Flathead Electric Coop Inc electricity rates

It serves 63,317 residential customers in Montana. At 9.67¢ per kilowatt-hour it is one of the cheaper places to buy electricity in Montana, 34.1% under the statewide average of 14.67¢.

Consumption here is high, 1,202 kilowatt-hours a month against a national average of 871. Long cooling seasons, large detached homes and electric resistance heating are the usual causes, and together they matter more to the bill than the rate does.

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 Flathead Electric Coop Inc customer went 586 minutes without electricity across 2.72 interruptions. The median across the 941 utilities that report this is 185 minutes.

That is far worse than typical, and figures at this level almost always reflect a major storm season rather than everyday performance. A single hurricane or ice storm can dominate the annual number.

Flathead Electric Coop Inc offers time-of-use pricing to residential customers. 63,021 households were enrolled, about 99.5% 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.

225 residential customers had net-metered solar in 2024, totalling 2.73 megawatts. That works out to 3.6 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.