Throughout late winter and early spring, thousands of Sioux Valley Energy members attend one of our 10 district meetings. As part of the program, both your local director and I present information about what is happening at the Cooperative. We understand that not everyone can attend one of the meetings, so I thought I would give you a high level overview of what we discussed.
District Meetings - Rates and Growth
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Tim McCarthy
Sioux Valley Energy
General Manager/
Chief Executive Officer
As many of you know, the Sioux Valley Energy Board of Directors approved a rate increase to the membership beginning in January.
The Cooperative’s operating budget will reach nearly $115 million this year. The biggest part of the budget is power supply costs—paying around $70 million for purchased power in 2025, which is $4.3 million higher than last year. Power supply makes up over 60 percent of the budget. Our power supply costs increased by over seven percent--which is the driver of the recently implemented rate adjustment. We were able to mitigate that increase to an overall 4.9 percent through several measures we took locally.
First, we considered our direct expenses, which only make up six percent of the budget. These costs include day-to-day activities such as cable locating, right-of-way clearing, pole testing, consumer billing and postage, member meetings, community development, software, director expenses, building expenses, dues, and outside services. We have budgeted a reduction for direct costs in 2025.