Electric cooperatives are private, independent electric utilities, owned by the consumers they serve. This local connection has resulted in electric co-ops establishing themselves as leaders in developing and offering alternative energy programs to their consumer-owners.
Locally owned and operated distribution cooperatives deliver electricity to the consumer. Generation and transmission cooperatives (G&Ts) generate and transmit electricity to their member distribution co-ops. Today there are 864 distribution and 66 G&T cooperatives serving 37 million people in 47 states, or 12 percent of the U.S. population, in 80 percent of the nation’s 3,100 counties.
Electric co-ops are unique consumer-focused businesses with a mission to provide their consumers with reliable, affordable electric service.
To fulfill that mission, they do the following:
• own assets worth $86 billion
• own and maintain 2.4 million miles, or 43%, of the nation’s electric distribution lines, spanning three quarters of the nation’s landmass
• serve an average of 7 customers per mile of line, while investor-owned power companies average 35 customers per mile of line, and publicly owned or municipal utilities average 47 customers per mile of line
• deliver 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 65,000 people in the United States, and
• pay more than $1 billion in state and local taxes
COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
While electric cooperatives own and operate some of the nation’s cleanest and most modern generating facilities, they continue to explore new technologies and fuel sources to control and reduce emissions. Distributed generation technologies, such as fuel cells, and renewable resources like wind, sun, and biomass (landfill methane gas, wood waste, farm by-products, and ethanol) offer generation alternatives that promise economic as well as environmental benefits for residential and business consumers alike, especially those in rural areas.
Electric co-ops have expanded their non-hydroelectric renewable generation capacity to more than 120 megawatts and look to add more capacity during 2005/2006. They purchased more than 500,000 megawatt hours of energy from renewable resources operated by various developers in 2004. Nearly 300 co-ops offer renewable energy options allowing consumers to buy green power from solar, wind, low-impact hydroelectric, and biomass generation. As a result, electric cooperatives hold a significant share of the green power market in terms of customer participation. For example, Holy Cross Energy, an electric co-op in Glenwood Springs, Colo., was recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy and NRECA’s Cooperative Research Network (CRN) for one of the earliest and most successful green pricing programs.