2024 Annual Meeting at Freeman High School
Southeastern Electric Cooperative’s annual membership meeting was held at Freeman High School in Freeman, South Dakota, on June 6, 2024.
Over 600 Members enjoyed a meal of pork chops catered by Central Catering and attended the business meeting. Three directors from districts 3, 6 and 9 were up for election for 3-year terms. Don Heeren of District 3, Johnathan Wildeboer of District 6 and Daryl Terveen of District 9 ran unopposed as incumbents and were re-elected to the board.
This year’s annual meeting theme of “Powering Possibilities” encompasses our feelings of optimism as we look to the future of our cooperative and the communities we serve. As the nation increasingly relies on electricity to power our lives and the economy, keeping the lights on has never been more important. We are committed to reliably powering and empowering our communities at a cost families and businesses can afford.
This was our second highest year of member growth on record with 1,161 new service connections. For the past three years, we have ranked in the top 20 nationally for member growth among electric cooperatives. The Sioux Falls metro area continues strong growth, but overall, we are seeing growth throughout our entire service territory.
Along with growth in members served, we sold a record number of megawatt hours (MWh) in 2023 at over 790,000 MWh. This is a year-over-year increase of over 40,000 MWh or 5.5%. Fortunately, our load growth is diversified across residential, agriculture and commercial industries. Overall, 2023 was a good year for Southeastern Electric and we look forward to continuing to power possibilities for our membership long into the future. Thank you for participating in your 86th annual membership meeting.