Rate Adjustment This Fall While Still Maintaining Reliable & Efficient Power
Announcing a rate adjustment certainly isn’t a joyous occasion. Reliable and affordable power is always our goal, and we take both parts of that goal equally serious. However, after a 12 year run with no rate changes, Yellowstone Valley Electric Cooperative (YVEC) is making an adjustment to our rates this fall. This rate change will result in an approximate 4.5% increase to overall revenue for YVEC and is necessary to keep our Cooperative in good financial standing.
Inflationary pressures have hit every portion of our business. Fuel prices for our trucks, property taxes (YVEC is in the top 10 in Yellowstone County), material costs, and even wholesale power rates have all increased, especially in the past year. We realize that these pressures have reached your homes and businesses also, and that’s why we have kept our adjustment as minimal as possible, while still solidifying the Cooperative’s financial footing.
YVEC takes great pride in operating as efficiently as possible. We have placed a concentrated emphasis on controlling expenses, while serving and informing our members with excellence. A great example is the number of consumer/ members we serve per employee. The average electric cooperative in the United States serves 309 consumers per employee. That same average for Montana electric cooperatives is 231 consumers per employee. At YVEC, we serve 438 members/consumers per employee. We rank in the top 5% in the country with this efficiency ratio. In fact, back in 2008, we had 53 employees and through attrition, we operated with 46 employees for well over a decade. Today, we have 54 employees, but our system has 6,000 more meters than in 2008.
Staying ahead of the constant growth we experience is imperative as we provide excellent power quality, while ensuring ample capacity to serve future load growth.
I’m very proud of our Co-op. While growth does offer a quicker return on capital investments in the total utility plant, it’s still costly to grow. Since 2011, we’ve added well over $45M of improvements and expansions to our system, all while keeping rates stable. Staying ahead of the constant growth we experience is imperative as we provide excellent power quality, while ensuring ample capacity to serve future load growth.
This rate adjustment allows YVEC to remain competitive. Our average residential member uses about 1,400 kWh’s per month. At this usage, a YVEC member is paying over $20.00 less PER MONTH than a NorthWestern Energy customer. In fact, we are progressively less expensive than NWE for every kWh used after 750 kWh’s for residential customers. We continue to remain competitive in our other rate classes, such as commercial and irrigation.
Our Board of Directors are all members of the Cooperative. Policies and procedures approved by the Board also directly affect their homes and businesses alike. They keep their focus on the member as well as the Cooperative as a whole. Providing reliable and affordable power is top of mind for all of us at YVEC. It’s not just part of our company mission, it’s how we operate our business.