By Zac Perkins, TCEC Chief Executive Officer

We’ve received some questions about new options for electric rates that our Board of Trustees are considering. TCEC is a regulated utility and the questions came about as a result of a notice to Kansas members that other states do not require. We welcome those questions and I’d like to address them here.

The rate options under consideration are additions, not changes, to the existing rates. TCEC’s electric rates are stable and the cooperative is doing well financially. We would like to test a new type of rate called ‘time of use’ as a pilot. To do that, the Board of Trustees must discuss and vote on adding time of use to the cooperative’s rate structure. No action is required by our members.

Time of use rates are designed to discourage electricity use when the its price is highest during the year. While the intended result should be lower electric bills for members, we would like to test them through a pilot to determine whether they produce the intended results. We would solicit volunteers for the pilot in the future and communicate with all our members in many ways when they’re ready for widespread adoption.

TCEC has been billing members the same way for many years. Time of use rates are new for us. That means our employees and trustees need to learn them, the membership needs to learn them, and we want to learn it together. We want the option to have a positive impact on our members and the cooperative so we’re going to take this slow.

Members have asked for more options for rate design and this is a way we’re considering that. Please call us at 580.652.2418 or email info@tcec.coop if you have any questions or need more information on any aspect of your electric service. We’re here to answer your questions.

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