In September, the Basin Electric Board of Directors authorized a Class A rate increase of $6 per megawatt-hour, or approximately 10%, beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
“We understand that many of our members are seeing costs rise on everyday purchases, and unfortunately, electricity is no exception,” Andy Buntrock, vice president of strategic planning and communications, said. “Since 2016, we’ve been fortunate to maintain flat or even declining rates but growing pressures have made an increase unavoidable.”
This upward pressure is being driven by four major drivers. The first is growth in traditional member load. “This causes an increase in capital spending on both generation and transmission but is separate from the new large loads, such as data centers, which will be handled through the large load program,” Buntrock said.
The second driver is commodity price variability. This impacts not only the cooperative but also its subsidiaries.
The third driver is the Southwest Power Pool reserve margin changes. “These rule changes are forcing us to have more capacity online, which require us to build more, therefore increasing costs,” Buntrock said.
The fourth driver is investment in reliability. Although the focus may be on building generators and transmission, Basin Electric must continue to take care of its current infrastructure. An example of this would be maintaining units at regular intervals to make sure they are online and ready to perform when members need them most — during hot summers and cold winters.
Member input gathered through months of collaboration and open communication played a key role in shaping Basin Electric’s proposed increase. “We would like to thank our members for all their hard work and patience as we work through this process,” Buntrock said. “Their input was very important to us and helped us pull together a plan that will help us move forward.”
Materials to help facilitate conversations with your members will be available in the coming weeks.
