Northland Connection: April 2025

Annual Co-op Election Takes Place in May

Democratic member control is one of the unique hallmark principles of a cooperative. Not every utility provides its consumers with the opportunity to elect individuals to represent them at the decision-making table. This is the way it has always been for the last 87 years.

This year’s voting will open to members May 1 and conclude prior to the annual business meeting on May 29. Three of the nine board seats are up for election each year — one from each of our three service districts. Incumbent board directors Kim Goepferich, Mark Baker and Larry Leachman are up for reelection facing candidates from across our service area.

Members will also have the opportunity to vote on three proposed bylaw changes that seek to modernize future election processes.

In this special election issue of the Northland Connection, you’ll find all the information you need to vote. Members will have the option to vote securely online, by mail or in-person f or one hour prior to the business meeting. All votes are received and counted by an independent third-party organization.

We are once again offering the chance for members to win free energy bill credits. If you cast a ballot, you’ll automatically be entered into the drawing. The grand prize is $1500 in bill credits, and two additional members will each receive $750 in bill credits.

PCEC has a strong tradition of having excellent directors from diverse backgrounds helping make our cooperative one of the best in the state. Directors play a crucial role in working closely with me and the co-op management team to ensure PCEC is achieving our mission of providing safe and reliable power to our members. It’s very important for our cooperative to have dedicated directors representing our membership to maintain operational excellence and provide strategic direction for the future.

I hope you take advantage of your voting privileges in May and participate in this year’s election. As always, feel free to reach out to the co-op if you have any questions or need assistance with the voting process. We are proud to serve our cooperative family.

Platte-Clay Membership Election 2025 Voting Guide

View each candidate’s full profile and vote by visiting www.PCEC.coop/Vote. All members who vote in the election will automatically be entered into a drawing for free energy bill credits! Online voting is available May 1-27. Two winners will receive $750 and the grand prize is $1500!

VOTING INSTRUCTIONS

Voting in PCEC’s 2025 Membership Election is an easy, secure process managed by a third-party to ensure fairness. In order to access the ballot, you will need to know:

1) YOUR LAST NAME / BUSINESS NAME
2) YOUR MEMBER NUMBER
3) YOUR LOCATION NUMBER

The information listed above can be found on your PCEC bills or through your online billing portal. Once you have the required information, visit www.PCEC.coop/Vote to vote online or call (816) 343-4847 to request a mail-in ballot.

MAIL-IN BALLOT INSTRUCTIONS

1. Call (816) 343-4847 on or before May 9
2. Follow the voice prompt to leave your member information
3. Look for your ballot to arrive in the mail within a week
4. Fill out your co-op ballot
5. Return the ballot to P.O. Box 1648, Jefferson City, MO 65102 postmarked by May 19

VOTING BEGINS MAY 1!

Bylaw Amendments on the Ballot

Proposed Bylaw Amendment 1:
A “yes” vote would change PCEC bylaws to eliminate unnecessary proxy voting. Members would no longer be able to vote on behalf of another member. All references to proxy voting would be removed in Article III. Section 6; Proxies, Article I Section 3; Article III, Sections 4 and 7.

Proposed Bylaw Amendment 2:
A “yes” vote would change PCEC bylaws to add the following to director qualifications under Article 4, Section 3: “No person shall be eligible to become or remain a director or to hold any position of trust in the cooperative who: (f) has not filed with the cooperative and attested to true and correct finance reports at the time of filing for office, and at times as set out by board policy, listing any cash donations, or donations in kind, by any third party in support of the candidate running for director position. Said filings shall be on forms and under time limitations as prescribed by the Board of Directors, and shall be made available to all members;”

Proposed Bylaw Amendment 3:
A “yes” vote would change PCEC bylaws under Article 4, Section 4 to require all director candidates to submit at least 15 member signatures nominating the candidate by petition within 100 days prior to the annual meeting. The bylaw would state: “When a board director’s term is up for election, any fifteen (15) or more members acting together may make director nominations by petition not less than one hundred (100) days prior to the meeting and the Secretary shall post such nominations.”

Director Candidate Profiles

New Rates Go Into Effect on April Usage

Kendall Davis
Board President

I wrote in my January column about the upcoming 9% increase in overall revenue that was necessary to maintain responsible financial health for the cooperative. At our February board meeting, the directors voted and approved how the increase will be implemented on your bill. The new rate changes will begin with your April usage and then be reflected on your May bill.

These changes will help make sure that we increase revenue to offset the rising costs PCEC pays to our generation and transmission partners as they invest in expanding the statewide system to accommodate for growth and increasing demand.

Your monthly bill is comprised of three parts: a customer charge, a demand charge and an energy charge. For residential rates, the customer charge will be increasing from $30 to $36. The demand charge will be increasing from $3.50 per kW to $4.80 per kW. The energy charge will remain unchanged at $0.079 per kWh.

Member homes with average demand will see a 50 cent per day increase, or about $15 a month. Our last rate increase was in 2023, and we have only had three other increases in the last 15 years. If you total up the increases since 2011, Platte-Clay rates have only risen an average of 1.47% per year.

A common question the co-op receives is “What is the customer charge for?” The customer charge is made up of PCEC’s fixed costs to provide service such as member services, linemen, poles, wires, meters, tree-trimming, trucks, outage restoration, etc.

The demand charge on your bill is comprised of PCEC’s wholesale power demand components. Our transmission provider, NW Electric Power Cooperative, Inc., and our generation provider, Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc., bill PCEC for things like operating and maintaining power plants, transmission lines, substations and transformers. This equipment must be sized to meet the maximum potential load required, no matter when it is needed throughout the year.

This is why Associated is currently constructing two new natural gas peaking plants, which will add over 800 megawatts of ondemand generation capability to serve rural cooperative members across Missouri during peak demand conditions. One of these plants is being built in Turney and is scheduled to come online by 2027.

The final bill component is the energy charge, which is simply the per kilowatt-hour energy cost. This component will not be impacted by this rate change.

The part of the bill that members can always work to control, if they choose to do so, is the demand charge. The easiest way is to not run everything at once. Have your appliances take turns. For example, don’t do laundry at the same time you are using the oven, or set the delay on your dishwasher to run overnight.

Consistently following these suggestions can reduce your peak monthly demand. In addition, PCEC has great online tools you can access in your account to track and monitor your usage over the month.

It is important to note that since we are a cooperative, there is no need to collect more money than is necessary because any profit above the cost of operations including good business practices is allocated back to our members as capital credits. Speaking of capital credits, I’m pleased to report that capital credit distributions for this year will be credited on your May billing statement.

I realize no one likes rate increases, but the directors and PCEC leadership always strive to be as transparent with our members as possible. We have a duty to provide you with safe, reliable power, and these rates will help maintain the quality of service our members expect and deserve.

The cost of everything keeps rising and electricity demand across the country keeps rising as well. Electricity is one of the most important services we use every day, and even as it increases in cost, I always remind myself the daily value is pretty remarkable for everything it provides.

Service Highlight: Richie Waterers

Platte-Clay offers members dependable, energy efficient automatic Richie Waterers for their animal and livestock watering needs. Ritchie Waterers are designed to provide fresh water on demand 24 hours a day even in the coldest conditions, which makes breaking ice for livestock a thing of the past. PCEC stocks a variety of models and can order models that aren’t in stock.

Members may contact the co-op for more information by emailing mail@pcec.coop or calling (816) 628-3121.