Early in 2009 our power supplier, Great River Energy (GRE), was anticipating a 10% or more wholesale rate increase to us in 2010. I’m happy to report that the actual wholesale rate increase to North Itasca will be 5.3% on our general service rate and 2.3% on our load management rates. The bad news is that Minnkota Electric, which supplies 20% of our wholesale power, has been forced to raise their rates by a half cent ($.005) per kWh or 11% just to pay for wind energy and will be initiating an additional 7.5% rate increase on top of the 11% (18.5% total) in 2010. Blending these rates results in a wholesale cost increase of 7.9% or $290,000.

At the Annual Meeting last year I reported that your management and board were committed to keeping future rate adjustments to an absolute minimum so when we did our budget for 2010 we threw a lot of optimism (i.e.: the economy would recover, the weather would be normal, etc.). The bottom line is, no increase will be needed to meet our operating costs here at the co-op level but we do need a 3.5% rate increase to cover $198,000 of the $290,000 increase in our power bill.

Effective January 1, 2010 the Monthly General Service Rates for Year Around Residential, Seasonal Residential and Small Commercial Accounts will increase by 1/2 cent ($.005) per kWh for all kWhs or $5.00 per 1,000 kWhs/mo. The Load Management Rates (Dual Fuel, Storage, etc.) will increase by 2/10th cent ($.002) per kWh or $2.00 per 1,000 kWhs/mo. And because all the increase will be in our cost of power there will be no change in fixed monthly service charge.

As a member/customer owned company we know that any increase hurts, and we’ll continue to do our best to keep rates affordable. We encourage you to consider one of our load management options for your home and water heating needs, to visit our web site at: www.northitascaelectric.com for energy saving ideas and to take advantage of some of the great energy conservation credits being offered by your co-op and by the government for Energy Star appliances, home insulation and other energy saving actions. Give Jerry a call here at the co-op for some helpful ideas.

On behalf of the Employees, Staff, Board of Directors and myself, please know that we will be doing our best to provide reliable service at affordable rates.