Chris Tackmann, General Manager & CEO
Happy New Year. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season, and I wish you the very best in 2026. This year marks 90 years that Oakdale Electric Cooperative (OEC) has provided electric service to our surrounding communities. A lot has changed in 90 years since the first line was energized to bring power to the first members.
Members used to read their own meters, calculate, and pay their bills in person. Now meters are read automatically, computer systems calculate the amount owed, and bills are then emailed (and mailed). Many members then pay their bills via the internet through our website and SmartHub app. In the past, linemen had to read paper maps and climb poles to string wire across our counties. Now they have maps on iPads that give driving instructions to the outages (the outages also report automatically to our system) and can use bucket trucks to assist with building poles and wires instead of having to climb.
Another item that has changed recently is that OEC linemen are now able to build our own substations. In the past, Dairyland Power Cooperative, our G&T, owned and built our substations. This year our linemen built a new substation in Oakdale to help increase capacity in the grid to continue to provide reliable power to the members in this area. I am extremely proud of their accomplishment of doing this. They built this safely, quickly, and efficiently and exceeded all our expectations in doing this.
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 2026 workplan and budget.
Construction: Construction will start on a new substation in the Armenia area to increase power delivery and reliability. We are also making plans to increase capacity at our Tunnel City, Jack Pine, Plymouth, Sparta, and Tomah substations. This will help us to continue to provide reliable power in those areas.
Major line construction will take place in the Mauston, Kendall, Clearfield, 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.
Unfortunately, material costs continue to increase but not at the pace that they have been. Lead times on most items are also reducing, however, some items still take over a year to get here. If you are planning on any new construction at your home or changes at your business, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can work with you to plan accordingly.
Technology Updates: In 2026, 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 on our load management system, you will be notified with a letter that we will be in your area and there will be a door hanger left at your home once the changeout has been completed.
We are also continuing to implement new hardware on our distribution lines to help restore outages automatically and monitor voltage information remotely.
Electric Rates: Currently, we are not expecting to have to raise rates in 2026. However, we will be implementing a demand component on all residential electric bills starting this month. For the past few years, there has been a line item called “Demand Charge” with no charge associated with it. Going forward, there will be a charge of $0.25 per kW. This will result in most members seeing a $2.50 increase per month. Please see last month’s magazine for more information.
There is much more that Oakdale Electric Cooperative (OEC) plans to do in 2026. Please know that every decision that has been made at OEC for the last 90 years has been made with the best interests of all members in mind. This will not change. We plan on continuing to provide a high level of power reliability and member relations for the next 90 years. 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.