Keeping your energy affordable

We put our members first. Every step of the way, we dedicate ourselves to being an advocate for our member-consumers. We’re working hard to make sure we can provide affordable electricity so you can keep more of your money. 

Diverse generation helps deliver affordable power 

How does Associated generate power to serve member-consumers across three states affordably? In a word: balance. Associated’s commitment to reliable, responsible and affordable power requires options for generating electricity. Associated continues its time-tested strategy of maintaining a diverse and flexible portfolio of generation resources that includes coal, natural gas, wind and hydropower. Associated invests in coal power plants that run around-the-clock to make them more efficient. Along with natural gas plants, they are an important part of a balanced, diverse generation mix that enables the cooperative to run the units that are less expensive at the time electricity is needed. While coal is traditionally a less costly fuel to make electricity than many other sources, low natural gas prices in 2019 and 2020 have, at times, made Associated’s natural gas generating units less expensive to run than coal units. During those times, more of our members' energy is coming from natural gas. The ability to choose among different ways to generate power—like coal or natural gas— is a tremendous advantage that benefits member-consumers with lower costs.

Making the most of electric generation resources 

Many times, Associated has generation capabilities above its member-consumer needs. When utilities outside of the Associated system need power, they can buy the cooperative’s excess electricity. The revenue from these power sales helps keep member costs lower than they otherwise would be. “The balance and flexibility of our diverse generation fleet allow us, at times, to have significant volumes of excess generation we can sell to nonmembers, which reduces our overall costs,” said Associated’s Michael Denning, manager, energy marketing. “That’s good for Associated and its members."

Are you interested in learning more about how we generate affordable electricity for our members? Check out our recent blog post!

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