Otter Tail Power Co electricity rates

It is a smaller system, serving 9,048 residential customers, which means its fixed costs are spread across a narrow base. At 10.93¢ per kilowatt-hour it is one of the cheaper places to buy electricity in South Dakota, 30.5% under the statewide average of 15.73¢.

Its customers use more electricity than the national norm, 1,023 kilowatt-hours a month against 871, which amplifies whatever the rate does.

A shareholder-owned company whose rates are set by the state regulator, including an approved return on the capital it has invested. 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 Otter Tail Power Co customer went 135 minutes without electricity across 1.48 interruptions. The median across the 941 utilities that report this is 185 minutes.

That is better than the typical American utility, though the figure includes major storm days and can move sharply from one year to the next.

Otter Tail Power Co offers time-of-use pricing and critical peak pricing to residential customers. 3,464 households were enrolled, about 38.3% 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.