Ensuring there is enough electricity generation requirements and more reliance on renewable energy sources can be challenging due to the variability of generation. Costs of infrastructure upgrades, transmission and distribution upgrades, and new generation are high, but Western Farmers Electric Cooperative (WFEC), is proactively planning for future needs. WFEC is a not-for-profit wholesale power supplier for 21 member distribution cooperatives and Altus Air Force Base, located across Oklahoma and New Mexico. 

How WFEC and co-ops are responding?
WFEC is actively responding to increasing electricity requirements by investing in infrastructure, exploring diverse energy sources, and highlighting energy efficiency savings. This includes upgrading and building new power plants fueled by natural gas, upgrading transmission lines, and incorporating battery storage. 

 Spreading out project costs, using competitive bidding on projects, seeking economical borrowing costs, (borrowing less than 100 percent of a project cost), and using an “all of the above” approach to additional generation has been beneficial for WFEC. Through these steps and other sound decisions by WFEC’s Board of Trustees, these sizeable projects should help minimize distribution cooperative members’ rate impacts.

It would be preferable not to see electric bills increase, however, it is not possible to maintain a level of reliability our distribution members expect. Each member cooperative will have different impacts for their members. 

End use consumers should start to see these minimal increases in February 2026 when they receive their January 2026 bills. On the plus side, the higher reliability goals put in place with these additions should lessen the impact of events seen in the past. With additional generation capacity, distribution members should be able to serve normal load growth moving into the future.

For additional information, please visit the WFEC website – www.wfec.com.