Aledo, Texas (January 20, 2025) — Tri-County Electric Cooperative members are now shielded from the effects plummeting winter temperatures can have on soaring wholesale power market prices because of a power supply agreement recently negotiated by its new leadership team. This new agreement began January 1, 2025, and extends through 2029.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the state’s power grid, recently forecasted demand to reach record levels. The market pricing for power reacted with wholesale power prices spiking to thousands of dollars per megawatt hour.
“While no contract can protect members from power shortages across the state, this five-year power purchase agreement guarantees the wholesale rates Tri-County Electric pays the wholesale market for the next five years” said Scott Spence, TCEC President and CEO. “This contract will ensure the resulting Power Cost Recovery Factor (PCRF) is a credit to the TCEC members throughout 2025.”
“Seeing wholesale prices rise affirms that the power agreement was the right decision for what TCEC is facing. It was around this time four years ago that Winter Storm Uri led to wildly fluctuating prices. This power supply agreement avoids the impacts that another extreme weather event could have on TCEC and allows us to better plan for the cooperative’s financial future by removing an unpredictable variable on the largest single expense-fuel costs,” added Spence.
The power supply agreement is part of TCEC’s strategy of delivering safe, reliable power at the lowest possible cost by locking in fixed wholesale kilowatt-hour rates.
About Tri-County Electric Cooperative
Established in 1939, Tri-County Electric Cooperative is a distribution electric cooperative that serves more than 110,000 members across 16 counties in the north Texas region. The cooperative provides and distributes power to more than 131,900 meters on 9,900 miles of distribution lines. Tri-County Electric Cooperative strives to enhance the quality of life in our diverse communities by providing safe, reliable, and competitive electric and customer service to our member-owners as good stewards of the environment.