When I talk about achieving energy independence for our member owners, I’m declaring that no community should be dictated what source of power generation they have to consume — and no group should be beholden to another group charging them ever-escalating and opaque pricing.

Our cooperative, the Kit Carson Electric Cooperative in northern New Mexico (KCEC), was criticized by some for our decision — at the urging of our members — to forge our own roadmap to energy independence. It was critical that we restore our community members with local decision-making control over power choices.

It was a path not traveled by many at the time. But we knew that by exiting our contract with our incumbent wholesale power provider, securing alternative sources of reliable wholesale power, and repaying our fair portion of generation and transmission cooperative debt, which kept all existing members whole, that we could get to a better place we call energy independence. For us, energy independence has delivered three key things: savings; solar and storage; and a better long-term energy strategy.

1. Wholesale Savings. We lowered the wholesale power pricing rates below what KCEC had previously paid to our wholesale power supplier, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association. Had we continued to purchase power supply from Tri-State, we would have been forced to absorb the 7% wholesale power cost increase they’ve recently announced. By changing wholesale power suppliers, we achieved an approximately 30% decrease in power cost, pre-Tri-State’s latest rate hike, bringing the cost delta between those two wholesale energy paths to 37%. With the extension of our new wholesale power contract we entered in 2016 with Guzman Energy, our current wholesale power partnership is expected to keep rates stable for another 18 years, and save KCEC members $150 million to $170 million over the lifetime of the contract. We are thrilled we exited Tri-State when we did.

• Retail Savings. As a result of these wholesale power savings, in 2022, KCEC was able to deliver customer-member-owner savings on monthly power bills. In 2022, co-op members saw a decrease in their electric bills through the fuel adjustment line item and realized savings of up to 25%. KCEC now has lower residential rates than any Tri-State member co-op and some of the lowest residential power rates in New Mexico. And this is before Tri-State’s intended wholesale rate increase takes effect. We’re also on track to meet our goal of keeping our member rates stable for the next 15+ years. 

2. Solar plus Storage. Exiting our previous power supply contract has given us the freedom we had previously lacked to expand power sourced from local, distributed, renewables sources. KCEC is developing 41 MW of solar power and 16 MW of battery energy storage systems needed to enable KCEC to locally generate 100% of its summer daytime power supply from the sun. KCEC started achieving 100% daytime solar during 2022. Our previous supply contract only allowed up to 5% local power generation.

3. Future-ready Energy Strategy. When you achieve energy independence, you can formulate a future-ready energy strategy. For us that has meant a power plan that has predictable cost and is as clean as possible. In tandem with cleaner power, our mission continues to include creating new energy community partnerships where possible, like the work we’ve done with Taos Pueblo and Picuris Pueblo on creating their own solar + storage projects within tribal lands. As we look forward, we’re exploring the deployment of green hydrogen to bring a long-duration storage project to the Village of Questa, an economically distressed mining community on a brownfield site that we are transforming to a greenfield, all while creating jobs and clean, affordable energy. With our cooperative-wide local renewable generation with storage footprint, we expect that KCEC will easily exceed New Mexico’s statewide renewable energy standard of 50% by 2030 target.

I am proud to say that today we are exactly where we wanted to be when the KCEC leadership team — as directed by our member-owners — charted a course for energy independence. Having finished repaying our G&T exit costs in 2022 — and making rapid progress on our local renewable energy generation plans — we’re now enjoying the benefits of energy independence and all the options for the future that comes with it.

I hope that other electric cooperatives who have been weighing the benefits of reclaiming their energy independence will take our story to heart. I believe there is a groundswell of interest among our nation’s cooperatives to find a cleaner, more affordable energy future that is anchored in local decision-making and control. We’ve created the blueprint for cooperatives reshaping their futures, and it’s a blueprint we are happy and eager to share with others.