by Jennifer Taylor, June 2007

• Introduction
• Deregulation—An overview of the issue
• Deregulation—today’s concerns
• Deregulation and electric cooperatives
• North Carolina & Electric Utility Restructuring
• Download the full article as a

Each state’s restructuring legislation affected electric cooperatives differently. In some, co-ops were given the option to opt into or out of deregulation; in others, co-ops competed fully.

“Electric cooperatives do not need to fear deregulation,” says Perry Stambaugh, editor of RE Magazine. Stambaugh worked for electric co-ops in Pennsylvania and New Jersey when those states implemented customer choice laws. “The co-op focus on doing what is best for consumers gives rural electric systems a leg up on potential competitors. In addition, the same reason power companies did not want to serve rural areas 70 years ago—because they couldn’t make a profit supplying power to predominately residential consumers in sparsely populated areas—still exists for competitive suppliers today.”

Jay Morrison, senior regulatory counsel for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, said, “In Pennsylvania, where electric cooperatives were the first utilities to open their doors to competition, no one showed.”

Electric cooperatives work to ensure and protect the interests of their member-owners. Cooperatives are dedicated to providing safe, reliable electricity at the lowest possible cost. Electric cooperatives are concerned at state and national levels about the impacts of restructuring, but maintain their commitment to protect and advance the interests of their consumers.

Sources: National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Federal Energy Regulatory Committee and the Energy Information Administration.

Jennifer Taylor is a consumer and cooperative affairs writer with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.