From the CEO: Powering Growth While Keeping Costs in Focus

March 2026 Member Ambassadors of the Cooperative event

President & CEO Bill Conley provides corporate updates at the Member Ambassadors of the Cooperative event in March.

Across Indiana, there is growing discussion about the future of electricity — how we keep it reliable, how we meet increasing demand, and how we do all of that while keeping costs affordable for the families and businesses who depend on it.

At Boone Power, these are discussions we take seriously because the people we serve are also the people who own this cooperative. We know that affordability and reliability are everyday concerns for our members. Our mission has always been, and will always be, to deliver safe, reliable power at a fair and reasonable price. 

Bill Conley

President & CEO Bill Conley

In recent columns, I’ve written about the growth happening in our area and the importance of responsible planning to manage costs and support reliable power.

As new homes, businesses, and industries come to our area, we must invest in the infrastructure that delivers power safely and reliably. Those investments come with real costs, which is why we’ve taken a steady approach with gradual rate adjustments rather than steep rate increases. This approach helps us keep up with rising costs for poles, transformers, and wire — the infrastructure needed to maintain reliability and support growth.

When it comes to costs and rates, we strive for transparency. To help provide context around electric costs, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission conducts an annual survey of regulated electric utility billings. The most recent report reflects billing data as of July 1, 2025. For a household using 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month, the average bill among Indiana’s five investor-owned utilities was $187.00.* For a Boone Power household using the same amount of electricity, the bill was $178.64 — lower than the investor-owned utility average. As a not-for-profit cooperative, our rates are designed to cover the cost of service and not generate returns for outside investors or stockholders.

One of our top priorities is helping our members manage their energy use and their bills. Our SmartHub app and web portal offer detailed usage data, and we offer budget billing and free in-home energy use and efficiency evaluations. I encourage you to read more about these programs on our website or call us to discuss these services. 

I’m also happy to share that, in the months ahead, we will introduce a prepaid billing option and a time-of-use pilot program to give you additional ways to manage your Boone Power account and energy costs. 

An important distinction of being a cooperative is that we do not answer to faraway shareholders. That means our members serve as, and elect, our board directors. I appreciate all of you who participated in our governance process this spring. It’s an important aspect of the cooperative business model that ensures Boone Power continues to be guided by the members we serve.

I also appreciate those who took the time to respond to our member satisfaction survey this year. Your responses help guide our priorities, and we look forward to sharing more about the results once our research firm compiles the data.

As conversations about energy affordability continue across our state, building and sustaining trust has never been more important. Boone Power remains focused on the priorities that have guided us for decades: responsible planning, reliable electric service, and listening to the members who own this cooperative to ensure we serve you well.

*Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2025