CEO’s Message – January 2026

Keeping Watch in the New Year

Another year has come and gone, leaving us a brand new year to start fresh.

Wiregrass Electric Cooperative and its members can get the year off to a good start by being alert to peak demand hours this winter. As a cooperative, we will likely experience our peak demand for the next year in January or February since we are historically a winter-peaking system.

As members, you’ve likely seen that the cooperative’s demand rate will move from $2.50 to $4 per kilowatt in March. It is necessary to move the demand value as we continue to work toward fair and equitable rates. We have to recoup costs to keep the cooperative financially healthy. We believe the demand rate is the fairest way to recover the cost of demand.

However, we are lowering the monthly energy charge based on actual electricity use, which brings that kilowatt-hour rate down a total 15% since we implemented a separate demand rate in 2024. The lowering of the kWh rate, coupled with your efforts to manage your peak demand during the coincidental peak period — typically occurring on the coldest day of the year during the hours of 6-9 a.m. — will allow our members to have some true control over their electric bill.

We can’t predict when peak demand will happen in the winter months between November and February, but we do know when conditions are favorable and send out alerts to our members so they can choose to reduce their electricity use.

Make sure we have your current contact information, especially cellphone numbers and email addresses. 1 of the best ways to make sure you are notified of possible peak demand times is through a text message. But we also put peak demand alerts out on social media, so follow us on Facebook or Instagram to ensure you see them.

We want to make sure members have the information they need to take steps to control their electricity use during peak hours.

If you have not been getting our alerts, use our mobile app or our website to check your account and make sure we have current contact information. If you still have trouble, call our member services team at (800) 239-4602. They can also be reached by emailing Member Care.

Peak demand is the maximum amount of electricity required to supply our members and is recalculated each year. Demand is not necessarily related to how much electricity you actually use; that’s why we now have a charge for demand along with a charge for energy use.

Peak demand is a huge driver in determining what the cooperative pays for wholesale power for the coming year. A member’s peak use on the day the cooperative hits its peak determines their monthly demand rate for the year.

I encourage members to download our mobile app. Not only can you see your electric bill, but you can also see your electricity use on a chart with information like high and low temperatures. You can see the kilowatt hours used by your household on a daily basis, over a monthly period or hourly for a selected date. You can even see your household’s peak demand for a given time. All this information can help members reconsider their electricity use and identify times where they can cut back.

We don’t want members to be uncomfortably cold in their own homes. But even a small adjustment to the heat setting on your thermostat can make a difference. During those peak hours, 2 items that can help you manage your peak are a water heater timer and a programmable thermostat.

Keeping costs low is good for all of us. Your efforts make a difference for your own household’s and your cooperative’s finances. If you manage your own demand on that coldest day of the year, when the summer months hit and the AC unit is running, driving usage up, it will be nice knowing the price for kWh is 15% less since we have implemented the peak demand rate.

We want our members to have a happy and good New Year in 2026. Let’s get it started right.