A cooperative exists to serve its members. What makes co-ops unique is that the members are also the owners. So, in addition to getting the products and services you need, you also have a say in the business decisions your cooperative makes.
Electric cooperatives are owned by those who buy power and other services from the co-op. Their formation began in the 1930s when private, investor-owned utility companies refused to serve rural areas that were considered insufficiently profitable, with only a handful of customers per mile of line. The local farmers and residents banded together to found rural electric cooperatives. Today, electric co-ops own and maintain more than half of the nation’s power lines and provide service to communities large and small across the United States.