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How did Rural Electric coop work, still going anyplace?

H

Hay hay hay

Well-known Member
Just curious. For example,is Bluegrass electric in KY still a coop?

Who organized REA? Government funded?

Years? Cost to users?

Thanks for the info.
 
I believe the REA was funded by the government to provide rural electric, but it is member owned now.
 
Yes they still exist. Our electric service is Linn Country Rural Electric Coop. They may have been government assisted to get started but are not now.

Most coop electric is provided to the member customers (owners) cheaper than the privates cause no big profit is trying to be made.

They work like any other coopertive.

They are owned by the members. The members are charged for the services they use. I get an electric bill just as anyone would.

The earnings are either passed back to the members as cash or credit on account or whatever form the coop has in place to distrubute earnings.

Gary
 
DMEA(Delta Montrose Electric Assn.) here is one of them.Serves parts of at least 4 countys.We buy our power from a much larger multistate entity.We are in the process of building some hydroelectric facilitys.
 
We are on a COOP here in the countryside west of Monmouth. I really like it we get to vote for our people to run it and it's real cheap electric my bill runs around $105 a month can't wait to see what this one will be with the deep freeze on. It used to takes days to fix the power when it went out when we moved here 20 years ago. But now it's down two about 2 hours which is great for any company. You can report bad spots where a tree may fall on the lines and they are right there to take care of it. I have reported two of these one falling the other down. I'm real happy with our COOP.
WALT
 
Based upon the rural telephone land line discussion, I sort of wonder how electric coops handle a similar situation. Were they originally and are Rural coops still forced to run lines and service everyone? What about a very remote wilderness cabin? By law?

Anyone on a REA coop board and know for a fact?
 
New Hampshire Electric Cooperative here in NH. Get Les to weigh in as he's a co-op retiree!
I, on the other hand, am a Public Service of New Hampshire retiree. PSNH is the largest investor owned electric utility in the state.
Dave
Edit: IIRC the Co-op has about 60,000 customers here in NH, while PSNH has about 500,000, which, incidently, includes the Co-op in several locations. In several areas the lines will leave a substation as PSNH lines, and then along the way they will go through metering, and become Co-op lines!
 
East Central Electric is mine and has been around much longer than me.Our rate is .101/kwh.
 
REA is Rural Electrification Administration which was a government program, part of which was to set up coops.

Read all about it by clicking the link.
REA
 
Power companies in our areas took all the main part of cities and large towns, left the rural areas without power until the REA was created.

In Fargo, most of the business and industrial growth was into the area serviced by the local REA under the old territorial lines; it became a big "cash cow" for the Coop.
 
I seriously doubt if anyone was "forced" to have electricity installed on their farm back when REA was first providing the service to rural areas in 30's - 50's. Most farmers were delighted to get it and can remember the day when the lights first went on. Same is true for telephone.... nobody was "forced" to install one. I do know from experience as both a telephone installer/repairman in the 60's that if you applied for service for a cabin or house way off the established lines that you had to pay for the poles or buried drop fees.
 
My Coop is Craighead county electric. The rate varies depending on what it's used for. For residential it's $.11 Kwh. Farm and industrial usage is a little cheaper but there is also a demand charge. It's a self supporting coop now and I'm getting refund checks from about 30 years ago. I'm not sure when the coop was started but most around here got electricity in the late 30's and early 40's.
 
They still exist in Ohio too. We have been on Morrow Electric over 30 years . My dad is on Ohio Edison (not a coop) and it has always been more expensive.
 
New Enterprise Rural Electric Cooperative is still going strong. They had the foresight to buy all of the electricity from a flood control/hydroelectric project near here several years ago, plus committed to buying a percentage of the power from a nuclear power plant a few hours away. So I"m "green", sort of.

My costs are:
Generation: 0.073/KWH
Distribution: 0.0244/KWH
Tax: 0.0086/KWH

Plus some kind of mysterious "Customer Charge" of $20 per month.
 
One other note.

The territories were established when the REC"s took the rural area and the private power companies had the towns and one main line to the next town with a few branches off of it.

Now that the towns have spread into the country some of the REC"s here in Iowa have more customers than the private owned power companies.

That"s what is happening in Eastern Iowa anyway.

Gary
 
I'm a member/owner/customer of Harrison REMC, a Touchstone Energy company. They service all of Harrison County, and parts of Floyd and Clark counties in Indiana. Harrison REMC was formed in 1938, so they just celebrated their 75th anniversary. It's a member-owned cooperative, and the main business of the annual membership meeting in April is the election of directors for the districts. Directorships are on staggered terms, and I believe 1/3 of the directors are up for election every 3 years.
 
Yes FDR did get it started. I saw a picture of a farmhouse with a single bulb dangling from the ceiling of a farmer's dining room, wife sitting at the table. One board siding on the house....one board between you and the outside, wire over to the wall, metallic cover over the wire from the ceiling to the light switch attached TO the wall.

All this and LBJ standing over her. As I understand it his administration made it a Coop and so we have it today. I am a member.

We just had this horrible ice storm that was area wide. Most of N. TX. was without power. Report from the coop was that lines were down all over the counties (4 served by our coop). Roads were sheet ice, wind howling from the N. Sleet coming down hard. But these daredevils risked all that to restore our power. How they were able to do that beats me. The 15 minute on period mentioned below was at 9 pm.......no daylight, bad storm, ice everywhere but they were still at it.

We are about 30 miles from the coop office and well into the country. (lights flickering, on for 15 min, then 30 min, then solid....still on and the storm is well past and ice is receeding). Our power was solidly restored, with half a dozen attempts within 48 hours of the storm hitting with all the hindrances of the bad weather which didn't let up.

Still we pay 11cents per kWHr.

Hats off to those daredevils. Know a couple of the crew and they were just local farm boys. Both been with the coop over 35 years.

Mark
 
I'm served by San bernard Electric Co op out of Bellville,Austin County ,Texas.Great group of people. I'm in Waller,County , Texas.
 
HTG You left out a couple of good words.. Several LARGE ones that do and OUTSTANDING job of good service and low rates... How is your ice where you are?
 
Our electricity is supplied by a coop and our telephone company is also a coop. I love them both. If there is a problem, you can call the local office and talk to someone who actually speaks English and can help you. Will probably see them at the high school basketball game tomorrow night. Great service from both coops.
 
(quoted from post at 13:27:12 12/09/13) Yes they still exist. Our electric service is Linn Country Rural Electric Coop. They may have been government assisted to get started but are not now.

Most coop electric is provided to the member customers (owners) cheaper than the privates cause no big profit is trying to be made.

They work like any other coopertive.

They are owned by the members. The members are charged for the services they use. I get an electric bill just as anyone would.

The earnings are either passed back to the members as cash or credit on account or whatever form the coop has in place to distrubute earnings.

Gary
Click to expand...

Gary, I'll argue that. I'm on a COOP that buys most of it's power from another company. If I want to spend about 5K I can switch over to the other company. The supplier company is cheaper than my COOP but not enough to justify the 5K switch over.

Rick
 
Phone and electricity here come from 2 different co-ops. There are a bunch of coops in the state and they serve almost all of the rural areas. The towns and very short distances out from them are private. It used to be Carolina Power and Light, but they have been bought out/merged whatever a couple of times and are now part of Duke Power. If there is a hurricane, the co-ops will always have power restored much faster. Every few years we get a little dividend.
 
No one answered my question about how coops happened and their origin. It all came from a federal REA bill in 1935.

Let me rant a little.

Before this tread gets too old and cold, I want you to think about what you have just said.

You “ALL” said you like your coop electric and it is reliable and responsive. You own it jointly and both the price and the service is very good.

A few points to think about…if you will read it and think about it.

1) That coop is only there now, 75 years later, because our federal government had the vision and the ability to do what the people could not do for themselves, ie: loan them money to build lines and supply rural power, based on a the Federal REA loan bill of 1935. Not a company,…the government …loaned the money that the poor farmers did not have, to give them the wonder of electric service in their remote homes..

2) Your coop, is not free enterprise. It is a jointly owned non-profit ..(socialism?) for your benefit, and apparently it is doing a pretty good job.

So the next time someone starts ranting about how the government never does anything right…remind him that the heat, light and power that your family has enjoyed for the last 75 years, in Rural America….was possible because of the vision and loans from that the godaweful government…

Think about it!
 
I said MOST not all.

I will still stick with my statement that was in the first post.

The coops are cheaper here in Iowa.



Gary
 
Gary, here in MN they stayed protected area until sometime in the 90's, phone company too. Then someone took it to court. Now you can cross over. Otter Tail Power sells power to Lake Region Electric. I'm on Lake Region. Otter Tail Power line run along the highway that cuts through our farm but our power feeds from the other direction. The sub station that feeds us is about 1/2 mile down the road and takes it's power directly from the Otter Tail line. It's pretty sad that when there are power outs north of the highway (Otter Tail power) is most often back up much faster than us.

Rick
 
While you are thinking about it you also may want to think about Critical Care Hospitals in rural areas. Medicare pays much more to rural hospitals than urban hospitals for the same services. Without Fed $ many of the rural hospitals would close.
 
Edd, you are mostly correct in your observation. BUT, remember this, the entire country was different then. Farmers were still struggling to make a decent living, and the companies that provided power to the city dwellers were only interested in short term gain. To them it was not "profitable" to string power lines that only served one customer per mile or less, they did not have enough foresight to see that once the countryside had electric power that there would be a great expansion on the demand for electricity. So, the Government, under the direction of the President, stepped in and helped out. Obviously, someone realized the potential benefits, and they were right.
I grew up in an area served by Duke Power Company in central North Carolina, later moved to an area served by Carolina Power and Light. Since 1977 I have been with Randolph Electric Membership Corporation, and even though we still purchase power from other sources, we are now co-owners in at least one generating facility, I will take our Cooperative hands down over any other power facility.
For service and dependability, there is no comparison! The last serious ice storm we had was in early 2002. We were without power for less than 48 hours, IIRC. Both our daughters who lived in apartments in urban Asheboro, spent a couple of nights with us because it took much longer to restore power in the city.
Fast forward the scenario to today, and I seriously doubt if the farmers and country folk would get the same help as they did then. JMHO.
 

I on an electric coop that my Dad helped develop in '38. My Dad was the coop manager until '70 when he retired. My last months bill was $66 costing .0914 per KWH
 
(quoted from post at 20:38:19 12/09/13) No one answered my question about how coops happened and their origin. It all came from a federal REA bill in 1935.

Let me rant a little.

Before this tread gets too old and cold, I want you to think about what you have just said.

You “ALL” said you like your coop electric and it is reliable and responsive. You own it jointly and both the price and the service is very good.

A few points to think about…if you will read it and think about it.

1) That coop is only there now, 75 years later, because our federal government had the vision and the ability to do what the people could not do for themselves, ie: loan them money to build lines and supply rural power, based on a the Federal REA loan bill of 1935. Not a company,…the government …loaned the money that the poor farmers did not have, to give them the wonder of electric service in their remote homes..

2) Your coop, is not free enterprise. It is a jointly owned non-profit ..(socialism?) for your benefit, and apparently it is doing a pretty good job.

So the next time someone starts ranting about how the government never does anything right…remind him that the heat, light and power that your family has enjoyed for the last 75 years, in Rural America….was possible because of the vision and loans from that the godaweful government…

Think about it!
Click to expand...

The other side of the story is that when the REA was born it killed off a lot of small electricity companies. The other side is that the gov't took land by eminent domain to build their power plants. The other side is they Feds took it upon themselves to limit prices regardless of costs. The other side it that prior to mainline power many people had their own gensets and battery banks supplying their power. The other side is that the REA, under a different name, is still in existence with a $7 billion budget. They haven't had a project that I could find since 1964.

Yup, sometimes when working with infrastructure you need to look beyond the state level. Doesn't mean it's all sunshine and lollipops.
 
(quoted from post at 00:19:37 12/10/13) Edd, you are mostly correct in your observation. BUT, remember this, the entire country was different then. Farmers were still struggling to make a decent living, and the companies that provided power to the city dwellers were only interested in short term gain. To them it was not "profitable" to string power lines that only served one customer per mile or less, they did not have enough foresight to see that once the countryside had electric power that there would be a great expansion on the demand for electricity. So, the Government, under the direction of the President, stepped in and helped out. Obviously, someone realized the potential benefits, and they were right.
I grew up in an area served by Duke Power Company in central North Carolina, later moved to an area served by Carolina Power and Light. Since 1977 I have been with Randolph Electric Membership Corporation, and even though we still purchase power from other sources, we are now co-owners in at least one generating facility, I will take our Cooperative hands down over any other power facility.
For service and dependability, there is no comparison! The last serious ice storm we had was in early 2002. We were without power for less than 48 hours, IIRC. Both our daughters who lived in apartments in urban Asheboro, spent a couple of nights with us because it took much longer to restore power in the city.
Fast forward the scenario to today, and I seriously doubt if the farmers and country folk would get the same help as they did then. JMHO.
Click to expand...

I think part of that wasn't about supplying power to America, that was during the depression, part of that was putting people back to work. I know they pushed it about being the way you stated but I'd bet they knew that the side benefit was jobs.

Rick
 
OOPS! I did misinterpret what you said, though I seriously doubt that the CO-Ops turned down Government funding to run the lines, economy was tight back then, too!
 
I'm on a Co-Op in central NY. Their rates look lower than the competition, but they have to buy their power from the commercial utilities, and are limited to 10 megawatts. When they go over the 10 meg treshold (which is much of the time), the rates go through the roof.
Pete
 
Rural Electric Administration (REA) was set up as a federal agency that provided LOANS to rural electric co-ops. The co-ops got loans at below bank rates but at higher rates than municipal electrics (tax free municipal bonds).

Most southern Indiana REMCs and one or two Illinois RECs own Hoosier Energy, which is a generating co-op owning several power plants. This helps to control costs since they are not buying electricity from somebody who has to add in a profit margin.
Hoosier Energy
 
(quoted from post at 17:53:51 12/10/13)
(quoted from post at 20:38:19 12/09/13) No one answered my question about how coops happened and their origin. It all came from a federal REA bill in 1935.

Let me rant a little.

Before this tread gets too old and cold, I want you to think about what you have just said.

You “ALL” said you like your coop electric and it is reliable and responsive. You own it jointly and both the price and the service is very good.

A few points to think about…if you will read it and think about it.

1) That coop is only there now, 75 years later, because our federal government had the vision and the ability to do what the people could not do for themselves, ie: loan them money to build lines and supply rural power, based on a the Federal REA loan bill of 1935. Not a company,…the government …loaned the money that the poor farmers did not have, to give them the wonder of electric service in their remote homes..

2) Your coop, is not free enterprise. It is a jointly owned non-profit ..(socialism?) for your benefit, and apparently it is doing a pretty good job.

So the next time someone starts ranting about how the government never does anything right…remind him that the heat, light and power that your family has enjoyed for the last 75 years, in Rural America….was possible because of the vision and loans from that the godaweful government…

Think about it!
Click to expand...

The other side of the story is that when the REA was born it killed off a lot of small electricity companies. The other side is that the gov't took land by eminent domain to build their power plants. The other side is they Feds took it upon themselves to limit prices regardless of costs. The other side it that prior to mainline power many people had their own gensets and battery banks supplying their power. The other side is that the REA, under a different name, is still in existence with a $7 billion budget. They haven't had a project that I could find since 1964.

Yup, sometimes when working with infrastructure you need to look beyond the state level. Doesn't mean it's all sunshine and lollipops.
Click to expand...

Yep and now private companies take your land under eminent domain for their private profit projects.
 
(quoted from post at 19:47:29 12/10/13)
(quoted from post at 00:19:37 12/10/13) Edd, you are mostly correct in your observation. BUT, remember this, the entire country was different then. Farmers were still struggling to make a decent living, and the companies that provided power to the city dwellers were only interested in short term gain. To them it was not "profitable" to string power lines that only served one customer per mile or less, they did not have enough foresight to see that once the countryside had electric power that there would be a great expansion on the demand for electricity. So, the Government, under the direction of the President, stepped in and helped out. Obviously, someone realized the potential benefits, and they were right.
I grew up in an area served by Duke Power Company in central North Carolina, later moved to an area served by Carolina Power and Light. Since 1977 I have been with Randolph Electric Membership Corporation, and even though we still purchase power from other sources, we are now co-owners in at least one generating facility, I will take our Cooperative hands down over any other power facility.
For service and dependability, there is no comparison! The last serious ice storm we had was in early 2002. We were without power for less than 48 hours, IIRC. Both our daughters who lived in apartments in urban Asheboro, spent a couple of nights with us because it took much longer to restore power in the city.
Fast forward the scenario to today, and I seriously doubt if the farmers and country folk would get the same help as they did then. JMHO.
Click to expand...

I think part of that wasn't about supplying power to America, that was during the depression, part of that was putting people back to work. I know they pushed it about being the way you stated but I'd bet they knew that the side benefit was jobs.

Rick
Click to expand...

Yep long term investment for long term growth.
The TVA and other hydroelectric projects funded by tax dollars enabled us to win WW2, lead the world in production for quite a while and continue to benefit us today.
Where would Las Vegas be without Hoover Dam? Just a sleepy little rural town like it was before...
 
(quoted from post at 11:42:43 12/10/13) While you are thinking about it you also may want to think about Critical Care Hospitals in rural areas. Medicare pays much more to rural hospitals than urban hospitals for the same services. Without Fed $ many of the rural hospitals would close.
Click to expand...

Yep I live in rural KY where Medicaid and such is king.
And not only are the doctors not leaving but a new one hangs up a shingle every month in my county seat.
The old hospital was just replaced with a brand new privately funded one last year, etc.
 
in Texas any permanent residence or business REA will run distribution or secondary service up to a certain distance for no charge. Any part-time or camp situations you will be charged the total cost to run service.
Thanks
John in EastTexas
 
(quoted from post at 14:52:48 12/10/13) "They haven't had a project that I could find since
1964."

You must not have looked very hard.
Rural Utilities Service
Click to expand...

None of those are major projects aimed at rural electrification which is what the agency was created for. It's just a bureaucracy keeping itself alive with money taken from taxpayers and redistributed as pork now. That's $7 billion of what amounts to campaign reelection funding for incumbents.
 
(quoted from post at 22:42:43 12/09/13) While you are thinking about it you also may want to think about Critical Care Hospitals in rural areas. Medicare pays much more to rural hospitals than urban hospitals for the same services. [b:6f61f8f035]Without Fed $ [/b:6f61f8f035]many of the rural hospitals would close.
Click to expand...

Could we make one thing clear? It's not FEDERAL MONEY! It's our money, taken from us and spent on pork (ie- a politician will take credit for getting the funding and it will help his reelection chances) after the gov't takes it cut. Were the money left in the hands of the taxpayers they'd be far more able to pay their own way. The issue is far larger than that of course, but once you get beyond essential services, almost all State and Federal spending is pork in one form or another. Remember that the next time someone mentions "Federal/State dollars", "gov't grant", etc. That's your money, or more likely your great grandkids money being spent.
 
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