Minnesota HF4874: Electric cooperatives and municipal utilities; recovery of fixed costs clarified with respect to net metered facilities, meter aggregation allowed for electric cooperatives and municipal utilities, commission authority clarified with respect to electric cooperative practices, member access to cooperative documents and meetings improved, and electronic voting and voting by mail required for cooperative board directors.

What the bill says

A bill for an act relating to electric cooperatives and municipal utilities; clarifying the recovery of certain fixed costs with respect to net metered facilities; allowing meter aggregation for electric cooperatives and municipal utilities; clarifying commission authority with respect to electric cooperative practices; improving member access to cooperative documents and meetings; requiring electronic voting and voting by mail for cooperative board directors; amending Minnesota Statutes 2024, sections 216B.164, subdivisions 3, 4a; 216B.17, subdivision 6a; 308A.327.

From the introduced text, April 8, 2026:

A bill for an act relating to electric cooperatives and municipal utilities; clarifying the recovery of certain fixed costs with respect to net metered facilities; allowing meter aggregation for electric cooperatives and municipal utilities; clarifying commission authority with respect to electric cooperative practices; improving member access to cooperative documents and meetings; requiring electronic voting and voting by mail for cooperative board directors; amending Minnesota Statutes 2024, sections 216B.164, subdivisions 3, 4a; 216B.17, subdivision 6a; 308A.327. Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 216B.164, subdivision 3, is amended to read: Subd. 3. Purchases; small facilities. (a) This paragraph applies to cooperative electric associations and municipal utilities. For a qualifying facility having less than 40-kilowatt capacity, the customer shall be billed for the net energy supplied by the utility according to the applicable rate schedule for sales to that class of customer. A cooperative electric association or municipal utility may charge an additional fee to recover the fixed costs not already paid for by the customer through the customer's existing billing arrangement. new text begin [ADDED: A cooperative electric association or municipal utility is prohibited from recovering fixed costs identified in this paragraph by any other means. ] new text end Any additional charge by the utility must be reasonable and appropriate for that class of customer based on the most recent cost …