Member-Focused Planning and Investment Protected Members from Rising Rates

Advocating for Policies That Align With Cooperative Values, Addressing Potential Impacts of AI, Preparing for an El Niño Winter

President and General Manager’s Message, October-November 2026

WEC Bills Compared to Other Vermont Utilities

Steve: Co-op Month may be October, but the point of this column, and of Co-op Currents, is to inform and invite dialogue with WEC’s member-owners year-round. Our Board, elected from and among our members, is guided by the Cooperative Principles in all our decision-making. This commitment is examined in this issue particularly in terms of our cooperative investment in Coventry, and the long-term benefit of that decision to members, which is on full display now that our bills have been protected from rising rates in an energy environment that has been challenging for utilities and ratepayers.

Louis: Washington Electric bills for residential members, which have long been near or at the top for Vermont utilities, have dropped to fourth as of October 1. We’re not celebrating other utility customers’ bills going up. The important thing is acknowledging that Washington Electric has made a lot of decisions over a long period of time to stabilize its expenses, while simultaneously making much of the 100% renewable power we produce for our members through our own plant in Coventry. These decisions are proving to be beneficial not only environmentally, but financially, for the Co-op and the members who own it.

Even though we have a rural, highly residential, very expensive territory to serve, good work over many years from the managers and directors of the Co-op have insulated our members from changes in the regional cost of electricity. That’s what put us in this position. A member who uses 500-600 kWh per month, which is about average, pays less in our territory than they do in Green Mountain Power or Hyde Park’s territory. We’ve seen many neighbor utilities request necessary rate increases. Washington Electric has been able to avoid large rate cases over the last few years, so other utilities’ electric bills have come closer to ours.

Steve: Washington Electric and several other utilities invested preemptively in purchasing or generating renewable power for members. It’s generally true that over the past several decades, renewable electricity has proven more expensive per kWh than other fossil fuel sources. Our early investment to become certified 100% renewable by Vermont’s Department of Public Service had some cost increases associated with that. 

But the cost of most fossil fuels has zoomed lately and Vermont now mandates all utilities to use more renewable energy, so other utilities are having to purchase additional renewable power. That’s one factor in other utilities’ costs and hence bills increasing perhaps just a tad faster than WEC’s.

Louis: Steve’s point here is right. We have been largely insulated from the market due to long-term power markets and especially the Coventry plant, so what is the most expensive territory to serve is no longer the most expensive per customers’ bills.

Now, I can hear members saying, “Yeah but it’s still expensive!” It’s fair for members to push back on rates. But WEC still has the least industrial load and the most penetration of net metering of any utility in Vermont. All those things add to costs.

Steve: Those who regularly read this column will recall Louis and me discussing the pros and cons of Vermont’s net metering program for a cooperative utility. This is a program mandated by the state and WEC follows the law scrupulously. We and others have pointed out that while it’s useful that rooftop solar can often supply energy that the utility doesn’t have to buy, the effective cost of that power is typically more expensive to the utility — and by extension, the members or ratepayers of that utility — than other types of renewable electricity, including utility-scale solar. This has been found to be generally true around the country. Rates could be cheaper if regulators could evolve Vermont’s net metering program to benefit both the residential solar generator and the other members of the utility.

Louis: It’s fair to say net metering provides us with benefits. It’s worth more than power on the open New England market because it’s local, which offsets load and transmission costs to get it here. Our point is that although net metered power is valuable, there’s an imbalance between what members pay and what it is worth.

Steve: Around the country, new ways are emerging to install residential rooftop solar without subsidization by other ratepayers.

Louis: Paring solar with battery storage is probably the best example. Spreading out when the power is generated and when it is used is highly beneficial.

Steve: I hope to see rooftop solar evolve as a more mature technology in our territory to be a more controlled and balanced resource for utility ratepayers. It’s time for regulators and legislators to catch up with an acceptable plan to get the maximum benefit out of this approach without penalizing ratepayers who have already invested in renewable energy through their utility’s power portfolio.

AI and Cybersecurity

Louis: There are a couple of ways AI interacts with utility business. One is that these data centers that support AI are huge power users and that has impacted utilities, and the customers of those utilities, around the country. From Vermont’s rural nature to regulatory complexity to regional power costs, I think it’s very unlikely anyone will site a data center in Vermont, much less WEC territory. If more were sited in Quebec, that could have a downstream effect on Vermont. Our state gets much of its power from Hydro-Québec, including WEC.

The use of AI tools is different. You can imagine that AI’s ability to predict and analyze data could be very useful for a utility as it’s planning infrastructure buildout or responding to outages. Readers probably know a lot of the software they use everyday has AI integrated into it; the software tools utilities use for billing and operation are very likely to have AI integrated going forward; we won’t have the choice of opting out. Those are the two broad ways it affects us.

Steve: I think you’ve hit on the major items. AI as an operational tool for WEC and other utilities is here to stay I think, because of its implications for improving reliability and potentially lowering costs.

One of the reasons these data centers are so large is they’re basically training AI programs how to think. Some are huge, and maybe some are cryptocurrency centers. But for the most part, a suite of AI applications utilities might use should require considerably fewer resources.

Nonetheless, it’s legitimate to be concerned about the information data centers extract and the costs they drive with their electrical and water use, and to be concerned about AI’s impact on our well-being — how it will be intrusive on a much more rapid scale than we can imagine now in our daily lives. It’s imperative that WEC takes care to mitigate cybersecurity threats that are enhanced by baddies using AI. There are lots of things to be concerned about, but to echo Louis’s basic comment: like any complex enterprise, utilities will use AI, and our task is to make sure that utilities have agency over that resource and that its usage is cybersecure.

Louis: WEC is far from alone in this space. Grid security and cybersecurity in the vanguard of AI is a top issue across this industry, and beyond this industry. Here at home, WEC keeps up with what NRECA [National Rural Electric Cooperative Association] is discussing: we band together with hundreds of cooperatives around the country, pooling our resources and influence. And WEC has a wonderful IT expert in Scott Dane.

Winter Forecast

Louis: Washington Electric recently had three experienced line crew members and right-of-way coordinator leave for other opportunities. They all had good reasons for making those changes: a shorter commute, advancing in their career, or working closer to their families. For a small line crew like ours, to have a few very good and experienced people leave is always a challenge, particularly going into winter.

And this will be a challenging winter for our line crew and Washington Electric. It’s an El Niño year, which typically brings more storms, warmer temperatures, and heavy wet snow that results in treefall. Fortunately, we have very good relationships with regional utilities, especially public power utilities — municipals and co-ops. We also have strong relationships with contractors who will help us out, and we belong to a network of utilities that pitch in and help out when needed.

Steve: I often hear members say they recognize the challenges our crews work under and appreciate the work they do under difficult conditions, and in difficult territory. There’s a lot of gratitude for the work they do. You probably need some of the best line crews around to work in our territory. 

Louis: That’s absolutely the case, because they have to be experienced in all conditions and environments, from bucket trucks in the roadway to underground to offroad and barely accessible. It’s a very challenging territory both physically and electrically, given the variety of work they do.

Steve: This territory requires the best. I greatly appreciate the service our employees provide, in the office and out in the field.

Winter Preparation

Louis: I’m sure members are tired of hearing me say this, but services in our territory are different from in urban and suburban places. People here rely on themselves and their friends, relatives, and neighbors for things they’d rely on service providers to do in other places. That includes passability of roads, emergency services, and electrical service. Members who live in rural service territories like ours need to be prepared and able to manage what they need during an outage. People who live here know their road may not be in the same condition as in a suburban area after a storm, and the same is true for electric service. 

WEC is supporting battery backup, improving and rebuilding lines, and strengthening infrastructure. We’re doing what we can in the face of increasing storm damage. But we’re going to have outages. Our members do a terrific job of looking in on and helping their neighbors and relatives.

Steve: Do you have specific advice for members with medical needs and their caretakers, as far as options in an outage or extended outage? This is particularly important for some of our members.

Louis: We maintain notes in our member files as to who has serious medical needs and requires lifesaving medical equipment. I urge members who have those needs, or who no longer have those needs, to let us know. Some members have the mistaken idea that if we have those notes we can restore power to those locations quickly. The reality is, if you’re at the end of a long feeder line, we have to repair the line upstream from you before we can repair your power, and that can take a long time.

Members with medical needs need a plan. If you’re concerned about that, you can call us. I also ask members to be honest and practical about what is a medical device that is necessary versus what is lifesaving medical equipment. A CPAP machine is important and you should plan for backup, but it may not be necessary to save your life.

Steve: It’s important for all readers of Co-op Currents to ask, “Do I have a neighbor who has such needs, and what can I do to help my neighbor in an extended outage?” We can forward requests to Vermont Emergency Management but I find that friends and neighbors can provide best and most immediate support. Please take stock of which of your neighbors are likely to need help. Most people do this already, but it helps to say in print once in a while: neighbors helping neighbors is the best kind of support during an emergency.