Your Cooperative Difference

During the late 1930's and through the 1940's, cooperatives electrified the country. Neighbor joined together with neighbor to create, direct and benefit from controlling their own electric utility. As a result of their efforts, electric service was provided to areas of the country where it had never existed before. More than sixty-years later, members continue to receive the same benefits of membership, which include ownership from patronage, local control, and a superior level of personal service. These benefits remain the cornerstone of your electric cooperative. 

Since the cooperative operates in the best interest of the members, there is no need for profits to benefit investors, as does an investor- owned utility. Your electric cooperative operates as a not-for-profit organization, which means revenue left over after meeting the obligations of the cooperative are returned to the members. The cooperative refers to money received from the members as Patronage Capital. Revenue left over after meeting the co-op's obligations become Capital Credits. As a benefit of membership, your electric cooperative can refund a portion of Capital Credits back to its members, each year.

What Are Electric Cooperatives?

Electric Cooperatives are:

• private independent electric utility businesses,
• owned by the members (consumers) they serve,
• incorporated under the laws of the states in which they operate,
• established to provide at cost electric service,
• governed by a board of directors elected from the membership, which sets policies and procedures that are implemented by the cooperatives' professional staff.

Distribution cooperatives deliver electricity to the member. Generation and transmission cooperatives (G&Ts) generate and transmit electricity to distribution co-ops.

Facts At A Glance

• 866 distribution and 64 G&T cooperatives serve:
  • 36 million people in 47 states.
  • 15 million businesses, homes, schools, churches, farms, irrigation systems, and other establishments in 2,500 of 3,128 counties in the U.S.
  • 12 percent of the nation's population.

  To perform their mission, electric cooperatives:

  • own assets worth $76 billion,
    
  • added roughly $4 billion in new plant last year
    
  • own and maintain 2.3 million miles, or 43%, of the nation's electric distribution lines, covering three quarters of the nation's landmass,
    
  • deliver 9 percent of the total kilowatt-hours sold in the U.S. each year,
    
  • own 33,700 mw of generating capacity and generate 5 percent of the total electricity produced in the U.S. each year,
    
  • employ nearly 60,000 people in the United States.
    
  • Co-ops pay more than $707 million in state and local taxes (last year of data)

  Compared with other electric utilities:

  • Co-op sales grew twice as fast as the total electric industry average in 2000.
    
  • Co-ops serve an average of 6.6 consumers per mile of line and collect annual revenue of approximately $8,500 per mile of line,
    
  • Investor-owned utilities average 34 customers per mile of line and collect $59,000 per mile of line,
    
  • Publicly-owned utilities, or municipals, average 44 consumers and collect $72,000 per mile of line.
    

  Statewide Associations

  In 38 of the 46 states in which electric cooperatives operate, statewide associations provide a unified voice that speaks to the general public, regulatory bodies and state legislatures on behalf of their members. These associations are voluntarily supported, governed by representatives of the member cooperatives and offer commonly desired services. 

  National Representation

  The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) represents the national interests of cooperative electric utilities. NRECA provides legislative, legal and regulatory services; and programs in insurance, management and employee education, training, consulting, public relations and advertising. NRECA and its member cooperatives also support energy and environmental research and administer a program of technical advice and assistance in developing countries around the world.