BENCO Electric Cooperative Rates, Bills and Service Area

BENCO Electric Cooperative reported 18,500 residential customers on bundled service in 2025, using 978 kWh a month on average at 16.14 cents per kWh. Bundled means the utility supplies the energy and delivers it, so the price covers both. Among the 32 Minnesota utilities with at least 10,000 bundled residential customers, BENCO Electric Cooperative ranks 21 from the lowest price.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 (final 2025 data), sales to ultimate customers. Price is revenue divided by sales and includes fixed charges.

EIA lists the counties where BENCO Electric Cooperative has distribution equipment. That covers 5 counties in Minnesota. A county can be served by more than one utility, so confirm your address with the utility or your bill.

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For 2025, BENCO Electric Cooperative reported an average of 69 minutes without power per customer and 0.87 interruptions per customer, with major event days left out. The typical interruption lasted about 79 minutes. For comparison, the median state averaged 127 minutes of outage per customer.

BENCO Electric Cooperative had about 58 fewer minutes of outage per customer than the median state. The Minnesota figure across its utilities was 93 minutes. One interruption lasting 79 minutes and 0.87 interruptions a year per customer add up to the 69 minute total.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 (final 2025 data), reliability schedule, measured under other standard. Utilities define events slightly differently, so compare with care.

• Time-of-use pricing. BENCO Electric Cooperative reports a residential time-of-use pricing program in its 2025 EIA filing, with about 59 residential customers enrolled in dynamic pricing programs of all kinds. Ask the utility which rate schedules you qualify for. How time-of-use rates work.
• Rooftop solar and net metering. EIA shows 181 residential net-metered systems on the BENCO Electric Cooperative grid in 2025, with 3.2 megawatts of capacity. How net metering works.

Owned by the members it serves. An elected board sets the rates, and members may receive capital credits when the co-op has margins to return.

For questions about state consumer protections, see the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.

BENCO Electric Cooperative is an electric cooperative based in Minnesota.

BENCO Electric Cooperative operates in the MISO power market. Power markets set wholesale costs, but your retail rate is set by the rules described above.

Minnesota has 43 utilities with residential customers in the 2025 EIA data. BENCO Electric Cooperative is 19th by size and serves about 0.71% of the state's homes. Among 23 other cooperatives in Minnesota, the median price is 14.75 cents per kWh, so BENCO Electric Cooperative at 16.14 cents is 1.39 cents above its peers. Over a year, the typical BENCO Electric Cooperative bill runs about $482 above the state average, with monthly use 234 kWh higher. BENCO Electric Cooperative lists distribution equipment in 5 counties, so check your county and your bill before you assume it serves you. 181 of its residential customers use net metering, or 9.8 per 1,000 homes, against 11.3 for Minnesota as a whole.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 (final 2025 data). Peers are other utilities of the same type in Minnesota with at least 1,000 residential customers and a reported price.

See every one on the electric companies in Minnesota page.

Kilowatt Atlas is not BENCO Electric Cooperative and does not take payments, start service or manage accounts. To pay a bill, report an outage or start service, use the website, app or phone number printed on your bill. Be careful with search ads and lookalike sites that offer to pay your bill for a fee.

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