Behind the Cost of Power | Part 1

Understanding the cooperative difference

By Steve Epperson, CEO, Sunflower Electric Power Corporation

Co-Authored by Bruce W. Mueller, CEO/General Manager, Wheatland Electric Cooperative, Inc. 

For many families and businesses, monthly expenses have become harder to manage. Groceries, fuel, insurance, housing, and nearly every other essential service have experienced rising costs. Electricity is no exception.

We know higher electric bills matter. They affect family budgets, farms, businesses, and communities across rural Kansas. That is why Wheatland and its wholesale power supplier, Sunflower Electric Power Corporation, are committed to helping you better understand the factors shaping the cost of electricity and the work happening behind the scenes to manage those pressures responsibly. 

This article is the first in a series that explains what goes into the cost of power, the challenges utilities across the country face, and how the cooperative model continues to put members’ interests first. With the electric industry evolving rapidly and many factors remaining uncertain, we are not intending to predict future rate changes. We simply want to give you a clearer picture of the pressures affecting electricity costs and the work we do to keep power safe, reliable, and competitively priced.

A Partnership Built to Serve You

As a Wheatland member, you’re likely familiar with the local crews and employees who work every day to keep the lights on across our communities. But there’s also an important partnership working behind the scenes to help deliver safe, reliable electricity to homes, farms, schools, hospitals, and businesses throughout southwest and central Kansas. While Wheatland and Sunflower each serve different roles within the electric system, we share the same commitment to serving our members and strengthening the communities we call home.

Wheatland focuses on serving members directly by maintaining local power lines, restoring service during outages, and providing the dependable support you count on every day. Sunflower’s role is different but closely connected. As Wheatland’s wholesale power supplier, Sunflower generates and transmits the high-voltage electricity that powers our communities. Sunflower is owned and governed by six member distribution cooperatives — including Wheatland — along with one wholly owned subsidiary. Together, these utilities provide electricity to communities across 58 counties in central and western Kansas.

When making power supply decisions, Sunflower’s board of directors is uniquely positioned to understand and respond to your local community needs because it’s made up of two representatives from each of its six member cooperatives. These representatives include a trustee from Wheatland who was democratically elected to represent and speak on behalf of the cooperative’s membership. The second representative is CEO/General Manager Bruce W. Mueller. This unique, shared governance ensures local voices help guide long-term decisions about power supply, wholesale electric rates, transmission, and reliability at every level of the electric system.

Our partnership matters because local decisions are made with our members and communities in mind. Both Wheatland and Sunflower operate as not-for-profit cooperatives, which means revenues are invested back into the electric system to help maintain reliable service, support future infrastructure needs, and return value to members whenever possible. That cooperative structure keeps the focus where it belongs — on providing safe, reliable, and competitively priced electricity while looking out for the long-term interests of the people and communities we serve.

Understanding the 
Cost of Electricity

One of the most common questions members ask is: “What exactly am I paying for on my electric bill?” While every utility is different, on average, about 53 cents of every dollar on Wheatland’s electric bill is tied to wholesale power generation and transmission costs, the portion managed by Sunflower. The remaining portion supports Wheatland’s operating, infrastructure, and service costs required to safely deliver electricity to homes and businesses, as well as the collection of other transaction taxes and fees on behalf of local entities.

It’s important to remember that delivering electricity takes a large and connected system working around the clock. Power plants, transmission lines, substations, poles, wires, technology, and skilled employees all play a role in making sure electricity is available whenever you flip a switch.

Like utilities across the country, Wheatland and Sunflower are seeing higher costs to build, maintain, and upgrade the electric system. Demand for electricity continues to grow as homes, businesses, and technology use more power than ever before. At the same time, utilities are replacing aging equipment and investing in new infrastructure to keep service reliable for the future. Critical electric grid equipment, including transformers, breakers, switchgear, and other specialized materials, is becoming more expensive and increasingly difficult to obtain in a timely manner due to nationwide supply chain constraints and growing demand. These are challenges utilities across the country are working through as they continue providing safe and reliable electricity to the communities they serve.

Affordability and Accountability Go Hand in Hand

As we discuss the cost of electricity, it is important to recognize something else: accountability. At Sunflower, we often describe the electric system as a partnership where electricity flows in one direction from generation facilities through the transmission system to Wheatland and ultimately to your home, while cooperative membership and accountability flow in reverse. The cooperative structure creates a chain of ownership from you to Wheatland and from Wheatland to Sunflower. 

As a member and owner, that means the people making decisions about your power supply are accountable to you. It also means affordability remains a priority as decisions are made across the entire electric system with the long-term interests of members and communities in mind.

We know rising costs create concern, and we share many of those same concerns. Providing reliable and affordable electricity in a responsible and sustainable way is not something we take lightly. That is why our focus is not simply on reacting to industry changes but actively planning for them. Every day, Sunflower and its member utilities work together to operate efficiently, plan responsibly, advocate for fair policies, and pursue strategies that help manage long-term cost pressures while continuing to provide reliable service.

Looking Ahead

The electric industry is changing rapidly, and many of the forces shaping electricity costs are complex. In the coming months, we will take a deeper dive into the major factors influencing the cost of electricity and the opportunities and challenges ahead. Future articles will discuss topics such as growing energy demand, regional transmission expansion, supply chain challenges, infrastructure investment, economic growth, and the steps Sunflower and its members are taking to help manage costs and maintain reliability for the long term.

Through it all, one thing remains unchanged: the cooperative mission to serve members, strengthen communities, and provide reliable electricity as responsibly and efficiently as possible. That commitment is shared by Sunflower and Wheatland, and for Wheatland, it is reflected in our mission of Delivering Energy for Life. Together, those principles continue to guide every decision we make on your behalf.