Happy New Year. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season, and I wish you the very best in 2025. I would like to highlight a few of the projects that your board of directors approved at their last board meeting when they discussed our 2025 workplan and budget.
Technology Updates
In 2025, we plan to continue the upgrade of our end-of-life load management system with a newer system. There are many benefits to upgrading our load management system including being able to implement new control strategies to help with newer rate design. If you are enrolled in our load management system, you will be notified with a postcard that we will be in your area and a door hanger will be left at your residence with confirmation of our visit. Please review the door hanger confirmation in case we need you to schedule an appointment.
We are also continuing to implement new hardware on our distribution lines to help restore outages automatically and monitor voltage information remotely.
Construction
There are still longer lead times for many of our construction equipment, however, we have seen where the times are not as long as they have been in the past few years. Unfortunately, costs continue to increase but not at the pace that they have been.
In 2025, construction will start on a new substation in the Oakdale area to increase power delivery and reliability. This had been planned for late 2024, however, it had to be delayed due to unforeseen circumstances. We are also making plans on starting construction of an additional substation in the Armenia area to help with reliability. Later this fall, construction will start on a third substation in the Clearfield area.
Major line construction will take place in the New Lisbon, Oakdale, and Clifton areas. There are also many other smaller areas that we will be working in to reduce the likelihood of outages during major storm events.
Electric Rates
This past year, we had a $0.08 per day increase in the residential facility charge and increases in our rates for our commercial and industrial members. Currently, we are not expecting to have to raise rates in 2025. However, we will need to continue to evaluate this. If we did need to make a change, we would notify everyone in advance.
There is much more that Oakdale Electric Cooperative (OEC) plans to do in 2025. Please know that every decision that is made at OEC is made with the best interests of all members in mind. If you ever have any questions or concerns, please contact us.
Again, on behalf of everyone at OEC, I would like to wish you a Happy New Year.