Electric co-op leader ‘sees through the glass clearly’

Jack Reasor saw all too clearly the impact his demanding state Senate career was having on his family life.

During a drive in the mid-1990s, with elections coming up in his Southwest Virginia district, Reasor's son Bryan -- sick of missing his father -- surprised him. Bryan said he hoped his father would lose the race so Reasor could watch him play basketball.

"When do they play basketball?" Reasor said, recalling the incident. "January and February. What do I do in January and February? The General Assembly."

As it happened, the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative was looking for a new chief executive, one who could build political bridges and balance disparate interests.

"I thought that could really be fascinating," Reasor said.

The Henrico County-based cooperative made him an offer, and "for me and my family, it was the right thing to do. I have no regrets."

Jackson E. Reasor Jr. -- lawyer, banker, Democratic legislator and high school basketball referee -- resigned his Senate seat after six years and became the cooperative's president and CEO in 1998.

He got to watch his son play basketball for Douglas S. Freeman High School. "I don't think I missed a game."

And by taking the new job, he "didn't know what I was getting into."

. . .

What the Danville native was getting into was a big, increasingly contentious business, particularly now. The cooperative wants to build a $4 billion to $5 billion coal-fired power plant in the tiny Surry community of Dendron, about 60 miles southeast of Richmond.

But he has taken on his role well, colleagues say.

Reasor, 56, "has a very broad-gauge view of Virginia -- what it should be, what it could be," said Hugh Keogh, president of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. "He sees through the glass clearly."

With more than $1.5 billion in assets and about $1 billion in 2008 revenue, the nonprofit Old Dominion Electric Cooperative provides its members with about 2,000 megawatts of electricity.

The organization is a cooperative of cooperatives, selling wholesale power to its 11 members. The local retail distribution cooperatives serve about 400,000 subscribers in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.

Though investor-owned utilities Dominion Virginia Power and Appalachian Power are the big names for most people in the state, Reasor noted that the co-ops actually cover three-quarters of the state's land area.

Reasor also serves as president of the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives, the trade association for 16 Mid-Atlantic electric distribution cooperatives. And he has become a regular spokesman before Congress for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

"He is the ultimate go-to guy," said Glenn English, the national group's CEO.

. . .

Since joining the cooperative movement, Reasor has brought his considerable political and intellectual skills to the twin issues facing his member-owned utilities: strong growth in demand for power in a time of increasing concerns about the environmental impact of the energy industry.

While federal figures show that electric demand has been growing at just 1.1 percent annually since 2000, Old Dominion Electric Cooperative's demand has been increasing at 4 percent to 6 percent, Reasor said, because of increased population growth.

The cooperative will need at least 1,200 megawatts of new generation capacity by 2016 and more than 2,600 megawatts by 2067. One megawatt can provide enough electricity for about 250 homes.

Power stations that can run day in and day out, year in and year out, carry the base load of electric demand. In the U.S., coal and nuclear plants handle nearly 60 percent of that base.

"The only base-load generation we can depend on is coal and nuclear," Reasor said. "Energy efficiency and green power will not, in and of itself, replace base-load generation."

Old Dominion has proposed investing $4 billion to $5 billion to build a 1,500-megawatt coal-fired plant in southeast Virginia.

But "we all realize there are downsides to coal," Reasor said. "But even President Obama and Energy Secretary [Steven] Chu said coal will be a part of the mix."

Meanwhile, Old Dominion has signed contracts to buy 120 megawatts of electricity from wind farms in Pennsylvania and in West Virginia. "Whatever power they generate," he said, "we'll buy."

. . .

Responsibility tends to find people willing to take it on, and Reasor has been willing to shoulder public tasks far afield from what people might consider his core concerns.

For instance, despite the fact neither he nor his children attended Averett University, Reasor is a member of the Danville-based university's board of trustees.

Whitt Clement, a former state senator and former Virginia transportation secretary, suggested Reasor for the position. Clement said Reasor took the position for sense of connection to his birthplace. "And, just as I expected, he became chairman."

And while his children long ago graduated from school, Reasor still serves on the board of the Henrico Education Foundation, the fundraising arm of the county school system.

Susan Stanley, the foundation's executive director, said he has been a generous mentor to her, particularly in helping her find ways to bring competing personalities and agendas together.

"He gives his time," Stanley said, "even if he doesn't have time to give."

A few years ago, Reasor -- who had played basketball in high school -- saw an ad for people interested in refereeing high school and middle school games.

The part-time job is good exercise and a good getaway for the utility executive, he said.

"That's all you think about," he said of refereeing a basketball game. "You don't think about work, you don't think about family -- you just think about the game."

Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or .