The People Who Power DREMC

We look forward to introducing you to the Duck River EMC team and providing a look behind the scenes at what it takes to uphold our mission of providing safe and reliable electricity at the lowest possible cost.

“I am extremely proud of the people at DREMC and the work they do day in and day out,” says Scott Spence, DREMC president and CEO. “They are not only dedicated employees, but they are also your neighbors, friends, and relatives. They are the people that power our communities.”

“A tremendous amount of work goes into the daily functions of a cooperative like Duck River EMC. Beginning this fall, we will use social media and The Tennessee Magazine to highlight DREMC team members and how their work benefits the communities we serve,” he adds.

One hundred and eighty employees across all or parts of 16 counties support the day-to-day work of DREMC. They serve more than 82,000 members and manage 6,300 miles of power lines that span from Sewanee to Columbia.

This includes functions that you may already be familiar with as well as many behind-the-scenes roles that are essential to fulfilling our mission.

The behind-the-scenes work requires a balance between working on the “projects of today” and the “projects of the future.”

Keeping up with the growth occurring throughout the communities we serve requires us to evolve and adapt to changing industry regulations and technology on a constant basis. This important work cannot be put on hold—not even during a 100-year pandemic.

“It has been extremely impressive to see the way the DREMC team has adapted to all the changes made necessary by COVID-19 over the past 19 months,” says Spence. “It has required a tremendous amount of flexibility on their parts and a willingness to do things differently when necessary.”

“In the midst of all that the pandemic environment has required of them, we also experienced ice and snowstorms, the likes of which have not been seen in Middle Tennessee for over 20 years,” he says.

With Bedford, Coffee, and Moore counties being hit the hardest, DREMC team members from all counties came together to safely restore power to impacted members.

While employees’ individual roles don’t always require that they work together directly on a daily basis, when it counts the most this team pulls together as one unit, and they don’t miss a beat. This was never more evident than in February of 2021.

Spence said that the pandemic and these ice and snowstorms are extreme examples of the required flexibility and dedication required to fulfill the DREMC mission. However, on a seven-day a week, 365-day a year basis, they work towards bettering the communities we serve.

“For these reasons and many others, I am excited to share more about the people that power Duck River Electric with each of you,” shares Spence. “I know that you will be as impressed with them as I am.”