West Central Electric Cooperative’s informative 75th annual meeting, rates to increase in coming year

The Harold Thune Auditorium was packed full of people on Wednesday, October 2, for West Central Electric’s 75th annual meeting. Attendees were given their choice of either a cutting board or a cattle sorting stick and flag for registering for the meeting. Door prizes were announced throughout the meeting, and a beef dinner was served afterwards. Employees from several WCE branches were present as well as members from other electric cooperatives.

Here are some highlights from the meeting:

A prayer was given by pastor Ray Greenseth and the National Anthem was sung by a special choir group. Past employees and special guests were recognized. A video was shown showing the work of WCE employees throughout the year.

WCE announced that plans were in the work to build a new fertilizer plant near Philip, S.D. The plant will help the cooperative by using a large amount of energy, and will help the local farmers and ranchers by providing fertilizers at a competitive price. Large load facilities like this also help keep electricity prices low.

WCE CEO and Manager Jeff Birkeland spoke on various topics, including electric trucks, WCE history, and the future of the cooperative. When the founding board of directors wanted to start West Central Electric, they were told no because of the area’s low population density. Birkeland elaborated more on the population growth since then. Currently, government regulation is the biggest hurdle for the cooperative. One of the last topics that Birkeland spoke on was price rates. There has been no rate increase since 2016, and with rising costs of everything, we will see a rate increase on January 1, 2025. Both Birkeland and Kory Hammerbeck, another speaker at the meeting, emphasized the cooperative’s fight to resist rate increases, but costs have exceeded what the cooperatives can “absorb”.

Kory Hammerbeck spoke on behalf of Rushmore Electric Power Cooperative, Basin Electric Power Cooperative and Southwest Power Pool. Hammerbeck announced new REPC board members, growth, and highlights. He gave an update on Basin Electric’s production this year and said that new transmission lines would need to be built from Nebraska into North Dakota. He said there would also be rate increases for both REPC and BEPC and described multiple things that affect the rate. Rate increases are expected for REPC in 2025, and for BEPC in 2025 and 2026. Hammerbeck then discussed Southwest Power Pool and explained their role in the electric community. He spoke some on wind and solar energy and their affects on the current fossil fuel energy plants. “The more we add, the more possibility of having lights out,” he said of wind turbines. He stressed the importance of voting at this November’s election. The meeting was then adjourned.