Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against East River Electric

Federal Judge Lawrence Piersol has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Dakota Energy Cooperative against its wholesale power supplier East River Electric Power Cooperative, saying that the contract between the two electric cooperatives is clear and does not allow Dakota Energy to terminate its contract early.  

In November 2020, Dakota Energy, an electric co-op headquartered in Huron which serves consumers in Beadle, Hand and Hyde counties, filed a lawsuit against East River Electric in an attempt to force East River Electric to give Dakota  Energy a buyout number so they could terminate their contract long before the agreed upon date of December 31st, 2075.  East River Electric, and its power supplier Basin Electric Power Cooperative, argued in court that the contract that was extended in 2015 and signed by Dakota Energy did not allow for an early buyout. Judge Piersol agreed with East River and Basin Electric and granted their motions for summary judgement, dismissing the case.  

Dakota Energy had earlier signed a letter of intent with a for-profit energy broker, Guzman Energy, based in Denver, to  receive wholesale power if their case was successful.  

This year marks the fourth year in a row that East River’s rates have been flat or have gone down. East River also returned more than 17-million dollars in capital credits and bill credits to its members between May 2021 and February 2022.  About 840-thousand dollars of that amount went directly to Dakota Energy.