Profile: An Electric Co-op Family

This story represents real people and a real co-op in Wisconsin. Thanks to them for sharing their story.

Our family farm in northwestern Wisconsin has supported three generations on growing corn and hay, milking cows, and raising turkeys.

Great-granddad remembers the mid-1930s when President Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act, setting up low-interest loans to build electric systems in under-served rural areas. Local folks got together to form a co-op, paid their $5 membership fee, and elected a board of directors who hired a general manager. In fact, great-granddad was elected to the board of directors that signed the first REA contract. He served for 24 years.

Today our farm is one of only five along a mile of electric line. When we attend the annual meeting, the general manager reports that the mile of line costs the same to build whether it serves five farms or 35 homes like in town.

It’s my dad who serves on the electric co-op board today and our farm has grown into a larger family operation. We now have three homesteads, 150 Holsteins, calving sheds, and 640 acres of cropland. It keeps us all very busy and it takes a lot more electricity: Our monthly electric bill on the homestead with the milking parlor is about $1,600 on average, sometimes more depending on the weather.

Rates, Mandates

At the electric co-op from 1985 to 2002, electric rates only increased about 8 percent. We were using the co-op’s conservation and efficiency programs so the bill was lower. Now it’s a different story. During the past five years alone, rates have increased 35 percent. The power supplier explained at the annual meeting that the increase is to help pay $400 million for environmental emission controls and investments in renewable generation to comply with new regulations.

At the co-op board meeting, dad learned that on average co-op members are paying $328 per year to comply with renewable mandates and environmental upgrades. It breaks down even further to $276 per year for environmental emission controls, $24 per year for renewable generation, and $28 per year for energy efficiency and conservation programs. The farm is not average; our bills are even more. We thought the energy efficiency and conservation programs were going to lower bills, but the other stuff has cancelled our savings.

So far we have been able to keep up with the electric bills, but with milk prices down and my husband and sister-in-law both losing their jobs it is getting more difficult.

Financial Squeeze

Dad reports that co-op surveys indicate 20 percent of the co-op member households earn less than $25,000 and 62 percent earn less than $50,000 annually. During the past five years, the number of low-income members receiving financial assistance through the co-op’s Commitment to Community Program increased 117 percent. The amount the co-op writes off from uncollectable accounts increased 55 percent, and that puts pressure on the rest of the members. Some of our members have never had to ask for assistance to pay their bills before, but with 11-percent unemployment in counties we serve, even the food pantries are seeing an uptick in people needing food.

There was a meeting at the co-op with our state senator to talk about how things are going. Dad said they talked about the rate increases and write-offs, and dad learned from what the senator had to say. Dad feels confident that the senator will take the co-op’s message to other members of the Senate.