Stronger Together: WEC’s 2025 Annual Meeting Focuses on Affordability, Reliability

Wiregrass Electric Cooperative (WEC) members can help keep electric rates affordable when they respond to peak demand alerts.

In his message during the 86th Annual Meeting in October, CEO Brad Kimbro emphasized how members who heeded alerts and reduced their electricity usage during peak times helped keep the cooperative’s peak demand lower than it could have been under January’s extreme winter weather when this year’s peak was set.

Such a response, Kimbro says, keeps costs down for the cooperative and members.

“It’s a balancing act, really,” he says. “We’re balancing affordability and reliability. That’s really the heart of what we’re trying to do. And I’ll just tell you, they’re at odds with each other.”

Peak demand dictates the capacity required to generate wholesale power and how much WEC pays for that power, a cost that now accounts for 2/3 of the cooperative’s operating expenses.

Kimbro encourages members to keep reducing their usage during peak times.

WEC has unbundled expenses so members can see the true costs on their monthly bills. Along with the distribution expense, members now see both energy and demand charges itemized on their bills. The demand rate represents the system’s peak demand for the year, and each member pays the rate on their electricity use during peak.

“We’re trying to send a pricing signal that helps our members, you, understand the demand, the expense, and why we need to pay close attention to that,” Kimbro says.

Both WEC and Alabama have seen growth in members of electric cooperatives. The number of members for Wiregrass grew 1.56% between 2023 and 2024, while wholesale partner PowerSouth Energy Cooperative saw a 5.47% increase.

To meet the growing capacity needs of its members, like WEC, PowerSouth is constructing a plant capable of generating 450 megawatts, with completion expected in 2030, but at a price that is nearly double from the last power plant they built just 3 to 4 years ago, which produces 720 MW. This, Kimbro says, just illustrates the price of capacity and how it is increasing.

Costs in the utility industry have skyrocketed. Kimbro says WEC takes steps to be as lean and efficient as it can with its 56 employees without impacting reliability for its members. Technology, he says, helps maintain the reliability members deserve.

“That’s the only reason we exist,” he says. “That’s the only reason I’m employed, that’s the only reason our staff are employed, is to serve you.”

2025 Election Results

Along with board elections, members approved a series of revisions to the cooperative’s bylaws. There were 4,067 valid ballots cast this year.

Debra Baxley and Charles Ingram both sought the District 1 seat, with Baxley reelected to the WEC Board of Trustees. Danny McNeil, District 4, and Donald Ray Wilks, District 7, were unopposed and retained their positions on the board.

Members supported bylaw revisions to membership, communications, and trustee eligibility. Updates clarify who can be a member and serve on the board, as well as strengthen election procedures. Changes also incorporate text and email for meeting notices and allow board meetings by phone and videoconference.