Victory Electric: Powering the Future

Victory Electric had a banner year in 2025, making progress in cybersecurity, infrastructure upgrades, youth development and member services while maintaining our financial health. We want to highlight some of our achievements last year and address how we’re building a solid foundation for powering the future of the cooperative.

• Victory Electric began implementing a comprehensive cybersecurity framework to protect data privacy, supported by grants and consultations with cybersecurity experts.
• Major grid infrastructure upgrades focused on increasing flexibility and reducing outages by adding switching capability, replacing aging infrastructure and constructing a new substation to improve reliability for members.
• Victory Electric is powering the future by helping to build the next generation of leaders by investing in youth education and leadership development through scholarships, youth tours and camps.
• Victory Electric enhanced our processes to allow secure, convenient online access for electric service connections, account changes and document submissions. 

Financial Health                     

Victory Electric maintained the financial health of the cooperative and finished 2025 with positive operating margins of $3 million. The board retired almost $1.2 million in capital credits. As we continue to focus on the strength of our financial position, we also need to meet the increasing demand for electricity and understand why expanding the electric grid is essential.

Infrastructure Expansion and Serving Large Loads

Today’s technological advancements and growing demand for electricity require the expansion of the electric grid. The electrification of our daily lives and large-scale, high-energy-demand facilities such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) data centers are driving the surge in demand. We understand that people may not want to see power generation or transmission infrastructure in their own backyard. But expanding and upgrading the grid is necessary. 

We appreciate that members have concerns about AI, data centers and other large-load facilities interested in southwest Kansas. Victory Electric’s trustees, leadership team and employees also live and work in the communities we serve, and we may have some of the questions you do about these projects.

Electric cooperatives are obligated to serve any home or business within our service territory. Zoning, land-use and permitting decisions for large loads like data centers are made by local governments, not Victory Electric. We encourage members to engage with local officials and share your views during public hearings and other land-use discussions. 

Victory Electric works with businesses and local officials during this process. We respect any confidentiality agreements that are in place and ensure that we are prepared to provide for electrical needs once officials and businesses finalize their plans. We also 

The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) manages grid reliability across 14 states, including Kansas. Large users in its 14-state territory affect wholesale energy costs in Kansas. Transmission upgrades improve reliability for the entire region, and SPP distributes them among all ratepayers in its region. When these large-load users locate inside our service territory, however, it can help offset the increase in regional transmission costs. Large loads also help stabilize electric rates by providing additional revenue, creating jobs and expanding the local tax base. 

It’s important to note that when a large load requires increased generation capacity or additional transmission and distribution infrastructure at the local level, that new business is responsible for paying the costs of interconnection and upgrades needed to serve its operations. Those expenses are not passed to our other cooperative members. 

Just as the grid must be evaluated and updated to meet surging power needs, Victory Electric must analyze our rate structure and make sure it meets the ongoing needs of the cooperative and our members. We have been undergoing a cost-of-service study to examine the fixed and variable costs of providing service and determine the most equitable way to allocate these costs across all our rate classes. 

Victory Electric continues to put our members’ needs and best interests first while working to balance reliability, affordability and grid stability. We appreciate your trust as we navigate challenges and opportunities and work to power the future of the communities we serve.