Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric

What This Utility Data Tells You

Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric is a member-owned electric cooperative operating in Minnesota under EIA identifier 18047. It reports service to approximately 11,962 customer accounts and generated about $0.04 billion in annual electric revenue, with a service footprint spanning 24 ZIP codes. Being member-owned, this cooperative answers to its ratepayers rather than outside shareholders, a structure that tends to influence how rate cases and capital spending get decided.

In 2023, the average Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric customer experienced 61.6 minutes of power interruptions, a measure known as SAIDI, or System Average Interruption Duration Index. That keeps this utility below the typical 120–180 minute national benchmark, consistent with a well-hardened distribution system and fast restoration crews. Over the same period, SAIFI (outage events per customer) was 0.71, putting the typical customer at roughly 1 distinct interruption that year. Strip out major event days (hurricanes, ice storms) and SAIDI falls to 42.8 minutes; the difference from the headline 61.6 shows how much of the outage total came from weather rather than everyday grid issues.

With 4 consecutive years of EIA data (2020–2023), Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric's reliability record can be judged on trend rather than one isolated year. Over that window, SAIDI moved from 81.5 down to 61.6 minutes, a trend worth noting for anyone weighing capital investment outcomes.