By Matthew Orosz | CEO
For many of us, the holidays conjure images of rest, relaxation, and stepping away from work. But for the dedicated teams at OnePower in Lesotho and Benin, the holiday season tells a different story—one centered not on downtime, but on uptime.
The rural communities where we supply electricity are more than just service areas on a map. They're the heart of family life, the places where people return to reconnect with loved ones during the holidays.
And when families come home, so does peak demand on the electrical grids we operate as a minigrid utility. When over a thousand homes depend on reliable electricity, there's no such thing as an "off day" for our operations and maintenance teams.
This past holiday season proved that once again. While many were settling in for Christmas celebrations, our team was preparing for a different kind of journey—traveling to Sehonghong to address a critical issue with meter communication. In the remote highlands of Lesotho, such problems often cannot be resolved with a simple phone call or remote reset. It meant packing up equipment, leaving their own families behind, and making the trek to ensure that the community's holiday wouldn't be darkened by technical failures.
Then came Ketane, where a lightning strike had caused an outage, plunging the village into darkness just when families were gathering to cook holiday meals, watch shows together, and enjoy music. Once again, our team didn't hesitate, putting their own lives and holiday plans on hold, traveling into the highlands to restore power through urgent, demanding work—replacing equipment, troubleshooting systems, and ensuring that every customer home could light up again.
The dedication didn't stop with those who traveled to remote sites. Even team members who remained behind spent their Christmas and New Year's on call, answering customer phone calls, providing support for customers purchasing more electricity credit, and ensuring that help was always just a phone call away.
To our incredible O&M teams in Lesotho and Benin: thank you. Your commitment to the communities we serve, your willingness to put the customers first, and your unwavering dedication to keeping the lights on doesn't go unnoticed.
And to everyone who has contributed to helping OnePower keep the lights on—our supporters, donors, partners, and advocates around the world—thank you and wishing you the very best for the 2026 year.
By Matt Orosz | 1PWR CEO
By Matt Orosz | Director
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