Farm Safety: Staying Alert Around Power Lines You might be wondering why we’re talking about farm safety around power lines in November. Unfortunately, in 2025, several farm implements struck power lines and poles. One cooperative west of Hill County even experienced a tragic fatality during the recent harvest season. While winter offers more time for planning, we encourage you to reflect on safety and how critical it is in our day-to-day work. As farming equipment continues to grow in size and capability, it brings increased responsibility…

Basin Weighs Rate Increase: What It Could Mean for HCE Members At Hill County Electric, one of our responsibilities is keeping members informed about changes that may affect your electric bill.While nothing has been finalized yet, we want to share early news about discussions happening at Basin Electric Power Cooperative, one of our wholesale power suppliers. Basin is currently evaluating a rate increase. The details are still being worked out, including whether it will be implemented all at once or phased in over several years. Once Basin m…

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Supporting Renewable Energy While Ensuring Fairness for All At Hill County Electric, we’re proud to serve members who care deeply about where their electricity comes from—and how it’s delivered. Whether you power your home entirely through the cooperative or generate part of your energy with renewables, you’re part of a system built on shared ownership, shared responsibility, and shared investment. As more members add renewable energy to the grid, we’ve seen a growing need to talk about something called cost shifting. It’s a topic being addr…

Effective September 1, 2025 Hill County Electric (HCE) is making an adjustment to the monthly base charge for net metering accounts. What’s Changing: The monthly base charge will increase from $40 to $100. Annual netting of kilowatt-hours will continue as before. Why the Change? More members are producing some of their own power through solar, wind, or battery systems. Even with self-generation, members still depend on HCE’s grid for reliable power. The cost of maintaining poles, wires, substations, and crews doesn’t decrease — a…