Tri-County Electric Coop (MI) electricity rates

It is a smaller system, serving 23,034 residential customers, which means its fixed costs are spread across a narrow base. At 18.04¢ per kilowatt-hour it is one of the cheaper places to buy electricity in Michigan, 18% under the statewide average of 22.01¢.

Consumption is close to the national norm at 793 kilowatt-hours a month against 871, so the rate translates fairly directly into the bill.

Owned by the customers it serves, with directors elected by members. Co-ops are frequently outside state rate regulation. That matters because a bill is not only the cost of generating electricity: it also carries the cost of the network, and who owns that network changes how it is paid for.

In 2024 the average Tri-County Electric Coop (MI) customer went 239 minutes without electricity across 1 interruptions. The median across the 941 utilities that report this is 185 minutes.

That is worse than typical. Overhead lines through wooded or storm-exposed terrain are the usual explanation, and the fix is vegetation management and circuit automation, both of which are recovered through rates.

Tri-County Electric Coop (MI) offers time-of-use pricing to residential customers. 6 households were enrolled, about 0.1% of its residential base.

These plans are opt-in almost everywhere. They reward households that can move laundry, dishwashing, water heating or electric vehicle charging out of the late-afternoon peak, and they cost more than the standard rate for households that cannot. How to tell which group you are in.

179 residential customers had net-metered solar in 2024, totalling 1.57 megawatts. That works out to 7.8 installations per thousand customers, against a median of 8 across the utilities reporting it.

Adoption is below the national median. A low retail rate reduces what solar displaces, and export compensation set at avoided cost rather than the retail rate reduces it further. What exports are actually worth.