Why you should re-elect Bill Darcy and Bob MacLeod as NHEC Directors

NHEC surveys consistently show that affordability and reliability are the highest priorities of our members. We all want the cost of electricity to be reasonable and for the lights to go on when we flip the switch. Bill has tried to focus on both of these goals as a director and Board Chair. Those goals can be conflicting: enhancing reliability requires higher capital and operating costs, which puts pressure on member rates. The results noted below suggest the Board and staff have successfully balanced those two goals.

DISTRIBUTION RATES INCREASES LOWER THAN THE RATE OF INFLATION.

Since 2020, keeping costs reasonable for members has been a challenge due to inflationary pressures. For example, as shown on the graphic below, transformer costs have increased 98%, cross arms 104%, and primary wires $62%.

Despite increases in capital and operating costs, the NHEC Board of Directors and staff have succeeded in keeping rates below the inflation rate. Another way of saying this is that, inflation-adjusted,2026 distribution rates are lower than in 2020! This year, Bill led an effort with the Budget Finance and Rates Committee to closely examine our historical cost data and adjust critical budget variables, such as expected annual revenues and employee costs (adjusted based on actual hiring timelines). The result was a minimal rate increase for the current rate period, less than 1% for most members.

The distribution end of the electric business (poles, wires, and substations) accounts for almost all capital and operating costs. Almost all NHEC electric business employees work for the distribution business. In contrast, the energy part of your monthly bill (Co-op Power) is a purchasing business that requires little capital and few employees.

ENERGY RATES LOWER THAN OTHER NEW HAMPSHIRE ELECTRIC UTILITIES AND COMPETITIVE SUPPLIERS

Depending upon current market rates, the energy costs can be almost half or more of members’ monthly bills. All New Hampshire electric utilities operate in the same energy markets, but how they purchase energy can significantly affect customer costs. Over the most recent rate periods since 2020, NHEC’s default energy rate has compared favorably to other New Hampshire utilities, community aggregators, and competitive suppliers. For instance, in the current rate period, the NHEC default energy rate, called Co-op Power on your bills, is significantly lower (30%) than some community aggregators and lower than the other three major utilities (Eversource, Liberty, and Unitil). Part of the better performance is due to having greater flexibility than rate-regulated investor-owned utilities, and part is due to wise purchasing decisions. The Board of Directors has been involved in establishing policies that control risk and require Board approval every six months for the mix of fixed-price contracts and spot-market purchases.

A REDUCTION IN THE MEMBER SERVICE CHARGE BY 16%

Since Bill first joined the Board of Directors, he has been concerned about NHEC’s high fixed monthly charge, known as the Member Service Charge, which cannot be avoided by reduced electric usage. His background as a utility consumer advocate and regulator led him to conclude the charge was too high. He voted against the annual rate increases on several occasions because of this unfair charge and noted his advocacy on this subject in the director election brochure in 2023. Finally, in late 2025, he convinced the Board of Directors to reduce the fixed charge by 16%! Now there will be some rate relief for the poor, the elderly, and those with small residences and seasonal second homes. High fixed charges also discourage conservation efforts, because investments or practices to reduce energy use have no effect on the fixed monthly charge

THE FRUGAL BENTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE ATTITUDE

Bill’s 250-word election brochure statement notes that he is Chair of the Town of Benton Board of Selectmen and the very low taxes he has delivered to town residents in the last six years. In fact, resident tax bills, on average, haven’t increased during Bill’s tenure, and for most of those years, the municipal budget delivered the lowest taxes among all New Hampshire’s incorporated municipalities. Most of the Benton municipal tax rates adopted during his tenure were “negative” tax rates, meaning no property taxes were needed to support the municipal budget, because the revenues exceeded the very small expenses. The New

Hampshire Department of Revenue website notes that the Benton municipal tax rate in 2025 was -$1.53, with a total tax rate of $8.55 per thousand dollars of property value.  These results stem from a frugal approach to using “other people’s money,” an attitude he shares in his work for NHEC. 

Bill was an early supporter of providing high-speed internet to NHEC members. He joined the member petition effort in 2020 to have NHEC “facilitate” broadband to members, before he was a director, and made the petition effort part of his election campaign for director that same year. Members have repeatedly shown strong support for broadband, most notably in 2020, when 88% voted to allow NHEC to provide broadband services. After his election, Bill became a member of the Broadband Committee as its Vice Chair. He was active in securing the first broadband grant in 2020 (the CARES grant) by helping negotiate a contract with a company to design and build the project. When NHEC created NH Broadband as its subsidiary, Bill was one of the leaders of that effort, and in 2022, he became Chair of the NH Broadband governing body, a position he still holds.

In addition to the 2020 “CARES” grant of $6.7 million to serve four towns with broadband, NHEC applied for and won many other grants. Those grants included a $6.5 million Rural Digital Opportunity Fund operating cost grant, a Northern Border Regional Commission grant, a Congressional Directed Spending grant, and, most significantly, a $50 million ARPA Capital Project Fund grant. Bill was instrumental in the effort to secure that $50 million grant as project manager of the grant application process, with the help of fellow Director Leo Dwyer and staff. Since Bill has been NHEC Chair, NHEC has also recently been awarded a $5.6 million Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) grant, and a few more grant applications are in process.

Those important grant efforts were to ensure NHEC could provide high-speed broadband service to unserved or underserved members in a cost-effective, economically sustainable way, without any subsidies from the electric business. This year, NHEC will complete construction of almost 3,000 miles of fiber optic cable, providing over 40,000 members with access to high-speed internet. The benefits to members include access to educational, business, health, public affairs, and entertainment resources. The COVID-19 pandemic taught us all the critical benefits of being connected to the rest of the world in a convenient, reliable, fast, and cost-effective manner.

Of equal importance, Bill has worked hard to ensure that NH Broadband is a financially strong business that benefits all NHEC members. As he noted in his speech at the last annual meeting, the broadband initiative has replaced hundreds of utility poles that would otherwise have been paid for by electric customers, and even if members don’t choose NH Broadband, the availability of our services will cause the competition to moderate their rates. Electric and broadband assets have a useful life of 30 years or more, but our broadband business will deliver financial benefits long before then.

The Challenge Slate on Broadband

In their website and letters to the editor, the three members of the challenge slate make little or no mention of NHEC’s important broadband business. Their interest in NHEC seems focused on promoting solar and wind power, with battery backup.