Tippecanoe County rural electric co-op is one of several in the U.S. moving away from their power supplier to cut costs, gain flexibility

More rural electric cooperatives around the country are looking to cut ties with their suppliers in favor of cheaper electric bills for customers and the flexibility to do what they want. That includes individual co-ops in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Carolina.

Tipmont Rural Electric Membership Cooperative (REMC) plans to slowly phase out the amount of power it gets from Wabash Valley Power Alliance.

One of the benefits of these rural cooperatives is that customers get more of a say in what their utility does — including where it gets its power. But many of them are also part of larger generation and transmission cooperatives — which help REMCs get power and other resources. Contracts with these companies can be long and difficult to get out of.

It took Tipmont seven years to end its contract with WVPA — an agreement had to be approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Tipmont Communications Director Rob Ford explains why the utility decided to leave.

"Number one, the rates that were being offered oftentimes weren't competitive with the open wholesale power market. And number two, that all requirements contract had us paying for a lot of things that we didn't necessarily need," he said.

Ford said buying more power from the wholesale energy market will help the utility access cheaper and potentially cleaner power for customers. The utility hired NextEra Energy to help them navigate the open market — something Ford said will be a learning curve for Tipmont.