The price of power supply ...

... making sure it is both reliable AND affordable

We just concluded our annual district meetings, at which 682 members registered. We estimate over 1,300 people took time to be part of this annual tradition that is so very important to your cooperative.
Thank you! Your support, your comments whether they’re compliments or not, and your votes help keep HomeWorks Tri-County strong as we work to bring you reliable, affordable electric power.
One of our key messages this year was about the work our power supplier, Wolverine Power Cooperative, has done to make sure you have a reliable source of energy flowing over our reliable system of electric wires.
Wolverine’s plan is to not have all of its power supply eggs in one basket – they want power from a variety of fuels, from more than one generating company, from more than one location. Without that diversity, Wolverine could get caught in a bad position if one fuel’s price goes way up, or one generating plant goes out of service for upgrades.
In 2010, Wolverine purchased two power plant assets. One was a natural-gas fired peaking plant near Detroit’s airport. This will be used during times of high demand, like on hot summer afternoons when everyone has air conditioners cranked up.
The other was an ownership share in two coal-fired plants along the Ohio River in southern Ohio and Indiana – both plants have already been upgraded to meet all current environmental regulations, so they are very clean-burning coal plants. This purchase provides about 150 MW of baseload generation, the kind we need 24 hours a day.
With both plants, Wolverine was able to take advantage of a double economic whammy – a buyer’s market and low financing costs, which will keep your energy costs down long-term.
But there were up-front costs to these purchases that will mean a rate increase on July 1 - $3.65 per 1,000 kilowatt-hours - and another increase on January 1, when we start taking power from the Ohio River plants.
We already knew there would be an increase on January 1 as the current long-term power contract ended December 31. Wolverine chose to make the move to owning versus renting a little sooner, or as they put, “a little short-term pain in exchange for a long-term gain.”
We are fortunate to have partners like Wolverine. They are committed to our same goal of bringing you reliable, affordable electric power, and they show that commitment through their long-term work plans and management of power supply options.