The Cooperative Adds Data Center Rate
For over 87 years, Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative has proudly served southern Virginia, powering the farms, businesses and industries that drive our local economies and strengthen our communities. Over the past 17 years, MEC has also served data center loads that have brought growth — and jobs — to our members and residents across the region. The electric load MEC provides to data centers and other large loads has consistently grown and now represents 50% of the Cooperative’s sales.
While MEC has actively engaged in the region’s economic development outreach, it has also worked to establish rates that are attractive to new businesses considering the area. At the same time, a key objective of MEC’s rate methodology is to ensure that each class of members — whether residential or commercial — covers the costs they create. In many cases, as new businesses have connected to the Cooperative’s system, MEC has customized new rates to recover the costs of specific new loads, like data centers.
NEW RATE FOR LARGE LOADS
On September 5, 2025, MEC was authorized by the State Corporation Commission to implement a proposed LPS - Large Power Schedule for loads over 5MW. The new rate is necessary to ensure that very large loads, such as data centers, will fully and fairly cover MEC’s costs of serving such loads, without imposing those costs and risks on the rest of the membership.
Cost recovery includes the expenses related to purchasing power as well as each class covering its share of facilities. When it comes to large loads like data centers, such entities cover the cost of facilities, including entire substations, that are required to serve them.
“At MEC, we operate on a fundamental principle: ensuring the Members in each rate class cover the costs and obligations that MEC incurs to serve that class. No class of members subsidizes any other,” stated MEC President and CEO Casey Logan. “Equitably distributing costs is simply part of how we do business. That’s the only fair way to do it — whether it’s a business or a residential account.”
Several years ago, MEC’s power supplier, ODEC, added a new wholesale rate for its member cooperatives, including MEC, to serve large loads, those over 25 Megawatts, to cover generation and transmission costs incurred by ODEC, on behalf of MEC for such large loads.
MEC’s Board Chair David Jones was instrumental in the creation of this rate through his participation on ODEC’s Board. “This special pass-through rate has been instrumental in MEC’s effort to ensure our residents had solid job opportunities. It was a combined effort between ODEC and its member cooperatives. As a member of ODEC, Mecklenburg Electric is one of its co-owners, along with 10 other Cooperatives across Virginia, Maryland and Delaware,” said Jones. “Economic development and bringing jobs to our region is an important part of MEC’s mission.”
“We are always on the look-out for cross subsidization, where one class is burdened with costs of another, and guarding against it by actively modifying and implementing rates to continue the equitable distribution of costs and their recovery. In some cases, this may require the creation of new load classes to address the changing loads we serve,” said Logan.
“It’s important that MEC Members recognize that their Board of Directors keeps cost recovery at the forefront of its oversight of the Cooperative. Ensuring costs are properly assigned to every account is essential to fairly billing each member-owner.”
The new rate will be effective on an interim basis pending a formal proceeding and is subject to refund with interest if it is modified or not approved in that process.