Members of La Plata Electric Association will not see a rate increase in 2026, CEO Chris Hansen said.
The co-op’s board voted unanimously to hold rates steady, even as Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association voted to increase their wholesale rates by 7.5%, which in turn would have raised bills for homeowners by $9 every month, according to a news release from LPEA.
“That was going to have a direct impact on us in the first quarter of the year until April 1, which is our last day with Tri-State,” Hansen said.
He said the board decided to tap into a Rate Stabilization Fund, which was set up as a pool of reserve money for short-term price assistance. Because LPEA has only a handful of months remaining in its contract with Tri-State, the board chose to use those reserve funds to keep rates stable for members.
“That allowed us to have zero increase for 2026,” he said.
The decision came with the cooperative’s new 2025 mission statement in mind, which mandates that the LPEA ensure members pay less for electric service than 70% of Colorado cooperatives and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80% of 2005 levels.
Hansen said economic challenges have affected utility providers across the nation. Tariffs and inflation are increasing the costs of labor and materials like copper, steel and aluminum, which puts more pressure on LPEA.
“Prices are going up for everything right now,” he said. “But fortunately, with the power purchase agreements we’ve negotiated on April 1, our wholesale costs will actually come down about 10%, and that’s allowing us to keep rates stable throughout 2026.”
Some of that projected decrease in cost come from the co-op’s efforts to reduce emissions by generating power from renewable sources, he said.
Hansen pointed to how the co-op recently entered into an agreement to buy 40 megawatts of power from the Dolores Canyon Solar Project. Solar and other low-emission sources have been found to outcompete oil and gas on cost, which is why the provider is looking to purchase more energy from those types of utilities.
“We can maintain great affordability and lower our emissions significantly,” he said.
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
