No Rate Increase for HOEC Customers This Year

Despite the record low temperatures caused by February’s polar vortex, Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative customers will not see a rate increase this year, confirmed Myles Smith, Director of Member Services for HOEC. 

While local municipalities are struggling to devise solutions to almost $1 million in collective unexpected energy costs, HOEC is “not in the same boat,” Smith said in an interview on April 1. 

“The co-op systems in Missouri have a very diverse generation portfolio. Having those resources available was huge for us,” Smith explained. Co-ops in Missouri also have their own energy generation facilities, though some power did have to be sourced from other places at times of peak demand. 

More than planning on the co-ops part or access to resources, individual utility customers’ response to HOEC’s call to conserve energy during periods of peak demand was instrumental to avoiding blackouts or brown-outs.

“Kudos to our membership for responding to that call to conserve when they could. That was huge,” Smith said. 

Working hand in hand with our members and with our generation facility, all that working together, got us successfully through the polar vortex,” Smith said.