Annual Meeting Recap

SouthEastern Illinois Electric Cooperative held its’ 85^th Annual Meeting on Tuesday, August 6, 2024 with 912 members registered and approximately 1,200 in total attendance. For those of you who were unable to attend your Cooperative’s annual meeting, this article will summarize the report members received at the annual meeting.

Your Cooperative invested $9.2 million in system improvements to replace aging infrastructure and invested $7.5 million to perform strategic maintenance activities in order to ensure that members receive a reliable electric supply while also maximizing the life and value of Cooperative assets.  Just a few examples of the maintenance activities include the Pole Testing and Treatment program and the Vegetation Management Plan.  Over the past several years, your Cooperative has performed a testing and select treatment program on approximately 61,000 poles.  This program identifies poles that have met their useful life and must be replaced, ensures the integrity of other pole assets, extends the useful life of poles and saves Cooperative members millions in early replacement costs.  The Vegetation Management Plan, which is crucial to electric reliability, ensures that we perform trimming and clearing along approximately 800 miles of distribution line every year.

The Cooperative sold approximately 722.1 million kwh in 2023 resulting in a decrease of 5.2% from 2022.  This slight decrease in kilowatt hours sold was due to lower large commercial sales.  The Cooperative constructed 340 new services to homes, farms and businesses and upgraded 30 services to provide additional energy capacity.

Your Cooperative ended the year 2023 in sound financial condition. As a not-for-profit organization, your Cooperative does not strive to produce profits for shareholders and investors but must maintain a sound financial position for the membership.  In 2023, your Cooperative’s Board of Trustees approved the retirement and return of $1.8 million of Capital Credits and the capital credit checks were mailed to members in December of 2023.  Over the past fourteen years, your Cooperative has retired and returned approximately $25.8 million to Cooperative members.

Your Cooperative is currently experiencing an increase in our wholesale power costs from Southern Illinois Power Cooperative located at the Lake of Egypt, primarily due to higher priced fuels consumed to generate electricity including coal and carbon.  These increased fuel costs are reflected in the wholesale power cost adjustment charge that varies monthly in your retail rate.  However, the wholesale rate structure that your Cooperative pays is also currently changing.  This wholesale rate structure change is partially in effect now and the final rate structure will take effective January 1, 2025.   Management has reviewed this wholesale rate structure change and is anticipating wholesale cost benefits to our Cooperative members.

Your Cooperative is currently conducting a cost-of-service study and a retail rate study that will be completed later this year.  At this time, your Cooperative does not anticipate the need to increase retail rates for at least the coming year.

Cooperative members learned that the electric generation is becoming more vulnerable during peak demand conditions due to a rapid transition in the electric generation industry to construct more renewable energy resources (solar and wind) and retiring fossil fuel generation (primarily coal but natural gas as well). Some of the primary reasons for this transition are public, social and financial policy changes that are providing significant financial incentives, including significant investment tax credits and subsidies, for the construction of renewable energy generation.

In addition, we are continuing to see new Environmental Regulations surrounding fossil fuels.  In April of this year, the US Environmental Protection Agency finalized four new environmental regulations targeting emissions from fossil-fueled generation and facilities that if enacted, will lead to more accelerated baseload generation facility retirements.   One new regulation would require baseload coal and new natural gas plants to meet an emission standard equivalent to installing a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) system removing 90% of the carbon by 2032.  Unfortunately, the CCS technology required is not ready for full-scale, industry-wide deployment and is certainly not considered economically viable.  The attorney generals from 27 states have filed lawsuits against the EPA to block the new regulations.    The fate of these new EPA regulations will be determined by the courts over the next few years.

As we look to the future, your Cooperative is currently investigating new automated metering infrastructure systems (AMI for short).  The current AMI system is approaching 20-years old and has limited time left. In addition, your Cooperative is investigating the implementation of new programs that may be implemented over the next few years. The change in the rate structure that was mentioned earlier will allow your Cooperative to implement new technologies to allow members to voluntarily participate in demand response programs.  These voluntary programs may include things like smart thermostats, smart water heaters, backup generators, time-of-use rates, off-peak rates and other programs to help reduce energy demand during peak alert conditions.  Thru participation in these programs, members may be able to reduce their energy demand and save money while helping to reduce the strain on the electric grid during peak demand times.

Your Cooperative was formed 86 years ago to bring electricity to rural areas of southeastern Illinois.  We appreciate the opportunity to serve you and we want you to know that your Cooperative is owned by the people it serves and will continue to be an electric cooperative that is truly operated “for the people and by the people.”

See you next month and as always, “We’ll keep the lights on for you.”