The Rates of SEC

Your Socorro Electric Cooperative believes in 100% transparency. If you ever have any questions or want information about your cooperative, we are here to answer your questions.

As a not-for-profit cooperative, SEC's rates are set through a process involving the Board of Trustees and the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC). SEC has never, and will never price gouge or raise our rates or any other part of your bill “just because.” SEC is governed by our Board of Ttrustees and regulated by the New Mexico PRC. Our rates are published in black and white and will only change if four steps are taken.

• First, a third party must complete an economic cost of service study.

• Your SEC will hire an outside third-party resource to perform a cost of service study to determine the cooperative’s operating costs. e consulting rm will then present its ndings to the board with a recommendation to change rates.

• Second, the Board of Trustees must vote and approve any rate change.

• If the board nds the rate change acceptable, they will vote to change rates.

• If the board does not nd the rate change acceptable, usually because the cost of service study found the change needed to be signi cantly high, trustees will discuss and adopt a more appropriate rate change.

• Third, the cooperative must inform its members of the rate change and submit it to the PRC for approval.

• e NM PRC is a consumer protection agency that governs the cooperative utilities around New Mexico. It also ensures that there cannot be any price gouging with any PRC-regulated utility.

• Once the new rate is led with the PRC, it reviews the change to ensure it is needed and is designed to be fair to the consumer and the co-op.

• Fourth, the SEC membership can protest the rate change.

• e membership of the cooperative can then protest the rate change within a speci c timeframe.

• If the membership protests the rate ling, the cooperative must respond to the protest and explain the ling to the member and what the change is for.

• If the PRC deems the protest valid and warrants further investigation, the PRC halts the rate change until an investigation or mediation can be performed.

SEC can only raise rates with approval from the PRC. SEC must undergo this process each time it wants to change their rates. The last three rate changes were in 2005, 2011 and 2018. To reiterate, the purpose of the PRC is to be a consumer protection agency to protect consumers against price gouging and extreme rate hikes. There are severe consequences if a PRC-regulated utility hikes prices without going through the proper steps.

Each year, each cooperative and PRC-regulated organization must submit an annual report. The deadline for this report is April 30. The list below has every cooperative’s rate according to their last submitted Annual Report. If you would like to view SEC’s stated rates or the stated rates of any other cooperative in the state, please visit: www.nm-prc.org/consumer-relations/ company-directory/cooperatives/.

(Residential Revenue/kWh Sold=Effective Rate)

The enchanted CEO

By Charise Swanson