Highline Electric annual meeting draws 175

Highline Electric Association, based in Holyoke, brought together more than 175 people the evening of Tuesday, March 28, to the Phillips County Event Center for a look at what General Manager Dennis Herman considered challenges, opportunities and “important topics” set to affect the member-owned cooperative in years to come.

In the meantime, depending on the ticket, members of the cooperative won door prizes including a blender, glass cleaner, backpack, cordless leaf blower, wide-screen television and – for the final draw –  $2,500. The name “Darin Kipp” showed up on a projector screen and a man broke from his conversation at one of the tables.

“Oh my gosh!” exclaimed Steve Boerner of Haxtun. “I’m... he’s gonna... That’s my neighbor! I’ve seen him right on the road and I told him to [ride over] with me. That’s the truth... He’s gonna fall over.

“I think I’ll let him sleep tonight. I’ll talk to him in the morning.”

Further down, a Holyoke resident examined the silver sheen of a 2023 Ford Lightning; Highline, Herman said, purchased it last year as the cooperative’s “first all-electric fleet vehicle.”

“We are more than happy to let you kick the tires and get behind the wheel of the Lightning,” Herman told the crowd. “Call the office in Holyoke and ask for our member services department if you’re interested.”

Highline finances

For the cooperative, hotter weather drove up operating revenue for 2022, according to Highline Chief Financial Officer Jim Jackson, gaining it nearly $55.6 million when compared to more than $51.2 million the previous year, an increase of about 8.6% overall.

“The increase in revenue,” he said, “is mainly due to increased sales in the irrigation class.” 

Naturally for an agriculture-focused area, irrigation took the largest share in Highline’s 2022 kilowatt-hour purchases at 59.1%, followed by large commercial at 23.1%, residential at 13.4% and small commercial at 4.4%.

Highline purchased nearly 5.3 million kilowatt-hours in 2022, an increase of nearly 14% over its more than 4.6 million the previous year. The cooperative also sold more than 4.9 million kilowatt-hours to its members in 2022, an increase of more than 15.1% percent when compared to about 4.3 million in 2021.

Moving forward, Highline may encounter a rate increase from a significant power supplier, Tri-State Generation and Transmission, based in Westminster. The increase could equal 10%, Herman said, but he believes “that it is a worst-case scenario.”

To account for this and other eventualities, Highline has accumulated $4.4 million in deferred revenue, which Herman said can be used to “offset upcoming rate increases.”

“While the situation will continue to change and evolve, our projection right now is that we will need a 2% rate increase in 2024 after deferred revenue is utilized,” he said to the crowd. “We will keep you informed as we get more information on our future rates.”

The 2% projection, he noted later, “is very preliminary.”

Expanding to the future

Highline, Jackson said, currently has about 5,200 miles of power lines and a utility plant valued at $118 million, an increase of $3.5 million from 2021. Over the past six years, he continued to the crowd, the cooperative spent $13.4 million “to maintain or rebuild your system plant to meet your needs.”

Regarding outages, often caused by weather, Jackson said local incidents lasted “roughly an hour and a half” in 2021, less than half of the 208 minutes recorded for such incidents for the national average. This year, Highline’s outages lasted an average of about 125 minutes – while an increase, it’s still likely lower than the national average for 2022.

“The national outage data [have not] been released, so we have no comparison to last year,” Jackson said, “but still a huge thank you to the operations, engineering and office crews for keeping the outages to a minimum.”

For 2022, Highline gained awards for safety achievement and accreditation. The cooperative’s last lost time accident, referring to an incident where an employee is kept from work due to injury or disability, occurred in 2016.

More information on Highline may be found at hea.coop/. To contact the Holyoke office, call 970-854-2236.