Facts About America’s Electric Cooperatives
- About Electric Cooperatives
- Facts at a Glance
- The Mission of Electric Cooperatives
- Compared with Other Electric Utilities
- Statewide Associations
- National Representation
Electric cooperatives are:
- private independent electric utility businesses
- owned by the 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 consumer. Generation and transmission cooperatives (G&Ts) generate and transmit electricity to distribution co-ops. North Carolina’s cooperatives own the North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation, a G&T that supplies wholesale power to its members.
In addition to electric service, many electric co-ops are involved in community development and revitalization projects, e.g., small business development and jobs creation, improvement of water and sewer systems, and assistance in delivery of health care and educational services.
Facts at a glance
865 distribution and 65 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
- own and maintain 2.3 million miles, or 43 percent, of the nation’s electric distribution lines, covering three quarters of the nation’s landmass
- deliver approximately 10 percent of the total kilowatt-hours sold in the U.S. each year
- generate 5 percent of the total electricity produced in the U.S. each year
- employ nearly 60,000 people in the United States
- pay more than $707 million in state and local taxes (last year of data)
Compared with other electric utilities:
- 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 47 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. Like the North Carolina Association of Electric Cooperatives, these associations are voluntarily supported, governed by representatives of the member cooperatives and offer commonly desired services. Thirty-two statewide associations publish newspapers or magazines such as Carolina Country for co-op consumer-owners, reaching more than 7.2 million households each month.
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, and communication. 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.