We Asked You Answered

 

2023 Member Satisfation Survey

Lane-Scott Electric received a Touchstone Energy Top 5 ACSI score amongst all Touchstone Energy cooperatives in Q2 2026!

Lane-Scott recently conducted a member survey to gauge if we are meeting member needs and how we can better serve you, our members. As a member-owned and led co-op, we always try to improve transparency, which is we are sharing how your peers rated the co-op on satisfaction, service, reliability, rates, member service, co-op culture, feedback on communication preferences, and interest in energy trends such as behind the meter generation and electric vehicles.

Survey Overview

Part of Lane-Scott Electric’s Strategic Plan is to survey our members every few years to analyze what is or is not working, and form a benchmark of our performance over time.

We surveyed 256 members in our service territory, which includes:

 Ness county, rural eastern Scott county (including Scott Lake Park), all of Lane county (except for Dighton which is now served by KMEA), part of northern Hodgeman county, western Rush county (including McCracken), southern Gove county, northern Finney county, and a small portion of southern Logan co.

Of the 256 completed surveys, 73 responded online and 183 by phone. The survey was conducted by our 3rd party contractor to ensure impartial results.

Scoring Satisfaction

American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)

The national benchmark used by all companies and cooperatives asks 4 main satisfaction questions. Here are the results for Lane-Scott Electric based on a 100% scale.

ACSI_CAPS scores

How Do We Compare?

  • Lane-Scott is a Touchstone Energy cooperative, meaning we are a member of a national network of more than 700 electric cooperatives across 46 states. Lane-Scott’s 89 ACSI score received a Top 5 Score among all Touchstone Energy cooperatives in Q2 2026!
  • The average National ACSI score among other cooperatives is  77, LSEC received an 89.
  • Touchstone Energy cooperatives who surveyed their members in 2026 received an average ACSI score of 85.
  •  Municipal utility average = 74, Investor-owned utilities = 72, Xcel Energy = 76 

Performance Questions:

  1. Restores service quickly after an outage:                                                91
  2. Provides reliable electric service:                                                              90
  3. Has a goal to provide electricity at the lowest possible rate:              71
  4. Has knowledgeable/competent employees:                                          93
  5. Has friendly/courteous employees:                                                         94
  6. Makes it easy to do business with co-op:                                                92
  7. Committed to local communities:                                                             90
  8. Is transparent about what is going on at LSEC:                                       87
  9. Supports renewable energy:                                                                      72

Communication Takeaways

  • A sizeable increase was noted for members who want to receive information from us by text message, from 17% in 2023 to 24% in 2026. Email, while still a top preferred method dropped from 46% in 2024 to 39% in 2026.
  • 69% of members surveyed would like to be notified by text for power outages. 

Did you know?!  Our e-mail and text database is setup through SmartHub, our member web and mobile account management system! You must have a LSEC SmartHub account in order to receive e-mail or text messages from us. Members also have to opt-in themselves to receive text messages such as power outage texts. To learn more about SmartHub and how to sign-up, go to: www.lanescott.coop/smarthub.

Member Responses on Renewable Energy

  • 40% believe electricity generated by wind is reliable.
  • 53% believe electricity generated by solar is reliable.
  • Regarding behind the meter generation, 17% are considering installing equipment which includes wind, solar, generators, or other sources.
  • Of the 17% considering installing behind the meter generation, 59% were interested in solar, 56% in a generator, 28% battery storage, and 22% wind generation.
  • Regarding electric vehicles, 99% have no plans to purchase or lease an EV.

We want to address concerns brought up by members during the survey on a public platform. More than likely, if one member has a concern, others have the same concerns. See our responses to questions below in the FAQ section. As always, please contact us with any questions you may have during normal business hours. We are happy to help!

Thank you for all who participated in this year’s Lane-Scott Electric Member Satisfaction.

Member Satisfaction Survey Results - 2026

Member Concerns from Survey - Answered

Lane-Scott Electric offers outage texting options through SmartHub. To initiate text messages, YOU HAVE to opt-in through SmartHub-Settings to receive the text. Detailed instructions for either the website or app can be found at: https://www.lanescott.coop/signing-smarthub-notifications

Lane-Scott Electric receives our wholesale power from Sunflower Electric Power Corporation who maintains a well-balanced, diverse portfolio of generation resources including; 1 coal plant, 1 solar facility, and 9 natural gas facilities totaling a nameplate capacity of 1,095 megawatts. Sunflower also has purchase power agreements for 350 megawatts of wind, solar and hydroelectric power.

Sunflower’s capacity mix by generation type is: 57.2% natural gas, 26.2% coal, 13.4% wind, 3% solar, and 0.2% hydroelectric.

For more information about the wholesale power Lane-Scott Electric receives, visit www.sunflower.net/generation

Lane-Scott does pay our members who are interconnected to our system for any excess generation produced for behind-the-meter (DG) systems like solar or wind.

Through our Parallel Generation Rider tariff effective July 2025, that follows the KS House Bil HB-2149, and as published on our website at www.lanescott.coop/rate-schedule. Lane-Scott will pay/credit your electric account monthly what we pay for our wholesale power when more power is generated than consumed that billing month.

Important information to note:

  1. Applies to member-generators who are interconnected to our system.
  2. Excludes members who have a new or expanded facility receive electric service at a voltage of 34.5 kV or higher. (larger transmission lines)
  3. Lane-Scott can purchase excess generation from members on a first-come, first-served basis until the total export capacity from all DG Systems equals or exceeds 7% of the cooperative’s historic retail peak demand. Beginning July 2027, 8%.
  4. The export capacity of the member’s DG system must be appropriately sized to primarily offset part, or all, of the member’s anticipated electrical load requirements. (i.e. over-sized systems can’t be installed)
  5. Lane-Scott will pay per kWh of excess generation at 100% of the cooperatives avoided cost of energy and calculated monthly with the normal billing cycle. (We pay you what we pay for wholesale power.)
  6. The DG system can only serve one electric meter.

We understand this may be frustrating for some not to have a choice of a utility provider. The electric system is built this way. Distribution utilities whether cooperatives, independent operating utilities (IOU’s), or municipal systems, are responsible for the building and maintaining of their equipment (poles, lines, meters, etc.) that provide you with power. Each electric utility and their equipment serve designated areas.

The average U.S. residential electric bill is about $150 a month. Lane-Scott Electric’s average residential based on our 2025 audited Form 7 Part O, is only $123 a month. That is 18% lower than the U.S. average.

Of every dollar you pay to Lane-Scott Electric, approximately 45% goes to us. The additional 55% is the cost for wholesale power, as described above in “Where Does Your Power Come From.”  The 45% we bill to each member covers the approximately 2,450 miles of power lines, poles, electric equipment, and operating expenses to provide you with reliable power.

Concern over frequent changes in General Managers.

It takes years, often decades, to gain the experience needed to become a qualified General Manager / CEO in the electric cooperative utility business.  So, it is not uncommon for most GMs to be in the last 10 years of their career.

Since 1947, The Lane-Scott Electric Cooperative has had 10 GM / CEOs, for an average tenure of about 8 years.  This matches the current Kansas electric cooperative General Managers’ average tenure of 7.9 years.

Our current Manager has over 13 years’ GM/CEO experience with over 7 years’ experience at Lane-Scott. 

What may appear frequent is the standard.  The more important and consistent thing to remember is that electric cooperatives are governed by a Board of Trustees who are elected from (and by) our members.  Our current trustees have a combined 82 years of electric cooperative governance experience.