PLYMOUTH – New Hampshire Electric Co-op's 80,000 members swallowed a 19 percent rate hike in 2006 and a $20-a-month charge per meter as well, but the next bite at the apple will be a bit more green, they were assured.

Fred Anderson, president and CEO of the member-owned utility, said at its 68th annual meeting yesterday that the Co-op will begin to focus on purchasing renewable power and increasing its community service, outreach and efforts to get people to conserve.

Fossil-fuel prices are still rising, he said, and because renewable costs are slowly on the decline, "the best interests in the long term is to focus on renewables."

The utility already receives about 6 percent of its power from methane and is negotiating to get 25 megawatts of renewable energy with an additional eight projects in preliminary discussion.

While not interested in producing its own renewable power, Anderson said, the Co-op supports newly passed legislation requiring power producers to increase the amount of renewable power in their portfolios.

The Co-op is looking to have 25 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2025.

While giving no promises that electric rates were going to drop, board President Earl Hansen of Holderness said last year's rate increase was caused by the expiration of a long-term rate agreement the Co-op had held since 2002. The Co-op had to go out on the wholesale market to buy power, and the rates there had changed since 2002.

Speaking to a crowd at Plymouth State University's Silver Cultural Arts Center, where the meeting was held for the first time, Hansen and Anderson said the company had survived the 1990s in bankruptcy and was emerging financially secure. It was looking to "a new era" of social and environmental responsibility, Anderson said.

Anderson applauded PSU and its new efforts to build a green-certified dormitory and become more environmentally friendly.

The Co-op has created a foundation, using donations from its members, that will give money to charitable groups. Recently, more than $10,000 from the foundation went to the New Hampshire Food Bank.

Amy Ignatius, director of the New Hampshire Governor's Office of Energy and Planning, spoke at the meeting. She said it is an exciting time in New Hampshire because there are so many renewable-power proposals on the table, including the use of biomass plants in the North Country, wind and tidal power, waste heat and methane from farm waste and landfills.