Our organization’s annual Directors’ Winter Conference brings together directors and key staff from all 17 electric distribution cooperatives to discuss topics like cooperative governance, electric utility news, technology and trends. The theme of the December conference, held in Little Rock, was “Members Matter.”
Electric cooperatives in Arkansas are founded on the seven cooperative principles with members at the center, so you might ask: “Why focus an entire conference on something so basic?” Well, you could ask this similar question: “Why do people go to church every Sunday if they have read the Bible once and agree with its teachings?” The answer is that something so foundational requires routine reminders and focus to ensure that, in a busy world, it stays top of mind.
Each electric cooperative has autonomy and works to serve its members. Distribution cooperatives formed Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation (AECC), a generation and transmission cooperative, to share the costs and risks of wholesale power supply to better serve members. Similarly, they formed an electric cooperative association, Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (AECI) to provide education, training, products and services to aggregate their needs and resources. The electric distribution cooperatives are the members that AECC and AECI serve, and they, in turn, serve you, their members.
Geographically, the cooperatives serve 62% of Arkansas’ land mass and 33% of the population in 74 of 75 counties. The fact that they can do this at or below the cost of electric utilities with less territory and more “customers” is a true testament to the power of the cooperative business model.
While Arkansas is a diverse state, shaped by different regions, industries and landscapes, our statewide surveys show that members across all electric distribution cooperatives are united around two core priorities: Affordability and Reliability. On a 10-point scale, Affordability gets a 9.7, and Reliability gets a 9.6. What matters to members matters to us, and that is why it was our conference focus.
Wall Street would say that energy prices were scattered last year. Gasoline and diesel prices hit their lowest level in four years in December of 2025, with the national average dropping below $3 per gallon and below $2 per gallon in some regions. However, electricity prices have been consistently rising, with the national average up about 8% in 2025.
In a recent interview, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said that rising electricity prices are what he “worries about most — seven days a week.” Why the dichotomy between gasoline and electricity? It is a simple answer: supply and demand. The national demand for gasoline has remained constant, and oil and gas producers have increased output, which lowered costs. However, electricity demand has been skyrocketing, and it’s predicted to increase 25% by 2030 and as much as 78% by 2050 due to data centers, onshoring critical manufacturing and electrification of transportation.
Meanwhile, in the last 15 years, America has shut down 142 gigawatts (GW) of coal and 8.8 GW of nuclear power plants. For perspective, 1 GW will power about 750,000 homes. In this same timeframe, America has brought 94 GW of natural gas power plants and 249 GW of wind and solar power plants online. However, intermittent wind and solar power aren’t capable of continuous power production like coal and nuclear. Combined with limits on natural gas infrastructure, the result is constrained supply. What happens when demand increases with constrained supply? Prices increase. The challenge is that electric load can be built two to three times faster than reliable, dispatchable generation, a fact that Google, Meta, Amazon and many others are learning the hard way.
The point of this article is not to pine for the old days or whine about the new ways, but rather to highlight what the
electric cooperatives are doing to be responsive to the No. 1 member issue in the state — Affordability. Arkansas is not immune to this national trend of rising electricity prices, and there is no universal cure, but there are measures that can help.
Generally, winter is the season with the highest price increases and volatility since electricity prices are now directly linked to natural gas prices. Summer may be the season when the most energy is used, but winter is when the highest demand exists and when the constraints are the most significant. Competition for natural gas is higher in winter. Natural gas pipelines only carry so much gas, and winter home heating competes with power generation, resulting in gas supply constraints and volatile pricing. Combined with higher kilowatt-hour (kWh) usage, the result is higher-than-normal electric bills.
To help, we have implemented a natural gas hedging program to reduce fuel price volatility. Additionally, AECC has filed a new tariff with the Arkansas Public Service Commission to allow averaging fuel costs across 12 months versus monthly to further reduce electric bill volatility. AECC also has made numerous cold-weather operations improvements to our power generation fleet, making it more reliable in extreme cold weather to protect members from the volatility of the electric markets during winter storms. AECC also is focusing on Operational Excellence and Reliability-Centered Maintenance programs to improve overall power plant performance to further insulate members from market volatility.
With fuel and purchase power accounting for nearly 35% of the wholesale power bill, these measures matter. Affordability matters to our members, and our members matter to us. We will continue to do all we can to address the challenge of rising electricity prices.