South DSM News

Effective April 1, 2023, Access Energy Cooperative will be implementing our first rate increase to members since 2016. Even though the costs from our power supplier have increased during this time, those increases were not passed on to the members.  We will be holding member information meetings in February available to all members who have questions. 

Three main factors are driving the increase.  First and foremost is a significant increase in the cost of power from our power supplier.  Power cost is the largest part of expenses; it accounts for sixty-eight (68%) percent of your bill. In comparison to other cooperatives whose power cost ranges from 55% to 60% of their bill, it is evident that Access Energy Cooperative is very efficient in providing service to our members.

Secondly, as with most products you purchase, our costs of purchasing materials has increased.  It has also become more difficult to obtain some items because of supply chain issues.  During the last two years, our cost of materials has increased on average by about 30%.  With supply chain issues we have been ordering and storing materials in preparation of future needs.  As a result of these two factors, our overhead and operations expenses have increased.

Finally, the most important asset you have as a member of Access Energy Cooperative is our workforce. The employees of Access Energy Cooperative are highly educated and possess a variety of technical skills and training.  The cooperative spends resources to ensure employees are trained and working safely for you.  Retention and attraction of a highly skilled workforce costs money.  As with any organization, wages and benefits have increased over previous years. 

Over the past year, we have been discussing our  increasing costs and how they affect the cooperative. Your board of directors has thoroughly discussed these cost increases for several months, so it is evident that decisions to raise rates is taken very seriously by your cooperative.  Additional increases in power costs are expected in 2024 and 2025, so your board will be constantly evaluating how this will affect our members. We expect there will be additional rate increases in 2024 and 2025.

The official notice with the rate information will be available February 1, 2023. An official letter will be sent on February 6, 2023, to every member with the new rate information for each of their accounts.

We will be holding three member information meetings to answer questions and concerns regarding the rate increase.

Original source can be found here.