Retail Rate Guide Volume I
Retail Rate Guide Volume II

Background

Proper ratemaking remains a cornerstone of electric cooperative financial strength. Rates also offer a terrific touch point and opportunity for enhancing member education, discussing the cooperative difference, and establishing your cooperative as a trustworthy source of information.

Today’s evolving utility marketplace raises important concerns regarding how electric cooperative rates are structured. New technologies such as advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and behind-the-meter communications devices are making new rate designs possible, while advancements in efficiency, distributed generation and energy storage are challenging the viability of traditional ratemaking structures. At the same time, electric cooperative member-consumer preferences are evolving. In many cases, member-consumers are demanding new services and asking for more control over their energy use.

To best mitigate risks and advance opportunities, CFC and NRECA offer this guide, and its companion communications toolkit, Introducing a Rate Change to Member-Consumers, as a comprehensive resource on ratemaking. Given the diversity of electric cooperatives, no one-size-fits-all solution exists. The guide is meant to provide electric cooperatives with a suite of rate options and considerations that will help you tailor rates to fit your own system needs and member-consumer preferences.

We hope that this Retail Rate Guide is a valuable resource to America’s Electric Cooperatives as you navigate a fast-changing industry environment.