As a not-for-profit electric cooperative, CORE works to provide our members safe, reliable power and charge them only what we need to acquire and distribute it.
In recent years, consumer costs have increased significantly for most goods and services. You likely have seen these increases in the food you eat, fuel for your vehicle, your cell phone plan, and many other things essential to your lifestyle.
Electric utilities, including CORE, are affected by the same external factors driving up costs for other products and services. Continued and significant increases in what we pay to deliver power have prompted our elected board of directors to approve changes to the cooperative’s rates and regulations that take effect starting with September 2025 bills. The changes will result in an effective rate increase of 5% across our residential, commercial, industrial and other services. More specifically, the changes increase the monthly basic service charge, demand charge and per-kilowatt-hour (kWh) rate for most services.
For members on our residential service, the monthly basic service charge will increase to $20 and the on-peak demand charge to $4.87. The residential energy charge will remain at $0.10819 per kWh.
A redlined version of the rates is available here. A summary of the changes to each rate class is available here.
CORE raises rates only when absolutely necessary. Our most recent rate changes took effect with May 2025 bills and resulted in an increase of about 3% for most members. That 3% does not cover significant, unanticipated increases in CORE’s costs to acquire and distribute the safe, reliable power we provide our members.
The 5% rate increase that takes effect in September is necessary to help cover many cost pressures we anticipate will continue for the foreseeable future. Those pressures include:
- Power costs. Nearly 50% of our costs are to obtain power for our members. As all Colorado electric utilities strive to meet the state’s greenhouse gas emission reduction goals, CORE continues to invest in a flexible, reliable and responsible portfolio of energy resources and system upgrades to meet the growing and changing energy needs of our members.
- Supply chain. Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, costs for everything from copper wire to transformers have increased due to production issues in the U.S. and abroad. Demand for these supplies and materials has also increased as demand for electricity has grown.
- Regulatory uncertainty. Potential tax incentive rollbacks, transmission processes, tariffs and other regulatory changes affect costs for our cooperative.
We understand that even a slight increase affects our members and remain committed to identifying and implementing additional measures that help mitigate financial impacts to our members. Those measures include:
- A diverse portfolio of energy sources that ensures a reliable and responsible energy supply
- A continued “AA-” long-term issuer default rating from Fitch Ratings, which allows us to secure the most competitive rates from lenders
- Strategic and brief deferment of capital projects that do not affect safety and/or reliability
- An efficient workforce focused on streamlined operations and continuous improvement
- The return of shares of annual margins to members, in the form of capital credits
- A small, reasonable margin between our year-to-year operating revenue and the costs of electric service
Increases in costs, inflation and CORE’s rates
Increase in costs for CORE to deliver electric service since 2013
Inflation since 2013
Total increase in CORE base rates since 2013
CORE’s costs versus revenue (in millions of dollars)
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Costs
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Revenue
Other Colorado Utility Rate Increases
• La Plata Electric Association