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 is a $7 to $10 increase per month on average for PRECorp residential usage. This will vary based on individual usage. These estimates are preliminary, however, and are subject to change.
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. For instance, the Dry Fork Station in Gillette was constructed at a cost of $800 per megawatt produced. Today, generation facilities are running about $2,800 per megawatt.
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.
Some of the softening strategies include the predictable distribution of Basin capital credits to cooperatives, which would alleviate the pressure at the local level. Additionally, PRECorp is calculating a cost of power adjustment for 2026. This adjustment would compensate members for actual power costs in 2025.
Details and specific numbers remain under review.
PRECorp CEO Brian Mills hosted a telephone town hall meeting August 27 for members.
Another town hall is set for Thursday, November 20, at 6:30 p.m. to offer additional details.