Pioneering New Electric Service: Ride Along with a CoServ Staking Tech
MATT WALKER steps out of his truck, ready for a roadside meeting, as another exciting project begins to take shape in CoServ’s service area.
As a Senior Design Technician, Matt is typically the first person Members meet with when they need new electric service. He grew up with an electric cooperative and has heard stories of when his family first received electricity on their farm in northeast Texas in the 1940s. Now he’s the one kickstarting the process for CoServ.
“Being part of a co-op really does mean a lot to me and my job allows me to be the first person new Members meet, I take that seriously,” Matt said.
The CoServ Communications Team rode along with Matt to see what a typical day is like for Design Technicians, commonly known as Staking Techs, at one of the fastest growing co-ops in the country.
He met with engineers from Westwood Professional Services representing their client, H-E-B. The project: a 51,599-square-foot fulfillment center planned just west of the new H-E-B grocery store at University Drive and F.M. 423 in Frisco, according to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Fulfillment centers support H-E-B’s curbside and home delivery orders in that area.
Matt asks a series of questions, such as the location of the transformer and meter, the construction timeline and the anticipated electric load for the project. He then formulates a preliminary design for how to route electricity to the new facility.
After he designs it, CoServ linemen or contractors will install a new three-phase cabinet – the green boxes CoServ uses as access points for underground lines – then extend the underground conduit west, then north to serve H-E-B’s new fulfillment center.
H-E-B plans to start construction on the facility this summer and begin operations in the summer of 2027, according to the filing with the state.
The fulfillment center will be similar in size and scope to the one at the H-E-B at Preston Road and Spring Creek Parkway in Plano.
CoServ’s Staking Technicians handle a wide range of projects from this H-E-B fulfillment center to a rural homestead – anything that has a single meter.
It’s important that Staking Technicians are able to look at the plans for a project and determine the future load to size the equipment appropriately.
When a new retail project comes in, for example, they compare it to similar buildings that CoServ already powers to gauge its forecasted demand. If a new strip center includes a potential restaurant tenant with natural gas service, the power demand will be different compared to an all-electric tenant.
Staking Technicians are working every day in your community to help new residents and business owners receive power on time while using the most efficient route. It could be someone building a single homestead or a first-time business owner building a brick-and-mortar store.
“Being able to provide a service to our Members by introducing them to the co-op family is such a gratifying feeling,” Matt said.