Several Lake Region Electric Directors along with CEO McIntyre attended the Basin Annual Meeting to learn about the current status and projected outlook of our G&T. LREA Board President Kermit Pearson, is the Vice President of the Basin Electric Board and feels that it is important for cooperative directors, staff , and employees to attend meetings and trainings in order to stay informed so they can effectively govern and manage our co-op.

BASIN ELECTRIC, MEMBERS DISCUSS STRENGTH OF THE COOPERATIVE AT 2023 ANNUAL MEETING

Nearly 900 member cooperative employees, directors, public officials, utility representatives, and guests
attended Basin Electric’s 2023 Annual Meeting of its membership on Aug. 16. The meeting focused on the many benefits of being part of the Basin Electric cooperative family.

“Cooperative Strong” was chosen as the theme for Basin Electric’s 62nd Annual Meeting to highlight that there is strength in numbers and every member is responsible for making the cooperative strong.

Basin Electric’s focus is providing reliable, affordable, and responsible energy for its 141 members spanning nine states. The meeting’s speakers reviewed Basin Electric’s current operations, financial strength, and continued commitment to its members. The cooperative’s board President Wayne Peltier, representing Basin Electric member Minnesota Valley Cooperative Light and Power Association in
Montevideo, Minnesota, talked about the cooperative’s value to its members. “Our theme this year is Cooperative Strong. And we are strong,” Peltier said. “Basin Electric’s membership is growing – and
thriving – largely thanks to the reliable and affordable electricity we provide. The main goal of cooperative generation and transmission (G&T) cooperatives like Basin Electric is to develop generation for rural America. That is something we have done since day one and continue to this day.”

Basin Electric Interim General Manager and CEO Todd Brickhouse focused on the three cooperative-wide
goals that have been developed to effectively serve its member-owners. “I can proudly say there is only one Basin Electric,” Brickhouse said. “As the largest G&T in the country and one of the largest electric utilities, we have an obligation to ourselves, to our members, and to our industry to do things safely,
reliably, and affordably.” Brickhouse invited three of the cooperative’s executives to the stage to address the three goals: safety, reliability, and affordability.

Miles McGrew, Basin Electric senior vice president and chief human relations officer, addressed the safety
goal. “The smartest people on earth and the best companies in the world all acknowledge the importance of safety in the workplace,” he said. “It is and must always be a core value. Our safety metrics are well on their way to being numbers we can be proud of, but safety is about more than numbers and metrics.
It’s about people, and our true goal is to make sure our employees go home safely to their families at the end of every day.”

Gavin McCollam, Basin Electric senior vice president and chief operating officer, addressed reliability and said, “The men and women who are on the front lines of our reliability efforts, and by that, I mean the people who operate and maintain your generation and transmission assets, work very, very hard to keep those assets online. That is our ultimate goal and my personal commitment to all of you – that we will do everything we can to keep reliability simple, so that when you flip the switch, the lights come on.”

Katrina Wald, Basin Electric interim vice president and CFO, highlighted the strong year the cooperative had financially in 2022 and how that impacts affordable rates “Basin Electric creates value by investing in assets and in people, our most important asset,” she said. “Basin Electric also creates value by mitigating
risks and returning value to our members through bill credits and the distribution of capital credits. All of these factors are important in maintaining stable and affordable rates.”

To learn more, go to the Basin Electric website: www.basinelectric.com