: I maintain and develop policies, workplace initiatives and regulations to provide a better working environment for productivity. All our onboarding, employee exit management, benefits programs, training and development and reporting requirements are also part of my responsibility.

What made you want to join the SAEC team?

Sanford: SAEC employs people who are kind, caring and excellent at the service they provide. I’m honored and blessed to now be working alongside them.

What is your favorite part of the job?

Sanford: A large part of human resources is employee relations, which is my favorite part of this profession. Fostering the connection and aligning goals for growth between management and our employees is my passion.

What do you think is the most important impact SAEC has on its community?

Sanford: This cooperative not only gives back to our community, but SAEC is a member of it. Whether it’s helping schools, funding local projects or constructing a building design with a place for community events in mind, South Alabama Electric Cooperative puts its members and community first.

What’s your favorite thing to do when you aren’t working? Any interesting hobbies?

Sanford: I enjoy being home, so cooking, baking with my kids or curling up with a good book is what makes me happy.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Sanford: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” — Maya Angelou. Learning through experiences and mistakes is a part of life, but changing for the better after those situations is what matters.